STUDIO FIVE

Does Your Website Still Meet Your Business Objectives?

Is your website living up to its full potential or stuck in the past? An outdated website can hurt your business in today’s fast-paced digital world. It can make you lose credibility, drive away potential customers, and hinder your online success. Discover how to keep your website from falling behind the times.

This blog post explores 13 telltale signs that your website is outdated and provides practical solutions for bringing it back to life. Whether you’re a business owner or a professional looking to make a solid online impression, it’s time to take a critical look at your website and ensure it reflects modern web design standards. So, let’s dive in and discover the key indicators that it’s time to upgrade!

Why updating your website is essential.

A modern look and user experience are some of the most important aspects for a website to look trustworthy, perform well in search engines, and convert visitors.

Whether you have a B2C or a B2B business, your potential clients constantly adapt to the latest technologies and possibilities. The quality standards they expect a website to meet are continually getting higher.

Businesses often need to put more effort into updating their websites to prevent them from becoming outdated. Businesses that do realize their websites need a refresh often find themselves deprioritizing them for various reasons.

However, a website that looks old can seriously impact your SEO rankings, conversion rates, online sales, customer trust, and brand reputation. Older websites see a gradual decline in visitors over time.

Your website visitors and potential customers will notice, and they might decide to contact your competitor instead simply because their modern website signals trustworthiness. Your outdated website could drive visitors away and into the hands of your competitors.

How do you know if your website is outdated?

To help you get started, we compiled a list of 13 signs your website is outdated, including solutions and ideas on how to fix them. Don’t mind the sometimes slightly sarcastic tone; it isn’t personal!

13 Signs Your Website is Outdated

1. Your website is not secure

Corporate cyber attacks are up 50% from last year, according to Cyber Security Intelligence, and they are expected to continue on that trajectory, doubling by 2025.

Unsurprisingly, an unsecured website can be a significant risk for any business. Poor security leaves the website open to hacking and data theft, endangering a company’s resources, hijacking its domain, and making your customers vulnerable to identity theft and credit card fraud.

Additionally, Google now penalizes websites not secured under an SSL certificate. Securing your website protects your users and improves the user experience, but it also provides an added benefit for SEO.

How to fix this: 

Installing an SSL certificate on the server can improve basic website security. This certificate encrypts the data transferred from the server to the browser.

Beyond the most basic security tasks, companies can improve the security of your website by:

• Using strong passwords.
• Changing default settings such as the “admin” username in standard web editing software such as WordPress deters hackers who retreat when met with resistance.
• Keeping software, plugins, and themes updated to close vulnerabilities.
• To reduce exposure, delete any files, databases, or applications that are no longer in use from your website.
• Backing up your website regularly, so if the worst happens, you can recover your content.

2. Your website is not mobile-first

While most websites are responsive, the mobile experience could be more optimized and feel like an afterthought.

Some common problems with websites not optimized for mobile devices include:

• The website is difficult to navigate on mobile because the menu system is complicated.
• Full-sized images are loaded on mobile.
• Ambient videos play automatically and slow down the loading time.
• Content is communicated through tables and PDFs, which are harder to read on mobile.
• Landing pages are incredibly long.
• Decorative elements are not removed on mobile, adding extraneous clutter to the user interface.
• Interactive features like maps or forms have yet to be tested and are more complicated to operate than on desktop or tablet devices.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to optimize your website for mobile devices:

• Take a mobile-first approach to design if users primarily access your website on mobile.
• Convert PDF content to web content as much as possible or provide summaries of PDFs as text.
• Set aside time to test any interactive features on mobile.
• Use a testing platform to expand the number of devices and browsers you can test.
• Identify decorative elements and media that you can remove from the mobile experience.
• Consider the mobile experience when designing menus and other navigation features, and test that controls are large enough and follow user expectations and standard practice.
• Use a mobile-friendly content management system (CMS) even from the back end since content editors often want to make changes on the go.
• Add a mobile preview option to your CMS’s editing interface. A CMS will make it easier for you to optimize your website for mobile devices.

3. Your website is not user-friendly

The purpose of a website is to provide a user-friendly experience that helps visitors find the information they need as quickly and efficiently as possible. If your users are struggling to find content, then it’s likely that it needs a redesign or at least a sitemap refresh.

