Is your website living up to expectations? Has the traffic grown? Are you getting any leads?
If you answered no to any of these questions as you have landed at the right place.
The majority of businesses, both small and large go through the cycle of ‘web stagnation,’ a lot of that has to do with their website. With the exponential growth of internet users in the past couple of decades, you cannot risk losing out. What many business owners do not understand is that the website is necessary not just to sell your goods or services but it is a platform to communicate with your prospect and if you miscommunicate with them, there will be no leads.
So let’s look at how you keeping your website updated will help your business generate more leads and revenue.
They say we are living in an “Attention Economy”. Human attention is a scarce commodity. And research says you have about 8 seconds from the moment a person logs on your website to convey that you are the one he or she is looking for. So what do you show them in those 8 seconds means a great deal.
Having a creative and aesthetically pleasing website that resonates with your audience is key to make people hit inquiry pages. And given how fast the coding and other technology is advancing, more and more designs and features are now available helping ease the process.
Yes, when you created your website, you did all the keyword research and the best SEO practices were implemented but did you know that Google page ranking keeps changing? It can be for any number of reasons, maybe your competitor now has better and up-to-date content that matches your potential customer’s latest search terms or the keywords you added are no longer relevant. An updated website with new content has a much better chance of getting a higher page ranking.
For example, Two competing websites selling Chairs, both with similar keywords. But website A will rank higher because it was updated last week and website B was last updated 8 months ago. In other words, websites with the latest sitemap and content are considered up to date by search engines and more likely to be suggested over the once with old information.
Data Security
People are getting more and more conscious about privacy, and your website’s security is not just for the visitors but it is also important for your own business data. Critical information like your database, domain, server, and hosting details can be compromised. Even a year-old security technology may be overpowered by the latest hacking tools.
The most common tactics used by hackers to attack websites are through loopholes in plugins and form fields. Like all the websites forms are directly connected to all the data that your website holds. A code as little as two lines could help a hacker to enter the backend database. You also need to make sure every month if not weeks that all plugins and integrations like social media, Google analytics, payment gateways, CMS, etc. used on your website are updated to close those loopholes if any.
Optimization
Website optimization has not just to do with SEO, it means a lot more. Imagine a client walking into your office, how would you like to present your office space? Neat, clean, organized, etc. Correct?
Imagine your website as your virtual office. It should be decluttered, clean, and organized in a way that people find what they are looking for. Again, we are fighting for a scarce commodity, human attention. Other optimization strategies include reducing your page load rates. One of the most important factors often overlooked is the bounce rate. If your website’s bounce rate is high, there is definitely something wrong. Keeping your prospect on your website as long as possible is your best bet at achieving those leads.
In the coming weeks, I will be adding further individual blogs on each of these topics, giving further details that will help you make sure your website is securely and regularly updated. So stay tuned.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or require any further help do let me know here.