5 Ways Your Old Website Design Is Leaving ROI on the Table

At its best, organic search marketing allows you to effectively reach your target audience while delivering unparalleled ROI compared to other marketing channels.

But if your website is outdated, your business is missing out on these incredible opportunities.

Even worse, you could expose your company and customers to cybersecurity threats.

So, how can you get your old website up to speed? If your site isn’t up to date but business is steady, is it even worth worrying about? If you want to work on your site but aren’t sure where to start, which optimizations should you prioritize?

We’ll answer these questions and more as we discuss how your outdated site is leaving digital marketing ROI on the table.

Let’s start by discussing the specific risks of leaving your outdated website as-is.

If your site appears outdated, it immediately creates a perception in users’ minds that your brand isn’t “with it,” which calls just about everything about your business into question.

An older-looking site, especially one lacking HTTPS, makes it harder for users to trust you. That means they’re less likely to explore your content and service offerings, which will increase your bounce rate and decrease your conversion rate.

Speaking of bounce rate, nothing will cause users to leave your site faster than a security issue. HTTPS is an obvious one since users will see a “not secure” pop-up in their browser, but it certainly isn’t the only thing that can expose your users to risk.

Furthermore, security issues make your users vulnerable and your business a prime target for ransomware attacks and other schemes that could cause severe, long-term damage.

If you’re subject to certain regulations, you must keep your website up to date. The last thing you’d want to do is be caught with outdated copy that doesn’t adhere to the latest rules in your industry.

Similar to the cybersecurity issue, compliance violations can impact both your bottom line and your ability to market your offerings, which can have significant long-term consequences for the health of your business.

The three issues we just discussed all add up to reduced online visibility for your business, which bodes poorly for any future or ongoing digital marketing efforts.

You could have industry-leading products or services, but if prospective customers can’t find you on Google and other search engines, you’ll have difficulty capturing conversions and revenue.

Businesses invest in digital marketing, specifically, Organic Search, because of its outstanding effectiveness and ROI. Your site's quality, security, and freshness can be the difference between stagnation and exponential growth.

Just like any product or service, if people don’t find your website secure, helpful, and enjoyable to use, they’ll go elsewhere. If you want to achieve or surpass your business targets, there’s no viable alternative to building and maintaining a high-quality website.

Conduct a significant website redesign every three years, and sooner if you notice your UX or other functionality pacing behind your competitors or the wider web ecosystem.

Ensuring content freshness should be an ongoing effort. In a perfect world, you’d be at the leading edge of your industry, but if bandwidth constraints prevent your brand from leading, you can at least do your best to keep up.

It’s wise to periodically update the technical aspects of your site, though the frequency may vary depending on the nature of your site and how often software updates become available.

Most of us are limited by our resources and other obligations. Even so, there are a few optimizations worth prioritizing and implementing as soon as possible.

As discussed earlier, the risks posed by an unsecured website and old web pages are too great to ignore. They don’t just threaten your users; ongoing security deficiencies could imperil your business.

A security audit will help you spotlight vulnerabilities, simulate real-world threats, verify SSL certificates, and more.

A security review is also an opportunity to analyze your accounts and permissions to ensure sensitive functions and information are available only to team members who need them.

Finally, make time during your security audit to create an incident response plan. If your business falls victim to a ransomware attack or other threat, you can’t afford to improvise. Build a playbook beforehand so you can confidently handle critical incidents.

Your content is priceless because it brings users to your site. Without content, you have no traffic, and without traffic, the outlook is bleak. That’s why publishing people-first, high-quality content on a consistent basis is absolutely crucial.

Depending on their size, some brands will have an in-house writing team, while others may depend on a single digital marketing professional to create all of their content.

Either way, it’s important to develop a content strategy that informs your content creation process and moves your brand toward its goals.

Regularly review your existing content to ensure relevance, accuracy, and freshness. Content is an asset, but old, outdated content can become a liability if it gives users the impression that your brand is behind the times.

Once your content begins attracting visitors, you need to do everything possible to minimize funnel friction and maximize your conversion rate. You can’t ignore user experience, as it is often the deciding factor between a conversion and a bounce.

Whether you’re redesigning your site architecture or laying it out for the first time, ask yourself one question: Will this structure help my visitors find what they’re looking for?

Your users (potential customers) want maximum reward for minimal input. Build your site so they get exactly what they came for with as few clicks/swipes as possible.

This includes thoughtfully organizing and naming your collection pages and ensuring your header and footer navigation menus are clear and comprehensive.

When was the last time you visited a slow, clunky, old website and said to yourself, “You know what, I’m actually going to deal with this subpar user experience instead of clicking back to the SERP and exploring other sites”?

For most of us, the answer is “virtually never.” There’s simply no good reason to wait for slow-loading pages. In most cases, it’s easier to try another website than wait for a page to load.

As a site owner, you don’t want performance issues to drive users away. Use tools like Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights to identify areas for improvement.

Work with a dev team or consultant to prioritize issues so you can start with the most meaningful fixes.

Attribution is indispensable in marketing. Data-driven insights are vital in informing strategy, opportunities research, and validating your digital marketing efforts.

Optimal data collection will help you keep your website and business on track. Conduct a thorough review of all your analytics and ensure you’re using the latest solutions, such as Google Analytics 4.

Remember, your data is only as valuable as what you do with it, so don’t just dump it into a storage drive, never to see the light of day.

Learn how to use your data to track progress toward your business objectives and KPIs. Then, master the art of presenting your most valuable data visually to engage internal and external stakeholders so you can advocate for future optimizations and marketing initiatives.

Optimizing an outdated, old website is a serious endeavor, and it poses a challenge regardless of whether you’re new to digital marketing or undertaking a site migration covering 100,000+ pages. With a trusted digital marketing agency by your side, you can build a best-of-web site while preserving your internal bandwidth.

As an ROI-focused agency, VELOX leverages the latest technology, deep insights, and proven techniques to help businesses achieve sustained search dominance. We conservatively target 400 to 800% ROI and consistently exceed client expectations, which is why we’re recognized among the top 3% of agencies globally as a Google Partner.

Don’t let your aging website hold you back. Contact VELOX today to learn how our peerless business intelligence and expert implementation can improve your online visibility.