Some common navigation problems that can occur include:

• A cluttered layout
• Too many menu options
• A website structure that reflects your institutional structure instead of how users look for content
• Poorly labeled links or overly technical terminology and acronyms
• Dead ends

Here’s an example: you’re a university, and potential students come to your website to learn more about a specific program. If they are overwhelmed by the number of options in the main menu, they might not be able to find your “Programs” page, hidden in the second level under a page called “Registrar.” In a worst-case scenario, this experience might dissuade them from applying.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to make it easier for your users to navigate your website:

• Simplify the layout. Remove any clutter from the page and prioritize the most critical information.
• Use menus. If your website has a lot of content, use menus to help users quickly and easily find what they want.
• Organize content with taxonomy. If you have a lot of content, use taxonomy terms to link pieces of content together under categories. This step will alleviate the pressure of putting everything in your main navigation while making it easier to search for content.
• Use clear labels. Avoid using ambiguous terms, acronyms, or jargon, and make sure all links are clearly labeled.
• Make sure that menus are easy to operate on mobile.

4. You are unable to make changes or updates

An essential part of having a CMS-based website is making changes quickly without waiting for someone else to do it for you. So, if you need help from a developer to change your website anytime, it can lead to content and design issues.

As your company grows, it places additional demands on the website, and it can quickly become difficult (and expensive) to make updates by relying on your development team.

Some common problems with needing developer help include:

• It’s a signal that HTML is “hand-coded” which might lead to inconsistency in the visual design.
• Making changes is expensive, leading to content needing to be updated more frequently.
• It takes a long time to make changes, and bottlenecks can occur more quickly if resources are stretched.
• Content editors aren’t always able to preview how updates will look before they’re published.

For example, if you have to bug your developer team every time you need to update copy on a landing page or swap out an image, then it will take forever to get anything done. This inability also places a lot of pressure on your developer team and actively pulls them away from working on new features or keeping the website secure.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to improve the ability to make changes to your website:

• Use a modern content management system (CMS). A CMS should allow content editors and administrators to make website changes without developer help. WordPress, for example, is much more than a CMS—it’s a digital experience platform that can give your organization a more significant presence on the web.
• Ensure your CMS provides a page-building tool for creating landing pages and marketing content.
• Use a front-end development framework. Using a front-end development framework (e.g., Bootstrap) combined with a component-based approach to design typically results in more consistent website output.

5. Your web design is outdated

If it feels like you last updated or refreshed the design of your website in more than 3-4 years, you desperately need a redesign.

In theory, and based on a study, a website’s lifespan is two years and seven months. So many factors play into how long your website will “last” — and by last, we mean how long it is effective and relevant.

Some of those factors include design trends, your business evolves, your industry evolves, search rankings, and many more.

Depending on your industry, one thing to remember is that there are new competitors in your market every day. If you touch your website’s design in less than three years, you are drastically losing business to so many new, better-functioning sites that are competitors.

How to fix this: 

Always start with the homepage—this is what most people see first, and a refreshed design can help. But in the end, you need a complete website redesign.

6. Your website is content-heavy

If your website is content-heavy, it can be difficult for new users to understand what you do and your organization. Too much content can lead to two main problems:

• New users need clarification about your purpose.
• Users shy away from interacting with you further because they’re still determining if they’re in the right place.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to make your website less content-heavy and easier to understand:

• Simplify the content. Break down your content into smaller, easier-to-read chunks.
• Use visuals. Incorporate visuals into your content to help explain it better.
• Write shorter paragraphs and use lists. This will make your content easier to read.
• Create a visual “about us” page. Instead of long text, use headlines, imagery, facts, and figures to help new users understand what you do at a glance.
• Focus on a few key content pieces that pull more weight rather than a lot of lengthy text to “convince” users.

7. Your website is not converting visitors

If your website isn’t converting users, it’s worth looking at all the possible reasons. Confusing or unclear calls to action (CTAs) could be the culprit. Some common problems with unclear CTAs include:

• They’re not prominently placed, and the user might miss them entirely
• The wording is unclear, and the user does not understand what the next step will be after clicking on a button
• There are too many calls to action on each page, so the priority of where to go next is unclear

If your calls to action are ambiguous, it may put people off from taking the next step. They might need help finding a clear path to your desired conversion action, or the design might distract them from the primary goal.

