8 Reasons for Keeping Your Small Business Website Up to Date

Creating a website for your small business is the beginning of a continuous investment. With search engines constantly updating their algorithms to generate the best results, keeping your website up to date is one of the most valuable things you can do for your business. Since the standards for web design and development shift each year, it’s important to stay on top of these trends and offer an engaging and dynamic user experience. Here are 8 reasons why it’s important to keep your small business website up to date:

1. First Impressions Count.

When a visitor arrives on your website, it only takes seconds for them to form a lasting opinion of your business. Chartbeat, a web analytics company, stated that 55% of users leave after spending only fifteen seconds on a website. If the reader has exited out of your website, it’s likely they’ve clicked onto one of your competitors websites. That’s why it’s so important your website is designed in a way that entices the visitor to stay. If your website looks professional, is user friendly and has a multitude of useful information, visitors will perceive you and your business as an authority in your industry. Taking the time to invest in your reputation is a great way to earn trust from your customers.

2. Visual Appeal.

In many cases, your website is customers’ first impression of your business. In a study performed by Stanford Web Credibility Research, 75% of users admitted to making judgments about a company’s credibility based on their website design.   That’s why it’s so important to have a website with high visual appeal. Updating your website to a clean, simple design will make it easier for readers to engage and learn about your products or services.

3. Usability.

The experience your visitors have on your website is a huge factor of whether or not they return. If your website hasn’t been updated in a couple of years, it most likely is far behind in terms of functionality. Poor navigation is one of the top reasons users leave a website. The most important guideline to follow when it comes to usability is to focus the design around the prospective user, making it efficient and easy to use. For example, if your customer base is of more advanced age, it is important to make sure that your website font is not too small and difficult to read.

4. Fresh Content.

Publishing fresh, up-to-date content regularly is a way of giving existing readers and new customers a reason to return. It can become a means to interact with your visitors and give you the opportunity to produce interesting and relevant information about your business and the products or services you offer. Valuable content is also a great way to generate leads by guiding your readers to purchase your products or hire your for services. When it comes to maintaining your website’s relevance, publishing fresh content is just as important as having an innovative design and functionality.

5. Mobile Friendly.

With more people using their smartphones to search on the web, having a mobile website has become a critical part of having an online presence. A website that is not mobile friendly will have difficulty loading in a timely manner or the text will appear too small, making so you may have to scroll horizontally to see the text. However, if you take the time to create a mobile version of your website, not only will search engines favor your website, but your viewers are more likely to revisit.

6. SEO and Ranking.

An up-to-date website is essential for maximizing search engine optimization. Search engines favor new and valuable content. Each time you update your website, search engines crawl and index your pages, recalculating your site ranking. Having an active blog that provides fresh and valuable content is a great way to drive more users to your website and allows you to share important information with your customers. Strategic SEO efforts are crucial for higher search engine ranking,  more engagement, social shares and business inquiries.

7. Load Times.

Your users expect to be able to navigate the pages on your website quickly, which is why it is so important for your website to load in 2 seconds or less. If it takes just a second longer, users will most likely abandon your website and never return. Search engines also use page load times when determining the rankings for your web pages. Ensuring a fast, easy-to-use website can help you boost your rankings in the search results and help you gain more traffic to your website

8. Security.

Having a secure website is one of the most important ways to assure visitors that their experience on your website is safe and that you take their online safety seriously. Since older websites rely on older technology, chances of security breaches are higher. Updating your website’s framework or plugins will help you stay on top of threats and vulnerabilities from hackers. You should always make sure that the company you choose to build or host your website is secure and regularly updates their software to improve their security.

How we can help

At Kapok Marketing, our goal is to help small businesses build their brands in order to expand their customer base and increase overall sales. We put thought and expertise into our services to reflect your brand voice and vision. Whether it be custom website designs, SEO services or social media management, we want to help your business grow! Give us a call at (727) 214-5844 or send us an email at info@kapokmarketing.com, and we’ll help you gain the most out of your website and digital marketing.