Are you asking yourself if you have to redesign your website, again? Industry standards say that you should re-do your site every 2-3 years. We say, IT DEPENDS. But we won’t leave you there because that is a sucky answer.
You just did it a couple of years ago. It feels like yesterday because you are still recovering from the process and the investment. You’re getting some feelings either from internal staff, audience members complaining about how they can’t find information on your site, your agency making suggestions or that trusty gut: YOUR site just isn’t quite up to snuff anymore.
But how is that possible? You just had it rebuilt two years ago. That’s only 730 days. What could possibly happen in the web world in 730 days to make your website out of date? Well, a lot.
For one, technologies for websites are advancing all the time. WordPress started as a blogging platform and now makes up 23.3% of the top 10 million websites. Furthermore, there are new plugins everyday, such as one that we love at Visceral called Visual Composer, that extend the flexibility and power of WordPress for non-technical users, and new findings around how to best display and communicate content to users.
Just in the last two years, responsive design went from being something brand new, to now being more commonplace and necessary for most websites. This makes sense because 60% of all web traffic comes from mobile now. People searching online using a smartphone will increase from 800 million to 1.9 billion users in 2015 making the need for mobile friendly websites increasingly important. If you aren’t convinced you need a responsive website, Meaning, if you have a responsive website, you have a better chance of being higher up on those search pages on mobile devices.
These constant changes are what makes our jobs really interesting but your position as an organization, potentially really frustrating.
To help you navigate this quagmire, here are 13 questions (this list is not exclusive but it’s a start) to ask yourself to determine if you are in need of another redesign.
Tips for how to start planning follow below. Remember, it’s not about doing this when you have the budget. It’s about building in a budget for when you need to do it. Because you will have to do it and if you can plan for this every few years, you’ll be in great shape.
Your Organization
- Has your brand or brand attributes changed since your last redesign?
- Has the mission of your organization or the communications strategy for your organization changed?
Goals
- Does your website support your organization’s goals this year – 5 years – 10 years?
- Are you meeting your goals right now? For example, are the amount of donations you receive increasing, decreasing or staying the same every month?
- Are you monitoring your website’s analytics? If so, has traffic gone up, down or stayed the same?
- Are you measuring online engagement from your audiences? If not, how might you do this?
- Have you talked to your audience about how they are using your site?
Content
- Does the content on your website accurately communicate to your audiences?
- Is the tone of the content on your website right for your organization?
- Is it easy to find information about your organization online?
Technology
- Is your site on a Content Management System?
- Is your website responsive?
- Does it take you more than 5 minutes to make an edit on your website?
There isn’t an exact percentage of “yes” or “no” to the questions above that are going to make your organization ready or not for a redesign. If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll be waiting forever. You might never be ready, but you should start anyway.
Tips to make it happen
- Ditch the notion that it is “too soon” to do a redesign. When it’s time, it’s time. If you determine it’s a priority, the time issue means nothing. The budget issue is a different conversation.
- Do your research. Talk to a few people and understand where you are, where you want to be and how you might get there.
- Make a plan, find a partner and go for it.
Considering a redesign? Contact us for a consultation.