How to fix this: 

Here is how you can improve conversions on your website.

• Map out the most relevant calls to action for each section or page.
• Select one or two calls to action that persist as the user navigates from page to page, and style them consistently.
• Improve the copy. Nail your target audience by using action-oriented verbs instead of passive language.

8. Your content is outdated

If you have outdated or incorrect content on your website, it will negatively impact your website performance. Content is one of the most important aspects of a website, so if it’s not up to date, it can hurt your business.

Some common problems with outdated or incorrect content include:

• Incorrect information
• Out-of-date statistics, addresses, or critical data
• Content feeds that are no longer updated (e.g., you added the last new item a year ago)
• Content with an incorrect date or authorship information
• Content that is missing necessary metadata or tags
• Metadata that doesn’t match the purpose of the content
• Duplicate content
• Low-quality content that doesn’t follow brand or content guidelines
• Broken links
• Past events or publications that are no longer relevant
• Circular click paths, so users end up back where they started when trying to complete a task
• Test content that someone forgot to remove from the website

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to improve your website content:

• Create a content governance plan to ensure that roles and responsibilities are defined.
• Create a content calendar with an explicit schedule for updating static information and adding new, dynamic content.
• Take advantage of subject matter experts to ensure that content is accurate. If you have a lot of content, you can prioritize based on what is accessed more often.
• Add “Updated date” information to clarify if the content has not been updated recently.
• Perform a content audit to identify and remove duplicate content while ensuring content provides value to your audience.

Updated relevant content will help to improve the overall user experience and make your website look more professional.

9. Declining page views and leads

Suppose you have installed Google Analytics or another tracking software and notice that your overall page views and unique visitors are trending downwards. In that case, this is another sign of your website being outdated.

Some things to look for here are any pop-ups or other distracting features on your site. These can deter users and cause them to bounce immediately.

Additionally, if they go to check out your blog, and your last post was from 2019, well, chances are high that they’ll think you’re just no longer relevant.

How to fix this: 

• Eliminate pop-ups
• Remove any distractions or interruptions on your site
• Update your blog by publishing a new post at least once a month

10. Irrelevant site search results

If the search results on your website are not helpful, then they are not valid for site visitors. It’s not often thought about, but you’ll want to create a site search experience that users will love.

Some common problems with search results include:

• The most relevant content items are outside the top of the list.
• The search results are not complete because some content is not indexed.
• Filtering by a tag or category doesn’t show all the content related to that term.
• The full-text search doesn’t look for the search terms in PDFs or metadata associated with your content.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to improve the search results on your website:

• Make sure the search results are relevant. Test the interface using realistic searches to see if the most critical content shows up first.
• Review your content’s tags and categories to ensure they are complete.
• Make sure that the search index on your website is refreshed regularly.
• Make the search results more helpful. Add summaries or critical metadata to help users determine if each result is relevant.
• If possible, configure your search engine to “boost” selected fields so that content will be prioritized if search terms appear in these fields.
• Use a faceted search interface to avoid empty search results if a user’s criteria are too specific.

11. Slow page speed

The longer it takes for a website page to load, the more likely people are to leave. The first 5 seconds of page load time have the highest impact on conversion rates.

Some common problems with slow page load times include:

• An iframe or content embedded from another website depends on loading the entire page.
• Pagination, search filters, and other controls trigger an extra page load.
• Images are not optimized at all or are not optimized for mobile.
• Pages are excessively long or contain too much media.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to improve the page load times on your website:

• Optimize images. Optimize your images so they don’t slow down the load time. You can compress them using a tool like Imagify or ShortPixel.
• Minimize HTTP requests. Reduce the number of HTTP requests made so the pages can load faster.
• Cache static content. Cache your static website content so it doesn’t have to be loaded whenever someone visits the page.
• Use a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN will help deliver your website content more quickly by caching it closer to the user.
• Implement lazy loading. Lazy loading refers to waiting to load or initialize resources or objects until they are needed. This delay improves performance and saves system resources.

