In a world where everyone is connected, your website is very often the first contact your customer will have with you. Very few people will go to the phone book nowadays to find a business but instead reach for their smartphone to search for you. To know if your website is doing the best job it can for your business, ask yourself these questions.
Is it compatible with todays technology?
These days, most people use their mobile phones to at least start their navigation through the internet. Therefore it’s very important to know your website is providing a mobile-friendly interface to the visitors. If your website is more than five years old it’s most likely it’s still using elements of Flash technology which isn’t supported by today’s search engine such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. iPhones and iPads have never displayed Flash and never will. This can really make your search engine optimization poor enough to lower your rankings.
Is it easy to use?
Every visitor to your site is a potential client for your services. They don’t often return to a website which is difficult to navigate or complicated to understand. It’s important to provide a smooth, convenient and easy to surf experience on your website. It doesn’t matter if your website is contais useful content your visitor is looking for if he can’t easily find it. He will just hit his “back button” and go on to the nest search result.
Does it have visual impact?
It only takes a visitor a few seconds to decide if he wants to stay on your website or to move on to another. Good copy alone doesn’t often interest a visitor as much unless it contains at least one graphic to illustrate the topic. If your current website doesn’t provide an easy way to add images, maps, videos, and elements to make your site intersting, it might be time for a new website.
Does your website convey the desired image of your business?
In many cases, your website is the very first impression your customers have of your company. With that in mind- close your eyes and think of what you’d like your business to look like to your visitors, now open your eyes and have a look at your website looks like. Is it fulfilling your purpose? Is it the first impression you really want your potential clients to see? If not, it might be time for a new website.
Is your website consistent?
When visitors move around on your website is navigation consistent on every page? Does your menu move around on different pages? Do you have different color schemes and /or fonts on different pages? Consistency is key to keeping visitors on your website. Inconsistency is often the cause of lost visitors and it’s a good reason to get some help for a website makeover.
Has the evolution of your website kept up with the eveloution of your business?
If your website is more than 2 or 3 years old, it’s possible that your business has expanded much more than your website. Your website can and should be the central repository for all your online and social media activities. Your website is YOUR intellectual property while your posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc. are not yours. If your website does not allow you to create articles and automatically share them out to your social networks, It’s time for a new website.
Does your website load in 2 seconds or less?
The slower your sites load, the more visitors and revenue you’ll lose out on. Faster loading pages lead to a better overall website experience, hence Google’s move toward making it a mobile ranking factor.
Anna Crowe, SearchEngineJournal.com
I always tell potential clients to go to GTmetrix.com and check their website score. If you enter your website address in the form and click on the “Analyse” button, you’ll get an output that looks something like the image below. If GTmertrix gives you a PageSpeed and/or a YSlow score of less than an A (90%) I can help you. If GTmetrix gives you a Fully Loaded Time of more than 2.0 seconds, I can help you. Page load speed has always been an important Google’s ranking factor but as of July 2018, new algorithms were put in place to give higher preference to load speed. More emphasis was also placed on mobile-first websites so mobile page load speed has never been more important.
