An Outdated Website Can Hurt Your Brand
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, your website serves as the window to your brand’s world. It’s the best place for potential customers to learn about your business, products, and services.
A well-maintained website can enhance your brand’s credibility and visibility online, and make it easier for your visitors to find what they are looking for.
On the other hand, an outdated website can negatively affect your brand, frustrate your customers, and ultimately lead to less revenue for your business.
In this blog post, we’ll look at five ways an outdated website can harm your brand’s reputation (and what you can do about it).
Table of Contents
- Poor user experience
- Inaccurate information
- Technical Performance
- Negative SEO
- Accessibility
Do you know somebody who needs help with their website or a website update? Let us know, maybe we can help.
Here are 5 ways having an outdated website can hurt your brand
Poor User Experience
User experience (UX) is what makes you choose an iPhone over an Android (or vice-versa). Good UX is apparent in every device and every app or website we find easy and efficient to use.
Users expect a seamless, intuitive, and visually appealing browsing experience. But things like inconsistent design, intrusive ads, slow-loading pages, and excessive pop-ups can be frustrating and make visitors leave your site quickly. This can lead to a high bounce rate and negatively impact your brand’s reputation.
Having a website that works properly isn’t necessarily going to give you “the edge” over your competition, but it will definitely help you provide a better user experience and eventually get better leads. In other words, a proper, working website isn’t just “nice to have”, it’s the cost of entry to a welcoming online presence.
Tip: Regularly audit your website for broken links, optimize images for faster loading times, and ensure that your design is responsive and user-friendly across all devices.
Inaccurate information
One of the pitfalls of an outdated website (or social media profile) is inaccurate information.
Whether it’s the “old” business hours, a typo in your phone number, or product details that no longer align with the product, inconveniences like these can lead to frustrated customers, lost sales, or even bad reviews.
Make sure your customers can easily find the right information on your website, and spare them from having to burn extra calories figuring out what’s what.
Tip: Make it part of your strategy to regularly update your website content and design to show that your brand is actively engaged and evolving.
Bad Technical Performance
Websites should load quickly. Contact forms should work. And customers shouldn’t be receiving 5xx errors.
Bad technical performance is a telltale sign of an outdated website. Slow loading times, compatibility issues with certain browsers, and frequent errors (e.g., 5xx) are all indicators that your website needs attention.
Ignoring these issues can harm your brand’s reputation, compromise the security of your site, or even lead to lower search engine rankings. Addressing technical performance problems promptly is essential to maintain a positive online presence.
Tip: Website performance starts with good web hosting. Get shared hosting for as low as $3.92/month!
At High Level Marketing, we create websites that help your business look good online.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
While SEO is a potent tool for increasing your brand’s online visibility, an outdated website can be its undoing.
SEO is a valuable method for increasing your brand’s online visibility, but outdated SEO practices can be your website’s undoing. Bad or negligent SEO practices can hinder your website’s ranking, and give your competitors an easy edge.
For example:
- Outdated designs and navigation can be confusing and cause visitors to bounce quickly.
- Older websites often have slower loading times and can result in higher bounce rates and lower search engine rankings.
- Non-mobile responsive websites can suffer in search rankings as Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites.
Tip: Keep up with SEO best practices by regularly auditing your website’s performance, optimizing content for relevant keywords, and staying informed about search engine algorithm updates.
Accessibility
Web accessibility is becoming more of a global focus and accessibility guidelines are here to stay.
An outdated website can significantly affect accessibility in various ways, making it more challenging for people with disabilities to use and navigate your site. Accessibility is critical for ensuring that all users, regardless of their abilities, can access and interact with your website.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are globally recognized standards that define how websites should be designed to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. Outdated websites may not adhere to these standards, making it difficult for people with disabilities to access content.
Tip: Learn more about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at w3.org
Conclusion
First impressions are everything, and there is no reason to leave your website so outdated that your customers are becoming frustrated when using it.
We help businesses in the Greater Edmonton Area with web design and marketing.
Stop stressing poor user experience, inaccurate information, bad SEO, and lack of accessibility standards on your site.
Let’s make your brand more awesome with an up to date website that follows best practices in all the right ways, helping you create a more positive experience for your customers.
Get in touch for help with your website!
We can also help you with Branding, Social Media, or listing your business on Google with a Google Business Profile!
