Unfortunately a website doesn’t last forever; it needs to be rebuilt from time to time. There is no ideal frequency for this, but several factors can help you decide.
To make the process easier, I wrote about the most important points to take into account and how much weight you should give each one.
Keep in mind that a redesign is not restricted to the aesthetics of the site, but also covers the construction technology, the information structure and even the content.
Content that doesn’t reflect the company or its services/products
A website redesign is mandatory if a major change has occurred in the company. I usually say that internal changes must be reflected externally. If the company has changed direction, size or even location, this must be reflected on the site, even if the services/products have not changed. If only the services/products change, it is a case of simple maintenance , which should be done regularly.
Outdated code structure
Although it is quite technical and hard to assess, there is one indicator that clearly shows whether your site needs a redesign. Using tables to format page layouts was abandoned around 2007, but many still relied on the technology and sites built this way can still be found today. The way to find out is to view the source code. Every browser has a menu that shows the source code. It should start with <html> or <HTML>. Search the document for the <table tag (without closing the bracket); if you find a very large number of them, the technology used is definitely outdated. On the other hand, even if your site has no tables, technology has evolved a lot in recent years and many sites can benefit from new technologies.
Use of Flash
If Flash was used as the basic technology, a redesign of the site is mandatory. A site entirely in Flash is a black box to Google. It cannot read the content, much less take a user who searches to a specific page on the subject. If your site has a Flash header, you also have a problem, because the menus cannot be read either. If it is just animations on the home page the problem is smaller, but you must make sure these animations have fallback images. Otherwise users who can’t view Flash will be left with blind areas on the site.
Copyright Date
More precisely, the date the site was built. If your site’s date is more than 5 years old, there are strong indicators that it should be redesigned. The first question is whether it receives technical and content maintenance. If it does and its content is renewed frequently, the only reason for a redesign is aesthetic, that is, modernizing the company’s image. Today every business has to modernize, review its services/products and always be alert to market changes. A redesign shows customers that these changes are happening and that you care about good service. If there has been no maintenance for at least a year, a redesign of the site is mandatory.
Responsive Design, or “can your site be read on a phone?”
Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) are increasingly present and will undoubtedly be the future of computing for most people. Responsive design lets your site resize completely to fit the screen of the reading device. More and more people use their phones to access the internet, so every site developed today should be built with this technology. The idea that mobile users should have a separate site has also fallen by the wayside. With new broadband technologies on phones, it is no longer necessary to reduce and simplify the design, and especially the content, so much; quite the opposite, users want to see the same content and experience on their smartphone that they saw on the computer.
If you would like to contribute new items to this reflection or share what you think, use the form below. If you need an opinion on your site’s code and content, contact us through the website form and we will send you a report on your site evaluating each of the points above.
