Should I redesign my website?

Written by Joe on Thursday, July 8, 2010

How do you know if a website redesign is needed?

If your website:

has old content
is not W3C compliant
uses a table based layout
is all flash
uses frames
is slow loading
is not cross browser compatible
needs a new look
has a confusing navigation system

If you checked yes to any of these you should consider a website redesign.

Old content

Old content is worthless. Your visitors are going to be turned off if they come to your website and see content that is not fresh. If they don't see anything new they will think you aren't doing any business and won't return. Search engines also rank your website highly based on for fresh your content is. Old content is going to cause your website to drop a few pages in the search engine results.

Our content management system gives you the ability to update your website as often as you would like. Don't let your content go stale again. Contact us for more information about getting the content management system.

Not W3C compliant

The W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and since 1994 the W3C has provided the guidelines by which websites and web pages should be structured and created. The rules they outline are based on the "best practices" and while websites don't have to comply to be viewed correctly in Internet Explorer and other popular browsers that cater to incorrect design practices, there are a number of compelling reasons to ensure that you or your designer ensure that the W3C guidelines are followed and that your site is brought into compliance. Read more about W3C compliance.

Table based layout

Table based layouts load slowly and are much more time consuming and frustrating to deal with than css based websites. Read more about why you should trade your table based website for css.

All flash

While search engines are coming around to flash, flash is still considered hard to index or not indexable at all. Flash websites can also be difficult to navigation, load slowly, and confusing for some users.

Uses frames

Frames are long out dated and far from W3C compliant. If your website is using frames, unless there are extreme circumstances that makes them necessary, they should be avoided. If you are not sure if your website uses frame, right click on the background of your home page and select "view source". Search for tags like <frame or <iframe. If you find either of them, you are using frames. Contact us to help you get rid of frames on your website.

Slow loading

Slow loading websites turn off visitors and search engines. Using large graphics, tables, and poor coding can lead to your website loading slowly.

Not cross browser compatible

At the very least, your website should function properly and look good in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. Cross browser compatability is important because your visitors can be using any web browser. If your site doesn't work in all browsers, you are losing out on those customers.

Needs a new look

Does your website need a make over? Chances are if you don't think your website looks good, your customers think the same. A fresh look is a great way to gain new customers and loyalty from your old customers.

Confusing navigation system

If users can't navigate through your site, they won't be able to find what they are looking for and will go else where. Confusing navigation systems can also cause problems for search engines when trying to crawl your website. If they can't reach your pages there will be no chance of those pages being indexed.