Certain features can recognize an outdated website. Pay attention to the first “bells” – the conversion has become lower, the positions in the issue reduce, visitors become less. This is a consequence. The reason is that the website is outdated. We tell, on what symptoms it is possible to understand, how to reveal the first signs initially and take measures in time.
Areas in which the website may become obsolete
The website can become obsolete or in one particular aspect, or all at once. On average, all signs of aging can combine into three major groups: design, functionality, and content. Let’s take a closer look at each of them: determine how to understand that the website is outdated and what to do in this case.
Outdated website design
Design affects user behavior. Attractive design can inspire confidence. If the website looks outdated, there is a feeling of neglect. As if the resource is not engaged, not cared for. So, business is terrible, or the owner does not care about buyers. The visitor perceives it subconsciously. His actions are pretty predictable: a person decides to go where he is valued and respected.
Diagnosis
The main features of the outdated design:
- Flash content.
- Realism in the spirit of zero years.
- Colored, too original fonts.
- A large number of special effects – shadows, reflections.
- Background patterns, textures, details.
- Terry classic flat design.
- The company’s corporate identity did not take into account.
Prevention
The design can still consider relevant if the website uses:
- Simple typography.
- Elements of flat design (blocks, buttons, etc.).
- Color scheme built based on bright triads.
- Shadows that reproduce the impression of layering.
- What to do if the design of the website is outdated
In the cases described in “Diagnostics”, the resource urgently needs a redesign! If his condition is still relevant, it is necessary to monitor trends and, at the same time, competitors. Suddenly, they began to apply more cost-effective solutions.
Outdated website functionality
There are also several aspects of functionality that may lose their relevance.
Inconvenient structure for users
Each website during the work fill with content, sections, goods, services. The company’s activity is not static – employees come and go, the business opens new directions, organizes branches, restructures the internal system of subordination. Changes are reflected in the structure of the website. At the time of creating the resource, it probably seemed to you slender, logical, optimal. Assess the current situation impartially: is it so now?
How to check
Make a small checklist and walk through it:
- The structure reflects the company’s activities;
- It meets the goals of the resource;
- It is convenient for visitors to be on the website;
- It is easy to find the necessary information;
- It is clear how the sections arrange.
A complex, clumsy structure is the right way to lose customers. To perform the simplest audit, you can ask disinterested employees close to the website and see if it is convenient and clear to use.
What shall I do
If the website is so outdated that navigation, information retrieval, section navigation is complex, the situation needs to change. When the problem is minor, you can simply help users by searching, updating the website map, arranging bread crumbs, removing old sections and redundant content.
When this is not enough, professionals should be involved.
Thoughtful URLs
This shortcoming is indirectly related to errors in the structure. One of the laws of modern SEO, which has become a classic, is the formation of page addresses on the principle of CNC. You can still find resources where this postulate not follows. The URLs are not spelled out well without compliance with the structure and semantic core of the website.
The disadvantage negatively affects the evaluation of the resource by search algorithms. But users also notice it: a specific address helps navigation, an incomprehensible one causes surprise and doubts about the security of the resource.
Need for speed: The website lacks speed
Slow loading scares off half (if not more) of visitors. It increases the bounce rate, causes a decrease in conversion, loss of positions in the search results.
The resource is not adaptive
We have repeatedly talked about how important it is for each resource to be adaptive. If this not do yet, you lose half the audience if the website poorly adapts to mobile devices. And you lose in the eyes of search engines – in the TOP, without it can not breakthrough.
It is not necessary to perform adaptability for a tick. The layout should be such that visitors feel comfortable while on the website. In this case, both the pictures and the text should be visible, clear. You need to take care of the buttons, the submission of links, pressing should be comfortable.
How to diagnose
The easiest way is to scroll through the page, evaluate the website from different devices. Ideally, reducing the size of all the elements should be rebuilt under it and displayed correctly, without losing attractiveness, maintaining the importance of the content. There are also electronic services that allow you to perform such a check automatically.
Outdated content on the website
It is a massive mistake if the resource’s content does not correspond to the current reality, the actual state of affairs in the company.
What this may apply to:
- Contact information has changed: address, telephone numbers, email, social media pages, but in the “Contacts” section, you have not updated this information. Such information should always be available, and, of course, it is vital to keep it up to date. If the user tries to call on a non-existent phone, he will stop trying to communicate further.
- Suppose you have stopped developing any line of business. Filling on services, the prices, experts are outdated. Remove information about it.
- Old articles. It happens that the certificate or instruction “hangs” on the resource for several years. Managers continue to refer to it during negotiations, as usual, send it along with the proposal. At the same time, if the data there is irrelevant, even in part, the client may have doubts about the competence and professionalism of the company’s employees. Therefore, you should regularly check and, if necessary, update the content.
- Common stock photos. Some photos have been repeatedly “highlighted” on various resources. Imagine the opinion of a visitor if he first reads the description of any unique product, technology, views the presentation of an author’s solution, and suddenly realizes that these original pieces are accompanied by free photo content that can obtain from anyone.
- Other people’s videos from YouTube. Previously, it takes for granted that downloading a video posted in the public domain and using it at your discretion is normal. Now that everyday gadgets, conventional smartphones allow you to make high-quality videos, such borrowings look repulsive.
- What to do if the website has outdated content
When you find that content is no longer relevant, don’t wait for the right moment to correct the situation. This problem needs to address immediately: you may be losing a customer right now due to outdated information.
So:
- Update contacts, descriptions of your company’s services.
- Allocate time and resources for regular content audits.
- Update content.
- Create and publish a new one.
- Delete old, unneeded posts if you can’t or don’t improve them.
- Order professional, high-quality videos and photos for your resource.
What to do if the website is outdated
Act! You can not sit idly by. This problem will not resolve itself. It is necessary to reveal weak points, painful points. You can do it yourself when the shortcomings are apparent. A professional audit will help in complex or controversial situations. Competent fats will not say in words – everything is terrible, design and content are outdated, the resource must completely rework. They will provide detailed test results with detailed descriptions of identified problems and recommendations for their elimination.
What will happen if we do not react in time and do not take action? As in medicine: the disease will progress, and the condition will worsen. The bounce rate will increase, visitors will start leaving the website more often and faster. Then the conversion will decrease: buying, calling, and ordering will be less frequent. The obsolete website will lose the positions typed in search results quickly enough. When that happens, you can’t do it without redesigning or solving one specific problem.
A set of difficulties can cope with drastic measures – a complete redesign of the website with its subsequent promotion from scratch. It takes a lot of time and investment. Therefore, update the resource on time!