How long do your web pages live

Websites are still a very important part of a company’s digital marketing. People search for something on the Internet every day, and many of the searches are related to businesses. In this context, a buyer may hear about your business for the first time by getting lost on your website.

First impressions are known to be very important regardless of the field. A good first impression increases our interest in further investigating a problem, while a bad first impression makes us easily falter. Websites are very often what gives the buyer the first impression of your company.

The design, content and quality of the site instantly create for us a certain image of the company. If your site looks outdated, the content is blurry and contains misspellings, the site loads slowly, or is not mobile-friendly, this gives us an unwanted impression of the company.

Even if your company has nothing to do with the IT or information technology industry, bad websites can easily send a negative signal about the company’s activities. If the company’s website is out of date, have other company activities lagged behind? If there are a lot of typos or careless omissions on the site, does the company make mistakes elsewhere?

For these reasons, a company’s website must always be up to the task. No matter how good your company’s products or services are, bad websites can ruin everything and alienate customers.

Diamonds are forever, websites are not

nations in the website market, but time has passed. There are also different trends in the website markets, not to mention the technical components.
Outdated sites weren’t always outdated. They may have represented the latest and most popular trends at some point.

If you or your company already has a website, do you remember when was the last time it was completely updated? If you don’t remember, this could be a sign that updating the website may soon become an urgent problem. After all, the era of sales and really good sites is pretty short.

At SDM we believe that website projects that involve a complete rebuild of the entire site should be done on average once every three years. We often serve businesses whose current pages were created 2-4 years ago. It’s not unusual for even pages published less than two years ago to now be completely revamped.

Let’s take an example of a website’s lifespan, which is closer than you think. These SDM pages you are currently viewing were published in their current form in late 2016, about three years ago. I can say that we are currently working on a new website for our company, which means that in the case of our website, those three years will also be the life of the site.

How do you identify websites that are about to lose their relevance due to old age?

The lifespan of websites is affected by many different factors. It is of great importance if the website has, for example, an online store, that is, the actual sales are made through the site, or the website was created only to provide the necessary contact information.

The more responsibility, functions or other features the company itself has, the more often they also need to be updated.

Below, we’ll look at some practical signs that may indicate your site is about to need an update.

Your website seems to have no purpose

The most common problem with websites is that: they don’t have a purpose. Whatever the case may be, the pages are made just as a necessity, and the site is not directing its customer anywhere. The site does not display the services or products your company offers, contact information is hidden, and the site gives the visitor more questions than answers.

Site technology is outdated

Your site may be built using outdated technology. This is quite natural, because development is constantly evolving. Over time, some technologies will improve and new technologies will appear at the same rate that old ones die.

At SDM we create websites using WordPress, which has been the most popular website platform in the world. Given its popularity, many developers have been working on it and WordPress has been constantly updated. For this reason, WordPress performs better than others.

The site is not optimized for mobile devices.

If your site currently doesn’t adapt to phone or tablet screens, then it’s really outdated. To be honest, your site hasn’t been up to scratch for the last 10 years.

Responsiveness, that is, adapting a site to a device, should be the concern of all websites today. In the best of cases, more than half of Internet users use mobile devices. So why would you want websites that more than half of your potential customers can’t access?

The website is slow

Websites often slow down over time. Technology becomes outdated, sometimes you forget to update your site, and material can be slowly added to the site, slowing it down. Site speed depends on a variety of factors, from servers and content to plugins.

When updating a website, it’s a good time to review any plugins, content, or images on the site. Is it still necessary, or can the unnecessary plugins be removed, or the images on the site compressed into a more compact format?

outdated content

One of the most important features of a marketing website is the content. Well-written content makes it easy to search engine optimization of your site and increase sales or leads. Therefore, content should be the most important thing on your site.

If you know that the content on your site is out of date, it would be a good idea to combine the update with the site update.

Restore the old or create a new one?

When you realize that your website is no longer the latest trend and you need new solutions, you will be faced with a big question; Will the site be completely re-created or will simply updating the existing site suffice?

The answer to this question will, of course, depend on the scope of the reforms. If just a couple of new subpages or other small files are enough to accomplish your goals, then simply editing your old site may be enough. On the other hand, if there are more different types of modifications, it becomes more profitable to create a completely new website quite quickly.

The decision to update an old site is governed in part by the same laws as repairing an old car. Is it worth investing in an old car in the form of repairs, or is it better to use it to buy a new car?

When updating a website, there are also several options to consider. How much would it cost to update the current page and how much would a completely new website cost? And how long will this site last after the upgrade compared to a brand new site?

Remember: a website is never finished.

Whether you decide to give your website a bit of a makeover or a complete makeover, there is one important thing to learn; the work on a website is never completely finished.

Websites need to be constantly updated to keep up with the competition. Keeping your site up to date not only helps you stand out from the competition, it also helps you with search engine optimization, as search engines value constantly fresh and up-to-date content on your site.

In addition to search engines, customers also appreciate the updated site. When the site is constantly updated, it gives the customer an idea of ​​an active and dynamic company.