Does your website need a refresh or do you need a new website?
It looks old. It makes your brand look uninspiring. You don’t like to send the link to prospective clients anymore.
Technology and especially web design is moving so fast that the longevity of a website rarely reaches ten years. If it’s more than ten years ago, then go ahead and give it a fresh coat of paint.
So how do you make an informed decision?
Here are 4 key questions that you need to answer when considering a website refresh:
1. Is your website mobile-friendly?
Does it look good on a desktop as well as on a mobile phone or a tablet? Do the text and images fit the screen well, in any screen size? Is the menu easy to use and are things easy enough to find without too much scrolling?
The trends keep showing that more and more users will access your website from their phone or tablet. Given the variety of screen sizes in both of these types of devices, making a mobile version of your current website is simply not practical. You have to be prepared.
A new, responsive version of your entire website is the solution that will bring more value for the investment, both in time and finances.
Don’t know if your website is or isn’t mobile friendly? Google will tell you and point you to a few issues to fix. Use their simple tool: Mobile-friendly Test.
This is why we always use themes that are responsive and provide a great experience for users, both on desktop and mobile devices.
2. Is your website up-to-date with the latest SEO practices?
If you’re not sure how to answer this question, we recommend reading one of our previous articles: What Does SEO Mean?
You will look mostly at on-site SEO. Is the content of your website clear and focused? Are your keywords part of your content, and are they still relevant for your business?
SEO questions all boil down to this: is it easy for users to find your website by searching it on Google, Bing or any other search engine relevant to your demographics.
There are multiple tools that help you analyze your website’s SEO. Here’s one of them, from Neil Patel: SEO Analyzer.
3. Does your website have too many sections, pages, subpages?
Most websites do not need more than 5-7 pages and 10-15 subpages. From our experience, even having this many is a bit of a stretch.
In web design, this is what we call Site Architecture. What it means is the way that your menu is built, how many pages you have, how many subpages each page has and how easy it is to find your way around the site. This also might mean that all roads will lead to a contact form, or a sale, or a subscription.
All the roads of your website need to lead to the paramount Call to Action.
Is it easy to find information on your website? How easy is it to read the information? Is the font legible? Is there enough white space so that the information does not feel too crowded and does not tire the eyes? Do the users need to keep scrolling to get to where they need or to have to enlarge the picture/font size to see something? Are there subpages that take several clicks to get to, only to display a few paragraphs of text/information?
4. Does your website look polished and relevant?
While this is not the most important part, it does matter. Research shows that users form design opinions about a website in less than 50ms. This makes the job of web designers a tough one. They have less than 1 second to make a good first impression.
So ask yourself. Is your website a visually appealing one? Here is a short list of elements to pay extra attention to:
Does the look still reflect your identity?
Does the logo look good?
Do the fonts used look professional/modern/inviting?
Do the fonts match? Are there too many?
Do the colors used look fresh and inspiring?
Is the information easy to read?
How appealing do the header and footer look?
Are the pictures used of a good quality?
For a more complex, data-driven assessment, check out the Elegant Themes article – “How to Conduct a Design Audit of Your Website“.
SEO Packages
We offer SEO packages that will help you get more out of your current website.
Feel free to contact us in case you have more questions.
