Why Stale Websites Won’t Bring in New Business

In today’s digital marketplace, your website can significantly impact your ability to make sales. While a good site can increase your visibility and engagement with potential customers; a bad site will scare off business or – even worse – not be seen at all.

When it comes to a business’s website, one of the biggest turn-offs for a potential customer is it being out of date. Whether it’s a complicated design, incorrect information, or lack of new content; having an outdated website will reflect badly on your business, and your products and services.

Here are just a few of the ways a stale website can hurt your business.

1.Outdated websites undermine your credibility

As one of your main communication and marketing channels, your website is the first experience many potential customers will have of your business – and first impressions last.

An outdated website can give the impression that you don’t care about your business, or how it is seen. By extension, it can also make customers question the quality of your products and services.

Furthermore, a lack of activity on your website (e.g. new content, etc.) can make it appear like you do not keep up with the latest developments in your industry. Even worse, it can make some customers assume that you are no longer in business.

2.Outdated websites are harder to find

Search engines are designed to give the best possible results every time. As such, they are constantly tweaking their algorithms to make sure the most accurate, current, highest quality information tops their search results.

Not updating your website will make search engines think your content is out of date, pushing it down the rankings. This will make it harder for potential customers to find your site, reducing the number of people visiting it, which will push it even further down the list of search results.

3.Outdated websites make your competitors look better by comparison

It has never been easier for customers to research their purchases and compare their options. With most businesses online, it’s safe to assume that, if a customer visits your site, they are likely to also visit at least one of your competitor’s sites.

If your competitor has invested the time and energy in keeping their site up to date, they will seem more worthy of business.

Easy ways to keep your site fresh

Maintaining a website is an ongoing job that can take significant time. To help with this, it’s best to keep your site’s design simple and have stable core content that doesn’t need to be updated. You can then focus on ways to supplement your core content regularly, like by having:

• A news section where you publish updates on your products and services, major projects you’ve delivered, industry news, etc.
  
• A blog, where you share information and opinions on your products and services, and developments in your industry.

• A customer forum, where you interact with your customers, answering their questions and posting case studies and feedback.

If developing content isn’t your strength, you may want to consider engaging a freelance writer. In fact, if you are unable to commit to regularly reviews and updates, it could be worth outsourcing overall management of your site.