Is Your Site Up-to-Date?
Is your site up-to-date? You spent a lot of money having it built. And it looked beautiful. It had all the appropriate information. Your site had great images. As far as websites go, it looked amazing!
But that was four years ago. Or two. Or ten.
How long ago doesn’t really matter. If you haven’t touched your website in awhile, the truth is, it probably needs some attention.
Now I know you’re thinking “then why did I spend all that money on it?” But just like the car you also spent a lot of money on, a website needs to be cared for and maintained.
Many business owners put their best foot forward personally – but let their website remain a remnant of design-gone-by.
So, how do you know if your site is up to date? Here are 4 things to check today.
- Your information isn’t current. Is your phone number correct? Street address? Email address? Logo? Social media links? If not, you may be losing customers who can’t connect with you or find you. Consistent branding (like an updated logo, brand colors, and the same tagline everywhere) is also important. Update all of your information in all the places it appears.
- Your site isn’t accessible. Web accessibility is important. Internet users include deaf and hard of hearing people, blind and visually impaired people, those with dexterity issues, people with information processing disorders, and more. If you have text embedded in images, that can’t be read by a screen reader. All of your site’s images should have alt-text for screen readers to read. Your site’s colors should make it easy for those with vision issues to be able to read text (think about contrast and text color). Tabbing through each page should work in order. Links should open in the same tab (and be easily identifiable as links). Not only will anyone in the ADA arena be better able to use your site, but search engines will reward you with higher rankings for SEO (search engine optimization). Accessibility matters.
- Video or audio auto-plays as soon as someone lands on your site. This can create a terrible user experience. Imagine your visitor accessing your site from a library, cubicle, or late at night while their significant other is sound asleep. Sound erupting from their laptop can be embarrassing and/or startling to the user and those around them.
- Your copyright date is out-of-date. This is a sure sign of a neglected website. If you don’t update the copyright, visitors will assume that all of the content is out-of-date, too.
Get Your Site Up-to-Date
If any of these apply to your site, it’s time for an update! Contact your web designer/developer to get changes made to bring you up-to-date. Or if you need to, find a new designer to either update your site, or redesign it to meet your site visitors’ needs.
Refreshing your site can make all the difference. Then when someone asks “Is your site up to date?” You can say “Yes!”
Questions? Email us at marketing@sentree.io.
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