F53-031: How often should I upgrade my website?

Show Summary: The show is about something I hear nearly all business owners face or ask me about and it's how often should I upgrade or update my website. It's not about how often to update your website but why do you want to update your website? I think that's missed a lot. So I have some guiding principles that I use in scenarios where it makes sense for a website redesign or reprogramming. 1. The framework you're on is not supporting updates or changes. You have to be able to publish content to your website. Add images, blog posts, videos, podcast, or other content elements that you have. If you're unable to do that easily without having to pay a programmer to do it for you, that is a big red flag to get a new website. It just has to be something that's part of your business and part of your content production. 2. New branding If you have a new logo or a new vision for your organization or if you have new colors, you want your website to match all of that. From a look, feel, and design standpoint, you want those things to align really closely. 3. It's not mobile friendly. A lot of SEO companies say this is the carrot for a lot of organizations. There are a lot of people using mobile devices to access websites or there are some business where their users are not mobile. SEO companies also say you'll drop out of Google rankings if you don't have a mobile-friendly website. That is only true for mobile searches. Google has made clear that if your site is not mobile-friendly today, your normal desktop searches won't be affected. 4. Your site is so out of date and your competition is just crushing you. If you're a competition in the industry and it's serving its purpose, you want to have a better reason than just the fresh looks. 5. Adding a major component to your business Some business owners have added a new element to either their website or their business model. Common things are membership or an eCommerce function to their website or new major service they're offering. They're teaching a new service out there of they're selling a new,, major product line. 6. Security issues If your site is getting hacked frequently, this is something important. Websites get compromised all over the world. Websites do get hacked and compromised all over the world. You have to make sure you and your family are. 7. A new, fresh look. A new, fresh look tied to an ownership change or new leadership in marketing department so they have a clear vision or new direction for the organization. When does it NOT make sense to redo your website? 1. If you don't have a clear vision or goal. If you aren't addressing a very specific problem or not trying to capitalize on a very specific opportunity, changing your website is not a good idea. 2. If you're not committed to it It takes a lot of work to be the client as a new website or design is being built. There are different things you need to consider like design approvals, content gathering, new images, SEO considerations. All these things need to be approved and acknowledged or worked on by the organization. Systems and processes in place: 1. Have a clear plan and vision for your website and executing on the website. 2. Make sure whoever you're working with on a website has a process to extract or detail the main reasons or goal for your website. Books, People, & Resources: eye9design - A boutique web design and WordPress agency that just celebrated 10 years in business (an eternity in the web design space). They built hundreds of websites for businesses of all sizes. Finding a web design company is hard. There are lots of options, lots of good ones but lots of bad ones. Let the team at eye9design take care of you. If you need a great website for a great price, visit www.focus53.com/eye9. Mention this ad and get 10%. Download the 15 Most Popular Tools Business Owners Should Be Using