Your website is often your company or organization’s first contact with prospective clients, and it is therefore vitally important that it makes a great first impression – anything less and you will be missing out on custom, leads and sales. So, aim to review your website every 6-12 months to ensure that it is in keeping with the current standards expected of websites. The question is then, how do you know if your website is need of an update, or even an outright re-design?
Writing a simple checklist is the best place to start. Write down everything that your current website should be doing. Then, ask some customers or friends to take your list and try out your website. Ask them which of the points on your list your website achieves. Tell them to be frank and honest with you, as you will gain nothing from the exercise is they want to avoid offending you. Tell them that it is not personal, but that you want to make your website and your business as good as you possibly can.
Next create a list of of what your web site does not do, either because of outdated design, or capabilities it does not have. List all of the features or capabilities that you would like the website to have. Then, create one sentence which describes the primary purpose of your website and one secondary purpose. Everything on your list should support your primary and secondary purpose.
Try not to get caught up in the mindset that it necessary to totally overhaul the design of your website. Often, making just a few changes, or adding one or two extra capabilities is the best approach to take. If you make changes simply for the sake of making changes then you will just be wasting time and resources. You may also alienate existing customers of yours who may feel overwhelmed and confused when they visit your website after the re-design.
Coming up with a strict budget, and sticking to it, is something else to bear in mind. It is good practice to get several bids or proposals for the project before accepting one. Let website design companies know up front that you can spend around a certain amount, and the sorts of changes that you are looking to make, and then ask them to give you their best price.
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