Should I Redesign My Website?

Why should I Consider a Redesign?

Considering a redesign for your existing website, depends on a few factors. For example:

• How old is the site?
• Does it look 'current'?
• Does it function they way you intended?
• Are you getting visitors, but no sales?
• Are your visitors even going past the first page?

Older Web Sites

If your site has been running for a few years with the exact same content as the first day it was published, then most definitely, you should remake your site.

The two main reasons are:

• Current web design techniques could greatly increase your site's speed and function.
• By not changing your content from time to time, you're really hurting yourself with regards to search engines. Search engines love fresh content.

But, I Designed My Own Site, Why A Redesign?

OK. This is where you must be honest (and possibly, critical) with yourself.

First of all, there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking the time to learn how to build your own website. In fact, we encourage it!

Having said this, let's look at the reality of building, maintaining and marketing your work.

• Time
  This is really the biggest issue. You will either need to learn the basic coding language(s) to build your site, or get a web page editor that writes the code for you.
  
  The biggest problem with basic editors is, they tend to write bad or excessive code, which can slow your site down and turn visitors away.
  
  
• Graphic Design
  If you designed your own graphics, chances are you found this to be tougher than you expected.
  
  This is why there are still many websites with background images that make the content difficult, and at times impossible, to read.
  
  
• Functions
  If you want to add features to your site, such as a message board (forum), chat, or anything else that would add interactive qualities to your site, this becomes another issue regarding 'Time'.
  
  Without a doubt, there are many free, open source, scripts you can download and add to your site (we use them ourselves). However, adding the script and then configuring it to function can mean learning another language, such as PHP or ASP.
  
  
• General Maintenance
  It's tedious, but it must be done! There are few reasons to keep your website current and fresh. The most obvious is to give your 'first time' visitors a reason to come back to re-visit your site.
  
  Another reason has to do with search engines. Search engines favor ranking for sites that regularly updates it's content.
  
  
• Website Marketing
  Just owning a website, means little if no one sees it. This is where online marketing comes in... And, where you have to be very careful and do your research! Again, 'Time'.
  
  Organic Search Results - This is where fresh content comes into play, as it helps with your search engine ranking. Also, the content should be carefully written to be relevant with the title of the page.
  
  Link Popularity - Meaning, how many other websites link to yours.
  
  This is typically done through link exchanges. For example, "I'll link my site to yours, if you link yours to mine". This is huge with search engines but again, it must be done with care. Websites that link to each other should be relevant to each other. Irrelevant linking can actually hurt your rankings! This requires a lot of research and, once again, time.
  
  Pay-Per-Click - The great thing about Pay-Per-Click advertising is, the two points above don't really matter. It's all about how much you're willing to bid on a key-phrase. This brings up the down side... it can be very expensive for those competing for popular key-phrases.
  
  

Please understand, We're not listing these issues to discourage you from attempting to build or even redesign your own site, this is simply some of the issues that you'll contend with, in order to make your site as successful as possible.