8 Signs Your Website Is Past Its Expiration Date

We’ve all opened a refrigerator door and been hit by the rancid smell of something inside that went rotten.

The next step is to sniff around to identify and remove the offender. Fortunately, fresh items are either stamped with a “use by” date or show signs of rotting which tell us right away that they’re passed their prime.

Websites aren’t marked as clearly, but they usually give us clues that help us identify when something’s gone rotten. Technology changes, user behavior and interaction changes, trends change. Businesses in any industry can benefit from maintaining regular updates to keep in line with the latest behavior to create the best experience for online visitors. Is it time to clean out your website and refill with today’s fresh practices? Use the following checklist to find out:

1. Your site isn’t responsive or mobile-friendly

66% of website visits came through mobile devices last year, according to the content marketing platform SEMrush. A website designed expressly for visitors on large(er) monitors may make for a clunky and frustrating experience for mobile viewers.

There’s no such thing as a separate mobile viewing experience anymore — how a site scales to mobile has to be considered from the start of any design project. Responsive design also speeds page-loading, which can help keep visitors on your site and off your competitors. .

2. Your site is built with graphical text and/or Flash

Like a mullet hairstyle, a Flash website may look good to its owner but is made fun of by others. Flash websites are difficult to update, and, more threateningly, are not SEO or mobile friendly. Most mobile devices do not support Flash websites. This means your mobile visitors will experience a slow-loading page and a missing image. This kind of experience may also send your visitor straight to the competition.

It can also make your site harder to find. Search engines are improving their ability to read graphic text, but it’s still much easier for your site to perform well with live text. Using JQuery for animation and slide shows allows for that live text that’s visible to search engines and easy to update with a content management system. Better for you, and better for your new, and returning online visitors.

3. You need a webmaster to update content

Whether you’re adding new menus, photographs or just changing the business hours on your website, content must be fresh. And there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to update it yourself. If your site hasn’t been touched in a few years, there’s a good chance you’ll require code to update and add content. Push10 believes in empowering the client to add content, so we build our sites using a CMS that allows clients to add, edit and remove content at any time after the site goes live. P.S. Who even says “webmaster” anymore?

4. Search engines are overlooking your site

Perhaps your site operates in Flash. Maybe it uses a bunch of graphical text. It’s possible your pages aren’t properly titled or tagged with keywords. While we still advocate for the human reader first, search engines must be a factor when creating your website. Building a site with SEO best practices in mind, both on-page and off, can help lift your website’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page) to help more people find it.

The rise in SEO’s prominence means that old sites built without considering even the most basic SEO considerations are going to suffer.

5. Your design is behind the times

Just like fashion, interior design, and automotive design, web styles have a shelf life. Though your brand essence may stay the same, your online brand may grow stale. It is best practice to examine your design every few years. This encompasses the execution of your brand through graphical treatment and user interaction online for improvements in technology and functionality.

Remember, even if your brand identity hasn’t changed, your customer’s online behavior likely has. Site visitors want to know that they can trust your site, and the interface and experience design plays a huge role in that. If a site is hard to use and information is obscured, it may seem like you’re hiding something. If a site looks old, it may seem like you’re behind the times and not a valuable source of relevant information, even if your content is excellent.

6. Your site isn’t social

Your website serves as a central hub, but your customers may prefer to interact with you via their preferred social media channel. Give customers the opportunity to find, follow and interact with you wherever they are. This means being available on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Yelp, or whatever social channels are most popular in your industry. Are users able to like pages on your site and/or easily hop over to your Facebook page? Does your website reflect today’s most popular social channels? If not, it might be time for a new site.

7. Your company, industry or brand positioning has changed

Your website is your most important form of branding and advertising. It’s the place people turn for information about your brand. So if you have a new product, brand identity, location, or ownership, it’s important your website reflects that. Communicating your brand image appropriately online is the first step toward setting customer expectations for the experience they’ll have with your brand in person.

8. You’re not tracking site traffic

What pages are your customers visiting? What keywords are they searching for that help them find your site? Are customers putting items in their shopping cart and then not buying? What’s your bounce rate? Do mobile viewers visit more pages? Being a data hound is critical for understanding how your visitors interact with your site, and how you can continuously improve their experience. Having a beautiful website and not looking at the traffic is like buying an automatic Ferrari. What a waste.

Final Thoughts

Eliminating these rotten ingredients helps ensure your website is healthy, and your visitors are happy.

Not every update requires a complete overhaul. The most important things to consider are user behavior and brand identity — evaluating website updates hinge on the status of the two. Finally, creating a pleasant brand experience for your customers online will drive repeat visits and attract a larger following.