The signs that your website is becoming obsolete (and what to do about it)

So when is it a good time to replace a website?

It’s an honest question. A website is a business presence, and when your website does not work, you and your business don’t work.  ultimately you do some research on your competitors in order to stay at par or better yet one step ahead.

But there are a number of significant clues to obsolesce that you should discern from your analytic metrics about your own site.  Here’s the key questions to ask:

• Is your traffic decreasing steadily, assuming the same marketing campaigns have been used over the examined time versus the time before the decline?
• Are the steps navigate seem increasingly cumbersome? Mobile devices and tablets have established the expectation that navigation is simple, requires few steps, and seems seamless across devices.
• Does your website reflect the current identity and branding of your business? Does it show your products and services?

That second point raises the most serious concern, because navigation is related to the amount of information that the site is meant to convey.   Are people navigating a lot to get to the information they want? Are they scrolling a long page without a large image to draw an eye -- this layout is a 1990s ploy incompatible of tablets and mobile phone, and deployment of internet access through carriers.

It also reflects a lot of information is being conveyed - it means you have a lot of clutter. This Zimana post explains why your site should not be cluttered.

Ultimately you must realize that the world of online solutions is constantly changing.  If your site was built when Explorer 6 was all the rage, then this is the year for a redesign…Sites are being designed much differently now than they were even a few years back. Plus search engines have systematically revised algorithms and criteria for ranking sites in queries. It’s probably a good idea to re-design every few years to stay up to date and ensure the site shows how your business benefits customers.

Some simple fixes to consider for a meaningful updating:

• Update your text often, especially on your home page, so that the texts reflect current products, services, and the benefits your business provides to customers and client.
• Make sure content are not arranged in large blocks of text. People tend to scan information online to determine what they need.  In some layouts, a large amount of text can clutter the site message - customers scan for products, services, and information they need. 3 to 7 lines are sufficient for online reading, depending on the width of the space.
• Change your photos. New images are a simple way to change up the look.
• Consider adding video that demonstrates how products and services are offered, and how your business works. Doing so reduces clutter on a site - because now another media can describe the business. It also allows exposure for other platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook for extending an online presence.
• If you are writing a blog or have followers on Facebook make sure you are adding posts on a regular basis staying in the loop of what’s new in your field, keep your meta tags up to date and current.

And there are other ideas you can use to to improve a website - check out this list of idea.  You can also examine these posts for further refinement:

• Improving conversion from a website
• Another for establishing a website