six INDICATIONS OF AN OUTDATED WEBSITE AND HOW TO FIX THEM_
As the central hub of your online presence, your website should provide a user-friendly experience that helps visitors find the information in the most accessible and intuitive way possible.
So, the obvious answer is to UPDATED YOUR WEBSITE, but what does that actually look like? And what are the contributing factors at play?
Let's take a look...
UI & Navigation Issues
Pages have too much content Pages are busy & cluttered Too many links, drop-downs Hard to find call-to-actions Unclear groups of content
How to fix website navigation/UI issues?
Less, but better! This doesn't mean cutting content from your website, but it does mean restructuring your site to provide the content in smaller, more manageable chunks.
This can include simplifying the page layout, categorising content with a focus on search behaviour (the combinations of information a user is likely to search for) and emphasising links, buttons and other calls-to-action so that they are clearly distinguishable from the other content on the web page.
[two] - Bloated, Unfocused Copy_
One of the most obvious signs of an outdated website is 'walls of text'. Large text blocks with multiple paragraphs. Modern users landing on your website will first attempt to scan the page for the information they are looking for, and the vast majority will not 'waste' their time reading a large block of text.
This issue is compounded further by page copy that does not resonate with them. Every user is looking for the resolution to their problem and will actively parse out information that speaks to them, ignoring the rest.
Website Copy Issues
Copy is not user-focused (We/I, not you) Pages contain large blocks of text Text elements are undifferentiated Calls-to-action & links are hard to notice No/low visual hierarchy of text elements
Website SEO Issues
Meta tags don't match web page content Your website's pages aren't indexed Pages don't feature important keywords Your website doesn't have a sitemap Poor H Tag structure
Common Website Page Loading Issues
Large or heavy image files. (Use Jpeg over PNG) Plug-ins such as search functions, live chat etc. Non-minified HTML, CSS and JS scripts. Overly long pages
Common Website UI & Navigation Issues
Page layout not optimally formatted for mobile Text and images are squashed or stretched Text can become hard to read Menu and links are hard to click Severe loading times increase on mobile
