If your company website is out of date, it may be damaging your business in a number of important ways. In fact, your old-style site may actually be doing serious harm to your otherwise good business reputation. It may also be directing your clients and potential customers to your top competitors’ websites. Remember, your website represents your company and strongly affects your e-commerce credibility.
Many of your site visitors will form an initial impression of your domain and your brand within the first small fraction of a second that they spend on your site. This minimal amount of time is all it takes for them to decide to stay and view your web pages or leave for another site offering similar products and services.
Ways in Which Your Outdated Website Can Harm Your Business Today
If your current company website is out of touch with updated web design and lacks fresh, contemporary content and relevance, this can harm your business in the following ways:
1. Site Visitors May Assume You Are Indifferent or Closing Down Business.
When your company website shows signs of neglect, displaying outdated content, design and features, your web visitors may easily get the impression that you are a non-caring business owner. They may think that you are indifferent to the way your company and brand are represented online. This will make them uneasy about spending time on your site and reviewing your brand’s products and services. These potential customers may also assume that you are going out of business.
2. Your Company’s Visibility and Credibility Are Downgraded.
Without a high-quality business website, your company’s visibility will be diminished on the web. Your site will not return good search results, and your web traffic volumes will most likely decrease steadily. If you check your domain’s usability metrics, you will see that web users who visit your site are spending only a small amount of time viewing your pages.
Your visitors may quickly form a negative opinion of your site pages, products and services, exiting your domain for other more attractive sites. Your company’s online credibility will decrease significantly within a short time period.
3. Google Rankings for Your Domain Are Plummeting.
Soon, you will realize that your company site’s Google rankings are headed for a low point. Your site will no longer receive good returns for SERPs. Since Google aims to provide web searchers with listings of optimal quality domains for every search, your website will not rank high enough to be included. Google uses more than 200 ranking factors to determine which websites appear in search results.
Only sites that have current content, designs and features will be rewarded with top rankings. Older site designs will lose both rankings and web traffic volumes, which will result in negative effects on conversion rates and profits. Sites that do not qualify as mobile-friendly will also receive lower rankings.
4. You Are Aiding the Success of Your Competitors.
Each time a visitor to your company site leaves to visit a competing domain, you are letting your outdated website and inferior web presentation contribute to the success of your e-commerce competition. When these visitors view your old site design with a previous year’s presentation of your brand, they cannot put their trust in your business and its products and services.
By visiting and examining the domains of your business competitors who are successful, you can determine how far behind your website is lagging in content and design. When you realize that the updated sites of other companies in your industry offer current, concise and compelling content in an easily navigated format, you will understand why your rivals are winning out over your company in terms of successful e-commerce.
You will see for yourself the great importance and value of having a top-quality business website with state-of-the-art design, content and commercial appeal.
