When was the last time you thought about your website? If your first thought was “Just now,” then you may already be in trouble. Leaving a business website aside as an afterthought is unfortunately a force of habit we’re seeing crop up for many years, even with clients we’ve been happy to serve over the past 3 decades. We’re here to tell you it’s time to really look at your business’s website right now and stop leaving it aside—it’s a more valuable asset than you think, if not the most.

  1. Your customers are online–probably all of them

Whether they’re staying indoors to work from home or out and about in a rush, your customers are not always able to come to your business in person. In circumstances such as this, they’re reaching for their phones or computers instead, usually to shop, look up information, communicate or be entertained. According to Statista, the total number of people using the Internet in October 2020 amounted to 4.66 billion. We estimate that this year will be no exception to such high numbers, especially where mobile-friendliness is concerned (see our previous blog post, which talks about the need to get a move on with that!).

If you’re not attracting customers such as what we’ve described, or you want to take advantage of that kind of statistic, it’s time to really wake up and check on your website. If it has been left alone for this long and unattended to, it’s not doing the job it’s supposed to because of negligence. The best kinds of websites are kept up to date even if your business is closed for the day. That way, both you and customers can use your site with ease.

  1. Your competition has more sales because they prioritize it

Ever felt green with envy at the way customers seem to naturally flock to your competition? That’s because they take care of their website and prioritize it as the best tool for their online promotions and sales. They understand the powers that lie behind content marketing, email promotions, and several other behind-the-scenes efforts such as SEO. They know these are not one-time tasks you look at for a day and then don’t bother with afterwards, but rather as significant long-term jobs they’re willing to commit to time and again.

Running a business website is no picnic, but it doesn’t have to be a headache. So long as you treat your website the way your competition does theirs, you too may reap in some real benefits you didn’t think of before, such as a loyal customer base that returns to your business repeatedly, or making sales even in the low seasons. First though, you really need to look at your website now and see if it holds up in comparison to the competition. Sometimes a complete overhaul (i.e. a new website) may be the only solution to standing a chance against your competitors.

  1. You’re vulnerable to vicious, preventable events

2020 was no exception to the bombardment of phishing scams, malware, and ransomware attacks that are the stuff made of nightmares for business owners. The worst of it all was that the majority of these attacks were completely preventable—the problem was that the software and security measures were just out of date enough that they fell prey to hacks and more.

The older your website’s software is, the more vulnerable it will be against malicious cyberattacks. By neglecting your website, you are also in turn neglecting the trust people put upon your business’s website whenever they use sensitive data to access it, such as a password. Updating the software is easily done and it doesn’t have to be as costly as you may think—if anything, getting your data back after an attack has happened is way more expensive!

  1. You own it, so use it wisely

You may not realize this, but your business website is one of the very few things you personally own on a digital scale. In contrast, think about other popular platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so on. See, unlike your site, these are technically platforms you are renting, not owning.

You wouldn’t neglect your house if you owned one. After all, you put a lot of investment into buying the house, renovating it, and now living in it. So why treat a website as a secondhand thought? It’s similar to a house in that regard, i.e. the best kinds are bought and personally owned and built by a team of professionals who have decades of experience under their belts. Now is the time to really take a look at the site and start using it to your advantage, albeit wisely.

When to Hire Help for Your Website

Having read all of these points, you may be feeling that help is needed now more than ever. After all, you’ve left your website alone on the backburner instead of focusing on it first and foremost up until this point.

We should reiterate: this post was not meant to point a finger of blame onto business owners, or say it’s anyone’s fault that this happened–life has a way of intervening and throwing everyone a curveball. Everyone who runs a business will at some point need help with the website part, and if any of this post sounds like your situation, there’s no harm in asking for a new website (and we say this for many reasons here in this blog post). Give us a call if you’d like help from a company that knows how to take care of websites for 30+ years and onward.