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Having a website is crucial to any business in 2023, but keeping it up and running correctly is just as important. After all, if your website is broken, you risk causing web visitors to become disinterested or frustrated and leave your website.
A high bounce rate will negatively impact your standing with search engines, pushing your site down in search results and making it harder for potential customers to find you. Keep reading to discover which issues to look out for and how a website repair service can help.
Why Website Maintenance Is Important
Aside from the above reasons briefly touched upon, let’s discuss why you should expend effort maintaining your website.
Credibility
A clearly broken website shows visitors that you have little care for the way you present yourself, which reflects poorly on your products and services. If you can’t even maintain your website correctly, why should customers believe in the quality of your products and your ability to provide customer support when required? In other words, a poorly maintained website leads to a bad image, thus reducing your credibility.
Loss of Sales
It should come as no surprise that unmaintained websites can lead to a loss of sales. For example, customers may grow frustrated with the broken elements of your website, abandoning it before reaching checkouts or inquiring further. As a result, you must maintain both the functionality of your website and user interface elements to provide a smoother user experience.
Increased Bounce Rate
In the introduction to this article, we touched on the idea of bounce rates. It’s crucial to ensure your website is well maintained; otherwise, you risk an increased bounce rate which can severely impact your search engine ranking. The worse your ranking is, the less likely you are to attract new visitors.
5 Common Website Issues
Now that you understand the importance of website maintenance, let’s explore some common issues your website may encounter.
1. Broken Links
Broken links refer to links that either don’t work when clicked or lead to dead ends, usually a 404 error page. At a glance, broken links may not appear to be a major issue, but they can severely impact site navigation and internal linking structure, which, just like high bounce rates, is bad for SEO. A defective link in your navigation bar, for example, will make the page inaccessible to visitors.
Not only is this bad for user experience, but broken links also make it difficult for search engines like Google to crawl and understand your website. As a result, search engines may struggle to present your site to the right audience or not at all, because – you guessed it – this is bad for SEO.
2. Outdated Website Design
An outdated website design doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s broken, but it is a serious issue that should be addressed, as consumers expect your website to be designed in line with modern standards. This means that not only should your site look part, but it should also function like a modern website, with secure payment processing and a familiar user interface.
What’s more, outdated websites are more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and browser incompatibility. So, even if your website isn’t technologically outdated, if it appears so, this will likely lead to a lapse in consumer perception of your credibility. In other words, your website design must stay up to date.
Related Page: UI/UX Design services
3. Slow Load Time
Many websites are unnecessarily slow and can be easily fixed by compressive images and reducing plugin usage. Nevertheless, slow site load time is an issue that must be addressed in order to retain a solid user experience and appease search engine algorithms (it’s that pesky bounce rate again).
It’s important to regularly monitor site speed and take action to address any issues promptly. Not only does a slow site affect user experience and search engine rankings, but it can also have a negative impact on conversions and overall business success.
4. Mobile Incompatibility
Over 60% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. As a result, if your website is not mobile-friendly, then you risk isolating the majority of your potential user base. It goes without saying that this is bad for business.
In addition to increasing your chances of reaching a wider audience, a mobile-friendly website also enhances the user experience for your visitors, leading to increased engagement, longer visit duration, and improved search engine ranking.
5. Security and Certification Problems
Finally, another common website issue is not having security certificates installed properly, such as SSL – the “s” in “https.” Nowadays, most web browsers block websites without security certificates installed or at least display a warning message to users. Just like an outdated web design, this reduces your credibility.
Additionally, a lack of proper security certificates can also compromise the safety of your visitors’ personal information, such as their login credentials or credit card details. As a result, it’s essential to regularly check and maintain your website’s security features to ensure that your users’ sensitive information is always kept secure.
How Can a Website Repair Service Provider Help?
A website repair service can pick up where your old developers left off, fix any errors, salvage broken functions, and even bring half-finished projects to completion. Quality website repair agencies will reverse engineer your site to understand its functionality, identify any issues, and then develop a plan to remedy its errors.
When choosing a repair service provider, it’s important to first explore their portfolio to ensure they are the right fit for your project. You should also check to see if they have a clearly defined development procedure listed on their website; if they don’t, they may lack transparency and experience.
Related Page: Our Development Process
Idea Maker Can Rescue Your Project
At Idea Maker, we have extensive experience rescuing businesses’ broken and unfinished websites. We have a team of expert developers ready to bring your website to the right place. Schedule a free consultation with us today to learn more.
