We know what it’s like to have no work, but still have bills to pay. The current situation is putting many businesses in that position, and we want to help.
Do I Need a New Website?
Have you ever asked yourself, “Do I need a new website?” Or have you ever thought “Why would I need a new website – mine is perfectly fine?”
The reality is, if you haven’t updated your website in a few years, chances are it’s not performing at its best. Do any of the following points sound like your website?
It Just Isn’t Working For You
Did you launch your wesbite with great expectations of traffic and leads and sales? Did the reality fall short of your expectations? It’s not surprising – unfortunately, it’s a common experience. And it is usually caused by two things – poor website design with no clear objectives, and a set-and-forget attitude. Both can make your website less effective than an inflatable dartboard…
It’s Too Slow
Over half of all visitors will leave a site if it takes more than a few seconds to load. That’s right – a few seconds. Every extra second your site takes to load = lost views, lost leads, and lost sales.
It’s Not Mobile Friendly
Since late 2016, more than half of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website doesn’t look good on those, you’re turning visitors away.
It Looks Dated or Your Content is Stale
Research shows that at least a third of people will be put off by poor website design. Adding to that, design trends change over time, so what used to ‘look good’ may not any more.
You also need to keep your website up to date. If you haven’t updated it for a few years, people will look elsewhere.
It’s Not Secure
This is the quickest way to turn off a potential customer.
Secure websites are becoming the standard, with Google Chrome even making it very clear when a website is not secure. People want to know their data is secure – especially if they’re making a purchase or entering any personal or sensitive information. And it’s so easy to secure a website now, that there really is no excuse.
The Takeaway?
An outdated website is costing you money.
A website should look good, load quickly, be easy to navigate, and optimised for search engines.
The best part? Updating or even replacing your website doesn’t have to be a painful or expensive exercise.
Check out our website services here for a fast, painless way to upgrade your website today.
WordPress security – keep your site updated
WordPress is one of the most popular website content management systems in the world, and that has made it a big target for hackers.
And one of the most common security issues with WordPress sites (some estimates say more than 70% of sites), is outdated software.
WordPress and the multitude of plugins for it are constantly being updated, and it can be hard to keep up with.
The latest security issue affected many of the most popular plugins, as reported by Sucuri.
For maximum security it is essential to keep WordPress and all plugins up to date, but that can be time consuming, especially as you need to be sure you back up your site first – every time.
Or you could use our Managed hosting package, which includes daily backups and monthly updates to WordPress and plugins. Simple.
Is your site optimised for mobile devices? It should be!
Check out these stats on online advertising, and the growth of mobile advertising in particular.
Contact us if you need any assistance with your mobile optimisation.
May 2015 update: Google rolls out its mobile-friendly update, boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results. Test your website using their free tool.
If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to convert your website to be responsive.
We’re blogging!
Hi, and welcome to the new Strategic Web Solutions blog.
We’ll be posting all sorts of useful content here, all geared to helping you improve your online effectiveness. We’ll also regularly post links to other blogs or web pages that we think are relevant or helpful.
If you have any suggestions for blog topics, or any other feedback, please let us know.