Is it Time To Update Your Website?

When you work in web development, one of the most common questions you’ll get asked is How do you know when it’s time to update your website?

A manufacturing client of ours recently came to us about updating their website. While the website we created for them last year has been doing well, they were ready for some changes. Our client identified a perfect opportunity for a restructure to their product pages: While on sales calls, he realized that his company’s site should be organized more by industry and not product category. Over the last several weeks, we have collaborated with him to make this possible, and we are looking forward to making his job easier!

This caused us to start thinking about other reasons that it might be tell-tale signs that your website needs some TLC. Let’s dive in!

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Over time, if you have a live website and your business is doing well, it can be easy to forget that your online presence needs love and attention. Let’s cover a few instances of reasons to update your site:

  1. Your website is not SEO-optimized.
    • It’s assumed that most websites and their content are optimized for positive SEO results, but we also understand that this is not something every small to medium business knows about. Without proper SEO optimization, your website will not show up in Google searches as readily or won’t initiate enough conversions for you, among many other negative impacts. SEO optimization is one of our main services and we’d love to chat with you if SEO makes you say, “huh?”
  2. Your website traffic has slowed down.
    • If you’re tracking your website’s traffic, and you see that visitors, interactions, and conversions have been dwindling over time, your site might be due for some changes. While many factors go into why traffic may have slowed, it’s important to also keep up with the times. A digital audit is a perfect way to figure out where areas of opportunity are. You can also utilize remarketing techniques to bring visitors back to your website and close your conversion loop.
  3. Your website is not mobile-friendly.
    • 52% of online traffic is done on mobile devices. Check out how quickly mobile has taken over in the graphic to the right! That means that no matter how gorgeous your website is on your desktop screen, it’s vital to check how it looks on various mobile devices. If you have even the slightest feeling that it’s not easy to navigate while on a cell phone or tablet, it might be time to check your mobile settings and devise an update plan.
  4. Visual trends have changed.
    • All smart marketers know that following trends is a necessary nuisance. The trick is to accommodate trends in your visual identity without subscribing fully to them. This allows your branding and “look” to fit in with what’s popular without expiring too quickly. For instance, if an image slider on home pages is a successful visual addition, it’s a quick edit to make without compromising the current integrity or branding you have.
  5. You’re not using form fills, subscription sign-ups, or value add options.
    • If a prospect visits your website but doesn’t take anything away from it, have you really captured their interest? If your site doesn’t have a newsletter sign-up form, you’re missing out on engaging with prospects in the long run. Not sure about email marketing or email lead gen? We can help you with that! Other value add examples are downloadable PDFs and case studies—don’t forget to make downloads a conversion goal in your Analytics account! This allows you to gather even more information about potential customers. 

All Things Considered

There are dozens of reasons why you need to update your website. Whether it’s simply a matter of “it’s been too long” or you want to drive more qualified leads into your sales funnel, your website deserves an update. Think of it as an online, living extension of your brand and company. Provide it with the right development and attention, and you’ll see ongoing positive impact.

Do you still feel like your website needs some TLC and aren’t sure where to start? Let us know! We love helping businesses explore and identify their options. Click the link below to drop us a line.

Why You Should Consider Using WordPress as Your CMS

There’s a number of reasons why WordPress is an ideal CMS, but there’s some misconceptions out there as to why an organization should use WordPress instead of a hard-coded website. So, we’re going to take you through all the truths and falsehoods so you can understand why WordPress is the right choice.

5 Common WordPress Misbeliefs & Why WordPress is an Ideal CMS

False: WordPress is limited to pre existing designs.
Truth: We do select a theme to theme to kickoff development, however, there’s so much customization performed that your site will not be a cookie cutter of another using the same theme.

There are thousands of themes to select from and just about every aspect of your theme is customizable. What’s more, when selecting a theme, you can check out reviews of current and past users so you can feel confident in your decision. Your theme is simply a starting point. Once the creative specs (logo, fonts, color pallet, etc.) and content is added, your theme will become uniquely you.

False: WordPress can only accomplish a limited spectrum of tasks because the code on the side isn’t individually crafted.
Truth: You can have just as much site flexibility and at a lower price, by using WordPress.

WordPress is built using common programming languages that have been extensively used and tested. And when I say extensively, I mean it. WordPress’s community consists of highly skilled and dedicated coders, testers, and contributors. Updates, fixes and improvements are implemented regularly across themes. WordPress also has over forty thousand plugins available that can automate things faster (and cheaper!) than hiring a manual coder. This means you get a reliable site that has been tested and refined within a faster turnaround time than you would if you hired someone to hard code your website.

False: WordPress is meant for small businesses.
Truth: WordPress is used by all, big and small. 

