Preventing Website Stagnation and Stay Ahead of the Competition

By Ben C

You've created a great website, incorporating all your knowledge in the content and website traffic is booming. You're a success and all the hard work you've done is now, seeming all worth it.

You leave your creation to continue its success but then... stagnation! You notice your website;

Stops receiving revisiting customers
Becomes reliant on new visitors to approach you
Starts lowering in search engine rankings
Had the perfect content and now it just doesn't seem to be doing the trick

This is when you need to upgrade your website and we're going to highlight changes you need to notice early and then contact web design experts to get your website back to where it deserves to be.

Search Engine's algorithm changes

Algorithm changes are the most difficult to notice, search engine publishments are not advertised anywhere and they include subtle changes regarding their algorithm for ranking on keywords. As a consequence, your previous Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plan may not conform and require a change, update or tweak to perform better. Look at your website, do the structure and layout require changing to conform to changes imposed by a search engine? Yes? Then it's time to speak to an expert who can make your website SEO friendly.

Slow loading

One of the factors within a search engine's algorithm is website speed, a slow load speed can be a sign of overloaded or incorrectly formatted content. Web designers are able to re-format content and designs for the page to load at optimal speed. Not only will a low site speed affect your SEO but research1 has seen that longer load times for visitors coincides with increased bounce rates (more detail provided below) and look towards a potential competitor.

Security

The longer a website has existed without platform updates and implementation of security features, the more it will have become vulnerable to security risks. "Hackers" find holes or gateways through security settings in specific types of websites and unfortunately these holes are exploited to access customer and financial details. You need to ensure your website is secure, as this will be important to any visitor to your site, especially if they are performing electronic transactions through your website.

Mobile friendly

Search engine publishments have highlighted that websites must be mobile friendly to rank higher, due to the ever-increasing reliance to search whilst on the move. It is essential that your website is user-friendly on mobiles whilst also having optimal site speed. Web designers utilise tools to produce a mobile friendly responsive design for mobile users and maintain your search engine ranking.

High bounce rate

Can you see that the volume of visitors is consistent however engagement with your content is significantly decreasing? Then it's time for an update across all your website's features, you need to look at the content, design and structure to identify possibilities for new and interesting content and the presentation of that content to new and returning customers.

Not capturing sales leads

Any site providing a product or service will have a reliance on new sales leads being captured through their website. You must then identify why this has occurred, such as; old content, difficult user-experience or a lack of progression in marketing the products/services. Look at what features you need to enhance your website and make sure you act quick.

References

1 - Kissmetrics - How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line    https://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/?wide=1

Noticed something about your website?

If you've noticed your website has any of these changes then you need to consult the experts in web design, find out what benefits they can provide to ensure the business you've committed time and financials towards maintains its development.