A window to your world, that is what your website offers visitors. It is your online brand, your message delivery service. It is likely the first place where your customers / clients get to see what you have to offer - products and/or services.

I covered some of this in my “Your Own Website VS Social Media” article in Linkedin.

A website offers many advantages:

1. Websites are accessible for customers 24/7
2. Your website allows you to control the message
3. Your website allows you to control the brand

Your site is a place where your customers can get all the information they require about you and your business without the need for disturbing you in the process. Provided your customers with a well-optimized website saves time for you and your business and lends to an overall better customer experience.

In today’s markets, building a website could not be easier, with platforms popping up regularly offering simple to use site builders that promise the world. For some that is a great option, for other, who simply don’t want the hassle of doing it themselves generally turn to web designers and developers. Whatever path you choose, having your own site is in my opinion the better choice.

Working with a web designer, or agency will not only save you time, and an unnecessary learning curve but will probably provide you with a better end product.

Yes, yes, “I already have a site and I am happy with it”, that may be so. But is it working the way it should? Is it up to date? Is it responsive (mobile friendly)? Is it doing its job effectively?

That last question is an important one. Especially since many people have sites but gravitate to social media site to post updates instead.‍

If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold.

― Andrew Lewis

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So you might be asking, what is a Website Refresh, and how would I know if when it is time for a Refresh?

Trends on the internet moves fast - real fast. But that does not mean that you need to keep up. The important point of your site is providing what your customers need first and foremost.

A website refresh - simply put, it is a revision of what you have in place.

A modernisation if you like. You may not need a full site redesign, but realigning your goals visually and highlighting what needs highlighting better might be the aim. Things change over time and perhaps your personal aesthetic taste has matured, or you gained new knowledge; your company’s goals, products, or services might have changed from when you last reviewed your website. Whichever, a site review may be in order.

Not all websites are equal. Some require a lot more work than others. It all depends on the site, products & services, events list or article post cycle.

Your site SHOULD be the place where you decimate all your information. Your aim with social sites is to guide persons to your business hub. With that said, it is important to note that the refreshing of a website does not always mean a redesign. It could be as the name implies a refresh of concept, update of elements like fonts, images and likely content. In some cases a redesign might also be the prefered option.

How do I know when it's the right time to refresh your website is?

I would start with a general review of the website and the content in conjunction with your business aims and goals. If you have a clear idea of what you / your business needs and goals are, then you can check that against the website message. Is it Sales, leads or subscribers? Is your site achieving its original intended goal, or has your goal changed?

Ideally your should be updating your website regularly to ensure that the content is as up to date as it needs to be, but this is usually far from the reality. Note, keeping your site up to date both assists your customers / viewers and helps yours indexing in the search engines.

The following list may help website owners to decide when the right time for a refresh of your website.

Sooner than later signs:

• If your bounce rate is above average. This is when a user finds your site through external means, enters your site only to decide it is either not for them OR they did not find the thing they were looking for fast enough, so they leave. This might indicate that you are not providing what the visitor wants upfront, or perhaps you have a poor user experience. There are many reasons it might be but likely time to review or refresh.
• Limited conversions - maybe you are not getting as many as you would like. This might or might not be an issue with your site, but, understanding the why will allow you to make adjustments in order to review if this can be improved.
• Visually striking.. are your website competitor standing out visually over you? This is something you should be reviewing periodically. Maybe time to add a little wow, or a pop of colour to catch the attention of your site visitors.
• This one I may have mentioned already - is your message up to date? Your site is your portal to the world, and it’s where people find out what you are up to.. or at least that is how it should be.. Social media is cool and all, but you really should ensure that what you do their leads back to your site. Also ensure that the two are in since..
• Products and / or services - if these are out of date, this is a good reason to refresh the site. Goes back to keeping everything up to date!
• Speed - site speed is a big thing these days and reviewing the speed of your site might indicate that simple optimization techniques may be necessary. Drop your site images into something like Tinypng.com can save you a lot of time and give your site a well needed boost.
• Finally, focus! Does your site focus on the things it needs to? The option of just moving things around to ensure what you need customers to see is up front might be the difference you need to improve sales. If they can not see it or find it, they will not buy it!

Use the above list of items as an indicator for whether you need to consider a refresh. There are others that can be mentioned but use your own judgement as it pertains to your own business.

Other ways to refresh your site without dipping to deeply may include:

• Update the descriptions of your products & services to better align with popular keywords (keyword research will be required);
• Consider refreshing the images on the site to better reflect your audience and brand;
• Fonts are plentiful these days, choose a font that stands out from the norm. A simple thing like this can change the overall look of a site;
• Rearrange where content goes, you should have a good idea of what people want to see if you site has a little age to it, shuffling things around might just be the ticket;
• A splash of colour - consider adding more colour to the site to bring attention to elements visually;
• Make it easy for the user to find things, simplify your navigation, highlight elements, maybe even consider a search element for ease of use. These types of update can make a strong impact.

This is just a start, a lot more can be considered and some of the above suggestions may or may not be applicable to your site. But I hope that it has given you food for thought. Making minor tweaks and adjustments can dramatically improve useability and even the website’s performance. Ensuring your products and services can be found / seem may very well allow for increased sale to your business.

Also, search engine love and reward you when you update your website frequently, the refresh might just be the start to increased business.

Don’t forget that there are two institutions you are catering to, the search engines and website users / clients. Doing these tweaks provide a fresh update to your site, but ultimately your customers thank you for it also.

Finally, changing or adding new fonts and colours to the landing pages can positively impact your customers. When in doubt, speak to your webmaster, if you don’t have one call me.