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Nothing is forever; with time all things wear out, need repaired, modified, updated or just plain scrapped. Few of us would expect our vehicle to run day after day without needing an occasional tune-up, service, detailing or eventually replaced with a newer model. However, many small to mid-sized companies fail to realize that their website is just like the family wagon. Once completed and sent down the online road, a website is not forever. It needs to be updated on a regular basis, fine-tuned to maintain its optimal speed and routinely customized to reflect the latest promotions and deals.
Contact forms need to reflect the latest information. Broken links and outdated photos need removed or replaced, and perhaps most importantly, the data needs to be backed-up to ensure vital information is not lost forever. A website should be updated monthly with new themes, checked for the most recent Plugins and the latest version. After all, a website is the face of a business to tens of thousands or millions of consumers who are searching the web to connect with a needed solution.
Studies have found that consumers can be very impatient when shopping online. Forty percent of customers will leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. For every 1 second of load time, conversion drops by 7% and user satisfaction diminishes by 16%. Once upon a time patience was seen as a virtue; today everything has to happen now!
Content is easy to modify in most website platforms. Outdated content projects a lack of concern for a web users’ time and effort. Post-holiday and time-sensitive events should be removed and new content imputed to reflect upcoming holidays, events and promotions. Outdated sales promotions will cause confusion and can be detrimental to customer service when a customer attempts to purchases a special offer, only to find out later that the deal is no longer available. If a New Year’s campaign is still running on Valentine’s Day, you are not paying attention. When was the last time you surfed your website?
Safeguarding a website from security threats and hackers requires the installation of reliable Plugins that can protect your website from malware or viruses. Delete outdated default usernames and create a new admin account with a unique username. Develop a system of strong passwords which utilize a combination of capital and small letters, numbers and special characters. Limit the number of associates that are authorized to access a system’s back-end, where proprietary data and controls are stored. If the process of performing even the simplest of security fundamentals escapes in-house expertise, secure the services of an experienced expert to make sure necessary and comprehensive security measures are performed on a regular basis. The cost, when compared to letting the bad actors cripple your business and steal your customers’ data, is well worth the investment.
Serious online marketers blog, and blog regularly. A recent study of small to medium sized businesses revealed that those that blogged regularly received 55% more visitors and 97% had more inbound links than those that failed to actively blog. Consumers are interested in what you have to say about your product and the market. Failing to keep an active blog effort could send your customers to a competitor. If time needed to construct an active blog schedule is outside of your organization’s capability, seek out a qualified and experienced content marketing professional to develop and initiate an effective content marketing strategy.
Experiential design, thoughtful layouts, quality user experience and SEO site maps are just a few ingredients for a successful website that will engage and retain your users. “At Junction Creative Solutions (Junction) we create websites that tell a story, move a user through the path of engagement, and ultimately mobilize a user to take an action. Whether you’re looking for a comprehensive website marketing strategy, a website update or a complete redesign, Junction is the right partner to assist you,” says Julie Gareleck, Founder and CEO of Junction. “Our experienced team can offer many options to improve the speed and performance of an ailing website.”
To learn how Junction Creative Solutions’ (Junction) team can implement performance enhancements to your website, call 678-686-1125.