4 Reasons Updating your Website Can Improve Your SEO Ranking

It’s hard to believe that just 10 years ago we were ordering Netflix DVDs instead of binge-watching, the iPhone was just entering its second generation, and Instagram didn’t exist. There have been a lot of changes in the past 10 years, is your website one of them?

If your answer is no, then you are probably also not happy with your SEO rankings. Below I’ve listed four reasons why updating your website can improve your SEO Ranking and ultimately promote your company to new customers.

• It's all about the user. The most important aspect of SEO is user experience. This drives how many people visit your site, how many people stay on your site, and ultimately your SEO ranking. When a person visits your site, do they find what they are looking for? Is your site easy to use and easy to navigate? When your site is easy-to-use and provides useful content, users tend to dwell on your site longer, which positively impacts your SEO ranking.

• Think mobile first. If your website is not responsive, it is time to update your site. Website design used to be designed for the user’s experience on a desktop. Today, more people are researching products and services on their phone, making your mobile site design and functionality of utmost importance.

  Take a minute and review your website on a smart phone. Does it function appropriately? Do your menus and pages shrink and fit within the mobile window? Is it user-friendly? Is it easy to find and get to information?

  If your site’s mobile experience is mimicking the desktop experience, forcing users to scroll left and right to see everything, your site is not responsive. Frustrated mobile viewers will move on to another site which not only negatively impacts your ranking but is helping your competitors. Adding to this, search engines like Google, penalize sites that aren’t mobile-friendly by dropping them in search engine rankings.

  Think this doesn’t matter for B2B marketers? You’d be wrong. According to IDG Global Mobile Survey, 77% of executives are using their smart phone to research a product or service for their business. Bottom line, responsive websites matter.

• Errors Lower Your Ranking. If you have error messages on your site or links that don’t lead to another page, you are not only annoying your potential customers, but you are negatively impacting your SEO as well. With the onset of HTML5 and responsive web design, technologies like Adobe Flash Player have become obsolete. Most browsers and devices no longer support it which means your site isn’t working when potential customers come to review your company.

  Not only is this turning away potential customers but search engines consider broken links and error messages to mean it’s a neglected site which means they won’t be showing your website in search results.

• Updating Content Matters. But let’s say your site is responsive, you don’t have any error messages and your links are working. Why is your SEO ranking still low? The next question to ask is when is the last time you added fresh content? Fresh content can improve your SEO rankings. What are customers in your market interested in? The addition of a blog to a website may sound tedious, but it can help you attract new customers, retain an audience, and drastically improve SEO ranking.

  Relevant content matters and research is finding that content of 2000 -2500 words ranks highest. So, make sure your content is interesting, but also know that “short and sweet” won’t cut it. Many web development companies are adding content creation services for companies that don’t have the time or desire to manage a blog. In the world of search engine optimization, content is king.

While updating your website can improve your search engine rankings, it also legitimizes your company and ultimately improves the user experience. If you haven’t thought about your website for a while, it’s probably time that you should.