Perhaps you’ve stumbled upon a brand-spanking, super shiny, deliciously high-tech website and felt a pang of jealousy? Maybe your 99% sure your website needs a refresh. Or maybe you think your website is just ‘OK’ but are unsure if you should make a refresh a priority this year?

If you’re considering a website redesign but are sitting on the fence about it, here are few questions to ask yourself…

Does your website look terrible on mobile devices?
Are you still promoting an event from last year?
Is it hard for visitors to ‘Like’, ‘Share’ and ‘Tweet’ content from your website?
Does your website have bright blue links or an animated gif?
Does your website look weird in Internet Explorer?

If you said ‘Yep’ to any of those questions then let’s dive into them a bit more.

1. Does you website look terrible on mobile devices?

Has mobile browsing taken over the world? Yep. Is making your website mobile and tablet-friendly hard? Nope! Making your existing website mobile and tablet-friendly is a relatively simple task that any good web developer can fix. As mobile browsing is a relatively new concept, if your website was built prior to 2012 chances are it wasn’t designed to be mobile-friendly.

2. Are you still promoting an event from last year?

So maybe last year’s ‘Christmas In July’ event was a real hoot. That doesn’t mean it should still be on your website. Obviously, this is just my somewhat humorous example (well, at least I made myself laugh) of outdated content. If you have old events, information, or perhaps ex-team members on your website, they need to be removed. Showing old content like this on your website could mean one of 3 things…

1. You don’t have a Content Management System: It’s a surefire sign that you can’t edit your website yourself. I believe every business should have the ability to edit the majority of text and images on their website themselves. Because let’s face it, paying a professional $70+ per hour to change a few words is a little excessive. At Hola, we create all our websites using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) so editing images, text, pages, blog posts and menu items is a walk in the park.
2. Your website has a CMS but you’ve never received the training on how to use it. Depending on the platform we might be able to help.
3. You just don’t have the time to make website updates yourself. Like many of our clients, you’re time-poor and need to focus on your daily business needs rather than marketing. Then perhaps an ad hoc or ongoing website maintenance package would suit you? Check our our Website Care Plans here.

3. Is it hard for visitors to ‘Like’, ‘Share’ and ‘Tweet’ content from your website?

Sharing our latest discoveries from the interwebs with our friends list has quickly become a popular pastime. Not to mention it’s awesome FREE advertising for your business. So why not make it super easy for people to share information about your business with their social network? Adding a social sharing plugin to your website pages and blog posts is super simple, so it’s a no-brainer don’t ya think?

4. Does your website have bright blue links or an animated gif?

Ok, so I’m getting a little specific. Basically, if your website looks like it could have been designed 10 years ago, then it’s definitely time for a freshen up. But hey if dancing baby gifs on your website are your thing then all power to ya dude! But I’m probably not the graphics gal for you.

5. Does your website look weird in Internet Explorer?

As any web designer or developer will tell you, the day Internet Explorer dies it’s inevitable death cannot come soon enough. The way IE interprets code is quite different to other browsers, so the process to ensure a website looks and functions perfectly in IE is significantly more time-consuming than it is for other browsers such as Firefox, Chrome and Safari. However, despite being clunky, glitchy and super annoying ;-), IE is still a popular browser especially for older generations, so ensuring your website looks and functions on ALL browsers is important. Why not check out your website on a few different browsers and see if you notice any variations.

So what’s the verdict?

I’m sure you’ll agree a website is an integral part of any modern business. When it’s doing its job, your website can be your most valuable marketing tool. However, in our ever-changing, tech-savvy world, the latest website technology can be superseded within a matter of months. Staying on top of the latest trends in design and functionality can be a full-time job in itself.  In fact, it’s our full-time job! I certainly don’t recommend refreshing your website every few months… that might be a little excessive! But a few small tweaks every month or so, with a major redesign every 2 years will ensure your website stays current, fresh and relevant to both your target audience and search engines alike.

Wanna see some examples of website’s we’ve given much needed facelifts to? Email us and we’ll happily send through some examples.