Warning Signs That Your Website is Outdated

How many times have you been surfing the internet only to discover a website that looks like something a kindergartener created or that is so slow you have to exit before you throw your computer in frustration? Whilst some of the warning signs are as clear as the nose on your face, others are a little more subtle and difficult to spot – even when you’ve employed custom website design. Knowing what to look out for will help to ensure that your website continues to thrive in the present instead of becoming a thing of the past.

It isn’t HTTPS enabled

As of July 2018, Google Chrome began marking any website that doesn’t have HTTPS enabled as ‘not secure’. Not only does this mean that your site is considered outdated, it can have a significant negative impact on your organic search rankings.

To rectify this issue, we recommend contacting your domain host and asking them what steps are involved to install HTTPS on your website. It will involve purchasing a Secure SSL Certificate, which you can usually arrange directly through your host.

Its social media icons are outdated

Review the social media icons that you have listed (you can usually find them in the top menu, a corner or the footer). It’s never a good sign if you’re linking to social media platforms that don’t exist anymore (Google+ being a prime example).

Double-check your icons and delete any that are no longer around or that aren’t all that popular anymore. Ensure that all your URLs are correct and add any new platforms that you’re active on (such as Tiktok).

It doesn’t have any social media icons at all

The only thing that is worse than outdated social media icons is not having any at all. The modern online experience dictates that your audience expects you to be where they are already are – in many cases, this means social media of some kind.

Not having a social media presence limits your brand exposure and can even exclude your audience. Create accounts on all the popular platforms and link to them on your website – then contact a web design company in Melbourne to help you make it look awesome!

It uses old technology

One of the most obvious giveaways that your website is outdated is that you’re still using old technology like Flash. Did you know that Google Search has stopped supporting Flash completely? It was a fun technology, but the internet has moved on – you need to as well.

In some cases, you may be able to just remove the Flash elements and move on. In others, you may need to contact a web design agency for a complete redesign. The worst thing you can do, however, is leaving those elements in play.

It loads really slowly

These days, the main culprit for a low-loading website is an unstable internet connection, as Google penalizes websites with slow load speeds and they don’t tend to appear anywhere near the top of the search results.

Check out Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool to see how fast your site is, plus it will provide some feedback on what could be slowing it down. Actually implementing the changes needed to speed up your custom website design will require professional assistance.

It doesn’t have new or updated content

When users visit your blog section and see that the last post was months ago, they are often quick to move on. Whilst this doesn’t mean that all of your content is outdated and worthless, it doesn’t send the right message to your audience (or search engines).

We strongly recommend keeping your blog fresh, up-to-date, relevant, quality content, and chock full of valuable information. Show your audience that you know what you’re talking about. If you don’t have the time, employ a marketing service to do it for you.

The main page lacks CTAs

These days, people have short attention spans – they want to see their options immediately. When users land on your homepage, they want to see what you’re about and what you have on offer. Failing to have Called to Action to your money-making pages is a big no-no.

Add one (although several is ideal) clear CTAs to your homepage during custom website design, above the fold so that they’re visible straight away. Use phrases like ‘Apply Now, ‘Contact Us’ and ‘More Information’ to help people get to where they want to go quickly.

It has 404 errors

If users are getting 404 error messages, it means that they’re landing on pages that either never did or no longer exist. This makes for a bad user experience, so such errors should be hunted down and deleted quickly.

The good news is that Google actually provides direct feedback when they encounter 404 errors. Double-check the error report and then redirect any URLs to the most relevant one that is currently live on your website.

It features keyword stuffing

This is what it’s called when you use the same keyword too many times. It makes sentences look unnatural and is a very old SEO practice that now actually goes against Google’s guidelines and could actually get you penalized.

Analyze your content to determine whether it’s over-optimised for certain keywords. Then rewrite it so that it sounds more natural. A good way of checking this is to read it aloud. A professional web design agency in Melbourne can also be a big help for this problem.

It has lots of footer links and spammy footer content

Another outdated SEO practice that no longer works, this is not something website owners tend to do themselves (unless they’ve been reading up on ways to get their site to rank well fast). In most cases, a digital agency will have implemented it sometime in the past.

Review your footer to ensure that it only contains essential information (such as links to your contact page, copyright statement, privacy policy, terms of use, etc). You could also link to some more important pages, just don’t link to every page you’ve ever created. If any of the above warning signs apply to your website, it may be time to consider a full redesign because there are likely more issues that you haven’t discovered. Fortunately, Zeemo is a full-service web design agency in Melbourne that can provide custom solutions that improve your site’s performance as well as make your brand stand out from your competitors. We are all about keeping our clients’ websites as up-to-date as possible – be sure to contact our friendly team for an obligation-free quote today.

Seo Websites