Websites can be a hefty investment, so it’s perhaps little wonder that many companies like to keep their site in place for years! And let’s face it, who wants to deal with the rigmarole of regular website overhauling?
I’m not an advocate of the “hey, let’s just make a new one,” approach for the sake of it. Some website problems can be fixed with minor updates rather than wholesale changes. But there are some situations in which a new website is the best way to go. Here are 6 signs that it’s time for a new website.
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It Will Never Work on Mobile
If you cannot get your site to work on mobile in 2016, you’re closing your shop doors to half of your potential customers.
If you have a dated platform that cannot work on mobile or large chunks of the site built in flash, then it might be time for a bit overhaul. Responsive design is a search engine friendly way of making sure your site adapts its look and layout based on the size of the user’s screen.
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You cannot update the content
If your content management system is poor (or, shock horror, non existent) then you have a problem. Updating content shouldn’t have to be a web developer’s job. Your marketing team, your copywriters and anyone else with a reason to be involved in editorial should be able to update and produce new copy and pages with relative ease.
With content playing such a vital role in marketing, it’s imperative that you have some form of content management system fit for purpose.
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Google Can’t Crawl Your Site
If your site has fundamental issues that stop Google indexing it, then it’s time for a rethink. Some issues that could cause an issue for your site’s position in Google include:
- Use of paralax scrolling on a single URL in place of multiple different URLs
- Overuse of iFrames
- Javascript navigation of javascript loading content – while Google is getting better at crawling this sort of content and URLs, it’s not 100% reliable at this stage
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The Site Simply Cannot Convert
Investing marketing budget into traffic generation only to find that traffic doesn’t submit a lead or make a purchase ever is a massive problem. Wasted traffic is a marketing budget black hole.
Don’t fall into it.
Not all conversion issues require a whole new website. But if you’re on a system that makes making minor amends a major headache, then perhaps it’s a perfect opportunity for a new site built with user experience and conversion are the core.
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Fundamental Site Speed Issues
The speed at which your website loads for users is critical to both SEO and the likelihood of a user converting to sale/lead.
Some site speed issues can be fixed by upgrading your server or compressing images. But if you have unnecessarily bulky code at the core of your system and it’s making things laggy, it might well be time for a an upgrade.
Investing in a New Website
A big investment needs big consideration. So before you part with the budget, make sure you’ve identified potential partners who understand your objectives, have a proven track record of meeting briefs a little like yours and who will approach your site with user experience in mind. At the end of the day, your website is a tool to connect you and your target audience so you need to get it right.