Here are ten really good reasons to overhaul your website now—

1. Is your website bringing in business? If your website has become a dust-collector, and you want it to be more like an ATM, it’s time for an overhaul. Strategies change every year and if your phone isn’t ringing from people finding you online, it’s time to take a closer look at why.
2. Is anyone finding your website? Check in Google analytics to see if you have the traffic you need to build your business. Savvy business owners know that marketing is a numbers game and if we aren’t getting our name in front of enough of the right kind of people, our sales will suffer. If your traffic numbers are slim, it’s time to overhaul your website content and invest in SEO.
3. Is your website a leaky bucket? Traffic is great, but if no one is converting into paying customers you have another challenge to solve. This means it’s time to review your capture strategy and put an automated lead-nurture email sequence in place.
4. Does your website look fabulous on a phone? When you view your website on a phone, does your page layout change and do the elements on your web pages stack on top of each other so that the text and pictures are really easy to view, even on a little phone screen? This is called responsive, or mobile-friendly design. Google is now lowering the ranking of websites that are not mobile-friendly. And website visitors get frustrated when they try to view a website that does not include mobile-friendly coding and design. It’s all the same website: and the design responds to smaller screen sizes to be highly-readable.
5. Is your website easy to update? Just about every small business I know is moving to WordPress or SquareSpace, and both platforms allow non-technical users to update their web page content very easily. If you have to call your developer for simple updates, it’s time for an overhaul.
6. Do you need a way to post blog articles? If you don’t have articles on your website, you aren’t showing your visitors what you know, and you might not be delivering real value on your website. The key to content marketing (and SEO) is to write helpful articles and share your expertise, so that your web visitors can begin to know, like and trust you. And then they will hire you!
7. Do you want to link to your social channels? This is more important than ever, and these marketing “outposts” can help your visitors find you and learn more about your culture and upcoming events. Including links to LinkedIn will allow visitors to view your online resumes. And having active social channels lets Google and your prospects know that your business is thriving.
8. Are you unhappy with the way your website looks? Are you hesitant to share your website with a prospect or strategic partner because of the way it looks? Does your website reflect your company in a positive light? Does it look small and outdated? Styles change and for small businesses to stay on trend with visual styles, they need to update their look every few years.
9. Are you using an older technology? Platforms like Joomla or Contribute are no longer well-supported. We all make guesses about which technologies are most likely to endure. If you guessed wrong a few years back, it’s time for a redesign.
10. Can you control your website? A website is your most important marketing tool and it’s best that you have access to all the parts (Domain registrar, web hosting, and dashboard) so you can update and extend it. If your old web developer has control over your site (and you don’t) it’s time to build something that can be counted as an asset to your small business!