FREE Website Assessment
For many SMBs, the company website is a source of major stress. They may fear that the website might not be up to their standards or be performing poorly, however, they often don't have a good subjective measurement to determine whether or not that gut instinct is true.
It's sometimes hard to know if it's truly time to redesign your business website. The cost, in terms of time and budget, that must be devoted to a website redesign project has to be balanced against the potential gain from the new site. For some businesses, it might be better to balance the cost of a new website against the cost of keeping a poor performing website.
Here are a few things to consider when you're weighing the cost versus the benefits of replacing your current business website.
Is the current website turning away potential customers?
One quick way to get the answer to this question is to conduct a brief online or email survey. Take a screenshot of your current home page. Give people the opportunity to rank your website homepage on a scale of 1-5 for whether it inspires trust, confidence, enjoyment or other feelings that would motivate someone to do business with your company. Sites like SurveyMonkey and UserTesting.com offer extremely inexpensive surveys and user testing that can quickly tell you if your current website is actually a business liability or asset.
How difficult is it to update your current website?
The ability to refresh the content for your website internally, without having to call in a designer or developer, is something that can extend its value considerably. If your current website does not feature a content management system (CMS), then you may want to consider updating it. Especially for restaurants and businesses whose menu or services change frequently, the ability to update your site yourself can be a huge business advantage.
Have your business needs outgrown the current site?
Sometimes, your business model changes. Or you a new product or service set takes off in a big way. Sometimes, your business grows quickly, and your existing website is no longer an accurate reflection of who you are. If that's the case, it may still be attracting visitors, but if they're not the right visitors for where your business is now, it's still not performing optimally.
Have competitors launched sites that are outperforming your current site in search?
Google has changed its algorithm considerably in the last five years to favor sites with frequently updated, fresh content and social integration. While your site may have established a lead in organic search upon launch, you may have found that competitors have surpassed you in recent years. If that's the case, and organic or local search is relevant to your business, it may be time to update.
If all these factors are pointing to a decision to update or completely redesign your business website, we'd love to discuss it with you.
