No matter the size of your business, your company needs a professional website. Some can spend millions creating brochures and distributing them. By having a website you can skip that entirely. Your potential customers can find out about you and any of your products online. If you get most of your business through networking and personal connections, then they will want to check out your website.

However, it’s important to realize that just building a website and leaving it dormant over the years isn’t good enough. It’s just like your car – it must be maintained and tuned up over time, or it risks conking out while you take it for a spin, or simply not starting at all. Websites aren’t fire-and-forget entities, and here are some reasons why:

1. Google

The primary way the majority of your customers will find you is by searching for your product and/or services, so positioning yourself as high as possible in search result ranking is pretty important. The easiest way for your website to « disappear » from Google is by appearing dormant and irrelevant – websites typically have a shelf-life (or « best before date ») of about 3 years. Google loves websites that are alive and timely, since the content there is more likely appealing to the people searching for it. By refreshing your site every couple of years, it keeps you top of mind in the eyes of Google, and consequently your clientele!

2. Shows you still exist

If your website looks like it was built in the 1990’s, people who may happen to land on it will wonder whether or not you are still in business. Your website should be optimized to turn visitors into leads, and with the human attention span being only about 7 seconds, a weak or antiquated design will not be able to convey very much information about what you do and what the site is all about.

3. Shows a willingness to invest in yourself

People are naturally attracted to good looks — it’s a biological and Darwinian form of survival. This applies to website and your corporate image as well. If your company appears to be willing to spend marketing dollars promoting itself and its public-facing collateral, it shows you are serious about what you do. This dedication to public perception will undoubtedly translate to the service you provides to its clients – if you are willing to invest in yourself, I am more likely to believe you will invest in me too.

4. Shows you’re in touch with your clients

Content – often left as the last piece of the puzzle in a web design project – is actually one of the most important elements of your website. Words go a long way in presenting what you do or what you are selling. If your messaging is no longer relevant or behind the curve, people will suspect that you no longer listen to your clients or don’t have anything interesting to offer.

5. Shows you can adapt to trends

Social media has revolutionized marketing in a massive way. It has completely changed the way people shop, refer, and influence. Your new website can be the centrepiece that brings a thorough digital marketing strategy all together. For example, the best way to show that you’re engaged with your audience and in tune with what they want is by embracing social media and integrating it into your website. Create videos to promote yourself or your service, or offer how-to tips & tricks, and then integrate those into your website as well. And don’t forget to blog!

6. You aren’t mobile-friendly or are using outdated technology

Technology changes at a rapid click. Did you know that it’s been 6 years since Apple decided to not support Adobe Flash on its company’s iOS hardware products? For those of you who are still using Flash on your websites, that content simply won’t load on any Apple device. I’ve still come across entire websites built with Flash, so anyone trying to browse them on an iPhone, for example, will simply see, well, nothing! Your new site should be rebuilt to support the latest trends in technology, such as responsiveness (automatically adapting to the browser being used to view the site), well-formed code, and speed.

Conclusion

If the roof of your home looks like it might leak during the next heavy rainfall, you don’t wait till it does, right? You should either repair or replace before tragedy sets in… Waiting too long is often costlier than had you been proactive, as opposed to reactive. We at Red Dream Studios have built hundreds of websites and would love the opportunity to makeover yours!