The New Year is approaching, which means it’s time for planning, strategizing, and investing in our businesses for a more productive and lucrative 2024. While you’re looking for areas to update and improve this year, make sure you check in with your website. 

Even if you're a local business, users spend a lot of time shopping and getting to know you via your website—and if the online user experience is clunky, slow, or lackluster, you could be losing valuable leads! In fact, good web design can convert up to 400% more leads! 

If you're not sure whether you should budget a website redesign into your 2024 budget, check for these 8 key factors to find the answer. 

 

The goal of any website should be to attract visitors, so if that number is going down or even staying the same, you should prioritize a 2024 website update. Google algorithm updates, changes in user intent, and other factors can all play a role in a sudden decrease in traffic, and the only way to fix that is to update messaging, backend SEO, and your web design to meet those new needs.

Hardly anything is more embarrassing than sending someone to a link that doesn’t exist anymore. Deleting old pages, changing a URL, or even having an internal link that’s no longer valid can all cause a customer to see the infamous “404: Page Does Not Exist” message instead of the page they were hoping for.

Error pages can be frustrating for visitors who are searching for information on your site and can cause them to opt for a competitor instead. Too many error pages could also be hurting your SEO ranking, as it makes it harder for search engines to crawl your website. 

 

It’s normal for your business to pivot and evolve over time — just make sure your website is, too! You don’t want potential customers landing on old pages with outdated pricing, package information, or discontinued items.

If you run a service-based business, you should check your “services” page to make sure your packages are not only up to date but that you are also highlighting your best-selling package.

If you run an eCommerce shop with a number of product listings, you should regularly set aside time to audit your product pages to ensure that product descriptions, shipping instructions, return policies, and other information still accurately reflect your product and procedures.  

If your pages take more than a few seconds to load completely, you’re missing out on a lot of traffic. According to Kissmetrics, 40% of internet users will abandon a webpage if it takes more than 3 seconds to load—and 79% said they were less likely to buy again if the website performance was poor. 

There are many reasons why your web pages could be loading slowly, such as low-quality hosting, oversized or unoptimized photos and videos, or heavy coding, to name a few. If you’re experiencing a load speed of 3 seconds or more, it’s best to talk with a professional who can help you pinpoint and correct the cause.

 

If you’re not optimizing your website to collect email leads, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. The average ROI for email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent. In 2020 alone, email marketing generated more than $7.5 billion of revenue for brands worldwide and is expected to be valued at $17.9 billion by 2027.

You can start building a lucrative email list by updating your website to include various opportunities (and incentives) for visitors to enlist in your emails.  This can include pop-up offers, access to whitepapers or other lead magnets, personalized landing pages, or allowing customers to subscribe to email updates and newsletters at checkout. 

In the fourth quarter of 2022, more than 59% of all website traffic came from mobile phone users — so if you aren’t showing up well on an iPhone screen, you’re missing out on a whole lot of potential customers. It could also be hurting your ranking on Google and preventing you from showing up in your target audience’s search query.

A good webpage will seamlessly transition from desktop to tablet to phone, so no matter where your leads are browsing in from, they’ll get a good first impression of your brand.

 

If you’re noticing issues with the functionality of your website or are running into issues on the backend, it could be caused by outdated software and unsupported plug-ins. Just like your phone frequently updates itself to improve functionality and fix errors, so do plug-ins and various software that are necessary for a high-functioning, high-quality website.

It’s important that you stay atop of those changes with regular audits and site maintenance and that you are updating, replacing, or optimizing those tools as they evolve. Plug-in and software issues can even lead to major security breaches, which can cause permanent damage to your reputation and maybe even result in legal issues.

A good web designer can help identify those issues and even offer recommendations for new plug-ins that will improve the experience for both you and your customers.

 

Is your website speaking to your ideal client? Your website is often the first impression a potential customer has of your company, so it’s important to nail the messaging right from the home page. Landing pages that are overstuffed with text or provide vague statements that don’t clearly demonstrate what you offer and why it’s the right choice for the visitor will turn off potential buyers and send them searching for a competitor with better messaging. 

Your web design should always include professional copywriting to ensure what you’re saying is clear and concise, engages and resonates with your ideal audience, and motivates them to take action, whether that’s scheduling a sales call or hitting “checkout” on their online cart.

 

If your business’s website needs some attention but you don’t know where to start, we can help. Our website optimization package combines design, functionality, and digital marketing into a cohesive user experience that drives conversions and sales.

Schedule a call today to see how we can help you redesign your website and elevate your online presence for 2024.