Another year is practically here…and wow, have some changes come along with it. More than ever now people are using the Internet to shop, work, and communicate online, and more than ever now business owners have got to step up their game and join their customers there. It’s been quite a year seeing many businesses say goodbye (sadly) due to physical barriers suddenly being raised; unfortunately, we could still be seeing more businesses close their doors for good next year. While that’s not unusual, what is unusual are the new protocols and ways to conduct business we are now faced with, and in some cases, handling an online website is a whole other ball park to get used to.
It doesn’t have to be complicated to own and run a website or at the very least get it updated though. With all these changes in mind, it’s time to adapt and get ourselves ready for the new year. Here are our tips on how to get your business’s website updated for 2021 (and beyond that year too).
- Prepare for Google’s Latest Update
You read that right. Google has yet another up and coming change that will affect your site’s SEO ranking whether you like it or not. This new update is called the Page Experience Update, and this is what Google will start ranking a website highly for going forward:
1) A site where the site’s pages load fast
2) Pages and sites that a user will spend a lot of time on
3) Pages that users will return to
4) Sites that respond well when being accessed on mobile devices
5) Sites that are safe from malicious content and viruses
6) Sites that have the HTTPS security protocol in place
These are not unfamiliar features to us at V3, considering we already implement these when we develop a website for our clients. However, if your website does not comply with these already, it can mean a serious sink in your site’s ranking if it’s got poor page experience, aka these guidelines. A page where the content is rich but the page experience is poor may not suffer so much, but at the end of the day, the updates we prefer to do for our clients is provide them with a new website built from scratch with both great page experience and rich content.
- Get Going with Mobile-Friendliness
Yes, people are still using their phones to access the Internet. According to Statista, approximate 3.5 billion people own a smartphone worldwide. Imagine how many more people your company could reach by going mobile as well? Feel free to check out these other solid reasons to have a business website that’s mobile in our blog post.
Rather than build a completely new website specifically for mobile however, it’s easiest to get a new site that’s responsive across all major tech platforms such as desktop and mobile and tablet. If you’re wondering the reasons why we’d suggest that, you can check out our other blog post on the subject.
In the meantime, here are a few more statistics about why mobile-friendliness is one of the best ways to update your business’s site in 2021:
- 7 out of 10 people have admitted they will look for customer reviews of a product on their phone while in-store before speaking to an employee (eMarketer)
- Over 51% of Internet users rely on their mobile phone to purchase products online, while 66% of have said they use shopping apps on their mobile devices, phone or tablet (Datareportal)
- 6 out of every 10 shoppers have said that the option of buying products from their phone is a big factor when choosing select brands to buy from (Google)
- Traffic from a mobile device has jumped in usage to 52% in 2020 since 2015 (Statista)
- Refresh Your Basic SEO
Even simple things about search engine optimization such as title and meta tags, alt image tags, and the most practical keywords you want to target should all be re-examined around this time of the year. Why? Because it’s the little details that really contribute to whether your website is being found online or not.
Boosting SEO doesn’t stop on your business’s website either. Sometimes all it takes for Google to notice your site is to update your local directories on it and other search engines, and that’s enough to improve the local part of your SEO (for more information, you can refer to our blog post about local SEO here).
Maybe you have holiday hours you want to tell search engines about, or you’d like to announce a new service. Maybe it’s been a while since keyword research was conducted, or you’d like to examine the more advanced aspects of both SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) (psst…you can start here with this blog post of ours, if you want). Whatever you decide to do, make it a point to refresh this valuable means of improving your site’s online presence, even if it’s as simple as updating your business’s hours on the sidebar.
- Get Your Site Secured
2020 has had no shortage of vicious cyberattacks and phishing scams according to Wired, and the pandemic has made such things exceptionally worse. Now more than ever your business’s security needs to be tightened and the software updated to prevent such calamities from taking place at all.
Having a site built by V3 helps slightly, but we offer several other in-depth management plans such as managed VPS hosting to protect the privacy and information of both your business and your valued customers whenever they visit or use your website. Your site will be monitored 24/7 by our staff and you can rest assured knowing your site is in great hands.
- Learn Google Analytics’ Newest Features
Not only is Google updating their page experience, but also Analytics got its own refresh in October 2020. This new version is called Google Analytics 4, formerly known as App + Web. It’s got its own new property with very different reports compared to the Universal Analytics properties we outlined in our Google Analytics blog series. With GA4, you can use it for either a website, or an app, or both a website and app together. In contrast, Universal Analytics properties only support website analytics.
Google has outlined how you can get started with this new aspect of Analytics in their guide here.
There’s no rush to update your account right now, as this new update is still in beta mode. However, knowing Google, such a change is going to be implemented for everyone eventually. Not to mention some companies who are already using the beta version are already seeing major benefits. If you’re at all serious about improving your business’s marketing and return on investment (ROI), then this new version of GA will provide the insights into your customers that you need.
Get a New Up-to-Date Business Site with V3
These five updates are only a few suggestions that can help your business’s website go a long way. However, you’ll only see the best results by staying up to date with the latest tech and software, whether for security’s sake or for hosting. One way to achieve greater customer satisfaction online is by getting a new business website built by V3 Media. Our sites are not only beautifully designed in terms of aesthetics, but also in function and accessibility. (If you’re still hesitant, might we suggest one last blog post of ours to change your mind?)
If you want a new website for 2021 and a team who’s supporting you all the while, there’s no better time than now to start. Give us a call at V3 Media today.