1. Mobile-First Responsiveness is a must

Mobile devices facilitated over 43% of e-commerce sales in the US in 2023 and Shopify predicts that mobile commerce will hit an eye-watering $710 billion in 2025. Almost by default, marketers and web designers tend to work on their site from a desktop-first perspective. This can unwittingly leave mobile customers bogged down in slow loading times during the checkout process. Optimising your site to be responsive on mobile ensures its compatibility with all devices, meaning you’re not leaving your customers out in the cold. 

 In a 2019 study exploring the impact of mobile site speed on conversion rates, Deloitte found that over 20.5 million user sessions, retail e-commerce sites saw that user transactions increased by 8.4% when there was a 0.1 second improvement in mobile site speed. What’s more, average order value also increased by 9.2% with the same improvement. By not keeping mobile experience front-of-mind when designing and optimising website functionalities, businesses risk preventing engaged users from reaching that final conversion point. In fact, the same 0.1s speed improvement on mobile saw a 9.1% increase in users adding products to their baskets. In short: more users progressed in the sales funnel and more transactions completed at a higher value with just 0.1s improvement in mobile site speed. No-brainer.

2. How do you actually improve mobile responsiveness?

The answer largely lies in the  technical side of your site. Here are some quick(ish) wins you can try: 

• Image Optimisation: an obvious (and often overlooked) step is to optimise the image formats on your site from outdated, heavy files to lighter next-gen formats, like WEBP. The ideal size for an image is under 100kb. Is it a tedious task? Yes. Is it worth it? We think that’s pretty clear. 
• Optimise your site scripts: remove unnecessary code in your site scripts that may be impacting your loading speed. Quick tools like HTML cleaners are a saving grace for this, but be careful to review their outputs. Out-of-the-box code cleaners can impact stylistic choices that have been intentionally inputted. 
• Implement caching: this one can get a bit techy, but implementing caching can significantly boost site speed, but if you’re unsure on the how-to it’s a good idea to get a professional in to help. 

As if we hadn’t already proven our point, Google uses the mobile version of your site for crawling and indexing. That means that if your mobile site isn’t optimised, you’re slowing down the rate at which Google’s crawlers can index your site. Indexing is a search engine’s categorisation process (like the index in the back of a textbook). The Search engine will essentially store your content in a way that means it is accessible to those searching for a particular query, and subsequently assesses your content for ranking. If you’re slowing down Google’s crawlers, the less pages they can list in their index. No indexing, no ranking. Simple.

3. Keeping Content Relevant

We’re not suggesting that you update your entire website’s content for the sake of keeping your marketing execs busy – a good rule of thumb is that if it’s functioning well and driving a consistent engagement or conversions, there’s no need to rock the boat. But if you have new services to shout about, important updates to legislation that may impact your product, or general updates that are note-worthy, it’s worth doing a quick evaluation of your pillar & product pages to see where to add information, and where to leave it alone. Keeping your website content fresh shows regular users that you’re evolving, and new users that you’re active. 

Engaging, useful and up-to-date content attracts new visitors and helps to retain existing ones. But it’s not some marketing voodoo that does this, or the sheer force of your founder’s will. Search engines have focused increasingly on helpful content in recent years. In fact, Google’s March 2024 update specifically targeted content that looked like it was written for search engines rather than humans- essentially, low quality content filled to the brim with keyword stuffing and spammy links that doesn’t provide the answers users are searching for. Our top tips for maintaining fresh, helpful content are:

• Little and often content tweaks: whether it’s a reference in your content that’s now laughably outdated, or services that you simply don’t offer anymore being visible on your site, conducting a content refresh every six months or-so ensures that you aren’t caught out. 
• Keep in mind user intent: when producing content that humans are searching for, think about solutions over problems. Simply put, if your business solves a specific problem, tailor your content to directly address the issues that your users are experiencing. For example, in this guide, we know you’re looking for answers, not a big list of issues that you already know you have. So we’re providing actionable tips to help you keep your websites fresh. Groundbreaking, right?

In an era when AI-barf fills most companies’ websites, actually helpful content is the needle in the haystack that search engines (and humans) are looking for. 

4. Maintaining a modern website design

Maybe it’s a colour scheme that’s stuck in the mid 2010s, maybe it’s a clunky navigation that’s a sticking point for your users – whatever is preventing your website’s design from keeping up with the times, it’s worthwhile to periodically review and evaluate what can stay on your site and what’s good to go. This will depend from site to site, and how recently you did your last overhaul. The main take-away here is to keep user experience at the forefront of any design updates and improve any functionalities accordingly. If your updates impact any of the following areas, it’s probably a good move:

• Improving customer journeys: the objective of your business’ site is to improve leads. If you have an outdated bit of kit that’s simply not serving your users well enough, it’s time for an update. This can be anything from ensuring clear calls-to-action (CTAs) or simplifying your lead-generation forms. 

• Improving navigation: users aren’t going to convert if they can’t find what they’re looking for. If your current site navigation relies too heavily on stylised internal jargon over categorisation that makes it clear to your users where to find the solutions they’re looking for, an update is probably overdue. 

• Reflecting up-to-date branding: if you decide it’s time to give your branding a glow-up, it’s important to ensure your website aligns with your brand’s latest vision and values. This means updating logos, colours, and messaging into the key real-estate on your site and ensuring the user journey is seamless from the first touchpoint to the final conversion.

5. Adapt to Changing Technology Trends

Updating your website regularly enables you to keep up to date with the latest trends in technology within your specific industries, but it goes without saying that this should always be done in line with your brand’s strategic goals. We’ve collected for you a tale of two case studies, demonstrating when tech changes make sense, and when to adopt an ‘if it’s not broken’ attitude:

• • MAC Cosmetics introducing ‘Virtual Try On’: in 2021, MAC Cosmetics enabled users to visualise product shades from home via augmented reality. This was a great example of utilising recent technology to improve user experience directly address a real problem the brand was facing: a lack of online sales due to buyer hesitation. The result? A 200% increase in customer engagement and an increased cross-selling capability.  

• Air Canada’s Chatbot turbulence: Air Canada learned the hard way that half-baked tech changes led to user experience issues. AI chatbots have long been implemented in place of live customer support chats, but as Forbes reported, the airline “did not take reasonable care to ensure its chatbot was accurate” before installing it onto the site. This led a grieving passenger to mistakenly believe that they could refund their ticket under the airline’s ‘bereavement fares’ policy – as per advice given from the website’s AI chatbot. The immediate cost? $812 in small claims court fees. Long term impacts Air Canada’s reputation? Difficult to quantify. 

6. Ensuring the Latest Security Updates

Look, we’re not cybersecurity experts– but regular updates to your softwares, apps and plugins help to protect against cyber threats and data breaches. Labyrinthine tech stacks can lead to serious issues when it becomes impossible to keep up with each application’s individual updates. In a 2023 report, Salesforce found that most enterprise businesses use over 1000 applications. Our suggestion? Simply the amount of programs, softwares and plugins you use where you can. Failing that, perform routine updates of your tech to maintain the latest security standards.

7. The Moral of the Story? Little and Often Updates Win Out

If there’s one bit of advice we can impart, it’s this: update, update, update. Yes, it will keep your team busy, but the risks and potential rewards of having an updated website far outweigh the effort. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with this information overload, and don’t know where to start with giving your website a facelift, contact us and we’ll be happy to lend a hand.