January 24, 2019

How an Outdated Website can Hurt your Business

The last couple of decades have seen a pragmatic transformation in all kinds of communications, including business & commerce. This change has brought the world closer to your doorstep. Geographical locational variances as the distances between the sellers & the buyers have become insignificant. There are many problems with having an outdated website. Rather than focusing on common problems with outdated websites, you should find ways to revamp your existing website and make it relevant.

On the one hand, it is a big boon both for an alert customer & for the smart seller, but it is also a bane for the non-professionally managed business houses that don’t update their sales tools & product display windows just to face doom. If you have an outdated website, then you must be updated on how it can harm your company.

Despite ever-innovative customer reach & business improvement strategies, the market is flooded every second day through platforms other than the web, so the significance of web marketing is galloping at an unbelievable speed. Out of around 2 billion websites all over the world, there are less than 200 million websites are active.

While each one is working hard to serve the same old wine in the new bottles, the basic principle of marketing & selling an idea or a product is based on the age-old AIDA (attention, interest, desire, & action) technique. It is equally relevant to business promotion through the websites.

Outdated websites fail to draw attention & fall flat on the very first step. Therefore, website owners consider frequent website updates to make it relevant and user-friendly.

Drawbacks of having an outdated website

Let’s discuss the applicability of these eighteen-step strategies for web marketing one by one. There are many signs that your current website is outdated and needs to be revamped immediately. Before going to the signs of an outdated website, we should analyze the common problems website owners face with outdated websites.

1. Drawing customer’s attention

If the website is outdated in terms of its name, keywords, general appearance, format, & catchy opening line, it fails to draw the attention of a serious customer, who has the choice of thousands of similar products & services available at the press of a button. If they somehow reach your website, they will leave it in no time.

2. Generating interest in your product

Now that you have a very presentable website opening section, the next step is to retain the interest of the customer and encourage them to surf your site further. This is totally marred if the speed is sluggish on account of the auto-display videos, background music, flash animation, etc., forcing a customer to shift to some other site. Now that your website is fast & user-friendly, the next step is to have very crisp content written & displayed in a very well-researched, racy format. This step requires tons of experience for a content writer in terms of customer segmentation & the psychology thereof.

The risks of having an out-of-date website are that you will lose old customers and be away from new ones.

3. Arousing desire to close the deal

An outdated website leaves customers high & dry even after passing the first two hurdles. The customer at this stage wants to know the minute details of the products, comparative advantages over similar products, et al. Even very smartly presented websites fail to close the deal due to a lack of information or no ready-to-understand language & format availability. Never presume that a customer has plenty of time for surfing the web. Hence, remove all unwanted lengthy stories & USPs, which are very common on old & outdated sites.

Leaving customers high & dry even after passing the first two hurdles is one of the ways an outdated website can hurt your business.

4. Action by the customer

It is great if your customer has crossed the first three steps & is now in action-taking mode. It is at this stage that he or she looks into the company’s address, contact number, payment gateway details, details of the key functionaries, etc. If the website is outdated & these crucial data are not updated, the customer loses confidence, resulting in an aborted deal.

There are many problems if you have an outdated website. So keep your website updated regularly.

5. Building your Credibility

No matter how great you are, if your website is outdated, there is an increased chance that the website can hurt your company’s credibility. Prospects and customers will leave your website if it is not updated. If prospects and customers don’t trust your website, then they don’t trust your company as well. If you haven’t updated your blog posts for quite some time now or you are showcasing programs or events that happened a year ago, then your company will look disorganized and sloppy. So, try to keep your website content fresh and relevant as well.

6. Improving Organic Ranking

Popular search engines, including Google, love well-researched, engaging, SEO-friendly and fresh content. Google is relentlessly working to improve the quality of its search results. If your website is not mobile-friendly, then the website is surely going to lose its ranking and traffic. Check out this Mobile-Friendly Test Tool Now.

Bottom line: Make sure that:

The first appearance of the website is craftily written to draw the attention of the customer.
The introductory section is too catchy to encourage the customer to continue with the page.
The third section has all the USPs in very concise yet fulfilling content.
The pricing, payment mode & contact details are updated & available in a user-friendly format.

7. Mobile-First Website

It has been observed as a proven fact that the most common problem with outdated websites is the lack of a mobile-first website. If online visitors fail to access your website from any device, then a mobile visitor visiting your site might find it unreadable and will quickly click away and bounce from your site. So you will lose a significant chunk of your audience from the start. In 2021, the number of smartphone users in the US exceeded 280 million!, a report from the Hosting Tribunal mentions That covers 85% of all people in the US itself.

While designing your website, you must keep it in mind to ensure it gets designed mobile-first to be made accessible to your users from all devices, regardless of the screen size. You have the best option in the form of taking Google’s mobile-friendly test to analyze your website and whether it has a mobile-friendly design or not.

