When should your business redesign its website?

That can depend on several things. Does your current site look contemporary and professional? Is it intuitive and simple for visitors to navigate? Is your website search engine optimized? Does every page on your site still work? Does your business have the ability to update or change its own website?

There are plenty of do-it-yourself website templates. All too often, though, they are cheaply designed, and totally look that way too. Website templates are intended for amateur bloggers. If you want your business’s website to look professional, then it should be designed by professionals.

Website design and technology is changing constantly, so if you haven’t done much with your business’s website lately, it’s probably already dated. Graphics and images that looked good years ago probably just aren’t as sharp by today’s standards. A site that looks obsolete or cheap can make your customers think the same of your business.

Many websites – especially dated ones – become increasingly difficult to navigate. The behind-the-scenes coding and structure of a site designed years ago may not display correctly in modern browsers and on mobile devices. If your website isn’t optimized for today’s Internet, then customers may think your entire business is not up-to-date. Customers may even become frustrated while trying to navigate your page and simply go to someone else’s site instead.

Many older sites do nothing for modern search engine optimization (SEO). This means they don’t have the right content, or coding and site architecture, to make it easy for search engines to find and list your site among search results. A professionally designed website will keep you optimized for search engines. This means your website, and not someone else’s, will appear at the top of a Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other search page when your customers look for you.

Optimizing your website for social media can go a long way as well. Linking your website to and from your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media pages can increase traffic for your website and bolster your business’s overall online presence.

Perhaps your website is difficult to update or change. Old websites can be clunky and tough to work with. Maybe your business doesn’t even have control over its own website, instead having to contact your web designer about every little change. New website designs can be very user-friendly, giving your business the option to easily access its own site and update or revise without having to wait for someone else to do it.

What if your website has pages that don’t work? Those broken links to the “page not found?” Worse, what if your website has been hacked, and displays someone else’s unsavory content, or doesn’t even work right? Designing a new site can clean up those messes, and also prevent them from happening again.

(Some of O2 Creative’s web design for one of our favorite clients, The Foundry. Click HERE to see more!)

All things considered, there are plenty of reasons to consult a professional web designer about creating a new website, or overhauling your old one. At O2 Creative we can create the freshest websites that utilize the latest technology. Our websites are professional quality, secure, intuitive to use and navigate, search engine optimized, and easy for your business to control and update.

To get the most out of a new or improved website for your business, consult the friendly web design professionals at O2 Creative today.

Click here for additional reading. Also, Credit Gregory Kogan for the sweet cartoon!

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