Imagine this. You are hungry and craving a simple yet extraordinary chocolate-iced spice cupcake at your favorite local bakery, Heinrichs. Their doorbell rings as you walk in, your head held high, knowing you are about to ascend to heaven with the first bite.
But that high head descends into slumped-over shoulders, a slowing gate, and a sadness that turns your face into a crinkled, over-ripe peach, knowing that it has never reached its life’s purpose.
Heinrich’s shelves were bare, with only a few stale, once delectable delights. Yesterday’s fair was being served today. The chocolate icing on the soul-remaining spice cake had a few dry cracks, and a slightly greyish hue, the same color that year-old Halloween candy has.
Does your website resemble Heinrich’s day-old sweets or year-old Halloween candy? When visitors arrive, do they quickly retreat? If so, let’s have a chat. You can fix this problem.
First, let’s address possible key indicators that your website is like Heinrich’s Bakery shelves.
How do you know your website is stale?
1 – Website Design and Technology – What once was state-of-the-art is now antiquated.
- Your design is outdated, and it shows. More modern features will delight your visitors and keep them on your site longer and visiting more often.
- Poor responsiveness on mobile devices encourages visitors to move on.
- Slow loading times force visitors to waste time or, more likely, prompt them to move quickly to your competitors’ websites.
- You don’t have direct access to your site and have stopped sending new posts to your designer.
- Your branding hasn’t kept up with the times.
- If your site is built on old technology or hasn’t been updated in years, it may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
- Your website was designed using search-engine algorithms that no longer apply. Search engines no longer find your message, content, or business.
2 – Business-related Reasons
- Your target audience has evolved, and the new demographics are not being captured.
- You have new products or services not mentioned on your website.
- You have rebranded or have a new position in the marketplace.
- You have expanded into different geographic regions.
- You have experienced a merger or acquisition.
3 – Your content is lacking – a lot
- Your content is no longer accurate or current.
- You don’t have a habit of posting new content.
- Your content is not search engine optimized, resulting in a low visitor count and a high bounce rate, which means zero conversions.
- Your content is poorly written, not interesting, or, importantly, not helpful to the visitor’s search intentions.
- Your UX (user experience) is lacking. It would be best to have easier-to-read content, clean designs, helpful information, quality photos, exciting graphics, other visuals, testimonials, pertinent statistics and quotes, fewer words, and an FAQ page.
- You have no internal links or backlinks.
- You have one contact page and no calls to action elsewhere.
Seven steps to take when your website is not up to par
1 – Assess your website’s performance.
If you need help, your web designer can provide the data.
If you need more help, a copywriter can prepare a site audit for a fee. (If retained to draft the new content, a copywriter will likely give you credit for the audit fee.)
The copywriter may determine that the problems with the site can be corrected more cost-efficiently than starting from scratch on a new one.
2 – What do you want from your new website?
List each goal, such as the following:
- increase new visitor traffic by 5%
- increase conversions by 2%
- post new helpful content at least twice a month and post on social media with a link to your website
- send helpful new posts to your email list with a link back to your website
- increase engagement
- in the FAQs by 2%
- from the Contact page by 2%
- by providing contests, quizzes, or puzzles and posting the results as new content
3 – Plan your new site map and content.
A qualified copywriter will come in handy here.
4 – What is your budget for this project?
Include the hosting, design, ongoing designer fees, and copywriter fees with input from your designer and copywriter.
5 – Choose the right platform, plugins, etc.
Rely on your web designer for help here.
6 – Review when complete.
Make corrections and revisions and have a test launch.
7 – Launch and get the word out!
And monitor performance monthly.
What are the benefits of your redesigned and rewritten website?
- Improved user experience, leading to increased engagement
- Improved search engine rankings that increase visits to your website without advertising costs
- Increased response to your calls-to-action and increased sales
- Enhanced brand image and credibility in the market
- Easier content management with regular updates, which helps sustain your increased traffic
- Improved security and performance, which helps increase visitors and the length of time they remain on your site.
Just as a solid and consistent inventory management process would improve the shelves in Heinrich’s Bakery, a redesigned and rewritten website can make your website more beneficial to each visitor. The trickle-down effect for the bakery is improved customer satisfaction with enthusiastic word-of-mouth marketing and children pulling mom or dad down the block rushing to Heinrich’s front door.
The trickle-down effect for you is more traffic from visitors seeking your content, services, or products, increased recognition in the marketplace, a stronger competitive edge, and, importantly, increased revenue.