You May Also Like: Key Points You Should Know About Mobile Optimization

8. Website Health

Yet another common problem that has been often noticed with outdated websites is many errors like “page not found” or other crawl errors. Your website’s health is poorly affected by such errors. You must spring into action if you come across any 404 errors, crawl errors, or any other errors that may eventually lead to slowing down your website’s performance. It must also be looked into how often your website appears in search results, along with click-through rates (CTRs). If you get any hint through these checks that your website’s performance is not well, then it is high time for you to go for a new or updated website instead.

9. Page Load Speed

Slow page load speed is the most common and recurring problem with outdated websites. Fast-loading sites are considered essential and advantageous to human beings, but even Google finds the page load speeds a search ranking factor. That leaves no doubt about page speed optimization playing a crucial role. Have you ever thought about why it is so? You only have 5 or 6 seconds to impress the visitors when they land on your site. If your website takes longer than 5 seconds to load, then in all probability, they will leave your website straight.

10. Website Neglect

Basic neglect of the websites has also been thought to be another significant problem with outdated websites. Don’t ever make the mistakes others do of launching a website and soon forgetting it. That never works. Remember, such an attitude will somewhat hamper the website’s performance level.

Don’t ever harp on the wishful thinking of just buying a domain, launching a stock website, and expecting loads of website traffic. TLC is needed for your website from time to time. If you are keen to get serious business results out of your website, proactive work is required from your side. If you fail to update your website regularly, then it’s time for a website refresh instead. These are the problems with having an outdated website.

11. A Website Not Being Regularly Updated

The problems with having an outdated website, like posting a “close sign for your business” in the window to have an outdated website design,. Even if it’s awful, it’s true. You may wonder if a firm is still operating when you visit a website that has not been updated in years and needs to be better designed. As a result, you may lose thousands of dollars in income and genuinely turn off clients.

A common problem website owners face with outdated websites is that their websites do not get indexed by Google. There are many ways to update a website, including removing outdated content.

12. A Complicated or Complex Design

With our hectic lives, we consume a lot of information. Outdated websites hurt your business because websites with complex designs need help to draw visitors. After all, brands need more time to differentiate themselves through marketing. Your goal won’t be achieved if this occurs because it’s likely that no one will notice these designs. Decide on a straightforward and attention-grabbing design for your website.

13. Google Ranking Analysis Could Be Better

Google strives to make its search results as high-quality as possible. Whenever a searcher requests one, they aim to give them a list of the top websites or resources. They are constantly upgrading and improving their algorithm to raise the caliber of search results. The problem with having an outdated website are that chances are good that your website’s rating will only continue if it follows Google’s algorithm.

14. Using Gradients in Overdrive

Popular services like Instagram and Tinder commonly employ design fads like gradients. But as we’ve seen, elegance emerges when simplicity is pursued to its logical conclusion. The profession of graphic design has always placed simplicity at its center. However, recently, we’ve observed some designers overusing gradients and other distracting elements, which may cause consumers to lose focus on the overall design. Using gradients might save outdated websites that hurt your business.

15. Consumers Choose Your Rivals

When looking for solutions to their difficulties, people turn to Google. They’ll experience more issues due to the need for a better website. Google and customers looking for answers will be put off by a website’s need for mobile functionality. Your clients may even feel more perplexed after visiting a website that needs to be appropriately maintained. Consequently, the problem with having an outdated website is that they might once more choose one of your rivals.

16. There are Few Conversions

The old strategies must have been influential in the past for your website. Still, if leads and traffic are continually declining, it may be time to look into the issue and determine which aspects of your site need more development. If people need clarification on the design of your website, there may be issues with outdated websites that hurt your business’s technical SEO and need special attention.

17. Misleading or Outdated Data

Your major problems with having an outdated website are messages, and content might occasionally be the foremost priority. Consider keeping your website unique if the messaging and content no longer accurately represent your business. Your writing must be precise and straightforward as much as possible, thus outlining all the services your company can provide. It must contain the main keywords to appear higher in search results to draw in more targeted traffic.

18. Inadequate Website Security

Above all else, you must ensure that your website is adequately protected. To prove that your website is secure, you may use a fast hosting service and buy an SSL certificate. The design and functionality of your website have an impact on its security. That is how outdated websites hurt your business. It is thus an ardent duty that you take timely steps for protection. Also, have a privacy policy on your website.

Signs that Your current website is outdated

Below are some popular signs that your current website is outdated and needs to be revamped immediately to perform well.

It is hard for users to Navigate the website
Your website is loaded with a lot of irrelevant content
No Clear Call to Action Button
The website is optimized for search engines, not humans
Slow Website Page Load Time Speed
The website is Not Optimized for Mobile Devices

Conclusion: Problems with Having an Outdated Website

If you want professional help in writing content for websites or other forms of writing, SEO Content India, a content writing agency in India, could be a great place for you. It has professionals writing for many clients from different backgrounds. The company is popular for offering a variety of content writing services, starting from news review writing services to customized speech writing services. These problems with having an outdated website can be addressed now.

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