How often should you change your website?
2 years?
5 years?
7 years?
Whenever you change your advertising?
There is no tell-tale sign as to when you should change the overall look of your site. Typically you want to keep it fresh and give your visitors a reason to return.
Our designers recommend having something on the homepage that changes frequently, and depending on your client base, might not be more than once or twice per month – a new team picture, updated company information, sales or promotional items for your clients – something small to keep readers interested.
As for a complete website overhaul – typically you don’t want to change it drastically unless you have a drastic reason for the change, for example: you’re not receiving any traffic to the site and you’ve tried Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, you’re changing your company’s entire campaign, it needs to be more customer-friendly or more accessible.
If you’ve had descent traffic to your site in the past, maybe you only need a cosmetic change and not a total overhaul. Keep in mind the majority of clients are creatures of habit, they don’t like change, particularly big change, so if you plan to change everything from look to navigation, then be ready to receive some negative feedback, no matter how awesome you think your new look is.
Some looks can be changed with some simple maneuvering, adding some rotating pictures, creating a newsfeed on the homepage – maybe you don’t need a whole new site, but just a new outlook, so to speak.
Let our designers work with you to get you exactly what you need, and the best way to go about it. Be ready to have the open discussion with them – maybe it has been 7 years since you first launched the site and you need something completely different – or maybe it’s just starting to look a little stale and you’d like something to spruce it up a bit.
We can do it all – and help you create a Content Management System (CMS) that will help you make small cosmetic changes all on your own in the future. It’s not reinventing the wheel, it’s just giving the wheel some cool new rims!
