It’s sometimes hard to admit to yourself that your company’s website is looking outdated, especially when you remember how much meeting time, hard work and money got put into it when it got initially built or during the last update (which was probably a few years ago). It’s like with anything else: your car, your clothes, your TV… times passes over all things and at some point the way they look it starts hurting your image and credibility as a person and as a businessman.
How will you make sure you’re getting your money’s worth? Technology has taken over most industries and nowadays it is of the utmost importance that your website has several tools in place to stay relevant – and ultimately make sure it’s making you money.
Below is the shortlist of these items. And yes, we can help with all of these at QTHC Global:
(click on each ‘+’ to read on)
Search Engine Optimization
You need to know that search engines love fresh content. Every time you make an update to your site, Google and other search engines crawl and index your pages, thus your site ranking gets recalculated. If you keep your content updated and GOOD QUALITY, you increase your chances of getting noticed. Pair that with a brand new, fresh-looking website, and you’re guaranteed more attention, social shares and inquiries.
Do you have a blog? You should, as it’s a powerful marketing tool to drive more traffic and users your way, through keywords, internal links and back links. We can help you set this up and make sure the right keywords are in place.
To be honest, new or old, any website can be hacked. The experience is stressful and painful, especially when you lose information (client’s information), and/or have to build everything from scratch. However, older websites rely on older technology, with better-known exploits or loopholes, therefore chances of a security breach are much higher.
We keep all our websites on a secure, properly-serviced host, with a dedicated firewall and SSL protocols that greatly aid in keeping the hackers away.
Does it take your website a long time to load? As a general rule, you should aim for a loading time of under 5 seconds. If you’re not sure how quickly your site loads, use tools like Pingdom or GTmetrix to check how long it takes for your site to load, and which files are the troublemakers.
Poor results could mean you have some work to do. Slow loading speed could be caused by a number of reasons: heavy unoptimized images, underpowered hosting and even an old, poorly performing template.
A slow-loading website will send discourage about 37% of your visitors from staying and reading whatever carefully-selected information you put in it.
I hate to break it to you, but roughly about 67% of web searches nowadays happen over mobile devices (in the US). Hopefully, this is not the case, but if you still don’t have a mobile-friendly website – you need to fix that NOW. You can be sure that your users are going to view your site on a mobile device at some point or another.
Even if you do have a responsive or adaptive design, you still need to keep up with the latest trends. Newer themes include modern css code which allows your site to adapt nicely to any device. They also allow you to hide certain page blocks for mobile, for a faster loading speed and nicer user experience.
Don’t believe me? Go ahead right now and check your site’s stats. You can do that via Google Analytics of Google Webmaster Tools.
Mobile is important and it won’t go away in the next years. Don’t leave money on the table with a poorly performing mobile site, it’s one of those crucial business aspects that you can’t ignore.
You can be sure that at QTHC Global we build all of our websites responsive to different screen sizes and look fantastic on mobile right out of the box. You’ll be surprised how many possibilities have come to life since your last website revamp.
Does everyone’s website look the same in your industry? Be memorable, stand out and stay ahead of the competition. A new fresh look for your website can help with creating a lasting impression. Nothing shouts “successful, trendy business” more than a well-polished site with fresh content.
Make sure to stay ahead of the game this year, and give your clients & fans a reason to talk about your site & new galleries. It’s a great way to bringing new eyes to your site that could convert into clients for 2019-2020 seasons.
This one should be straightforward. Your website promotes you 24/7 in the online world. If you’ve re-branded recently, if your photography style and aesthetics have changed and evolved throughout the past seasons – your website should reflect and advocate that change.
Otherwise, you may be attracting the wrong type of clients, that are after your old type of work.
Do you need “Call To Actions?” Of course you do. The days where people would take the time to browse through your website long enough for them to find what they’re looking for are GONE. You need to put it right in front of them – fast – or they’ll go look for it elsewhere (and never return). It sounds dramatic, but that’s how it is.
And it’s not just a button or link added here and there. It has to be placed strategically, to keep your user’s interest and offer them to see more content on your site. The idea is to guide your site visitors through your content to specific actions for them to take, like filling out a contact form or downloading a presentation.
The point of this article was not to convince you to update your website just for the sake of change. We understand that time is money and money comes from sales. So that’s what we do: we help you get more sales.
While a website redesign is an important and demanding process, which requires some time and effort – think about the reason you got a website in the first place: it exists to promote your work, get new customer leads, generate awareness of you as a brand and creative personality, and ultimately, get them excited to do business with you.
We put a lot of time and thought into each of our designs, to create good-looking, well-performing designs that are worthy of your work and vision – our ultimate goal is for your business to thrive. And we are here to help and guide you through the process.
to schedule a free, 20-minute Website consultation
