The push to have an up to date website for your online business is driven by a number of different factors, including the constant change in technology advancements, highly competitive online marketing arena, and the changing expectations of consumers (to name a few).
If you haven’t made any significant changes to your online business website in the last three years, or more, it is likely your website is missing the key elements needed in order to stand up to today’s competition and meet the needs of modern consumers.
To inject some power back into your online marketing strategy, you’ll want to consider adding these 3 elements to your website in 2017:
1. Responsive Design
If your website is not built with mobile responsive design, your website is at a disadvantage in terms of SEO rankings. In April 2015, Google introduced mobile experience as an important requirement in their algorithm, so not having responsive design is reducing the odds that consumers are able to locate you on Google’s search engine. Since then, mobile has become even more significant a factor, so a responsive website should be a high priority.
2. Content Management System
If you have an online business that showcases products you sell,and you own a “static” website that does not enable you to dynamically add, delete or modify content/images,you are missing out on the huge time-saving and cost-saving advantages that a Content Management System (a.k.a. CMS) can provide. Upgrading your website to a CMS platform makes the management of your website simpler and more efficient, as you are able to dynamically manage your site content quickly. CMS’s also make it easier to keep branding and SEO consistent throughout your site pages.
3. User Experience
Modern online consumers expect to be able to quickly and efficiently access the information they need from websites, and if they can’t, they just move onto the next website (your competitor). In order to keep bounce rates to a minimum, you need to eliminate all obstacles your site visitors may be experiencing. Make sure that your site navigation and menu layouts are easy to use, make call to action buttons easy to locate and clear, so that users know what you want them to do, include contact information that is easy to find, etc.
Keeping your business website marketable and profitable means making sure to keep up with the latest in key elements for 2017. If your website is showing its age, consider updating for an improved competitive edge.
