How Do You Know It's Time For A New Website?

It’s your most important marketing vehicle. It’s the face of your company, the portal to your content, and an invaluable first impression to your prospective clients.

Is Your Website Hurting Your Company and Its Potential Opportunities?

Two things to consider off the bat and what have most likely held you back from this all important business decision. First is cost and second is the effort of rethinking your web strategy. This article will hopefully shed some light and insights as to whether IT’S TIME for you to consider redoing your company website.

A Couple of Points to Consider

1. How long ago did you create your website? If the answer is more than five years, it’s probably time to consider a new approach as web trends, technology and user expectations have changed at a fast clip. How do you measure up against your competitors or are they leaving you in the dust?

2. Web trends: I’m not a big proponent of being the first adapter of trends for trends sake, but there is no disputing that websites of five years ago most likely are outdated. A question to ask yourself is has your business changed in five years?

3. Technology: Technology has been the biggest catalyst of change and chances are your website still utilizes ancient technology from an infrastructure point of view. Is your site built on flash technology? Is your site built with an old programming technology? Is your site built to satisfy only the desktop user? These are just a few points to consider.

4. User Expectation: Is your site hard to navigate? Is it visually stale and confusing to the user and does it encourage user exploration? Is your site built with a Content Management system (CMS) and is it built to easily add updated and progressive content?

A Couple of Clear Trends That Every Website Should Address in This Day and Age

1. SEO: Does your website employ contemporary Search Engine best practices, not SEO strategies from yesteryear? Does your website have a chance in hell of being found by your prospective clients? Most likely the answer is a resounding NO.

2. Mobile: Perhaps the biggest driver of whether it’s time to dust off that old website is what your website looks like in a mobile platform. Unquestionably the most important area to consider is a responsive website, which if built properly creates a tailored experience regardless of user device. It utilizes the same content for phone, tablet or desktop. A responsive web build addresses these needs in a single platform.

3. Hiring the right firm: Who are you placing your trust in to develop your new website? There is no dispute that many individuals or companies are lurking looking for your business. A mistake we commonly encounter is companies claim to be website gurus. And they might have a grip on platforms like Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla. But do they understand what you do? Do they understand marketing strategy and who your target market is? Do they know who your competition is? Or can they throw around technological jibberish that sounds impressive, but you don’t understand?  

These points just scratch the surface of whether it’s time to invest in a new website.

Your website is the most important and critical component of your business strategy. It is the first place, and maybe last place a prospective client will go to for what you do. It is the vehicle that will generate better awareness for your company, encourage more inquires about what you do and ultimately create more business opportunities for future growth.