12. Your content is not accessible

Website accessibility should always be a top priority for me. That said, outdated websites often have content that doesn’t meet accessibility standards. This issue arises from a significant number of PDFs that need accessibility remediation.

Some common problems with having PDFs or content that’s not accessible include:

• PDFs don’t follow a template, don’t use semantic headings and links, and lack the tags needed for screen readers to interpret them.
• Content editors find it challenging to update PDFs and lack the skills or software to make the necessary updates.
• Content editors write HTML by hand and don’t use semantic markup, leading to content accessibility issues.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to improve the accessibility of your website:

• Use web content instead of PDFs when possible.
• When using PDFs, use templates reviewed for accessibility.
• Use a content compliance tool like Siteimprove to test content and PDF accessibility.

Adhering to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) helps ensure your material is accessible to as many people as possible.

13. No SEO implementation

SEO, or search engine optimization, is optimizing your website to appear higher in search engine results pages. This process is essential because the higher your website appears in these results, the more likely people are to find and visit your website.

However, improving your website’s ranking won’t be easy if your website design doesn’t allow you to implement SEO best practices.

Some common problems with website designs that don’t allow for SEO best practices include:

• There needs to be a closer connection between the page’s content and the metatags that appear in search results.
• Your website appears outside search results, even when users are looking for your organization specifically.
• Search engines do not index some pages on your website.

How to fix this: 

There are a few things you can do to improve the ability to optimize your website for search engines:

• By using the right keywords, titles, and descriptions, you can optimize your website for search engines. Tools like RankMath, Moz, or Ahrefs can help you conduct keyword research and understand what your target audience is looking for.
• Use semantic markup and use logical defaults for metatags.
• Implement a readable URL architecture.
• Create redirects for deleted content or when a URL changes.
• Add an XML sitemap to ensure search engines correctly find and crawl your content.
• Make your website mobile-friendly. This will ensure that it looks good and functions well on different devices.
• Use a content compliance monitoring tool like Siteimprove to create a review process for improving SEO.
• Implement analytics and create event tracking to determine the most successful content that attracts and converts users.

Thinking About the User Experience

Your website must provide a great user experience for your visitors, specifically by prioritizing their needs. If your website is outdated, then it’s likely that user needs have changed since the last redesign. A website redesign is an excellent opportunity to revisit users’ priorities and redesign with their needs in mind.

If you recognize any signs that your website is outdated, consider redesigning or looking for ways to improve your website continuously. By addressing these issues, you’ll be able to create a website that is beautiful, user-friendly, and effective in helping you achieve your business goals.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you suspect you have an outdated website that keeps you from maximizing your organic traffic, conversions, and sales!

Don’t Let Your Outdated Website Harm Your Business!

An outdated website can severely impact your online presence, hindering your organic rankings, conversions, and, ultimately, your sales. It’s crucial to stay up-to-date in the ever-changing digital landscape. By identifying these 13 signs that your website is outdated, you can take the necessary steps to fix it and ensure its effectiveness.

If you feel your website is outdated and could use a more modern look, a refresh, or simply a fresh pair of expert eyes looking at it, you are in good hands. PixoLabo can help you with the complete website refresh process, including:

• Conducting a thorough audit of your current website, determining the most crucial shortcomings and most significant opportunities for improvement
• Developing a brand new mobile-friendly website with a modern look and user experience, which follows Google’s guidelines and proven SEO best practices
• Migrating your current website to your newly developed website
• Ensuring your website meets the quality standards and user experience that visitors expect

Keep an outdated website from holding your business back any longer. Act now and make the necessary updates to stay ahead of the competition. Contact us today for more information and unleash the power of a modern website that drives results.

We Can Fix Problems with Outdated Websites!

We can eliminate many problems through a simple redesign or by building a new site. Of course, the required action or remedy will depend on the state of your business website or online store. Our team would be happy to discuss available options with you.

If you believe we are a good fit for your website redesign needs, let’s talk! We offer a full range of consulting and design solutions for businesses and product brands.

If you are still trying to figure out how to fix any of these problems, don’t worry! Reach out and contact us. Our expert team will listen to you, answer your questions, and find the best way for your business to get the online presence it needs. That is one of our specialties, after all!