How Often Should You Rebuild Your Website?

Perhaps your website has done well for your company for a long time. At the time it was designed, it featured the latest web tools and applications, on both the front and back ends. That may have been a few years ago, though. Is it time for a new one? How do you know you need to rebuild your website and often should you do it? Here’s a brief guide to staying current with your site.

Web technology is constantly evolving and improving. Things that were unheard of just a few years ago are now commonplace, while other things become outdated. By failing to rebuild your website once it becomes outdated, you risk falling behind your competitors or not being able to offer your prospective customers what they need to engage with you online.

As the technology holding up your site gets older, it also slows down, making it difficult to navigate. Even more importantly, an outdated site is more vulnerable to security breaches. There are constantly new threats on the horizon that can affect not just your data, but your customers’ data as well.

The longer you wait to rebuild your website, the more of these threats will appear that your site simply isn’t equipped to deal with. If one of these threats manages to take down your website, obtain sensitive information, or otherwise compromise your system and data, not only does it take time and resources to repair, it also negatively impacts your brand’s reputation. Potential customers are less likely to trust you if they know you’re vulnerable to security breaches.

As a general rule of thumb, we recommend rebuilding your website every four years or so. This is generally often enough to keep up with technological trends and the latest security measures, without overwhelming your customers with constant, jarring changes.

There are also a number of signs that can indicate that your site is due for a rebuild. If you’re having trouble with SEO, it can mean that your site is outdated. Google wants to feature the most current and up-to-date results, so their algorithms tend to give lower rankings to sites that are getting stale.

Likewise, if potential customers are clicking on your site, then quickly navigating away without browsing or buying anything, it’s a clue that something needs to change. They clearly don’t like what they experience when they visit your site, so maybe it’s time you improved that experience.

As you consider a website rebuild, take a look at these items:

First, look at the aesthetics of your site. Compare it to that of your competitors. Does it seem outdated? Is it unpleasant to look at? Are parts of it hard to see? Is the text difficult to read?

Next, look at the inner workings of your site. Is it difficult to navigate? Do your various applications and tools work the way they’re supposed to? Do they provide your customers with what they’re looking for? Do your competitors provide it better, and if so, how?

Finally, does your site seem to have more than its share of tech problems? Does it have a lot of downtime? Have you recently had a security breach? If so, it’s due for a redesign to fix those issues and get it running smoothly again.