How often should you update your website?

According to research conducted by a prestigious Silicon Valley research agency, the correct answer is 2 years, 6 months, and 3 days.If it’s been even a day longer than that, you are in big trouble!

No, that’s not really the answer. Believe it or not, there is no definitive period for when you need to look at getting your business a new website. There are a range of factors that will play a role in helping you determine if your website needs to go under the knife, or not.

First, Let’s do some housekeeping. If your website is:

NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY

Your website is due for some serious work IMMEDIATELY.Besides the obvious frustrating user experience, there is another important negative effect. If your website is not mobile friendly, you can say goodbye to your google rankings due to Googles’ mobile-first indexing. It’s called “mobile-first” because it’s not a mobile-only index: for example, if a website doesn’t have a mobile-friendly version, the desktop website will be included in the index, but due to the lack of a mobile-friendly version, it will impact negatively on the rankings of that website.

HAS FLASH ELEMENTS

Your website is due for some serious work IMMEDIATELY. “But I did ask my previous web developer to make it ‘Flashy’?” No, we aren’t talking about interesting transitions and animations, we are all for that if executed correctly, just like the High Performance Sport New Zealand website has done. Flash is an application developed by Adobe, which played a vital role in the advancement of web development. Flash doesn’t work on mobile, Google doesn’t like it and indexes it badly, usability and load times are generally poor and even the late Steve Jobs had the following to say about it “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.” in an open letter (full version).

Now that that is out of the way, the question still beckons:

HOW OFTEN? or DOES MY WEBSITE NEED AN UPDATE?

Well, it depends. There are many factors to help you determine if you require a new website. Age is a factor. If it’s been a few years since you last had your website designed or updated, it’s probably time to at least consider it. However, age isn’t the deciding factor. Would you drink rotten milk, just because it hasn’t reached the expiry date yet?

Regardless of the age of your site, here are 10 questions that you should ask yourself:

1. Is my website mobile friendly?
2. Has my business stayed exactly the same since my last website launched?
3. Does my website function well on all technologies (browsers, screen sizes, devices, etc.)?
4. Does my website look modern?
5. Am I seeing steady growth with my current website?
6. Is my website better than the competition?
7. Do my customers compliment my website?
8. Does my website align with my current business goals?
9. Am I proud to share my website with potential clients or employees?
10. Do I like looking at my website?

Let’s address the elephant in the room, you answered “No” to a few of these questions didn’t you? You should engage with a web design and development agency in order to revive your web presence. I know that some of these questions are easier than others. Some rely on opinions, others on data, however, the end result is the same. They all form a test to indicate whether your website has a level of brokeness and needs to be fixed, and the fix is almost always a redesign.

FINALLY,

The best indication of a redesign is as simple as this: Are you asking if your website needs a redesign? Because if you are, then your answer is probably yes. After all, why else would you be asking? I urge you to get in touch with us, and we will gladly conduct an audit for you!

“Jason Liebenberg is the Creative Director at Durban based digital agency, Tenzing”