How Outdated Web Design is Dragging Your Business Down

Old websites are not like old buildings. Websites don’t get better with age and you’re not going to receive thousands of visitors for your archaic design. With the volume of business that stems from online sources in 2015, having a dated site can really impact the success of your brand.

Most SMEs don’t have the budget for a yearly online renovation and that really isn’t necessary because trends come and go and you don’t have to keep up with them all. Yet, if you leave it too long the technology, the trends and – more importantly – your competitors, will leave you behind.

Creating a good first impression is essential in the competitive world of business and people will often deem your website, representative of your services. If the site is shoddy, dated and strung with errors, what are they going to think about your business itself?

Of course, professionalism is a key factor. If somebody turned up to a job interview in jogging bottoms and a mucky t-shirt, would you hire them? A lot of it comes down to trust and trust is a huge issue on the internet (no wonder, with how much spam we’re bombarded with and all the stories of hacking in the press!).

Having a website is about communicating with your audience and if this crucial means of communication is outdated, it may not represent your customer service as well as it should.

Many sites also contain dated design features that impact the site’s performance. Flash animations, for example, used to be a popular way making websites fun and eye-catching, but they’re very very slow, often don’t work on phones and can look tacky. It’s an impatient world and people aren’t always willing to wait for sites to load, therefore these dated features could be losing you business.

What’s more, more people are viewing your website on their phones than ever before and, as we talked about last week, outdated design can be infuriating for those visiting you on mobile devices.

(Click here to read how a responsive site could help your business)

So have a website that properly reflects YOUR business. You aren’t operating in the past so your website shouldn’t be either.

Give us a call if you have any worries about your website, on 01623 600620