Why update a website? Part 1: technical and SEO updates
Making regular updates for your website may sound exhausting, but it's worth it. Otherwise, you could lose the "battle" for the audience's attention to your competitors. This article will talk about technical factors and search engine optimization that influences your website's health. We'll check how to recognize if your site needs an update and why it is required.
How to identify the signs of an outdated site and fix them.
Your website is losing positions in search engines. The number of orders and conversions decreases, but advertising works, the prices have not increased, the quality of services has not deteriorated. All of these are signs of an outdated website.
The problem is that there hasn't been any change for too long. The resource has ceased to be exciting and credible. Realizing that the site is not updated, users will not give him preference and will not take the information posted on it seriously. The outdated site will not be popular among the robots that index pages and affect the output in search results. Let's dive into details on which signs of an obsolete website can be.
We will talk about the following website outdated symptoms:
- Validity of the website's code
- Page loading speed
- Adaptability for the mobile devices
- Security of the site
- Lack of attention to SEO
The website is loading too long
Your website's loading time is a significant factor for people to decide their further actions — to stay or to leave and never return. Speeding trends in all spheres of life made modern people very impatient. Slow sites most often remain unopened by users.
Google also knows people are lazy and have indicated that site speed is a ranking factor. That means that slow-loaded sites could find themselves being pushed down in search results.
Moreover, according to Kissmetrics, 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. And a 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
Please browse the pages of the site, open the photos or videos posted on them. If you have to wait, it means the site is out of date. Also, you could test the current level of your site's speed using one of these tools: Page Speed Tool, YSlow, or Pingdom. If your score is low, we recommend making updates.
Adaptability for mobiles in a low level
The Internet is rapidly changing. It is no wonder that users access it using mobile more than from desktop. According to StatCounter's March 2021 market share metrics, 55,77% for mobile and 41,5% for desktop. Besides, the popularity of desktops is gradually decreasing.
What does that mean? Without an adaptation for mobile devices, you lose more than half of your visitors, potential partners, and clients. If your website isn't mobile-friendly, you fail your competitors who took care of this feature. It is direct evidence of the negative impact of the outdated site on business. Besides, the well-designed mobile version of your website could even increase your desktop visitors level.
Moreover, Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. It means that Googlebot primarily uses the mobile version of a page's content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user's query.
You may check if your website is adapted. Go to your site with a mobile device and evaluate its appearance and usability. You can also check the site's adaptability using various online services, such as Browsershots, Browserling, CrossBrowserTesting.
If you notice errors, can't read the text, can't go to all the sections, or perform any action, your website is outdated and needs revision, which means a complete layout of all elements for easy use from a small screen.
The website is not secure
Search engines and browsers pay attention to how secure your site is. Specifically, if your URL still starts with HTTP:// instead of HTTPS://, some browsers will notify users that "this is not a safe place." It means that site number two may get more customers even if your site ranks first for a search query.
Your site will most likely rank higher with HTTPS:// because search engines tend to send users to safe, secure websites, so they may prioritize a competitor if that competitor's site is secure.
This kind of update doesn't require a whole redesign - it's technical work. However, your website will likely have to move to a new, secure server.
Out-of-date technology
Your site may not meet basic web standards if it goes a long time without being updated. For example, if it still uses Flash to display multimedia content, this means only one thing - the site is outdated. Most browsers block similar ones, and modern mobile devices on iOS and Android platforms do not support this technology at all.
You can replace Flash with HTML5. This platform provides the same capabilities and is fully supported by browsers and all devices. Besides, the use of new technology offers many business opportunities. For example, it is possible to present products or services more effectively. Also, it may facilitate the search through the site for users and simplify purchasing or ordering a service.
If the site is existing for a few years without updates, it might contain unnecessary HTML code. This code can slow the page loading speed. As we mentioned above, this factor significantly affects the satisfaction level of site visitors.
Lack of attention to SEO
Without updates, the site may fall in search engine rankings. Even if it looks pretty good, search engines may consider it irrelevant. The reason is that search engines "like" sites with the most relevant content for users. That is, if your site has the same content as several years ago - it's time to take steps for improvement.
SEO audit allows rethinking your keyword targeting and your site's overall conversion rate. The point is that query wording, and its popularity is not static - they can change over time. Therefore, there is a need to keep track of them and implement new keywords into the semantic core.
What affects changes in query wording? One of the main factors is the growing popularity of mobile devices and how people search for information. For example, they might do it through voice queries.
The semantic analysis goal is to ensure that the semantic core is relevant. Its purpose is to select suitable keywords for the queries. In the future, these effectively chosen keywords will drive more traffic to your site. Of course, this is not a determining factor. Your site should be intuitive and easy to use to get the best results from SEO. It requires the involvement of a UX expert.
Summary
One of the main reasons to update your site is to match the expectations of its visitors. Among the expectations that have changed over the past few years is the page load speed. People aren't willing to wait and lose their time on slow websites. They will also prefer a user-friendly and secure site when they have to choose between several.
Making changes for the sake of making them is a waste of time. But if your site has not updated for several years, it's a good reason to start planning an upgrade now. More than likely, users will buy or order services from the new, updated site.
We recommend providing a thorough audit before implementing any changes to the website. It'll help to figure out exactly what to improve. Contact us if you are looking for professional help auditing and then implementing changes to your site.