Mar10

Mar10
Although arriving at this number was not an exact science, our 3 decades in business has demonstrated the average lifespan of a website design to be about 2.5 years. That’s around the time our current clients start getting antsy for something new and exciting. It’s also when prospects tend to put feelers out for a new web marketing partner such as ACS to handle their website redesign. For our purposes here today, let’s refer to this phenomenon as the 30-month itch. Whether the project on the table is for a long-time client or brand new contact, we are not in the business letting you spend more than you have to on more than you need to. Learn below the slight difference between refresh, rebuild, and website redesign.
If your website’s visual vibe is growing a bit stagnant, it may be time to consider the options – we can help!
To better understand the difference between redesigning and refreshing a website, we’ll use the metaphor of a house. Let’s say you own a home or have invested in a property that could use a little work. Much like avocado-colored refrigerators and bright orange Formica counter tops, the design trends that were dominant when you first launched your site may not have stood the test of time quite as expected. In real estate, we examine the “bones” of a home first and foremost. Does it have a solid foundation? Are the floors even? Are the support beams straight? Is the overall layout within the exterior walls structurally sound? If so, there is unlikely a need to bring the bulldozer in to start from scratch. The same is true for digital properties. In this scenario, a fresh coat of paint and updated appliances can have stunning, transformative results—without breaking the bank. Modernizing your existing site to improve the overall user experience and further integrate your brand is considered a website refresh.
A website refresh is a lighter lift, just taking the existing structure, design, and bones of the site and sprucing it up. Recommending some SEO aspect, conversion rate optimizing the pages to maximize path to convert, and incorporating design elements that make the website pop.
A website redesign, however, is much more involved. Back to our home renovation analogy; it’s the equivalent of smashing a wrecking ball through your fixer-upper and starting over from square one with completely new blueprints. This is a major overhaul and, while often necessary, there are sometimes less dramatic options.
Certain situations will arise where you’ll know it’s a great time to refresh your website. Things like:
If your company has the time, funding, and patience for it, we recommend a site should be refreshed each year. Refreshing content and code of your site frequently also can send signals to the search engines signalling you’re taking the time to invest in user experience.
We commonly see three scenarios in which a company feels it may be time for a total website redesign:
There is usually a disconnect between a client’s assumption that their site needs a total overhaul and the reality of our options. For instance, changing the button colors from blue to green does not warrant a new website. However, discovering that years of bad code, a messy hodgepodge of untrustworthy plugins, countless bugs, and dysfunctional features are impeding the effectiveness of your website often does mean it’s time for a fresh start. You may be asking yourself, as a business owner, is this simply one of life’s unfair certainties we need to accept? Going through an epic online site launch every few years is just par for the course? We say no.
Your website may not be on the most solid footing currently—and that’s okay. At ACS, we aim to shift the online world’s mindset around the website redesign vs refresh debate with one bold statement: Your next website design should be your last website. What does that mean exactly? Glad you asked! By focusing on constructing a solid, future-proof foundation for your site build, we are setting the stage for a flexible, adaptable online presence that will evolve right along with your business. Obsessing over the behind-the-scenes details, ensuring every nail, bolt, and beam is perfectly aligned now, creates a digital property fit for long-term change.
It’s easy to preach your next website will be your last website, but how can we guarantee that? Well, we can’t… BUT we can stack the odds in our favor by establishing a strong, stable foundation. The finer points of which will vary based on which platform your site utilizes as a CMS. Using WordPress, for instance, we would absolutely pay extra close attention to the following in the early stages of our construction project:
READ: Cheap Web Design Will Cost You
Sometimes starting with a blank canvas is a good thing. Chances are, if your current site wasn’t built with longevity in mind, a redesign or small refresh is our best course of action. As your company moves into the future, start to shift your mindset around the full website redesign every the and a half years. Wouldn’t it be nice to just make a few site-wide updates whenever you felt the 30-month itch come along? We’re entering an exciting time in the history of online marketing. We now have the tools and resources to build applications that last longer, hold up to change, and withstand the evolution of business.