Quick Thoughts on Updating and Rebuilding Your Website

There are no rules when it comes to updating your business website in a regular manner. Deciding on whether to update, redesign or re-engineer your site should depend entirely on your business goals, objectives and economic considerations. It should not be dependent on a superficial time frame not based on facts.

A variety of factors can make a redesign worth considering rather than rebuilding it.

• For example, you have new branding and color standards this year, and you need to make sure your new look extends to your website. Moreover, your bounce rates - few converts from visitors - are extremely high. A well-thought-out redesign can turn this around.
• Another example is, your business has grown and you will need to have new products and services. Your website’s design may need to reflect that change. 
• Lastly, your customers complain about your site looking outdated, not working or too slow.

Source: UNSPLASH

 
What developments might be required to re-engineer any website from scratch?

• Making it adapt to mobile device screens. Fixing this is an absolute must in today’s mobile-driven world. Anyone in your company should be able to learn and use your content management system (CMS) to update your site. 
• Keep things simple: If your site takes forever to load, you need to re-engineer the back end. Nobody puts up with long waits anymore.

Customer opinion and feedback give you the kind of insights that convert visitors into customers. Start by asking what they think of your proposed design and if it appeals to them. Then,

• ask about the problem they’re looking to solve
• ask if the information they need access to is easy to find in the new design. 
• after you relaunch the site, ask them again if they like it. If they say no, address their concerns through incremental design enhancements, which your new site should allow you to do without starting over.

In short, you want to follow the lead of sites like Apple.com and Amazon.com, which rarely undergo complete facelifts. Instead, their sites evolve over time using an iterative process that results in near invisible refinements that have the bonus of maintaining the user experience that customers know and like.