How A Website Update Will Help Your Business Grow

Updating your website regularly can make or break your business. To understand why this is the case, consider research from The Realtime Report.

Approximately 88% of online visitors are unlikely to return to a website after a poor initial experience, according to The Realtime Report. Additionally, research shows most judgments about a company's credibility are based on its website. Research also indicates that 38% of visitors will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.

You don't need to be a web programmer to ensure your site matches visitors' requirements. Here are five tips to help you improve your website and keep it up to date.

1. Optimize Your Website's Design

Research shows it only takes about 50 milliseconds for online visitors to form an opinion about a website that determines whether they'll stay or leave. If your site's design is flawed, visitors will notice right away. And as soon as they do, they'll leave.

Thus, you need to evaluate your website's design carefully. Then, you can find ways to optimize your site's design.

Consider your website's layout, purpose, and target audience. Next, you can craft a plan to redesign your site. 

Map out how you want your site to look. Your site's layout should account for desktop and mobile visitors. It should make it easy for visitors to get the information they want, exactly when they want it, without any delays or interference.

Think about why visitors check out your site, too. A clear understanding of your site's purpose can help you consistently craft timely, relevant, and engaging content.

Don't forget about the customer journey, either. Ease of use and personalization are keys when it comes to the digital customer journey. If visitors can quickly and effortlessly view your site and get value out of your content, they are likely to do business with you. And, if you continuously provide these customers with content that meets their expectations, they will support your company going forward.

2. Prioritize the User Experience

User experience (UX) should take center stage across your website. Ongoing UX improvements can ensure your company can always provide its site visitors with amazing experiences.

Creating a "seamless" digital experience is paramount. For instance, Saggezza points out online retailers should ensure shoppers can enjoy consistent experiences across desktop and mobile devices. This requires web retailers to put themselves in users' shoes. Much in the same vein, you need to account for website factors most important to your users. This allows you to provide users with exceptional experiences that help your site stand out from competitors'.

Along with providing consistent omnichannel experiences, simplicity and responsiveness are vital factors to consider as you evaluate your site's UX. Each page on your site should be easy to understand and deliver value to visitors. Furthermore, a visitor should have no trouble accessing all areas of your site, regardless of device. When in doubt about the simplicity and responsiveness of your site, look for and remove unnecessary content or elements.

Speed is another critical component to consider relative to UX. Research shows slow-loading websites cost online businesses $2.6 billion in 2020. To avoid speed issues, test your site frequently. If any problems are identified, resolve them immediately. Otherwise, they can hamper user experiences on your site, leading to brand reputation damage and revenue losses.

3. Change Your Hosting Provider

Even if you build a website that looks great and delivers outstanding experiences, your hosting provider can cause problems. Because, if your hosting provider has issues, your site will have issues as well.

Your hosting provider should do everything in its power to keep your website running at peak levels. However, if your site is constantly running slow or experiencing performance problems, now is a good time to look for a new hosting provider.

Speed and security are two of the biggest factors to consider when you choose a hosting provider. Ideally, your provider should make it easy for visitors to load your site in 2 seconds or less. Your provider should also support Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates that verify your site encrypts data as it travels between your server and a user's browser.

Find a hosting provider that is available to respond to your concerns and questions 24/7. A website can crash at any time. By working with a provider that provides round-the-clock support, you can receive immediate site assistance whenever you need it.  
 

4. Account for Growth

A successful website is meant to help you grow your business. To keep pace with that growth, you need to plan accordingly.

Parallel to the growth of businesses around the world, the accounting field is growing, and there is high demand for qualified professionals. Don’t get caught short when looking for an accountant to manage your business growth and spending. Doing so can help you keep your site costs in check. At the same time, you'll need to budget for adding an accountant to your team.

5. Monitor Your Website's Performance

A website remains a work in progress. To get the best results from your site now and in the future, you need to conduct performance assessments and track various key performance indicators (KPIs).

Uptime is the most important KPI for websites. It refers to the percentage of time your site is available. Every second your site is unavailable costs your business money. So, you should shoot for site uptime as close to 100% as possible.

Time to first byte (TTFB) is also an important KPI. It is used to measure the amount of time it takes your site to load. Research indicates 40% of internet users will abandon a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Ultimately, a lower TTFB is associated with a low site abandonment rate.

The Bottom Line

Take your website seriously. In doing so, you can show online visitors that you care about your web presence and want to provide them with the best site experience possible. If you manage and update your website to the best of your ability, you may find that your site helps your business achieve its short- and long-term goals.