Reasons Your Website May Need an Upgrade
1) Appearance
We all know first impressions are the most important ones. A clumsy looking and poorly functioning website can damage your companies image and send visitors to your competitors.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Does my website give prospective clients a feeling of confidence in what I do?
- Does my website do a better job of conveying a feeling of confidence than my competitors websites do?
- Is my website intuitive to navigation and easy to use?
- Does my website provide compelling content that inspires the audience more than my competitors websites?
- Does the website function well with other browsers and small devices?
- Is my website properly optimized for search results that will target potential customers?
- Is my website secure? If not it may not be displaying in all browsers without warnings.
- Does your website have the expected functionality for your industry?
Functionality of websites:
If your answer to any of these questions is no, then you need to update your website.
Low cost website platforms
Be aware that many low-cost website platforms are low cost for a reason. They offer fewer features and may be missing functions and integrations that your business may need in the future. Some platforms offer good basics but as soon as you need more than the basics the cost rises quickly.
If you choose a platform that charges a commission on sales you might think 1 or 2% is a good price but if your markup on a product is 25% the cost of 1-2 percent turns out to be 4-8% of your markup. Take out your variable costs and taxes and you may not have much left.
Difficult to Manage Website
If you are looking for an easier to manage website, one that someone with little technical skill can manage there are some website platforms that offer easy to manage content editing, image gallery editing and some with meta data editing. Some of these websites do a fair job of directing your optimization efforts but they still require time, effort and some SEO knowledge to manage properly.
There is no doubt that some companies benefit greatly from having tools that make optimization easier for their business to self-manage their SEO plan, but there is also truth in the words of Steve Jobs…
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do, we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
Stick to what you know best and let experts do the rest.
E-commerce
If you need to upgrade an e-commerce website it would be best to find a professional for advice. Getting the right mix of functionality and features can benefit your company for years to come. The wrong platform can be ineffective and costly to manage and it could also mean changing platforms which can be costly.
Some e-commerce features: virtual product sales, products for lease, special discount offers, optional items, suggested accessories, different finishes, different sizes, quantity discounts, various shipping methods, require items display in a certain way, user reports, abandoned shopping carts report, integration with accounting or CRM tools, Live Chat, ticketing systems, built in CRM, open source code, etc.
One final note
Be aware that many website platforms draw you in with their low initial price. Generally, those companies make their money later as your company grows, and you are required to pay more for additional resources, features or maintenance. When starting a business it may seem like a small issue and worth the cost savings to go with a canned platfrom, but in the long term the cost to your company could be significantly greater in commissions or fees than the the cost to manage an open source platform that you own.
For help choosing the website platform that is right for you business please contact us
