We can all agree that first impressions matter. In recent years, the first place your clients and prospective customers will look to learn about your hearing practice is likely to be online. With a website with an obsolete design or confusing navigation, visitors may have a difficult time accessing the content they came to find. This may lead them to leave your website to perform another search to find what they are looking for.
While this may not seem like a huge issue, it does mean that your website isn’t working in the best way possible to support your practice. Websites can do a lot to encourage people to contact you – and these leads can translate to a new client or patient!
How do you know if your website can be improved? We’ve put together a list of a few tell-tale signs it may be time for a website redesign.
Sign #1: Your website isn’t mobile-optimized
A steep increase over the years has been seen in the number of smartphone users. Mobile devices now account for 52% of global internet traffic, and nearly 60% of Google searches are performed through mobile devices.
If your site is not mobile-friendly and can accommodate any screen sizes thrown at it, it will give your visitors a very poor user experience. As a consequence, you could lose several hearing aid patients.
Sign #2: Your website is confusing to navigate
On your website, will visitors easily find the information they need? If your visitors can’t find the information they need to find, your website isn’t doing its job and needs to be updated.
Sign #3: Your website is outdated
Outdated design: If your website appears outdated, with unfashionable fonts, a non-existent color scheme, and blocks of tiny text, users will see your business as outdated too. A modern website is what enhances a company’s reputation and builds confidence. After all, you don’t want people to question if your hearing practice still exists. Outdated websites only give the message that you are not up to date with the latest trends, hearing loss, or otherwise.
Outdated content: If your website hasn’t been updated in a while, some of the information may be obsolete. This might cause some irritation to a new customer if they go to the address stated on your website, but you’ve since moved to a new location.
Here is a checklist of items to update that you should consider:
- Location
- Contact details
- List of services
- Website plugins
- Biography (to include new credentials obtained)
- New team members
- Updated images of your office
Sign #4: Your website isn’t converting visitors
Once you manage to get an individual to visit your website, they become a lead. However, if these people do not turn into customers at some stage, something is wrong with your website.
Check that your website smoothly guides your visitors towards contacting your practice.For example, can visitors click on your phone number to call you? Is there a contact form at the bottom of the page for them to use? These are easy enough features to incorporate, but they make a huge difference when securing new hearing aid customers. They’re more likely to move on to your competitors if they can’t contact you easily.
Sign #5: Your website has a high bounce rate
Bounce rate refers to how many of your website users exit the page they enter without interacting with a single feature of the page. For example, that means that the user came to your homepage, scrolled for a few seconds, and left without clicking a single connection immediately.
A high bounce rate for one of your pages indicates that it is not as engaging as it should be. If you have enough of these, your website is a prime candidate for a redesign.
Slow page load speed, bad or confusing content, weak UX design, and other factors can cause users to leave a website. A complete redesign could be in order if you note an incredibly high overall bounce rate for your site.
AuDSEO Can Help!
If you notice more than one of the above signs in your current website, then maybe it’s time for you to consider having a new website that fits your company’s business needs and puts you ahead. The next step? Contact us today to learn how we can help update your website to the latest standards!