A Website Stuck a Few Years Back: When to Refresh It and When to Leave It Alone
A lot of owners carry two thoughts at once. One: my website needs updating. The other: but what would that change, since customers do not really come through the website anyway?
Both thoughts can be right. The trick is working out which situation you are actually in.
First, what job does your website do?
Some websites are a business card. People already know you through word of mouth or by message, and the site simply confirms you exist and shows your address and contact details. Some are a salesperson: strangers find you through search and the site decides whether they get in touch. Some are the front counter: booking, ordering and quote requests all happen on it.
The job changes how urgent a refresh is. A business-card site only needs accurate information. A front-counter site that falls behind hits your revenue directly.
Five signs a refresh deserves serious thought
The more of these that apply, the more seriously you should take it:
- Open it on your phone and the layout breaks, the text is tiny, or buttons are hard to tap. Your customers are quite likely opening it on a phone too.
- The information is out of date: hours, prices, address or contact details have changed and the site has not.
- You are afraid to change even one sentence, because you would not know how to fix it if it broke, or you would have to track down whoever built it.
- The browser shows a security warning on your site, or pages are visibly slow to load.
- You want customers to book, ask for a quote or order, but today they can only be asked to call or send a message separately.
Three situations where you do not need a rebuild
- Nearly all your customers come by word of mouth or direct messages, the site is a business card, and the details are correct, readable on a phone and working.
- Only a few things are out of date. That calls for a small fix, not a new site.
- You do not have the time, budget or material right now. A rushed rebuild just becomes the next site that looks dated in three years. Getting your information in order matters more than a new look.
A ten-minute check you can do yourself
Pick up your phone, open your home page, and look at three things. Does it load within a few seconds? Is the key information, such as hours and contact details, up to date? Can a visitor do the thing they came for, whether that is contacting you, booking or asking for a quote, within three taps?
Then hand the phone to a friend who does not know your business and watch where they get stuck. Where they stall is usually where your customers stall too.
Work it out yourself
The question is not whether the site looks old, but what it is costing you. Try to answer this: over the last month, how many customers called or messaged because they could not find something on your site, or found it wrong? How many minutes did each one take? Has anyone said they could not find something on your website?
Multiply those together and you have the cost of the status quo. Weigh it against what a refresh would take and the decision gets much clearer. For a fuller check, try the interactive diagnosis.
website-related enquiries per month × minutes each × 12 months ÷ 60 = hours per year spent covering for the site
Go to the diagnosis↗Not sure whether to refresh?
Start with the interactive diagnosis to see how much the website matters to your business. If the answer is that you do not need a big change, we will tell you so.