For a small business keeping your website up to date is tough. I get it. In fact, I know it’s a win for a small business to have a website at all, since nearly 50% of business don’t even have a website!
So if you are a small business owner and you’ve got a website, good on you! You are on way ahead of the game. With that said, if your website hasn’t been updated for six months, a year, dare I say five years? You’re in trouble.
First Impressions are hard to overcome
First and foremost if you haven’t been keeping your website up, you simply look behind the times.
75% percent of people use a website to judge how credible a business is*.
If your website gives the impression you are out of date, that makes people question your business as a whole and if you’ve kept up in your own industry.
Chances are you’ve been so focused on being the best at your business, your website simply isn’t one of your priorities. Unfortunately if you have an old website no one knows whether you are a cutting edge business or from the Stone Age.
No one wants to do business with someone that’s out of date, so don’t give people a reason to doubt the quality of your work.
Mobile
At this point if your website isn’t mobile responsive, your business will suffer. That’s especially true for brick and mortal locations and online retailers. Your website needs to be easily accessible on every phone, tablet or netbook. If it’s not you are losing business. It’s that simple.
Security & Performance
Just like your computer needs an occasional update, websites need regular maintenance. If you happen to have a website that uses third party applications, or you’re on WordPress and have a variety of plugins, it’s essential to do your updates.
Why? Technology changes. Hackers get better. Many of the updates available to you include security patches for known vulnerabilities.
Don’t let yourself think, “I have a small website, what would a hacker want with it?” Understand that if they can break in they will. Just for fun. I guarantee it’s not going to be fun for you so don’t open yourself up to the risk.
Questions on Legitimacy
This one might surprise you, but an old website could make people question how legitimate your business is, or how honest you are.
The truth is that businesses change. Look back over the last five years, and I’m willing to bet the products and services you offer have changed. Sometimes those changes are minor, and sometimes they are dramatic, but if your website isn’t kept up you’re going to confuse people.
Case in point, I met a lovely lady a week ago. Her website talked about being a management consultant specializing in leadership coaching to inspire loyalty.
Yet when we sat down and talked, what she actually does is bring people into network marketing systems to create additional streams of income.
Wow, that’s different.
After our meeting I went back and checked her website to see how I had gotten such a different impression. I saw nothing about network marketing on her entire site, but I did notice the site had a copyright date of 2011.
That made me wonder, did her business change, and she just didn’t update her website to reflect those changes? Or is she intentionally misleading people to get a meeting? I’m honestly not sure, but I do know that it’s not a good thing for your business if people are asking these questions.
So don’t put yourself in any of these situations. If you have an old website, let us help!
*Stanford Study on Web Credibility
