Is my website working hard enough? The difference between a quick fix and a complete review

Picture this, you launched your website a couple of years ago and you were, at the time, pleased with the outcome and the messaging it served. Fast forward to now, and visitor numbers are decreasing, or your conversion rate is beginning to fall flat. Sound familiar?

A website is the ‘show window’ for your brand, product or service offering and you have on average less than eight seconds to educate and impress your customers or prospects. Whilst initial impact is crucial, factors including the use of design, a range of interesting content and a well thought through user experience (UX) will all contribute to how your visitors engage with and interact across your website.

If your site lacks impact or isn’t supporting your wider business objectives as well as it could, action must be considered. Does your website require simple fixes, or should you start again from scratch?

Which route makes sense for me?

The foundation or basis of your website is integral to making this decision, this is ultimately the code base that your website is built upon – it is using the most up-to-date best practices?

If the foundations of your website are built well then there is the opportunity to develop and improve your existing site. You could create new pages, update your content and build new functionality to ensure it ladders back up to your business objectives.

The benefit of taking this approach is it is generally more cost-effective, therefore opening up the budget to actively promote your site through SEO, PPC, lead generation activities, content marketing, A/B testing and much more. With some simple edits, and a push of activity to drive to your site, you may quickly reap the benefits of a clearer but higher performing website.

However, if the foundations of your current website are not well built, trying to complete ‘quick wins’ will leave you six months down the line, back at square one, which may only delay the inevitable.

If a website is not built or performing well from the offset, it will not only impact the impression of your brand to visitors, but it will also negatively impact your SEO. Google takes in to account many elements when determining a website ranking, such as site speed, broken links, security vulnerabilities, content optimisation, bounce rates, mobile experience and more.

The benefit of building a website from scratch again is the flexibility with the design and functionality, allowing you to create something that truly engages your customers and prospects of today.

An estimated 75 per cent of people will base the credibility of a business on its website, therefore it is always worth investing time, energy and resource into this activity when things begin to stagnate. As the ‘show window’ to your business, your website must be reflective of who you are and what you offer today, but it must also be easy to use and understand in order to work at its best.