9 Ways To Bring New Life To Your Outdated Website
1. Update Your Design to Reflect Current Trends:
Web trends come and go the same way fashion trends do. The only difference is that they follow improvements in technology and not your favorite Tik Tok Influencer. Your website’s design should show the current trends.
Things you should always include are, user-friendly navigation and several different pages or sections that explain who you are, what services you provide, and how clients should contact you. It’s also great to include a digital portfolio that shows off your expertise!
The latest trending color-palettes, and custom graphics are awesome too and beneficial to add. However, clean and concise formatting is always the most important feature of your website.
2. Start a Blog
Blogging is so much more than just a diary for online personalities, or foodies. Maintaining a high-quality blog with relevant industry information is one of the best forms of digital marketing !
According to search engine data, having a blog on your website increases your chances of ranking higher by a staggering 434%.
While it might feel like a dauntingly large task to take on, use your expert knowledge of your industry to produce content that will be not only interesting, but also informative. Average blog posts are usually between 1,000 and 2,000 words, but you can simply that if you’d like to. List-style posts generally perform well (like this one), making it easy to provide results-driven content.
3. Use SEO to Your Advantage
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” It enables you to better understand what people are searching for and the types of content they prefer to engage with.
Although you can hire an SEO professional (like me!) to assist with keyword research and analytics, there are several free and low cost tools available. Using the right keywords (phrases people search for if they’re browsing businesses like your’s) greatly helps rank your business higher in search engine results.
Be sure to end each blog post with a powerful CTA (call to action). This is short phrase or paragraph that encourages your audience to take the next step, whether it be sending you an email or calling you, or making an appointment to meet with you. It’s also best to make it easy to find, by using a bold font, contrasting colors, or a button.
4. Include Visual Multimedia and Tools
Websites have come a very long way, and are no longer just long blocks of texts. Instead, they are highly interactive and highly dependent on multimedia.
Whether your industry lends itself to video or other forms of imagery, look for opportunities to create an engaging experience for your visitors. This is more likely to turn them from visitors to clients.
For example, a real estate agent may choose include a user-friendly commission calculator. A clothing brand may opt for an interactive shopping cart button for customers to interact with while browsing for items.
5. Check for Responsiveness and Speed
Slow websites can instantly distract from even the greatest content. If users find it difficult to interact with your website, whether it's moving across sections, or looking through the pages, they’re going to be more likely to leave your site. Always make sure to click through the pages to ensure that they are responsive and loading in a timely manner.
In addition to engaging people instantly, faster websites will appear higher in search engines. Modern technology makes it imperative to keep up with trends and usefulness.
6. Make it Mobile Friendly
With the amount of time people spend on their phones these days, it is highly likely that there will be quite a few visits to your website from a mobile device. It is imperative that you make sure they can navigate your site on mobile with ease. If they can’t, you run the risk of losing their attention before they’re able to learn more about your business or find the information they need.
A professional web designer (like myself) can work with you to create a website that has proper formatting across the board, regardless of which device it’s being viewed on. If you’re looking to DIY your site, there are template available through many of the major platforms, like WordPress, Squarespace (this site), Wix, or Shopify.
7. Capture Visitor Information
Who are your visitors? What are they looking for? How are you able to help them?
These are very important questions will have an impact on your business, as well as the content you should put on your website.
Always give your visitors a way to stay in touch with you. You can request an email address with the promise of a newsletter, or free quotes, or special offers. This can be done with a small form, or a designated pop-up box at the bottom of the page.
Don’t forget to include links to your various social media pages. This is another great way to keep in contact with your customers and clients, as they can see all of your latest updates.
8. Monitor Yor Competitors
Always keep an eye on the competition to ensure you’re offering the best experience for your customers, both on and off your website.
Identify which companies are similar to your’s, and check out their sites from time to time to look at new features and any new marketing or sales tactics they’re using. Although you want to stand out from the crowd, it’s important that you’re keeping up with other businesses in your industry.
9. Maintenance
After you’ve refreshed your website, it’s very important to keep up with maintaining it. Set a date to review it once per month. This can be a simple check to make sure all of your links are working and loading times are optimal. in addition, set up an annual review date to freshen up your content and create a plan for blog posts and any upcoming additions to the site.
