Leonardo da Vinci is quoted as saying that “art is never finished, only abandoned.*” The same could easily be said about web design. It’s so easy to get stuck in an endless round of changes and tweaks that you never actually launch the website you’ve worked so hard on.
This is the rut many clients get stuck in – they’re never quite satisfied and always find something to tweak or update. As a result, when the website is finally finished, months or years behind schedule, many clients view a website launch as the end of a journey, instead of the beginning.
True story – I once spent 5 years building a website for my first company. I built a website from scratch, got a better idea, started over, built a new website from scratch, got another new idea, started over again, and repeat. I went through six different complete redesigns before I finally realized that I really need to get this thing done. Perfect or not, it had to launch.
If you’re not willing to constantly work towards improving your website, it’s really not worth going through all the work to build one in the first place.
Technology Changes
This is by far the biggest driver of website change, and one of the most important things you need to be open to. That amazing website you had built in 2011 is grossly outdated now, both in terms of design and technology. You’re probably missing out on all the new CSS & HTML features, it’s probably not responsive and there’s a good chance that it contains at least some Flash.
All of these things affect your SEO rankings, but they also affect usability. This is the number one reason we would recommend a complete rebuild of a website instead of just making updates. Sometimes it’s just easier (and cheaper) to start over.
Customer Demands
Ten years ago people were just fine with looking at a few pictures of your products and then stop by your physical location to see what is available for purchase. This isn’t the case anymore.
If you don’t have a complete product list, or even better, an online store, you are almost guaranteed to lose a customer to one of your competitors. If you don’t live by the mantra “I want it now and I want it delivered,” you are missing out on a huge number of potential customers.
Local Propeller can help you add an online store or digital catalogue to your website, contact us to learn more!
Google Said “Make It So”
Like it or not, Google is one of the biggest drivers of website change. When there is a change to Google’s search algorithms it’s vital that your website is optimized for the changes, if not your SEO ratings will be negatively affected.
This happened a few years ago when Google started prioritizing responsive websites over non-responsive websites. And it’s happening again with SSL security – if your website doesn’t use SSL to encrypt web traffic, you will be penalized in Google’s search rankings.
In Response
You might have spent months building the perfect website and you are happy with every last pixel, but if your customers aren’t engaging with the website it’s just not a viable business tool. It’s vitally important to be open to customer feedback to guide your website, and to use that feedback to improve user experience.
In the end, if your client’s don’t like your website, how happy you are with it is irrelevant.
In The End
A website needs to change and grow to stay relevant – a stagnant website is not an effective sales tool. You need to always be testing new ideas, checking out your competition and thinking of ways to improve your customer’s experience on your website.
When Local Propeller delivers a finished website, it’s only the beginning of a journey. We want to ensure your long term success and constantly work to improve and update your website so it performs as well as it possibly can. We offer numerous plans that ensure your website is up-to-date and performing as well as possible. Contact us to learn more.
*This quote has also been attributed to Pablo Picasso, and could just as easily been made up completely. Regardless of who actually said it, these words speaks the truth.
