MODERNIZATION
When Your Website Is No Longer a Site to Behold
MODERNIZATION
When Your Website Is No Longer a Site to Behold
If your company is like most, your website is probably your most important and valuable brand beacon. You use it to communicate information about your company, to sell your products and services, to announce press-worthy news and events, recruit new staff, and perhaps of greatest importance, it’s the central communication hub between you and your customers.
How To Know When It’s Time To Upgrade Your Website
There are numerous reasons as to why companies choose to upgrade their website however, by and large, these are the most common:
Their Site Is Beginning To Show Its Age
Since most companies tend to invest a lot of money in the development of their website they often use it for as long as possible. But, you can’t stop time. As a result, the look, feel, and functionality of the site often becomes outdated and needs to be modernized to appeal to a new caliber of clientele.
They Have a Serious Need for Speed
Clicking through the site is slow. Reasons behind this slowdown can include everything from unoptimized images and too much Flash content, to unclean code, Javascript issues, and more.
Consumers Are on the Move
Some clients built a website for desktop users only to find now, in current times, their users are more mobile and using smartphones or tablets and their site does not render to the smaller resolution screens.
Things To Keep In Mind
Before You Upgrade
Whether you want to update a particular section of your website or start over with a clean slate, you need to consider the following before you take the leap:
Don’t Underestimate the Cost
If you want something fast and cheap you’ll get something fast and cheap. And you’ll end up hating it, trust us. Your website, for all intents and purposes, is your company. As a result, it needs to perform a lot of functions and perform each one flawlessly. Ensuring that happens requires a significant financial investment. How significant? That depends on a lot of factors. The point is, don’t underestimate what an enhanced or brand-spanking-new website will cost.
Upgrading Your Website Will Be an Investment. Protect It!
If you’re going to spend a lot of money on improving your website you should spend some of that money on testing. If you don’t test the efficacy of your website your customers will be the ones to find anything that could possibly be wrong with it. Quality assurance makes sure that any potential flaws are identified before you launch the site. The quickest way to lose customers is to launch a site that is riddled with mistakes.
Think Beyond the Desktop
Some websites are so old that they were designed for a single platform—desktop. Today, the majority of people are on devices other than desktops, and your website needs to be able to perform successfully on any device at any time.
Dates Are for Meeting People Not Building Websites
Building a custom website should not commence with an end date in mind. If it does, you’ll end up squeezing all of the discovery, design, development, testing, and implementation into that timeframe. If you approach it that way, you’ll be disappointed when you have to start cutting things like scope and testing in order to hit that end date.
Your Website Upgrade “To-Do” List
To ensure that your upgrade goes as smoothly as possible we recommend the following:
1. Evaluate and optimize your website, when appropriate before beginning any new implementations.
2. Don’t hire a firm if you’re going to ask them to make your site look and function like it does today. If you’re going to invest in your website then invest and plan for the future in your design, development, and performance.
3. Make sure your site changes, updates, and redesigns are data-driven from customer analytics by evaluating traffic to and on the current site. Make educated decisions.
4. Have brand and style guides already in place.
5. Provide the company you hire with your vision and let them provide you with wireframes and mockups to make sure they understand your vision.
6. Invest time in the research, discovery, and design phase. It will make the development, testing, and implementation phases go much smoother.
Your Neighbor’s Son Can Probably Build You A Website. Please Don’t Let Your Neighbor’s Son Build You A Website.
The biggest misconception about building a website is that anyone can do it. While technically true, results will vary wildly. Does your company have so much money to spare that you can risk trusting just anyone with your company’s most important brand beacon? Of course, not.
PeakActivity can design, develop, and Q/A any kind of marketing or eCommerce website for any screen. Our approach is driven by our respect for our clients and our focus on their success. We’re not in it to add another name to our client list. We’re here to be your most valued, long-term digital partner.
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