Should I re-design my site?
Why would my site need a redesign? There are a lot of reasons
your site may need a re-design. Some may be more obvious than
others. You may have asked yourself the question: Can my site
benefit from a re-design? Hopefully, by the end of this article,
you will have an answer. The most common reason to redesign a
site is that it's outdated. If your site hasn't been updated in
the last 3 to 5 years you may want to have it evaluated. Some
new programming has come out over the last few years. Today's
newer sites have cleaner designs. Some scripts are no longer
needed. Newer programming can improve your sites functionality.
If your site is an e-commerce site, your code may have too many
charters in the query strings. You can benefit from a clean up
of those dynamic urls. Does your site have a plain or "flat"
look to it? Are the colors dull and lifeless? How does your site
stack up to your competitor's site? You want your site to appeal
to your visitors. If your site looks amateurish, people may be
hesitant to buy from you. An attractive layout tells potential
customers that you take your business seriously and so should
they. Is your site hard to navigate? Have you added links to
your menu that are now out of control? Re-designing will help
you organize your site for better use by the user. If your site
is too confusing and people cannot find what they are looking
for, they will leave. Depending on what type of business you are
engaged in, there may be thousands of sites just like yours. If
potential customers can't easily navigate to what they need at
your site, they will quickly go somewhere else.
Is your site still hosted on a goecities or other free hosting
service? Domain names are cheap. Some even come with free or low
cost hosting. There is no reason why you should be on a free
service. To be taken seriously you need to establish your
company name or brand. That starts with a domain name. Finally,
is your site optimized to help you acquire a high ranking on
search engines? If not, your site is likely not helping you
reach your full potential. Remember, no matter how good or bad
your site looks, no matter how easy it is to navigate and no
matter how clearly your layout expresses what you have to offer,
nothing will come of it unless users actually visit your site.
Think about whether or not your site suffers from: Bad color
scheme Use of old or bad SEO methods Confusing layout Lack of
overall optimization. (Save money doing SEO and re-design
together) Long loading times Unnecessary, old and outdated pages
A programming method that precludes you from initiating your own
updates Non search engine friendly pages These are just a few
reasons to have your site re-designed. There's a lot of
improvement that can come out of a site re-design. Ask yourself
if these common problem areas may pertain to your site. If they
do, you may be losing potential customers or clients. In short,
you may be losing money. After you have your site re-designed,
write a press release. Let the world know your site has a new
look. If "Mr SEO "does your site re-design, we will distribute
your press release for FREE.