We get a lot of great questions around here revolving around our services, our methods, and our websites. We’re going to start a new series where we answer your most common questions before you can even ask them. Of course, we love hearing more questions so feel free to call our Business Development Specialist, Dave at 970 568 5253 anytime!
Almost all existing businesses these days have websites already and many are several years old. They need a bit of a refresh. So, we get a lot of clients asking if it would be better to do a simple re-design on their existing platform or to start from scratch and get something with a little “new website shine”.
The short answer to this question is that 95% of the time, it’s actually cheaper and in your benefit to get a brand new website.
You’ll have a new site that matches revised products, offering, copy, branding, and the modern SEO and development standards. In addition, we can usually build a site that’s easier to update and manage from your end.
Here’s the long answer:
On your old site, we’re mucking through someone else’s code
Trying to re-construct someone else’s code and figure out how they built the site can take at least as long as it takes us to get a brand new design built. This isn’t constructive time you’re paying for, it’s us simply catching up on the old site. With a brand new design, every hour that you’re paying for is going to be pushing forward and be working towards making you money.
We build sites with the best SEO standards around
Google changes a LOT. They push more than 500 algorithm changes a year. That means that your 3-year old website is almost 1500 algorithm changes behind and that hurts your ranking. We keep up with these changes for you and give every client a site that works with the latest search engine optimization standards. Higher ranking means that you get more customers which means more money in your pocket.
Customers expect a large update every 2-3 years
This doesn’t mean new copy on the home page or a new menu bar. Your customers relearn their browsing habits on a very regular basis and they expect your site to reflect their habits. That means that your site works on a phone, that you have some interactive features on the site, and that it looks modern. You get all of this with a new website and more. We may or may not be able to achieve any of this
Web code advances significantly every year
HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript and more advance at a terribly fast rate. This means that I can do things with code now that I couldn’t even 6 months ago. We evolve in our abilities with the new code standards and this is reflected in a new site. It usually takes double the time to build a new contact form on an old code base and at least 4 times the amount of time to make a site responsive. We usually have to re-build the entire code base anyway, so why not get a new design while you’re at it?
I hope this answers your question and if you have any more questions call Dave at 970-568-5253. He loves answering questions!