We all know that trends tend to move quickly, what was fashionable 2 years ago, is no longer fashionable today, and the same can be said for website design.

If you have a website that was last updated 3+ years ago, the chances are, it has started to look outdated. "Well that's fine" you might say, you might not be someone who is interested in fashions, and that is okay, but when a new user lands on your website and it looks outdated and old, while your competitors have brand new well designed websites, it doesn't give the best first impression of your business and could immediately be losing you enquiries without the user ever reading a word on your website.

A new website also gives you an opportunity to refresh your identity and align the design, copy and imagery to where your brand is today.

Are you the same company today that you were 2 years ago? My guess would be no. The working world has changed drastically in the last 2-3 years and the chances are your business has had to adapt to work around the limitations that were imposed on us.

If your website is still talking about your staff members and having 'great office culture' when your team is now sat at home in their kitchens and bedrooms making whatever space in their house they can into an office, well then your website is out of date. If your website refers to your physical locations for customers to browse your goods when you shut up shop and moved to an ecommerce platform, well again, you need to take a look at that content and update it.

It is important to keep your website relevant to your business today, as this can lead to potential conflicts with users. When your website says one thing, and the business operates differently, this can lead to disgruntled customers and damage your brand.

Websites are like cars, when they are brand new, they are smooth, shiny, and easy to live with, but after a few years they get scratches, things go wrong and they need repairing. Technology moves so fast that what was new 5 years ago when your site was built, is now a bit old and can leave its mark on your website.

You may have bought a plugin to add some functionality to the website, but if it has not been updated or maintained then it may not be functioning as intended and could be preventing users from performing an action that leads to enquiries for you. Most of us have come across an issue on a website, eventually giving up to find another website that works and provides the information we were looking for. This could be happening on your website, so at the very least you should continue to visit your own website and ensure it is running as expected with no bugs and up to speed.

Google and other search engines such as Bing are always updating their algorithms to serve their users with the best suggestions. The Algorithm is a large beast that takes into account so many aspects of your website, from the content and how users interact with it, to the code that makes up your website.

If you have an old website, it is likely that the code used to build the website no longer meets Googles high standards, so even if you have had the best written blog articles and all your content is on point, it is unlikely that google is going to be ranking you Position 1.

Your website may have been built when you first started your business and at the time you weren't aware of making your website appealing to search engines so you just chucked something together on a page builder like Wix or Elementor which are great for easily getting a website up and running, but have lots of 'bloat' that lead to slower load times which Google isnt a huge fan of! You may also not have written your content in a way that is appealing to googles algorithm.

Taking this into account, by updating your website in 2022 you now have a new opportunity to optimise your site and its content to try and influence search engines to rank your site as high as possible on their results page.

So there you have it, 4 reasons as to why you should update your website in 2022 to ensure that your website is helping rather than hindering your business. If you would like to have a discussion with me for advice on updating your website, then please get in touch.