This is a fair question. Thinking of a new website can be daunting. You probably put a lot of time, effort, passion, and money into your website and think why can’t I just put up a new photo, a new video, or a testimonial?
The answer is kind of complex and may surprise you. The short answer? Most often it will take a lot less time and money to build a whole new website than to update the current one!
A New Website is Cheaper in the Long Run
If it’s dollar-for-dollar, or slightly more expensive, starting a website from scratch might be cheaper and more beneficial for you. Here’s why:
How Old is Your Website?
If you created your website several years ago, it may not be compatible with online searches from a smartphone. Is your website responsive from a small or mobile device? All new websites are created with mobile and tablet interfaces in mind.
All New Websites Have SSL Certificates
An SSL certificate shows that your website is encrypted for secure communication. If your website is not equipped with SSL protection, your visitors may receive a notification that it is not safe to be viewing or interacting with your site.
This has more to do with your hosting, but can negatively affect your ranking on search engines.
Which Program Was Your Website Built On?
There are coding languages that are becoming outdated because search engines are constantly being updated. For example, if your website was built with Flash, it may have served its purpose 5-10 years ago, but now it is outdated and will be very difficult to work with. Building a new website guarantees your website will be accessible and compatible for the long run.
What Was the Purpose or Intent When You Had the Website Built?
Often 5 years ago or more, websites were just a way of showing that you’re a legitimate business. A lot of the time, websites were set up like digital business cards. This still happens today, especially with businesses that are just starting up.
What we’ve learned since the trend of business card websites, is that the website should serve as much more than that. It should act as a component of your sales team, and help you generate leads. The strategy of your new website will still show off the credibility of your businesses, but also act as an additional path to sales.
Is Your Website Capable Of Achieving What You Want It to Now?
Sometimes websites are built off a template, even the really good ones that have excellent graphic design. So, your site may not be architecturally capable of hosting features that you’d like to use now. A new website that’s more customized can be tailored exactly to your purpose and goals.
The Construction Analogy
Imagine that you’re building a house on an empty lot. You hire a contractor and sub-trades, but they only finish the job halfway through. Now, you have to find someone else to pick up where they left off, but it’s going to be really hard. It will be difficult to find another builder who will risk putting their name on something that they haven’t completed from start to finish. That builder can’t vouch for the quality of the work that has already been done.
The same can be said for a website developer working on someone else’s code. If your website was built using a template, there’s only so much that the developer can work with. Also, if the developing process for a website built from scratch was off-shored to a different country, the code may not even be readable to developers here. Therefore, rather than spending a lot of money trying to decrypt the website’s code, it may be more cost-effective to rebuild the website altogether.
Is Your Website Set-up to Track Visitor Information?
A website now is a way of getting visitors to convert (acquire your goods or services rather than someone else’s). This means that your website must have the appropriate CTAs (Calls to Action), getting them to read more about the business or adding items to a shopping cart (if you’re an e-commerce business). Do you have the proper resources to track those metrics? Do you have the ability to view heat maps (to see where visitors are clicking and hovering)?
Our Job at Siva:
To ensure that your new website reflects your business in a strategic way. We will challenge you to think about what you really need from your website and think beyond what you initially thought you needed or wanted. Once we know what your business needs from a website, we will build it from scratch, 100% in-house.
