If your company website isn?t generating interest or income, then it might be time for a website makeover. It is advisable to examine your website’s analytics and revamp the site when stats appear to be on a downward spiral.
?You should always have a business purpose in mind when redesigning your website such as generate more revenue, generate more leads or sales or keep visitors on the site longer. You have to identify what goals are meaningful to your business and to your bottom line,? says Maisha Walker, president of message medium, which offers website design, development, marketing and maintenance. ?Make sure you have a plan for how the website is going to improve your business, not just look better.? Typically companies should consider a makeover every 3-6 years.
According to Walker, there are sure signs indicating when it is time to re-energize your Internet presence:
??? ???? On the bottom rung: if you want to be found in the search engines and have low rankings
??? ???? Dead silence: if your site isn’t generating revenue for you. Do you receive qualified inquiries from the site? ?If it’s an online store, are less than 1% of your visitors buying?
??? ???? Inconsistent branding: if you’ve recently had a major change in the business that isn’t reflected on your site – a logo or re-design of your other materials, a change in your products or services, a change in the audience you’re targeting are all reasons to seriously consider redesigning your website.
If you don?t know where to start, make sure to hire a website designer whose work fits the design style of your company. ?You want to make sure they have designed other websites, not just general design. Also find out if they are primarily a designer or a programmer. These are incredibly different skill sets and you want to know how they are going to handle the other skill set if it isn’t their primary skill,? advises Walker. ?Also make sure to see their past work and see if you like it. Confirm whether or not they designed that past work alone or were they ?art-directed,? which means someone worked with them to finalize and polish the design.?
Even on a tight budget, you can afford a makeover. Budgets can range from $1,500 for a small site, but are generally coser to $5,000 for a simple site. Larger companies and online stores may need $15,000-$30,000 for a makeover. ?If your budget is $3,500 or less, consider using WordPress with a pre-designed theme. Themes or templates used to be hideous but many of them are now better than some designs and include many features that would be costly to create from scratch. If you have an online store, consider services like Shopify or Volusion that offer a full online store including design,? offers Walker.
