As a digital agency, we get this question asked often: “How often should I update my website design?” This is a great question! The answer is that it depends on your unique site goals and needs, as well as how many years it has been since your site design has been updated. The current website standard is to update your site design every 2 to 5 years. This will help your site stay modern, relevant, secure, and competitive in a rapidly changing digital market.

If you are considering a site redesign, keep reading to learn our top tips and questions to ask for determining the best time to update your website.

How Old is Your Website?

If your site is over five years old, it’s recommended that you update your site design. Since website trends and technologies are frequently evolving, it’s important that your site stays up-to-date. Indeed, this redesign is necessary to keep your site modern, relevant, and competitive. If your site is outdated, this can hinder your site’s success and ability to provide a great user-experience for your target audience.

Our AWG tip:

  • Check out your site competition to see what they are doing in terms of site design, content, and technologies compared to your site.
  • This can give you key insight into what is current, trending, and/or useful to drive more users to your site.

Do You Have a Fully Responsive Website?

For those new to the term, responsive website design refers to a web design approach that allows sites to automatically adapt to any device and screen size. Since users tend to use a variety of devices to access your site, this is an essential aspect of a successful, modern website.

To see how responsive your site is, consider these tips:

  • Visit your site on a mobile device (i.e. phone or tablet). A mobile responsive site will have a mobile hamburger menu, easy to read text, and CTA (call-to-action) buttons that are easy to select. You shouldn’t have to zoom in (i.e. tap or pinch the screen) to view any content.
  • Ask a non-tech savvy friend or family member to check out your site on their mobile device. Pay attention to how they interact with your site and whether they come across any usability or functionality issues.

If your site is fully responsive, it will look good and be easy to use, whether you are on a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. If not, this is a great opportunity to redesign your site to be responsive. Consider that Google ranks sites higher that are mobile responsive, and most users prefer sites that can be easily accessed on any device.

Does Your Website Content Reflect Your Current Business?

If your site hasn’t been updated in a few years, it’s possible that it is displaying outdated information to your customers. This can be frustrating, especially for customers that are looking for accurate business information, such as your hours of operation and address. When this information is outdated on your site, this can negatively reflect your business as unprofessional or even non-existent. This is not good! You can avoid this by regularly reviewing and updating your site content, which will most likely be often for a growing business.

Our AWG tips:

  • Regularly check to make sure your site content is updated (i.e. hours of operation, address, contact information, services, products, prices, team members, and more).
  • Add new team member photos and brief bios every 1 to 3 years. This will help your site stay modern and help potential customers connect to your amazing team.
  • Add new site images and/or videos every 1 to 3 years too. For example, if you moved within the past year, this is an excellent opportunity to add new images or videos of your business location, team members, and products/services you offer.

Can You Easily Update Your Website Yourself?

When you need to update your site, it should be easy to make changes, at least regarding business announcements, products and services, and your blog. It’s recommended that you choose a website agency that builds your site on a user-friendly content management system (CMS), such as WordPress. This makes a huge difference when you can quickly and easily make those small site changes on your own. For big changes or complete site redesigns, it’s still recommended that you hire WordPress experts that have digital expertise to build a user-friendly, responsive website that drives traffic, is SEO friendly, and competitive.

Does Your Website Rank Well on Google?

Around 68 percent of all web traffic is through search engines like Google. Since Google ranks sites higher that are mobile-friendly, updated regularly, and provide useful content for users, it’s imperative to keep your site design up-to-date. If your site is outdated and ranking poorly, it is less likely that your site will be found by potential customers. Indeed, this is not an ideal website strategy that aims to continually grow and drive more site traffic and conversions.

AWG’s tips for improving your site’s SEO:

  • Start a blog: write weekly or even monthly articles on your site about content that is relevant to your target audience. This will improve your site’s SEO score and encourage site visitors to explore your products and services and eventually become customers.
  • Create individual service pages on your site and incorporate relevant keywords that your customers are searching for to find you. By doing this, you will boost your SEO ranking score and make it easier for customers to find what they need quickly and easily.
  • Designate a review or testimonial section on your site, where you allow customers to share their experiences with your business. This is an easy way to promote your business, provide social proof for potential customers, and keep your site updated.

I hope you found this article helpful as you evaluate your current site’s design and goals. When you redesign your site will depend on your overall site needs. However, these tips and questions to ask yourself are a handy guide to figure out when is the best time to make updates. Contact Awesome Website Guys today to learn how we can help redesign your website to bring it even more success for the new year.