Do's and Don’ts of Updating your Website

When a customer walks into a store for the first time, they immediately form an impression of the business. This impression is based on several factors, including the atmosphere, the products sold, and even how staff members greet them.

Think of your website as the digital storefront for your business. When visitors enter your site, they use the information in front of them to form an opinion of your company. Whether your industry is or what types of products or services you sell, your website can make or break your success. That’s why it’s imperative to maintain an attractive, up-to-date website.

However, it isn’t enough to simply put together a successful website. If you want your site to maintain a solid online presence, you need to have a plan for updating it regularly. Here’s what you need to know about giving your business’s website a makeover.

Why Is Updating Your Website Important?

Keeping your website up to date is essential to your digital marketing strategy. By upgrading your site regularly, you can increase traffic and grow your customer base. Search engines reward websites with recent content by boosting their ranking. If you fail to renew your site with fresh content, you may risk losing customers to competitors who regularly upgrade their websites.

There are security benefits to updating your website as well. Older websites often rely on outdated technology that leaves businesses vulnerable to cyberattacks. When you give your website an upgrade, you also have the opportunity to arm it with newer security software that helps guard against hackers.

Additionally, you want your customers to have access to helpful information about your business. Redesigning your website gives you the chance to remove any outdated content and replace it with information that’s more helpful to your customers. This helps ensure that your website visitors get the most out of their time on your site.

The Do’s of Upgrading Your Website

1. Do make the design easy to navigate

Your customers have a goal in mind when they visit your website, and it’s your job to make it as easy as possible for them to achieve that goal. Your visitors should have no trouble understanding and using your site’s navigation features.

When you facilitate your customers’ experience on your site, they’ll be likely to spend more time browsing your products and even making purchases. If they are unable to find what they need or are forced to wait endlessly for a page to load, there’s a good chance they’ll lose patience and head over to a competitor’s website instead.

2. Do keep your interface consistent

A consistent user interface is vital to improving communication with your customers. By creating a clear, cohesive structure, you can minimize confusion and ensure that customers find the information they need without any obstacles.

Embracing consistency also enables you to highlight the most critical areas of your website. Whether you want users to focus on the big promotion you’re featuring on your homepage or the new services you’re offering; you can hone in on these features by implementing a cohesive website design. This allows you to direct users’ attention to crucial information regarding your business.

3. Do add calls to action on every page

Calls to action (CTAs) are one of the most potent tools that digital marketers have. To properly use this tool, it’s essential to include plenty of CTAs throughout your website. A different CTA on every page keeps customers continuously engaged with your content, no matter where they end up on your site.

To craft a successful call to action, focus on fulfilling a specific user need. You should help customers understand what they’ll gain by taking action and what they’ll lose if they don’t. Ideally, your visitors won’t be able to leave your website without learning what they’re missing out on.

4. Do make sure your site is mobile-friendly

With mobile devices taking up such a large portion of website traffic, it’s more important than ever for companies to ensure that their websites are mobile-friendly. If customers end up waiting endlessly for your page to load or run into numerous glitches, they may choose your competitor’s website over yours.

To make sure your site runs smoothly on mobile devices, remember to schedule mobile testing regularly. This is the most effective way to identify any issues with your mobile site performance and address them promptly.

5. Do optimize your website

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a necessary skill for any web designer. If you want your website to earn a coveted spot on the first page of Google’s search results, it’s crucial to use SEO best practices when updating your site.

There are various tactics that you can use as you work on improving your SEO strategy. From incorporating the right keywords to obtaining enough internal links, each step you take makes a meaningful difference in the overall SEO value of your website. With enough patience and strategizing, Google will eventually reward you for optimizing your site for its results.

The Dont’s of Upgrading Your Website

1. Don’t open internal links in a new tab

When customers land on your website, you want them to stick around for as long as possible. To do this, avoid setting up your internal links so that they open in a new tab. Not only is this inconvenient for the user, but it also prevents them from understanding the way your website’s navigation works. 

Instead of opening your internal links in a new tab, have the user stay on your website when they click on an internal link. By giving them the autonomy to go back or forward as they wish, you allow them to play a more active role in the navigation of your website.

2. Don’t use multiple typefaces

Cramming too many fonts into your site tends to create a cluttered appearance. In some cases, it may come across as sloppy and unprofessional, which can cause customers to form a negative opinion of your business as a whole. It’s also worth noting that an excess of typefaces may interfere with your layout and cause your entire website to look poorly put together.

Instead, focus on using no more than three typefaces throughout your entire site. Making use of only a few fonts helps create a smoother, more cohesive look. It also prevents users from experiencing confusion as they navigate your site.

3. Don’t use too many colors 

Just like too many typefaces can overwhelm your audience, using too many colors often takes away from the central message of your site. This is because people end up focusing on the different colors you’ve chosen rather than the core content of your website. 

To prevent this from happening, carefully select a color scheme that represents the overall vibe of your website. With this strategy, you can enrich the atmosphere of your site and help customers get a feel for the type of business you run.

4. Don’t use generic stock photos 

When used tastefully, stock photos can help to boost the aesthetic value of your website. However, if you pluck generic images from a stock photo gallery, you’ll give your site an impersonal feel. Some customers may even view your image choices as cheesy or unrelatable, which can cause them to lose interest in your business.

Stock photos can go a long way when you choose them with care. Ask yourself what message you want to convey and search for an image that embodies that message. This will help create the right kind of vibe for each section of your website.

5. Don’t sacrifice usability for the sake of beauty

It’s essential to ensure that your website is aesthetically appealing and that its visuals leave a strong impression on viewers. At the same time, you don’t want to sacrifice usability for the sake of beauty. Forgoing user-friendliness altogether will only leave your customers confused and frustrated.

As you upgrade your website, don’t forget to ensure that each part is optimized for the user experience. Every page on your site should have a clear purpose and encourage the user to take a specific action. This plays a crucial role in boosting site traffic and increasing the total amount of time that customers spend on your website.

6. Don’t show pop-ups too early 

If you choose to add pop-ups to your website, proceed with caution. While these features can effectively get customers to engage further with your website, they may appear annoying or intrusive if they aren’t used properly.

The most important precaution to take is to avoid showing pop-ups too early on. If you bombard a customer with unwanted messages before they’ve even had the chance to browse your site, they probably won’t stick around for long. There’s nothing wrong with including pop-up messages on your website, but be smart about where you place them and how long it takes for them to appear.

Create a More Successful Website for Your Business

Updating your website successfully may seem like a huge undertaking, but it can be achieved by following the proper methods and strategies. Breaking up the process into small, manageable steps can help make it seem more doable. Remember to keep each of these tips in mind as you go along to ensure that you have all the tools you need to update your website like a pro.

If you’re having trouble giving your website a much-needed makeover, help is available. Propr Design, we help our clients define, refine, polish, and develop clear and concise brand strategies that blur the line between business systems and improve culture, recruiting, employee engagement, marketing, advertising, business development, and sales. We work with consumer brands, B2B, and B2C businesses to help transform their business assets like messaging and website into powerful tools of differentiation, engagement, and sustainable success.

If you’re ready to find professional assistance, you need to build a more robust website; contact us today to learn more about the services we offer.