When/How Should You Review and Redesign Your Website?

After a while, your website will inevitably need updating. New technologies happen all the time, and you want to make sure your website keeps up. It’s a necessity that customers be able to easily navigate your website for you to maintain traffic and business revenue. The UK Web Host Review states that 75% of people will base your businesses credibility on your website and that 94% will lose trust in you if your website is outdated. How do you know when it’s time to review and revamp your website? Let’s take a look at why this is so important.

Why you should keep your website updated

1. Your business focus – The product or service offerings your business provides can change over time, along with your targeted customer base. This means you need to maintain editorial control over your website and keep messaging and content current.
2. Customer perception of your business – Anyone who is browsing around your website is a potential customer who compares your business to your competitors. Your website is often the first point of contact you will have with your customer. Not only is perception important, the speed at which you make an impression counts too. It takes a customer just 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about your website, and you have about 10 seconds to impress that customer before they move on to another site.
3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – Search engines put new content first. The automated algorithms within search engines like Google will place new content in a search result list before old content. The more activity and traffic created by your website, the more likely it is to show up in search engine results.
4. Security – Keeping your website hacker-free is essential. Usually, hackers will use your site to send out spam emails or hide hidden links to other sites. If your content management system is out of date, your website is likely vulnerable to attack.

When should you review and revamp your website?

The usual recommendation is to set up a regular review schedule for your site and do a thorough content review every 2 to 3 months. Here are some questions to ask yourself during that review:

• Is your website considered out of date?
• Have you shifted your company focus?
• Do you regularly update your website content?
• Do you have a mobile-friendly site?
• Is your site fast enough?

The answers to these questions will provide you with a good idea of whether you need to revamp your website. You don’t always need a total redesign unless your site is very out of date. Usually, a few minor alterations will do the trick. Updating old programming to increase the speed at which your website loads, keeping your content new and current, and ensuring easy mobile access will improve your site’s traffic levels.

When should you fully redesign your website?

There are some differing opinions on how often you should do this. If you’ve gone through the questions listed above and a few minor alterations aren’t enough to fix the problems you’ve identified, a full redesign may be necessary. Here are some recommendations that might help you decide if it’s time to revamp your website.

• If your site has ceased to be responsive
• Every 2-3 years to improve your user’s experience
• There is new technology to improve website performance
• Your website no longer meets your goals
• Security has been breached
• Your branding or style has changed
• Your metrics show bad site performance

The longer you leave your website outdated, the more impact this will have on your business. Traffic to your site will decrease, you will start leaving bad impressions on customers, which is more costly and time-consuming to fix. Maintaining your website regularly is more straightforward than revamping, but if it’s too late for that, consider a total re-do.

Whether you’re updating your website for an SEO boost, or want to explore the benefits of a full rebrand, there’s a lot to consider before you begin. From budgets to business goals, discover the 6 key steps to successfully redesigning your website.

Need more help or advice?

123 Internet Group also offer expert web design and development services to drive more traffic and engage customers with quality branding. Book a free consultation today!

Website maintenance checklist

Here are a few things you can check every month to ensure your website is up to date and running smoothly:

• Backup and automation processes
• Bug fixes
• Monitor security
• Update content
• Ensure fast responses
• Update code

Website redesign checklist

Here are the things you want to examine before you revamp your website:

1. Goals – Determine whether you are meeting your desired targets. Decide on your budget, what you want to accomplish, and how much time you’re willing to spend.
2. Users – Knowing your primary customer base will help you to design your website according to their needs. Figure out your target audience and what parts of your website users spend most of their time on. This is where you should put your focus. Is there an easy to follow flow to your site? You can also identify the keywords that attract the most users.
3. Competitors – If you know what your competitors are doing with their websites, it will give you a leg up in improving yours. Take note of their website sections, whether they have a blog or chat feature, and what keywords they have optimized on their page.
4. Design – As previously discussed, you have a minimal amount of time to make an impression on visitors to your website. Most of these impressions will be related to your site design. Ensure your logo and graphics accurately reflect your brand and entice users to dig further into the site.
5. Development – Test your website in the real world and make changes according to its performance level. Compatibility in different browsers and mobile performance is critical.
6. SEO content – Identify your current SEO performance and develop a base list of keywords and phrases to drive traffic.
7. Functionality and ease of use – When you launch your website redesign, make sure the changes don’t stop your functionality, particularly if you’re changing URLs or have new page redirects—backup all your website data in case you need to restore your site quickly.

By consistently following a review process, you can maintain your investment in your website. Customers will be more likely to browse your site and contact you, leading to increased sales and performance for your company.