How do you know when it’s time to redesign your website? It seems like some companies redesign there sites every few months while others never do. Here are a few ways you can tell when it’s time to redesign your website:

1. If your site is more than five years old, it’s time for a redesign

Technologies and styles change. What worked a few years ago may be stale today. Your site may have been great for its time, but design standards are different today. Your website may function just fine, but the web evolves quickly and it’s important to keep pace. If your design hasn’t changed in more than five years, you’re sending signals to your visitors that your organization doesn’t change with the times.

A few years ago, many websites had navigation on the left and were aligned to the left side of the screen. Today, most are in the center of the screen. Monitors have gotten larger, so newer sites tend to be wider. New sites can be more engaging and interactive because users are more sophisticated. More and more people are connecting at high speeds, which also gives designers more freedom than before. If your site design hasn't changed in five years, bid it a fond farewell.

2. If your identity has changed significantly, it’s time for a redesign

Has your logo changed since your website was created, or have you created new marketing materials that don’t fit with your current website? A consistent message and identity is important. If you present the same message on your website, on printed materials, and elsewhere, people will understand your organization and what you do without confusion.

If the style and feel of your marketing has changed since your website was designed, it’s time to redesign your site so it reflects your other promotional efforts. Contact Blue Ray Media, we can show you how.

3. You’re not ranking well in the search engines

With planning and foresight, a website redesign can help your site place higher in the search engines. Perhaps the pages on your site are too broadly focused, for example. If you narrow the focus of each page, they’ll come up higher. Maybe the overall organization and structure of your website isn’t search engine-friendly. If you search for your products and services on the web and your site isn’t placing in the top 30, a redesign may be in order. We’ll take a look at your site and help you decide how to proceed. It may be that simply optimizing your website for the search engines will give you the results you need. Contact us to find out more.

4. Your site has grown and grown and is difficult to use, or your site doesn’t work

If your site is unwieldy and hard for people to use or, worse yet, doesn’t work anymore, it’s definitely time to redesign it and fix these problems. Are there links to nowhere? Have pages that used to look great evolved into a sloppy mess? If your site just doesn't work anymore, for whatever reason, a redesign can fix it.

5. If you have new business requirements

If your business has changed significantly since your site was designed, it’s time for a website redesign. Maybe your product line or the services you offer has changed. Or you have new software that you want your website to “talk to”. Perhaps visitors have requested new features (check your email to find out), like private online areas, event registration or online payments. Maybe your staff has new ideas about how to use the web to save time or money. (Ask them!) We can develop custom web applications that work for your business. Tell us your goals, we can help you reach them.

6. If you want to change how you manage the website

We hear from prospective clients all the time about how hard it’s been to get other companies to update their websites in a timely manner. While we’re committed to making fast and correct changes to your website, we know that, sometimes, it makes sense for you to update the site yourself, whenever you want.

If you want to change how you manage your website, consider a robust content management system. Today’s content management systems, including WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, offer more design and functional options than you might imagine. Blue Ray Media can create an entirely unique website that takes advantage of any content management system so you can update your own website anytime. Contact us to find how more.

7. You need new ways to engage visitors

If visitors aren’t doing what you want them to do on your website, it’s probably time to look at the design. Could the text be shortened or made easier to read? Is the checkout process too long and involved? Or is it too hard for people to find what they need? Sometimes, issues are obvious to any professional. Other times, it may not be apparent what’s causing problems. As long as you follow three basic rules - get representative customers, ask them to perform realistic tasks, and be quiet while they do the talking - you only need 5 users to uncover most problems with your website. Maybe some of your problems are “off-site” and have to do with confirmation emails, order tracking or your email newsletter. We can help you with those, too.

If you want to find out why your website isn’t performing like you want it to, we can help you. Contact Blue Ray Media for a consultation.

8. If you’re sick of looking at it, it's time for a redesign.

Even the best designs can get old after a while. If you’re tired of looking at the same old website, your visitors probably are too. If it seems like it’s been too long since you’ve changed the look of your site, it probably is. We can help. Contact Blue Ray Media for a website development consultation.

This article is Copyright © Blue Ray Media, Inc.