If every time you look at your site it elicits an ‘ugh’ or an eye-roll. When you find yourself apologizing for it or explaining things when someone asks for it. When it just isn’t helping you anymore.

At Rapport we’re very lucky that we can update our site whenever we want, but most people don’t have designers and web developers on payroll. It takes more than one factor to justify the time required and expense of redoing a website. I’d say if you’re suffering from two or three of the following five problems, it’s time to consider a new website.

1. Content and Design is Out of Date
2. Not Search Engine Friendly
3. Doesn’t Have any Interactive Elements
4. Can’t Update it Yourself
5. Doesn’t Work on Mobile

Follow this five-part blog to learn more.

Content and Design is Out of Date

Content includes all information on your site – text, photos, links, news, etc.

Is it time to update information about the company, staff photos? Are you offering new services or products that are not shown yet? You may have links to other resources that don’t work anymore, or more to add. A website with news from two years past always looks neglected and uncared for.

Expectations Have Evolved

Besides practical updates, today’s websites have more customer-focussed content, while older sites tend to have ‘look at us’ content. That means writing in terms of benefits to prospects instead of your own accomplishments and history (just tuck that away in ‘about us’).

You Tell a Site’s Age by it’s Size

One easy trick to tell the age of the site is to look at the size. If it’s more than three or so years old it will look small and boxy. The average site visitor has a larger monitor these days, so designers now build for a larger common size, and designers are incorporating elements that don’t make it look boxed in or cut off when seen on a really large monitor. And, there are always recognizable trends in design, online and off, that become tired and dated.

Does it Accommodate Evolution?

More practically, you may have gone through a brand evolution or have new things to showcase, such as a whitepaper or case studies, that your current site doesn’t really support (ie: there’s no where to gracefully stick a video).

If this is the only motivator, you can probably hammer it in by changing colours, but these are really great selling tools that shouldn’t be devalued by poor presentation for too long.

If you’d like to ask us any questions about your website, call Faith.
Part II coming soon!