Your website is typically your customers first stop when they’re trying to gain a clearer understanding of your offerings and gauging credibility. Because of this, it’s important to keep your website as a fresh, innovative showcase of you and your business.
Unfortunately, like most things in the world, websites don’t always age well. In this article we discuss how to evaluate if its time for a website refresh and what easy next steps you can take that won’t break the bank.
Website Refresh vs Website Redesign
These are two terms you’ll commonly hear being thrown around when it comes to evaluating your website…but what do they actually mean? And what pathway should I take?
- Website refresh
A website refresh is similar to redecorating your house. The rooms and foundations stay the same, but the look and feel is spruced to keep up with modern trends, and the changing dynamics within your household. Maybe little Sally isn’t so little anymore and needs a more “mature” look to her previously lime green bedroom walls – similarly, perhaps your products or services have grown and adapted with changing times and your website needs to better reflect this. - Website redesign
A website redesign is a bit more work. We can compare this to renovating or rebuilding your house entirely. Not-so-little Sally may now be a sibling to 3 others and you need more room, the old house just won’t do.
For the purpose of this article, we will just be focusing on a website refresh. Just like your business, your website is an ever-changing work in progress that is likely to evolve many times to better reflect your brand. So begs the question, when do I know if it’s time to refresh?
When is it time to refresh?
There are a number of questions you can ask yourself when evaluating if a website refresh is for you. Here’s a list of the ones we find most useful:
- Does your current website reflect where your business and brand is today?
Your bedroom-based-business, one-man-band may have evolved into something more. Use your website to showcase change and growth! - Does your website look good across different device sizes?
In this day and age, I think we all know the importance of responsive web design. However, this is still a reasonably new concept in the grand scheme of things. If your website is 5+ years old it may not be as mobile-friendly as it could be and, as a result, you could be losing more than half of your potential customers. - Are customers struggling to find your website online?
If you aren’t coming up on the first page of Google when a customer searches for your business, this can cause frustration and put their level of trust and confidence on shaky ground. There are some simple, modern techniques that can be implemented into your website to improve this that many older websites won’t include. - Are you proud to show off your website?
Your website should represent your business as professionally and effectively as you do. If for any of the reasons mentioned above, or for a range of other reasons, you find you are hesitating to give out your website address, it is time for a refresh. You and your team should be proud of your website and use it as an effective sales and marketing tool.
What do I do now?
So, you’re ready to take the next step…what now? There are many quick and cost-effective things you can do to improve your website. These include:
- Updating imagery (check out this article for great free resources)
- Refining your written content (read this article for advice on how to do this effectively, or this article for useful free writing tools)
- Update your fonts and colours to align with other marketing material you might have
- Test, test, test – get a few friends together and ask them what they would improve on your website. An outside perspective can be more useful than you might think!
Of course, a professional touch never hurts. Contact us today for a free, no-strings-attached chat. We’re happy to answer any questions you might have and give advice on what your next steps could look like.
