The Importance of Overhauling Your Website

Online Presence

If you have had your website for quite a while and you haven’t made any changes to it (or had anyone else make changes), it is probably time to overhaul it to some extent. All websites, no matter how extraordinary they were when they were created, can use an overhaul.

The many reasons to overhaul your website

Because of the speed at which technology evolves on an extremely regular basis, it is critical to your business’s success that you keep up in every way possible. That includes periodically overhauling your website’s design and functionality. If you overhaul those aspects of your website, you will not only attract more visitors to your website but you will also succeed at inducing them to stay on your website longer than they would have in the past (in most cases). Of course, it goes without saying that your website must be user-friendly, clear, concise and extremely effective. However, if you notice that you aren’t getting the number and quality of website visitors that you expect, you need to look at what you have and make changes that will give you what you want. At this point, you may be wondering if you actually have a need to overhaul your website and you may also be wondering how you can tell if you need to overhaul. Well, there are certain signs that will let you know what you need to do.

  • Your website doesn’t respond easily: A very large number of your website visitors are using mobile devices to connect with you. If those mobile device users are trying and not succeeding to connect with you because of a technical issue on your website, that is a sign that you have some overhauling to do. Having your website be responsive to the mobile device user will take some work on the technical end to prepare for that. It is far from impossible but it is definitely necessary. The bottom line is that if a person who is trying to connect with your website from a mobile device can’t do that easily, that person will move on to another website that is easier to access. It isn’t worth your banking on being so amazing that the person will have the patience to stick with you because that person will not stick with you.

  • You have features that aren’t used on your website: Initially, when you first launched your website, you may have had a difficult time figuring out which features would be popular with your website visitors and which ones would become obsolete because of lack of interest on the part of the visitor. Also, there may have been some features that made sense to you when you launched your website. It is entirely possible that those features no longer make sense. If they are no longer being used, you should eliminate them so that you can use the space for useful features that people will want to use.

  • The reason behind the existence of your website no longer applies: Going back to the concept of obsolete features, the same concept may apply to the existence of your website. Of course, it is entirely possible that your business has evolved to such an extent that a lot of the information on your website no longer applies. There is an excellent chance that you have incorporated social media and other online tools in your business’s marketing strategy. Of course, that should definitely be reflected on your website and featured prominently. In that case, not only will you need to overhaul your website but you may also need to think about rebranding entirely. 

Making important changes to your website

As you are considering the necessary changes that you are going to make to your website, there are many  different options that you should keep in mind. 

  • The visual aspect: Even if the visitors to your website know exactly what they are looking for and they go directly to those pieces of information, the first thing that they will react to when they visit your website is the visual aspect of it. If your website is not aesthetically appealing, they may not go any further. The last thing that you need is to experience an increased bounce rate, especially when you can do something to change that situation. You can use a modern design and fresh, happy colors. Your graphic images will also be very important. It is important for you to understand that it may not cost you a significant amount of money to achieve this. Of course, you will have to spend some time thinking about what you want to use and then either implementing those changes yourself or getting someone else to implement them but a lot of what is available to you may not cost very much at all. 

  • Make your website easy to navigate: Your overhauled website should be very easy to navigate and it should be fast. Generally, people are busy and nobody wants to waste time. They simply don’t have the time to waste. Remember your concept of clear and concise. If you stick to that, you can’t go wrong. Another important thing is to update your website content frequently (although it is not necessary to become obsessed about updating it too much). There is nothing worse than stagnant content. It gives your website visitors the feeling that you don’t care enough to pay attention to your own website. 

  • Deliver on your promises: If you communicated with your online connections and that communication made some sort of promise. You must make good on that every time. Simply, if you promise, you deliver. It is your reputation on the line and you must always make the other person understand that you are a person of integrity and that your business will always be run the same way.

Conclusion

You probably have a wonderful website and overhauling it is certainly not a statement that says that is no longer any good. It is always important to improve whatever you have worked so hard to build. Making those changes will present a very positive impression to the people who are visiting your website. They will be excited by your improvements and they will come along for the ride. Of course, it goes without saying that the changes that you make to your website were well thought out and calculated to ensure that your website visitors get the most positive feeling from them. Along with that, it important to make sure that your message on your website is exactly what you need it to be. If you communicate clearly, the message will be received properly.

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Author

  • Michael Cohn

    Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has decades of experience in IT and web technologies. Michael founded CompuKol Communications to help small businesses and entrepreneurs increase their visibility and reputation. CompuKol consults, creates, and implements communication strategies for small businesses to monopolize their markets with a unique business voice, vision, and visibility. Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

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