For tax agency websites, overhauling your website is essential to stay ahead of the game and drive traffic to your website rather than your competitors.
1. Broken Links And 404 Errors
This isn't the only reason to overhaul your website, but it could be the starting point for assessing the content, design, and brand. Understanding your company's internet reputation should be the first step. Because Google is so important in your online reputation, fixing 404 problems and damaged content is always the first step. When it comes to ranking your website, search engines despite broken links and keep track of how many broken links you have.
2. Your Google Analytics Performance
When was the last time you checked your website's Google Analytics stats? Your website's analytics can speak volumes about how it's performing (or underperforming). The use of relevant keywords in your industry such as “tax agency” or “tax completion” is essential. The most prevalent cause of high bounce or departure rates is users not being able to find what they're looking for quickly enough. The general rule is that the user should be able to find the stuff they're looking for in 2–3 pages.
3. Your Competitors Are Doing Better Than You
The importance of building a website around your branding cannot be overstated. This involves the site's content, pictures, logos, and general voice and tone (language). External blogs, forums, articles, and social media will all be branded in addition to the main website. Do you want possible clients or customers to see an out-of-date website? A redesign is usually needed to become relevant and competitive. As a result, your branded image has a better chance of succeeding than competitor websites.
4. Can People Find Your Website?
Most out-of-date websites aren't optimized for current information, headers, image tags, social media tags, or schema markup. Not being able to rank on Google is a widespread worry. As mentioned earlier, using the right keywords on your website that are relevant to the tax season is going to help your website rank higher on search engines.
5. User Experience
Is your website user-friendly? The information a user seeks should be accessible in three clicks or less. If they can't, it's time to review your site's structure and navigation. An easy-to-navigate and organized website will keep visitors longer and enhance the likelihood that they will return.
Visitors need to be able to find any information on their tax returns that they may need, such as deadlines, deductibles, and any benefits they are receiving that might affect their tax.
6. Is Your Website Outdated?
Older websites tend to have a lot of script libraries, pictures, and design, which can cause load times to be slow. Performance will be hampered by sites that run non-optimized, non-compressed scripts. As a result, people are much more likely to visit a competitor's website. Users don't care if your gorgeous graphic or sliding banner takes a long time to load. Compression and minification of scripts have become common modern methods.
7. Security
This is a subject that's getting a lot of coverage in the media right now. Keeping your website's code, server, OS, and fixes up to date is generally considered best practice. According to current statistics, 83 percent of WordPress-powered websites are vulnerable due to outdated plugins and core versions. Finally, Google has pushed hard for all websites to use an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate. As far as Google is concerned, websites without SSL Certificates will be penalized in the search engine rankings. Those looking for help with their taxes will be looking for an SSL.
8. Site Structure
You may not realize it, but the structure of your site has an impact on how well it performs, how much it costs to maintain, and how much functionality it has. Having every service you offer arranged on your website in a clear manner will increase the likelihood of visitors staying on your website. Label things clearly with headings such as “advice about submitting your tax” and “tax deductions you didn’t know about” to encourage people to click further into your website with the end game of using your services.
Speaking of services, have contact information and pricing clearly labelled on your website so people can get in touch sooner rather than later.
9. Outdated Content
Users will have a negative first impression of your business if your website contains news that was last updated a year ago or has expired copyright dates. You need to make sure you have updated tax forms and tax numbers on your website to keep your content not only relevant, but legally correct. Keep your site current and up-to-date to encourage users to return. Make use of a content management system (CMS) when overhauling your site. A CMS is a tool that lets you change your site's content and graphics without knowing HTML or other programming languages.
10. It Needs To Be Mobile Friendly
When was the last time you checked your website on different mobile devices? New phone models bring new screen sizes. As a result, your website may not look or work properly on these new devices. If your website is not mobile-friendly, your search engine rating may suffer. Modern websites are becoming more user-friendly. The idea is to have your website work on all devices. This will boost user behavior and SEO.
Font sizes are the first step in becoming mobile friendly. Mobile devices should be able to read social feeds and photos. For consumers to easily obtain necessary information, the text must be clear and succinct. They are not looking to read lots of text; they are looking for fast, practical information. To boost mobile performance, all photos should be optimized. Video and animation should be utilized sparingly on mobile as they slow down loading times, reducing usability and experience.
Call us today if you’re in Charlotte and you’re looking for web design. We can solve all of your website problems so your tax agency website is the best it can be! Our team will be happy to help.