A good website conveys the brand values and service offering to a visitor in seconds. A great website makes it easy for each visitor to convert quickly.
Here are a few simple questions you can ask to make sure your website is still up to the task:
1. Is your site responsive?
Go mobile.
A growing 50% of smartphone users grab their phone as soon as they wake up. As more people start the search from their smartphones than ever before, it has never been more important to make sure that your website and content are optimised for the mobile user.
A quick way to check if your website is responsive is to open your desktop browser and click on the bottom right corner of the window. Drag it from the bottom right to left. If the content and layout adjust to fit the size of the window, great! If not then it's definitely time to update your website.
Quick tip! This cute little tool can help you to quickly assess your site at any size.
2. Does your site look dated?
Refresh the design.
Looks might not be everything, but good design sells!
It’s a good idea to review your website and remove any obvious stock imagery. I know they’re easy and cheap - but if you can, use your own images to humanise your brand and build an authentic connection with your customers.
If you haven’t done it recently, take a look at your competitors’ sites and some of the latest award winning sites to get an idea of what you are competing with.
3. Does it take a long time to load new pages?
Improve your page speed.
The average attention span fell to just 8 seconds in 2016.
This doesn't leave a great deal of time grab your new visitor's attention.
A lightning fast site gives a great user experience and satisfying UX leads to higher conversion rates. So it really does makes sense to invest a little time in making sure your website is up to speed.
How long is to long? Google aims for under half a second, and a good ecommerce page speed is around 2 seconds. But every second counts and research suggests 40% of customers will abandon a web page if it take more than 3 seconds to load.
How do you improve it? You can reduce your page speed by enabling file compression, minifying code and optimising images. This post and Google’s Page Speed tool are a great place to start analysing and improving your page speed.
4. Can new visitors easily find what they’re looking for?
Assess your customer journey.
A simple user journey paired with clear UI is critical to the success of your website.
Take a look at your Google Analytics. If you find that:
a. You aren’t getting many direct enquiries,
b. Drop off rates from your landing pages are high
c. That your clicks are high but conversions are still low
Then it’s probably time to assess your customer journey.
Start by getting a friendly group together to perform some basic usability testing they’ll be able to help you assess where the key areas for improvement are.
5. Does it get to the point?
Review your content.
“Less is more”
In the Oxford Guide To Plain English, Martin Cutts suggests: “Over the whole document, make the average sentence length 15-20 words.”
Review your copy to make sure it’s both accurate and concise. Large paragraphs of superlative text can be a real turn off for visitor to your site. Be mindful of rhythm, keep the language accessible and your visitors will thank you for it.
6. Can you edit content yourself?
Ditch your developer.
If you have to contact an agency or a developer every time you need to make a change to your website, then it’s time to take back control.
There are plenty of editors out there (we happen to think our in-page editor is the best!). The editor you choose should allow you to dive straight in and manage your website content, navigation and pages in whichever way you feel comfortable, without writing a single line of code.
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