Businesses that fail to maintain websites risk loss of revenue
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Companies that fail to keep their business websites up-to-date risk losing money in the long term.
Websites are basically online shop fronts, so it is not surprising that companies who fail to maintain them with the help of a good web design agency, update them, and keep them fresh, are at risk of losing revenue when customers are not impressed with what they see.
54 percent lower
Research conducted by Yell, as part of the “Can’t See The Web For The Trees” study, has found that consumers spend, on average 54 percent less on websites that have not been recently updated than they do on websites which have been updated in the last few months.
The comprehensive study also found that only 80 percent of business owners now believe that their websites and their presence on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram is the most important means of generating leads and making sales.
79 percent of companies also believe that digital marketing is vital to their success in business right now.
Lack of regular updates
You would think, then that companies would go to great lengths to ensure that their websites are always up-to-date, but that is not actually the case. The study which analysed more than a million websites found that the average business website was last updated a staggering 15 months ago.
This shows that, although business owners realise that their websites are important for convincing people to buy, they do not yet realise just how important it is that their websites are kept up-to-date as much as possible.
Websites that are not right up-to-date may not only be passing out inaccurate information to the customers, which could cause frustrations if they try to get in touch with a company out of hours, for example, due to the fact the websites showing older operating hours, but they may also not look as fresh and modern as they could, which could well put people off using that businesses too.
Trades and transport
The study also found that the sectors least likely to have updated websites were the trades and transport industries, wh on average, had last updated their websites 20 months ago. This could be because little changes in these industries, or it could be because they do not see the importance of doing so, the research has yet to make that distinction, but it is clear that both industries need to make a change if they are to maximise their revenue and keep customers happy.
Direct impact
The Yell study is clear that a direct hit to revenue from sales made online is a major consequence of neglected websites, with a 54 percent lower average spend. Not only that but 42 percent of customers said they would be more likely to buy or book something if the website had up-to-date information included on the website.
It is clear then that companies across the board need to get better at updating their websites now and in the future if they want to maximise their potential.