Is your website ready for rebuilding?
Sure, a few years ago your website had all the bells and whistles that your Calgary Web designer could offer. But now, the site is beginning to show its age. The Internet lives in dog years more than it does in human years, things change quickly, evolution and revolution go hand in hand.
So, what can you do with your aging site? Scrap it and start again? Well, it depends. When you start thinking about rebuilding your website, it is as good a time as any to review your entire Web presence. You need to consider how your needs have changed, how Web culture has changed and how your goals for your website have changed too. If you need to look further than that, you will be considering your business model, your business niche, your marketing strategy and budget and your corporate identity. These need to be secured before you move into any new or revitalized Web project. Being secure in these key areas allows you to confidently consider the options for your Web site redesign. Consider everything from the domain to hosting, the script/database platform the site is built on, the functionality of the website (do you want to move into e-commerce, if you haven’t already?) the look of the web design and how relevant is your content to today’s visitors?
Here are the top 11 advantages of Web redesign:
- Domain and hosting re-considerations – you can look at more relevant domains for your Web presence and redirect your old domain references using a 301 redirect to ensure all of your search engine results find their corresponding link on your new site.
- Fresh overall look – has your company’s image been updated? Or does your current Web design carry obviously old design trends? Looking established is one thing, looking passe is another! Keep the site design clean and simple to ensure its longevity.
- Expand your Web site design – many older sites were built to the past standard of 800px wide screens. Now the standard resolution is 1366×768, which makes narrow screens feel constrained.
- Funnily enough, we have gone back to having to accommodate small screens again as we are now the mobile generation. If your website structure does not adapt to the different screen sizes it is not considered “mobile-friendly.” Improving the user’s experience is a key part of the design and re-design process and integrating the “responsive design” that adapts to your laptop, tablet and mobile phone.
- Update and reorganize content – A redesign gives you permission to turf old news, or at least move it to an archives area, and rewrite your content with content that is freshly enriched with up-to-date search terms and keywords.
- Navigation and Menu improvement – A key aspect of redesign is a full review of the menu systems and supporting navigation.
- Refresh photos and images throughout the site – get rid of that old stock photo and add in some custom photos of your own.
- Update your website’s platform to a CMS. If you have a CMS already, make sure it gets updated to the latest version to ensure compatibility, security and functionality.
- Updated SEO techniques – if you don’t keep your search engine optimization up to date, you will lose out to competitors who do.
- Add video – get rid of that flash intro and put those development funds into adding a custom video clip to your revitalized site.
- Consider adding ties to Social media – like Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. Just make sure you are prepared to update and maintain these other media sites in the future.
A redesigned website can be even more powerful than a new website. When done correctly, your Web designer can make sure that the momentum carried by the old site fuels the redesigned site – even if this means a new domain or updated web page addresses.
A final reason for Web site redesign, whether you are in Calgary, Alberta or anywhere else in the world, is to spread the news to clients, friends and everyone else! A Web redesign will get people talking and re-ignite their interest in your company and services.
We specialize in Web site revitalization and can meet your graphic design and web design needs serving Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane & Okotoks.
