Websites are a lot like vehicles. They are created and then
often require ongoing updates, maintenance, and care. Eventually, a vehicle
runs its course and it’s time for a new one. It is the same for websites.
Your company’s website is an ever-evolving marketing tool to
help you gain more business. But as time progresses, your website will also
have to change. Just like with vehicles, there are features that may have been
standard in year X, but that are not required in year Y. And there are
introductions to new features that eventually become must-haves.
We’ve had many of our existing clients for several years.
For some, we just do digital marketing. For others, we host their website. And
for most, there was a point in time where we designed a website for them.
A new website launch is an extremely exciting time for most
clients. And at that point, they think they are done. However, once you launch
your website, you can expect to have a redesign somewhere down the road.
When is a good time to redesign your website? How will you
know if your website truly needs a redesign? Here, I’ve broken down some of the
key reasons your website would need a total redesign to help you make the best
decision for your company and budget.
If you’re part of a large enough company, you may have
someone on staff that takes care of the website updates for you. If you’re a
small business like most of our clients, you are probably the one updating it
yourself.
If your website was built in 2008, for example, and sits on
plain HTML, the chances are high that you spend more time on updating the
website than you would like to. If you consider the time you spend updating
your website that you could spend on other things like growing your business,
the cost to redo your website is worth it.
Another element that may make your website harder to update
is if it was built on a template. WordPress templates are an awesome way to get
a website up quickly and easily. However, if you started with a website
template and ended up having to rework major parts to make it work for your
business, you may find issues down the road with making changes. Templates need
to be compatible with the latest versions of WordPress and if they are not, you
will likely run into issues with making your desired changes.
The bottom line is that when you or your staff becomes very
frustrated with making website changes, you may want to consider a new website
that is easier to manage.
YOUR COMPANY HAS GONE
THROUGH A TOTAL REBRAND
Rebranding takes a lot of time, effort, and money. Your
website is a huge part of your marketing strategy and as such, if you’re going
through a significant rebrand, you’ll want to make sure that you put your best
new foot forward with the website.
Most rebranding consists of things like:
A new logo design
A new tagline
New colors/fonts
An entirely new brand guideline
As such, I would say that it’s important to update and redo
your website to best reflect your new branding and get the most out of your rebranding
dollars.
YOUR WEBSITE ISN’T MOBILE-FRIENDLY OR SEO COMPATIBLE
If your website still isn’t mobile-friendly in 2019, now is
the time for a website redesign.
Having a mobile-friendly (or responsive) website is an
absolute must-have in 2019. Most consumers are on mobile and in fact, according
to WordStream, a glaring 52% of global internet traffic comes from mobile
devices. If your website doesn’t on a phone or tablet, the chances of users
sticking around to view more of your website are slim.
Having a mobile-friendly website isn’t just a “nice to have”
anymore. Users demand this from company websites and now, Google demotes
websites in rankings that are not considered mobile-friendly. They’ve even
developed a mobile-friendly test website where you can see if your website is
considered mobile-friendly by Google.
Other important SEO
factors to consider are:
Does your website load fast?
Is all of your meta information up to date?
Does your website structure make sense?
It is possible to optimize your existing website, but
depending on the above, the time spent adjusting may outweigh the cost to just
redesign your website.
YOUR WEBSITE ISN’T
ADA COMPLIANT TO WCAG 2.0 AA
If you’ve been on our blog before, you’ve seen us talk a lot
about ADA website compliance. ADA website compliance is ensuring that your
website can be accessed by people with permanent or temporary disabilities.
Consider a visually impaired person who needs to use a
screen ready. If your website is not coded properly, their screen reading
device is rendered useless and they’re unable to access key information on your
website. As of 2010, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were developed
to set standards for making websites accessible to users with disabilities. The
current acceptable standard is WCAG 2.0 AA.
If you are a federally funded organization, you are required
to be ADA compliant and meet WCAG 2.0 AA standards. Private businesses aren’t
held to the same standard and it is currently not illegal for your website to
not comply, however, you do run the risk of being the target of a lawsuit. Many
law firms are targeting businesses of all sizes on the grounds of violating the
ADA, and even if you win that case, the amounts you could face in legal fees
could outweigh the cost to be proactive and make your website compliant.
Source: atilus.com