Examples of large companies that use WordPress are The Walt Disney Company, Sony Music, TechCrunch, Explore St. Louis, and IZOD. WordPress powers about 1 in 4 websites. In fact, WordPress has persisted the fastest-growing CMS for the seventh year straight! While the big dogs with deep pockets may use WordPress, so can a small business on a shoestring budget. WordPress isn’t exclusive to the affluent and has more flexibility than a hard-coded site. Your WordPress site will grow with you as you successfully blast off.

False: WordPress cost as much as a hard-coded website
Truth: WordPress is much cheaper than custom development

No matter how you look at it, WordPress will always be much more affordable than custom development. During the creation of your site, thanks to the pre-built framework and available plugins, much of the coding is already completed. When your site is completed, the backend is user-friendly, so simple updates can be made yourself instead of paying the agency a fee every time you want to make simple changes. And after you’ve had your site for some time and want to make growth adjustments, thanks to the WordPress contributors, your theme has the flexibility to change, whereas a completely new site would have to be made if it was custom coded.

False: WordPress isn’t secure
Truth: WordPress is obsessed with security

The WordPress Security Team is made up of 25 experts, half of which are internal and the other half in security fields. WordPress also collaborates with competitor security teams to address shared concerns. They practice Responsible Disclosure to expedite security vulnerabilities and push out automated security enhancements without the site owner needing to do anything- the security update will install automatically. And leader of all WordPress security measures is their Security Czar, Aaron Campbell. Not only does he have a cool title, his experience in the online security space is top-notch.

Have any questions or interested in launching your own WordPress website? Contact us today to discuss the vision of your online presence! We’re exclusive WordPress developers that will make sure you’re set up for success with responsive web design, user-friendly navigation, and conversion optimization best practices in place.

5 Signs It’s Time For a New Website

[vc_row padding_top=”1px”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552243483652{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]It can be difficult to decide if your website is in a place where it needs to be completely overhauled. Not so much because you’d like your website to look better, but because you likely don’t want to invest the time or money to do so. This is understandable and not lost on us. While you may think your current one is doing the job, I recommend you reevaluate your position after going through our quick checklist.

Here are 5 warning signs that it’s time to get a new website:

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1.  Your website is built in Flash.

Not all devices can support Flash (i.e. Flash does not work on phones). It’s reported that nearly 60% of search queries happen on a mobile device. Additionally, Google’s ranking algorithm heavily favors mobile-friendliness, it’s extremely important that your website function splendidly on smartphones. Also, Flash is also terrible for SEO. With only 1 URL and slow load speeds, you won’t be able to optimize for searches and visitors will bounce quickly.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552243503726{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

2.  Your website isn’t mobile-friendly

This is a BIG one. As stated in the first warning, a major portion of search traffic comes from smartphones and Google is shifting to mobile-first indexing. So, if your mobile site is giving visitors a negative mobile experience, you’re going to see a drastic drop in your rankings, which in turn, will lower your website traffic.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image source=”external_link” external_style=”vc_box_border” custom_src=”https://media.giphy.com/media/4unqL9muIifq8/giphy.gif”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_empty_space height=”10″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552314895774{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

3.  Your website is slow

Akamai and Gomez.com found that nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and they tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds. Flash isn’t always the culprit for slow load times. Your site may have images that are too big, HTTP compression isn’t enabled, or there’s too many redirects. You may just need your site optimized (and we’re the folks to tell if you if that’s the case!), but if there’s a myriad of issues, you’re better off starting anew.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552243568761{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

4.  Your website is lacking content

Your website serves in almost every stage of the consumer journey. It’s important that your site is set-up to fulfill each of these touch points. Supplement these areas with webpages that feature thorough content such as YouTube videos, quality blog posts, social media sharing capability, downloadable assets and forms.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552314948236{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

5.  You aren’t getting results

If the pathway to actions you’re wanting visitors to perform isn’t made clear, there’s no chance you’re going to achieve your business objectives. There’s a lot of reasons why this could be happening such as: the layout of your desktop website is too busy, your mobile site isn’t build out enough, or the organization of your website is difficult to navigate so visitors give up trying to find the information they need. It could be you need to test new pages to identify what users respond best to, then take those learning and build out your new and improved Website.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image source=”external_link” external_style=”vc_box_border” custom_src=”https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/308895/screenshots/2598725/no-results.gif”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552498120211{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Here at Decantery, we specialize in conversion optimization and employ many tactics to identify what is triggering your conversion dropoff. Since the spectrum of problem-causers is long and varied, it’s crucial that a website audit is performed so that all potentials are explored. From there we’ll develop strategy and tactics to address our findings.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mk_divider style=”thick_solid” divider_width=”custom_width” custom_width=”50″ align=”left” border_color=”#f06781″ margin_top=”0″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1552498148952{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]If you’ve checked off 1 or more (gasp!) of these warning signs, contact us today and we’ll see how we can help your business. Your website is often your first impression, so make sure you’re website delivers on that expectation.[/vc_column_text][mk_button dimension=”flat” size=”large” url=”https://decantery.com/contact-us/”]Contact Us[/mk_button][/vc_column][/vc_row]