420 Design Blog
Time for a site re-design?
26 Nov 2005 | Angie H
One of the caveats of having a website is updating. There are varying levels of course, but once every so often, it's time to redesign your entire site. But how do you know when it's the right time?
The answer varies from site to site, company to company, but we've compiled a quick checklist. It's by no means a complete list, and while some are less crucial than others, if more than a couple items apply to you, it is for sure time to have your site redesigned.
Expanded or new services/products
If your company has expanded its services enough, it's a good sign that your business is growing and your site should reflect this change.
New or changed target audience
Sometimes as a company changes, so does its target audience. Your website is part of your marketing arsenal and also needs to be geared toward you target demographic.
Your site's age
If your site is over 2 years old, it's definitely time for an upgrade - at least from an aesthetic standpoint. More importantly, a two-year old website has become outdated by new technology, which changed very quickly.
Customer Feedback
Your customers are the ones using your site, day in and day out. If they start to suggest changes - especially if it's repeated by many customers - it may be time to listen to them very closely.
Download times
If your site's download times have increased, there may be some structural or code clean up that needs to be done.
Stats
While not as common, there are sites that make it difficult for owners to know who has visited and what they looked at despite the stat report tools provided by many hosting companies. If this is your case, it's definitely time for a redesign.
Losing to the competition
Again, it's your customers that use your site. If you think that your current site doesn't give your users the best possible experience, or if they're preferring your competitor's site over yours, it's time for an update.
Poor or non-existent search engine ranking
If you can't find your in Google or other search engines by typing in your company name, neither can anyone else. This is a very good indicator that it's time to either redesign your site, or have it optimized for search engines.