These days, your audience’s first impression of your hearing practice is based almost entirely on your website. The redesign of your website is also not a decision to be made easily. A lot of thinking, time, and probably money is needed, but the benefits can be enormous.
Here are four signs you should seriously consider a website redesign.
Sign #1: Your Content Is Obsolete
The content on your website influences heavily how search engines index your sites. When your users land on your website, this is what they see.
You’re not offering what your customers need if your website is filled with obsolete content and inaccurate data, and it paints your hearing practice in a negative light. Your customers might conclude that you aren’t;t interested in serving their needs if you can’t be bothered to offer relevant content or updated design.
There are lots of ways to tell when your website is outdated:
- Anything that requires a flash plugin
- Pages which autoplay music.
- Audio or soundtracks auto-play
- Too many colors and fonts.
- Excessive pop ups
- Low-quality images
Sign #2: You Don’t Have An SSL Certificate
SSL is short for Secure Sockets Layer. Adding an SSL to your website provides a secure connection so your customers can easily browse, purchase goods or services, and exchange information with you online.
A secure connection is created by a “handshake” process that requires a back-and-forth between the web browser and the web server. It happens behind the scenes, all without interrupting the shopping or browsing experience. An SSL certificate functions to create an encrypted link between the browser of the visitor and the server. An SSL operates to safeguard essential data exchanged between the two parties.
Why is this important for your hearing practice?
- Improves trust: From a consumer trust perspective, SSL certificates are essential. The easy to recognize icon notifies users that the data they send will be secure. Your potential customers are much more likely to share their contact information with you or even revisit your site when they realize you are a reputable company.
- Improves search ranking: Google made improvements to its algorithm in 2014 to give SSL-certified websites the upper hand.
Sign #3: Your Site Is Not Mobile-friendly
As a business, it is vital to stay on top of technical developments and listen to your customers’ needs. You gain confidence with users and create a reputation when you deliver a mobile experience designed with functionality and consistency in mind. Just 56% of small organizations have websites that use responsive design. This is your opportunity to separate your hearing practice from your rivals.
Also, Google is transitioning to mobile-first indexing, meaning that it first looks at your site’s mobile version when determining how to rank you in the search results. If ever there is a time to redesign for mobile, it’s now.
Sign #4: The Site Design Looks Dated.
When did you last update your website? The total lifetime of a web site design is just 3-5 years. You should consider redesigning at your site if it’s been longer than that. After all, your customers can build their first impression of your company in seconds from your website design.
You probably take care of your storefront to keep it looking new and clean. To be modern and appealing to prospective patients, your website needs a similar kind of treatment. It’s time to update if your website looks like it was created 20 years ago and hasn’t been touched since!
If you’ve decided to give your website an overhaul, AuDSEO is here to help! Contact us for more information on how we can help bring your practice website up to date.