Hidden Costs Of An Outdated Business Website (And How To Fix It)

Even if you think your old website is “just fine” as it is … think again! Your outdated business website is costing you in more ways than one — here’s how.

Loss, shrinkage, whatever you want to call it … businesses can lose money on investments. Sometimes it’s stolen inventory. Sometimes it’s clerical errors. And sometimes, it’s having an outdated website that’s not pulling its own weight.

So let’s look at three ways your outdated website is costing your business money and leaving cold hard cash on the table.

#1: SEO

Most old websites are slow. Most old websites aren’t user-friendly. And most old websites aren’t optimized for mobile.

Those three things alone heavily impact SEO … and not in a good way.

Not to mention, if you’ve got an outdated website, chances are meta titles, meta descriptions, and other must-haves aren’t on the menu either.

This means your website probably doesn’t rank on Google (and other search engines) for search terms relevant to your business. And that means your customers can’t find you online.

You might be thinking “but I have plenty of customers … why would they need to find me online anyway?”

That’s a valid question. If you’ve already got tons of business, SEO might not matter that much to you right now.

But it could matter when it’s time to hire new talent. It could also matter to the customers you already have. And it could also matter should you ever decide to sell your business, expand, or pivot.

So when it comes to SEO, even if your outdated website isn’t costing you NOW, it will LATER.

Business Website Pro Tip For SEO

SEO is an effective way to get more traffic to your website. More traffic means more conversions, more phone calls, more orders, and so on.

The first step to attracting that valuable traffic is updating your website. That’s because it’s tough to optimize a website for search engines when it’s outdated. Google doesn’t like slow, unfriendly websites, and neither do your customers!

#2: Marketing

Your website is both a marketing tool, and a sales tool. Let’s talk about this from a marketing perspective first.

The goal of most website marketing strategies is to attract audiences — that’s called traffic. The more traffic, the better, and that’s because more traffic usually leads to more conversions, sales, and so on. So marketing in this case is like teeing up, and sales is like hitting the ball.

Some common marketing strategies include SEO (as discussed above), content marketing, social media marketing, and even offline tactics. In addition, your website has to represent your brand — that’s called brand marketing.

See how many things a website has to do just from a marketing perspective? It’s a lot. And if you’ve got an outdated business website … you’re not taking advantage of these marketing opportunities.

So if you want more customers, you gotta ditch the outdated website and freshen things up. And even if you don’t want more customers, an updated website can help keep the ones you already have.

In any case, getting new customers and/or retaining them both cost $$$. And they can cost even more if you’ve got a website that’s been around for a while.

Business Website Pro Tip For Marketing

Even if you aren’t interested in getting MORE customers, you should at least be interested in keeping the customers you already HAVE.

That’s because your competition is doing everything they can to win over your customers with things like: online dashboards, customer service, appointment scheduling, shopping, and more.

So if you don’t keep your customers happy, someone else will …

#3: Sales

Marketing builds awareness, and sales converts that awareness into revenue. They’re two sides of the same coin but an outdated website impacts each one differently.

As we already know, an old website chokes marketing efforts. It also cuts off the sales faucet, too. This is true whether you sell products, services, or both because …

Customers who can’t find your website won’t schedule a discovery call with your sales team.

Customers who don’t know about your website won’t add your ecommerce products to their carts.

Customers who can’t use your website will head over to your competitor instead.

The list goes on and on, and it’s true for existing, new, and potential customers. That’s because an outdated business website that’s hard to navigate hurts your bottom line.

Instead, imagine a website that’s fast, optimized for search engines, mobile-friendly, and matches your brand. That’s the website that gets more calls, more checkouts, and more traffic — and ultimate, more sales.

Business Website Pro Tip For Sales

Work with a professional web design team to optimize your website for sales. Whether you’re product-based or service-based, a team of pros can make all the difference in the world.

That’s because updating your website makes business easier on your customers, and it makes it easier on you, too. For example, online scheduling lightens the load on you or your admin assistant. This frees your team up to focus on other tasks and get even more done each day.

Final thoughts on outdated business websites

Old websites aren’t fun, easy, or efficient for anyone, including you. That’s why it’s important you work with a professional web designer to update your business website according to best practices from this guide:

• Design with SEO in mind to attract more visitors to your website
• Websites are marketing tools that can help build awareness for your brand
• Updated websites can help turn traffic and awareness into more sales

Check out the Clutch Creative blog for even more info on web design, business, and best practices. Remember to check back frequently for important design updates.

Want to update your business website now? Schedule a consultation with a website expert now.