Why do customers decide to get a new website?
There are several reasons, but our statistics show that the most common reasons are:
- Unattractive website graphics
- Poorly planned content and information architecture (which prevents users from finding the information they need)
- The website does not meet business objectives (which are often not even defined)
- The customer’s website does not display correctly on mobile devices, causing them to lose customers
When to create a new website for your company?
Every product has its own “lifespan”. In the case of a regular light bulb, it is a maximum of 10,000 hours. For smartphones, it is about three years. For websites, it is two to three years. The reason is not to force consumers to buy again, as in the case of light bulbs with an artificially planned product ageing cycle, but the need to update the website results from the rapidly developing technology in the IT sector. Two years ago, few people had heard of responsiveness. Few people had a phone with unlimited Internet transfer. With the development of the mobile device market, a new branch of IT services emerged, consisting of the creation of mobile websites. Initially, websites had separate mobile versions, which differed in that their address took the form of “m.domain.co.uk” instead of “domain.co.uk”. However, these websites had a certain drawback – they did not display correctly on all devices. A new trend emerged, namely RWD – Responsive Web Design, i.e. websites that adapted to the screen size so that they could be displayed correctly on all devices, including mobile ones.
If a company website is not mobile-friendly, we have to reckon with several consequences:
- we lose our image, because customers see that we are not responding to current market needs,
- we lose customers, because currently 50% of traffic on the Polish Internet is generated by mobile devices, and this trend is growing. Of course, 50% of this traffic is from social networks such as Facebook, but we can safely assume that 25% of the traffic on our website comes from mobile devices.
- impact on positioning – in April this year, Google informed its users that websites that do not have responsive versions will be displayed lower in the rankings. If you position your website, e.g. for the phrase “Rehabilitation Krakow”, when you type the phrase on a desktop computer, you may be in first place, but when you type the same phrase on your phone, you may not even be on the first page.
- You make it difficult for your customers to browse your offer, which affects their experience with your brand. Websites that do not have an RWD version may display correctly, but you have to zoom in and out to find the areas you need. RWD websites adapt to mobile devices in such a way that their content does not need to be enlarged.
Does this make business sense?
Of course it does! A new website should not be a cost, but an investment that will pay for itself. A website should be like the perfect salesperson – working around the clock, with no other needs than sales, effective, paid for once. And because employees are cared for, no self-respecting employer would require such an approach. But as a client of a website design agency, you can demand this from the agency itself.
We have managed to create such a project – I will show this using the example of statistics from our client in the tourism industry. The photo below shows the percentage of traffic from desktop computers, tablets and phones. In 2014, when the website was not mobile-friendly, 81.72% of traffic came from desktop computers and less than 19% from mobile devices. In 2015, after creating a new responsive version of the company’s website, traffic from mobile devices increased to 33.86%! The traffic mainly increased from Google search! Mobile website = more customers from Google search.
Wait a minute, doesn’t that mean we have fewer users from desktop devices?
If this question popped into your head, congratulations on your astuteness. What I present below is the answer to the above question. We have over 29.36% more users on the website, which means we had 58.69% more page views. The change to the website has resulted in more customers visiting it. The new website is responsive and sales-oriented towards customer acquisition, which means that people who have used our services have more enquiries from their website.
But how do you know if it will pay off?
If business were simple and certain, everyone would be an entrepreneur and easily generate revenue. No one can guarantee what Google will do tomorrow and what direction it will take in terms of search engine development. We have to be honest about this without beating around the bush. However, we have experience that shows, project after project, that a new website will result in our clients receiving more enquiries from the Internet, their company being perceived as an industry leader, and customers having a better experience with the brand. The trap is thinking “will it pay off?”. A website is not supposed to pay for itself, it is supposed to earn money. Wherever someone comes across your company on the Internet, they will eventually end up on your website. You can pump huge amounts of money into promotional activities, but if your website is not designed properly, every penny will be money down the drain.
How to calculate the return on investment?
Three years ago, I calculated how much our client in the medical industry lost because his online business card discouraged customers. I knew the website statistics, and the client meticulously took notes, asking each customer how they found out about his company. So he obtained information on how many customers came from the Internet, but the numbers were disappointing. We created a new website for him. Traffic on his website increased by over 100%. The jump was due to the fact that his website was better optimised for SEO (correctly written for Google search engine). It would seem that if he had 100% more users, he would simply have twice as many customers. Improving his image and a clear offer meant that instead of 5 customers per month, he was acquiring around 25 customers. Each customer spent an average of £200. This meant that our client generated additional turnover for the company of £4,000 per month, which amounts to £48,000 per year. The client decided on a new website 6 months after we presented our offer. He was not sure whether the investment would pay off and whether he needed a “better website”. In fact, it did not matter whether the website would cost £2,000 or £8,000, since postponing the decision cost him £24,000. Why so much? That was exactly the amount he could have earned if he had done it six months earlier. He noted this himself and showed us the results of how many customers he had gained after changing the website. The magic of small numbers. That is why the experience of the company that creates the website is so important.
Many customers look at whether the websites are attractive and who has the lowest price. On this basis, they choose the agency they want to work with. Our company motto is “Turn on effectiveness” because we start with the business goals to be achieved and then select the tools to achieve them. The cost of a website is important, but what you lose when you make the wrong decision is more important.
