Nearly every week we will speak with two or three business owners who ask some version of the following question: do I need a new website?
These folks are typically wanting to figure out whether they can keep working with what they have or need to make a large investment. It’s understandable that this would be on their minds, particularly at a time when a lot of companies are still dealing with tight budgets. However, this isn’t the best question to ask.
Why? Because it starts off with the wrong premise. It gets at the widely held idea that a business website is something to be launched, used, and then discarded when something new comes along. Although there are certainly organizations that treat their websites this way, it isn’t a strategy that generally maximizes the return on any marketing investment.
Better Questions to Ask Your Web Designer
To get around this thinking, and find some better outcomes, there are better questions you can use. For example, you could ask your web designer things like:
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of my current website?
- Are there any new best practices my company isn’t following?
- What could we be doing to attract new leads, sales, and revenue?
- Why aren’t more people coming to my business through Google or Facebook?
- What should I be doing online that I’m not doing now?
These are just examples, but they get at the bigger issue. You should be thinking in terms of results. Your business website is part of that, but it’s not the whole story. And more importantly, there might be situations where you want to add something to your existing website, or change some aspect of it, but not necessarily replace the whole thing. Doing so might not be necessary and could even set you back with respect to search engine optimization, digital advertising, etc.
Business Web Design Isn’t All or Nothing
It’s unfortunate that so many business owners have the instinct to ditch whatever has been working for them in the past because they’re looking for a new quick fix. At the same time, web designers aren’t blameless. There are a lot of firms that will happily sell you a brand-new layout, content management system, and online marketing plan even if you don’t need one.
Certainly, there are times when clients come to us needing to start from scratch, or something close to it. However, we never take it as a given that what they have isn’t usable. And, you shouldn’t automatically assume that hiring a new web design partner means you’re going to get a brand-new site if the layout you have is perfectly functional.
An all-or-nothing approach to business web design can leave you spinning in circles, going from one project and investment to the next. Even worse, it can put you in a position where you haven’t paid much attention to your existing site after two or three years because you figure you have to replace it soon. It’s much better to get a good website in place and then keep it updated through firmware patches, content additions, and regular analytics reviews. That way results can keep improving over time while huge adjustments shouldn’t be necessary.
If you’re tired of getting online marketing advice that doesn’t put your long-term goals first, then maybe you need to consider working with a different team of experts. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and see what happens when your agency mixes creativity, experience, and a focus on client growth together.
