Last year I wrote about the problem with bad websites that are not just ugly and dated, but hurt your business reputation and the ability to be found online by people who want to spend money with you.

I’ve updated it a bit, but the basics are the same:

There are times when I need to walk a fine line.

In the marketing worlds I work in there are times when something is just not good.

The two areas I work in these days are radio broadcasting and digital marketing with WOWO Radio and Federated Digital Solutions.  This isn’t a new field for me, I’ve worked in radio for decades and the digital world for 10+ years.

Click on this picture to read the sad story about this "ugly baby"

Click on this picture to read the sad story about this “ugly baby”

The past couple of years, I have had to tactfully tell business owners that their baby is ugly. Not their offspring, their website.

It’s hard. I had a former advertiser show me his new website and while it was an improvement on his previous site, it was still lacking many of the elements needed to bring it up to today’s standards.

And I’m not just talking about my standards, I’m talking about industry standards.

I’m going to give you a couple of links that you can use to see if your website measures up or if it needs an overhaul. Be prepared to learn a few things.

First off, there is the mobile-friendly test.  Google will now punish your website search ranking if your site is not mobile friendly.  Click here and find out if your site passes. Oh, Yahoo and Bing are also penalizing you too.

Another place to check is Hubspot’s Marketing Grader. You’ll get a report with a score and suggestions on what to do.

This is a good starting place but instead of simply relying on these automated tools, you really need a professional evaluation done by a human being (ME) that can sort through these reports, do a few other checks and evaluations and tell you if you have an ugly baby or just need to give her a good cleaning.

We can also talk about the purpose of your website to determine if you need to hire a professional team and create a custom site, hire a smaller developer, or perhaps do it yourself.

Are you prepared to see if you have an ugly baby of a website?  Click on those links and then let’s talk.