0.05 seconds. That’s all it takes for a customer to decide whether they want to stay on your website or not. While the old adage tells us “never to judge a book by its cover,” people often do, and websites are designed with this fact in mind. Creating a brilliant design that attracts the right audience is the goal of every website’s creative team. So when you realize that your website isn’t quite up to scratch or pulling in the numbers your business needs, what do you do?
The Biggest Challenges Companies Face With Their Websites
Website relaunches entail substantial expenditures of time and resources, with teams of developers working around the clock to modernize your site. While your site’s overall look and user experience are essential, there are often overlooked details that can undermine even the most extensive efforts.
Cleaning up all odds and ends
If you’ve opted out of a complete relaunch and just work on your website iteratively without starting from scratch, you must take the time to clean up some of the elements of your website that aren’t being used anymore. Cleaning up unused code, outdated templates, and inactive plugins will create a clear and direct platform that will facilitate better SEO, cleaner UX, and improved site performance.
Performance issues
The top issue continually seen across newly designed and established websites is the pages not loading fast enough. Customers expect a fast loading time, and this is part of the reason why so many are turned off from sites that take longer than a few seconds to load. Make sure that your site doesn’t have too much Martek that will slow down your user experience. Features like “lazy loading” and tools like static site generators might be worth considering if you’re struggling with website load times.
Lack of brand cohesion
If you’re using a variety of developers to update and add things to your site, you may find that your tone or visuals may become inconsistent. Maintaining a consistent site manager, or having a robust style guide can help ensure consistency in design and UX.
Should Web Op Teams Be Brought In-House?
When building web op teams, externally or in-house, it’s vital that the team you create is aligned toward your goals and has a clear idea of what you want your website to achieve. Use these goals to determine the specific tasks you need to accomplish, and therefore, the type of staff and resources you will need to accomplish them.
Using skilled professionals to supplement your team is critical in mitigating the effects of “groupthink,” and provides a fresh perspective. Pantheon.io provides some excellent guidance and information on what external resources can do to enhance your web presence.
The Future of Web Apps
There’s a large shift coming, in the form of no-code web development tools and services. No longer will large, expensive development teams be required to produce and maintain websites. With an increasing amount of no-code options predicted, this means companies will have more control in website development and be able to produce more, while spending less. This could result in an increasingly sophisticated and competitive web marketing environment, as the traditional cost barriers get broken down.
Learn How To Create A Fully Developed, Modern Website
If you want to hear more from Sarah Fruy, Director, Partner Marketing at Pantheon Platform at Pantheon.io, check out our exclusive Annual Conference session on how to “Kill the Website Relaunch to Achieve Radical Growth.”
Photo by Balázs Kétyi on Unsplash