Signs You Need a New Website: How to Tell When It's Time for an Upgrade
This is a topic and a question that we get asked about all the time. I'm excited to dive in today to chat all about how to tell when you need a new website. This is going to be a bit of a long one. So grab some coffee, a pen and paper, and see how your site stacks up.
For some of you, the good news is you might not need a new website, you might just need to do a branding refresh. For others, the list of things you need might be a mix of technical, user experience (UX) changes and some design. This might feel manageable during a lull or slow season in your business, and you might be able to carve out some time to chip away at it over the course of a few weeks. For others, you might need a whole new website, and I understand the “OOF” feeling that can bring and how daunting it may feel.
But I also know that we have website solutions that make this process easy as it can be while getting you the results that you want.
I'll preface my TED talk below by noting that Anchorlight is on its eighth (EIGHTH!) version of our website. And this is the first one that I am not responsible for any of the building/design and it feel AWESOME. The feeling cannot be beat. I am experienced, but even for me DIYing a build is so.freaking.exhausting. The struggle is so real. And all too often the things we struggle with get pushed to the bottom of the priority list. But I’m here to tell you that your website is the primary driver of the economics in your business and you can’t neglect it any longer. It’s not enough to just be out there: we want it to be the best it can be.
But the “best it can be” type of DIY build is a BIG ask to add on top of your every days, day to day with your clients, and running your business as a whole. It’s a ton of work. With that being said, I know that no one makes it easier and is a full service the solution that we offer. More on that later.
So how do we know if you’re due for a new website? These top tips will help you identify where you stand.
You built your website over two years ago.
The reality is you don't have the same business you had two years ago. Almost everything is different. The business climate is not the same. Economics in the world aren’t the same-cost of goods are through the roof. The offers you have may have evolved and the new ones may not even be up there yet.
You may serve the same clients, but you are not the same business owner you were two years ago. You have more experience, (hopefully) higher prices, and that needs to be showcased.
Anyhow, you need a new site if it's over two years old. There's no way around it. Again, it's all about reframing this as an opportunity and something exciting instead of something to dread. I know it's possible because I was able to psych myself into that mindset and it makes all the difference.
You Are in Dire Need of a Brand Refresh.
Just because you have a logo now doesn't mean it's a logo you have permanently-especially if you’ve evolved your business in a different direction and serve a new audience. We have clients that had logos for 30 and 50 years respectivelly-refresh them with great success. Maybe it's a new set of colors with the same logo. Maybe it's a tagline, or some new fonts. But if what you have out there doesn't accurately represent you as a person and as business right now? You need a branding refresh. It helps that when you're in the middle of refreshing your logo it’s a perfect and reasonable time to also refresh your website. One begets the other.
Your Site Is Not Performing Well in Terms of Lead Generation
I can't tell you how many people we have that come to us and say they don't get any leads from their website. Everything they have is word of mouth and all leads are referrals. Again, to summarize the other blog post: word of mouth referrals can be great but referrals alone are NOT a business strategy. It's critical that you ALSO have organic people off the street, walking in your front door, and putting down their money to pay you, too. This is huge and the benefits are compounding over time.
Getting leads off the wild and open internet is not alchemy. It’s not science exactly, but it DOES involve a strategic approach and intentional steps that have to be taken. It’s something that has a very specific strategy and framework to it. This is not something that you can randomly flop on a website and hope that it works. That's not intentional, and that doesn't get results. If your site doesn't have a strategy that is in line with what you currently offer, SEO optimizations that are getting you found, proper setup and structure to make Google happy, and ranking for those dream clients you need to grow: then you need a new website.
You Are Not Ranking on Google for Relevant Keywords
If you aren't number one for kickboxing in Northern Iowa, and you know damn well that you're better than all the other competition out there, then this is an SEO issue. The good news is this is something you can fix. The bad news is this isn't usually something you could fix on your own in an afternoon and the results will take a bit longer still. SEO is almost always something that you need help with.
Even if you’re an amazing implementer, you need a roadmap for what to fix. You could implement changes here and there and fix your SEO over time but it's usually easier and more cost effective to do those SEO changes and modifications all at once and in tandem with a new web build. Because chances are a lot of the SEO fixes are also related to your content, or lack thereof– all things that are addressed during a comprehensive web build.
Your Website Has the “Patchwork Quilt Effect”
This is a fun one and super, super common. The patchwork quilt is this: you started out one way, but then you added this, and then you added that–a page here, a button there–and next thing you know your site is not clear. In fact, it’s a bit all over the place.
It has pieces that you like but other pieces don't make sense. And overall, the UX (the user experience) is not as good as it used to be because of the additions that you've made. While they may have been needed, they’ve also gummed up the overall feeling and flow users take on your site and that’s no good for conversions.
You could go through it piece by piece and fix each page and the overall journey. But in essence by doing that…you're already basically building a brand new site. And 9 times out of 10, building a brand new site is going to be easier, less time consuming, and more effective than trying to fix your UX problems in the dark with a faulty flashlight.
Other Considerations:
The other quick test I like to run clients through is how much time do you have to devote to this? Because if you only have a couple hours a week, the odds of you being able to complete this on your own are very slim.
The reality is that website builds take as long as 35 hours on a custom build with all the bells and whistles-a lot of time, in other words, but it really depends on scope. And if this is our range as experts, then where do you land in that equation? I’m betting it’s a scary number.
Value your time and the things that save you time and effort. So yes, it costs money to build a new website. But overall, how much is your time worth?
This is a whole other ball of wax, so we can unpack another time, but too often our clients don't value their time the way that they should and all that time spent DIY-ing, you could have had a whole new site up and running by the time you contact us.
This is deep work–do you have the bandwidth and skill set to match? Building a site properly requires the unicorn combo of strategy/design/coding/tech/a little bit right brain + a little bit left.
This isn’t something you can accomplish over late nights with wine and Netflix. You need to focus and you need a plan. This has to happen ON TOP of the deep work you already do day to day in your busines and for your clients. It’s a lot to ask and takes a lot out of you. We know, we do this for a living and when you’re in the thick of it, it feels like mud. Maybe a spa-like mud if you’re like us and love tech, but if you don’t? The BAD kind of mud, definitely.
What You Can Do: Website Audit, Refresh or New Build?
First things first for the budget conscious Doers out there: you could always opt for a website audit.
A website audit is going to analyze where you're at, and also where you want to be. In doing this, we can figure out exactly what is needed to get you the results that you want. You might be able to do them on your own. You might not. We can't really tell until we get in there. But doing a web audit will give you valuable and tactical advice on where you need improvements. So often it's hard to see things for what they are in our own businesses and prioritize what needs to be done. The web/SEO combo audit if your solution.
A web refresh is a makeover on an existing live Squarespace website
We can roll through your site and just do page by page refreshes of graphics and copy and roll them back out live for you. Again, this takes time and work on your effort to do the copy and secure the images. It's not pain free, and it is not the most robust solution-but for tiny sites or sites that just need a bit of love, this is a good option to start with.
The last choice and the best option is to just get a new website build.
Our builds are superior to everything on the market for a multitude of reasons that we lay out really well over HERE. Hop over there and read all about how we build sites and how they're different here at Anchorlight. The cliff notes is that we are a full-service, project manager led, team of women professionals waiting for you to kick your heels up and let us do the hard part while you just enjoy the rewards.
No matter which option you choose, know that procrastination is never as rewarding as a fresh new site deploying into the world that matches your business, showcases your unique story, and is ready to make you the money you deserve. We’re cheering for you and your business every step of the way. If you want to explore your options we’re waiting for you and the coffee’s on!
