Web Design - Do You Need a New Website to Help Your Small Business Marketing Efforts?

Like everything in life, websites get old. A website is not something you can design and forget. Simply putting up a website and submitting it to search engines is not marketing. Times change. Your customers change. You and your business change. Here are seven reasons you might want to consider redesigning your website to help your small business marketing efforts.

1. You have new competition. You are tooling along, happy and successful. Then suddenly some new competitor pops up with a whole new look. In addition, more significant, you have developed a different way of presenting things. They can knock you off your lead and seriously affect your sales. Wake up! This is a competition. No resting on your laurels allowed.

2. Your website looks dated. It pays to keep an eye on what is happening on the World Wide Web. Your potential customers are looking at websites every day. The phenomenon is, you are perceived to be as competent as you look. If you look behind the times, your viewers will move on quickly.

3. You have changed your focus. You might be providing the same products or services, but your target market has changed. Alternatively, the benefits have morphed and expanded. The marketplace may have changed. What used to be hot is now cold, so you are putting your emphasis on a different area. That should be reflected on your website.



4. Technology has changed. Is your website search engine friendly? Maybe your website should be mobile? Websites have changed significantly over the years. All those wiz-bang flash bells and whistles seemed keen when you developed your site five years ago. Now, that's not such a good idea. Keep up or be left behind. That's the new rule.

5. You've grown and changed. Businesses, like people, grow and mature. When you did your first website, you thought Elvis was cool and you loved pink and black. Now your business is more developed. You've learned more about your customers and their perceptions. Besides, you are sick of that old site anyway.

6. You want more control over your website. Until relatively recently it took someone who knew html code to create and maintain a website. Not anymore! Now websites can be developed on content management systems like WordPress that allow the average Joe to change the content, add pages, insert images and much more. Looks like a spiffy html website, except you don't have to keep paying someone to make changes for you.

7. You want to take advantage of new social media opportunities. Do you have a blog on your website? Maybe you have a better understanding of how social media online marketing works and want your website to support that. This is an area where staying fresh is paramount.

The process of redesigning your website or developing a new website can be invigorating and energizing. Many businesses are on their second or third generation websites. Reignite your web presence with a new or redesigned website. It has become part of every business standard operations.