Taking the ‘Change is good’ approach we have recently re-designed and re-built our website with a new focus, new wording and new photography to stay fresh and up-to-date. We find it important to re-invent our website on a semi-regular basis, not only does it help us explore new technology but it also gives us a chance to show potential new clients what we can do. We generally have found ourselves re-designing our website every 2-3 years with minor content updates at least once a month.
Technology and design trends change often and keeping up to date helps us stay relevant and fresh to our potential clients, but how often should you update or refresh your own website? It’s a tricky question to answer but here are a few points which might give you something to think about in regards to your website – helping you to decide whether or not an update or refresh may be relevant for you.
First Impressions
Often your website is going to be the first interaction your potential customers have with your brand – a website is almost like the new ‘business card’ – people may find your business through search engines and not know much about you or what you do – as a result your website should always effectively communicate your brand in a positive way and give a good first impression of your business. If you have shifted the focus of your brand, your business, changed marketing strategy or even offer new products and services you should ensure your website is still relevant and in-touch with the rest of your core values and marketing efforts. If not it may be time to update.
Are you able to update your own website?
This has been one of the biggest triggers we get at Zynke from clients wanting to update their website, being able to control the content and update information on your own site is a massive asset in your business – and it is not as hard as you might think.
Often we see people coming to us with websites with content so old it isn’t relevant any more. Sometimes it may be links to social media that isn’t used much or at all anymore (we’re looking at you Foursquare) or it may be a staff directory is out-dated with new staff members coming and old ones leaving. Either way your website should always reflect the most current information about your business where possible. This is where having a good Content Management System really shines – A website which has a robust and easy-to-use content management system gives your website a much more dynamic presence, empowering you with the ability to make changes as necessary to stay relevant on an ongoing basis.
New technology in the last 4-5 years has made Content Management Systems (CMS) commonplace in website design and is far easier to use than ever before. If your website has an old CMS which isn’t easy to use or does not have a Content Management System at all get in touch with us today and we can show you how easy it is to update your own website.
Do you mobile?
Your website shouldn’t just work on a phone, but it should also be ‘mobile friendly’ giving users optimised views and ‘touch-points’ on mobile devices with different screen sizes to ensure a good experience on a mobile device. This is one of the biggest trends in web-design over the last few years and with new smartphone technology constantly coming out and Google algorithms prioritising mobile friendly website it has never been more important to ensure your website works on mobile devices.
Zynke always build our websites from the ground up with mobile use in mind. We understand that the need for your site to work on a mobile device is important and work hard to ensure it will work without fault. Sometimes it is a matter of some code adjusting to optimise your site, other times it may be necessary for a re-build. Our web team will be able to let you know what will be best for your website.
Ask relevant people for feedback on your current website
Find some people who you think will be able to give you relevant feedback of your current website – we are not talking about asking your mum or your neighbour for their opinion but rather people who are the target market for your website or business. Current, potential and new clients are good sources of information as well as peers within your own industry. Don’t be afraid to ask them for their opinions on your website and if they have found it useful – the information may be extremely valuable to your business as relevant feedback is extremely important to determine whether your website is currently working as you hope. Zynke can also help, offering un-biased advice and opinions on your current website through a website audit.
Checking your Analytics
Do your analytics look like random blips and dots on a graph to you? Do you know the difference between a ‘bounce rate’ and ‘active users’? Often people over-look the value of analytics on their website but they can offer unique insights into your website to help you decide what is and what isn’t working. It’s worth doing some research on your website analytics at least every three months to check how users are interacting with your site. Analytics can help you decide what to focus on with your website and cross checking user behaviour with what your website offers can help make the decision to update your website a little easier. It lets you see exactly what people have been interested in seeing and this in-turn can help you and us design a website better catered to that result.
Search Engine Optimisation
Being seen online isn’t easy – we don’t sugarcoat it here at Zynke… there is no magic bullet to ensure your site ranks number one on Google day-in day-out no matter what anyone may promise. There are many things you can do however which can help your brand climb the rankings. Sometimes it may be simple wording changes to optimise the keywords in your descriptions and site text, it may be updating that blog page more often or, in some cases of older websites it may be necessary to re-build the site entirely to make it more ‘Google friendly’.
If you don’t think your website is living up to it’s potential or your business is buried in the search engine somewhere no one will look at Zynke can help. We have recently partnered with a leading SEO company and together we may be able to offer some advice and recommendations about how your site can help drive more business.
Security
Are you finding your website has been hacked before or is constantly being attacked? Whilst not common it does happen, even to smaller businesses and it can cause unwanted disruption and stress for the business owner as well as unwanted negative attention of your brand. There are a variety of reasons a website can be hacked and only consistently monitoring and updating your security settings or staying up-to-date with the current CMS and plugins on your website can help protect you against attacks. If your CMS or website system is too old to be updated to make it secure it’s worth considering an upgrade to a new system.
An update does not always mean starting over
If you have evaluated your website and decided that you would like a fresh look but the content and/or products are still relevant it doesn’t mean that you need to stress about re-typing all of your content or updating your whole database – Often there are many tools we can use to either ‘migrate’ or ‘re-skin’ your current website to a new look or Content Management System. Your current database/s can stay as they are, your website structure and content can remain the same but can have a whole new look, invigorating and refreshing your online presence. Zynke are more than happy to advise on what would be best for your business, whether it will involve a complete ‘from the ground up’ rebuild or just a refresh and modernisation.
Making a potentially large decision to change and or update your website need not be a painful process. At Zynke we pride ourselves on handling all of our website design, management and building in our Adelaide-based studio, as a result our team is at your disposal to answer any questions you may have. We can help evaluate your current website and help decide what will be best for your business. Contact us today to discuss your website needs.