Update Present Website or Build A New One?
As a website owner you only have a few seconds to capture the attention and trust of the site visitor, before they click away and go elsewhere, maybe to your competitor. This reason alone should be enough to ensure you always keep your website properly maintained and up to date. Sadly, due to the industry many websites fall behind in terms of performance, design and features. The industry progresses that quick that a new website can quickly become dated. This is where you have to ask yourself do you start again with a new website build or update your present one.
More and more websites are being built every day and gone are the days you can sit back and rest once your new site is launched. It is after all representing your business online and brand. SEO for example (search engine optimisation) requires a website to reach a certain standard in terms of speed, design, content and usability. Failure to make sure these are reached will mean poor rankings in the free natural search results and that’s less traffic and visitors for you.
So, the question is do you start from scratch with a new site or do you update your present website? This all depends on many factors. How old is your present website? Is it built on an old platform no longer supported? Do you need any new features on your website that may require a site design etc? Maybe your branding has changed and your website is using your old brand style.
The main reason for your choice will be budget and costs. You might think it’s cheaper to simply update your present website. Fact is this may not be true. If your website is using an old platform that modern developers don’t really use anymore it can take longer, more hours, and at a charge per hour rate this pushes your costs up. Like when you constantly throw money at an old car to fix repairs, sometimes it’s simply easier and cheaper to buy a new car that does not require constant repairs.
Many experienced developers and designers will have a ready-made platform like WordPress that already has most of the features ready via plugins. WordPress also has thousands of plugins that you can add to do most functions. This alone reduces the cost of a new site. If your site is old then trying to build in new features you need may mean lots of development as the website was not built to incorporate new features or do the required task you need.
Maybe you have widened your product range or services and this needs to be reflected on your website. You might want to make the customer journey and experience more enjoyable too. In this instance it’s probably far cheaper to have a new website designed and built from scratch. One major factor in going down the new website build is mobile responsiveness. If your website is old then it might not be suitable for mobile devices or tablets. Meaning almost 90% of people who search online won’t be able to use your website properly. Also, Google now ranks websites that are mobile responsive higher then websites which aren’t. Fact is anyway your website should work on desktop PC’s, tablets and mobile devices now as standard, if not then this reason alone is enough for a new built from the start website.
Another factor is your CMS (content management system). Maybe it’s dated and you need to manage your own site and amend things as and when but your admin is too confusing and not user friendly, again another good reason for a new site.
If you have performed an extensive SEO strategy campaign and your website still does not rank this may be due to your website itself in terms of coding, structure and speed. If these cannot be improved then again a new site may be required. If the technology is dated then again the cost to get around this will be more in development hours then a new site build in most cases.
Technology and development has advanced so much in the past few years that a website needs to be able to incorporate social media interaction, app opportunities and maybe even animation. An old website will struggle to do this or at the very least do it at speed not slowing the site down and giving the site visitor a poor experience.
If you are in the process of updating your website or even looking at getting a new site built then speak to us here at Dorset Tech. We will give you an honest assessment on what we think will be the best and most cost effective way to improve your website and include all the features you require. Our rates are also affordable and we do not charge silly amounts for our web development and build services. Speak to a member of the team today for a free no obligation quote and bring your website up to date and able to compete with your competitors.
