Revamp or Rebuild A Website?

In the past, a website was more of a luxury for businesses around the world. These days it has become a necessity, especially if a business wants to extend its reach in the market. Currently, there are more than 1.5 billion websites on the internet. Yes, you read that right. 1.5 BILLION. That is how big the internet is, and out of this number, less than one million websites are attracting 50 percent of internet traffic. The top four websites attract around 33 percent of this traffic. These websites are Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Baidu. Well, this is understandable since the first three websites are a part of the daily lives of netizens while the fourth is the main search engine in China.

While your website may not be in the same category as these online giants, you want to make sure it attracts traffic for your business. If the website is not attracting the traffic you want, you have the option of revamping it or rebuilding it from scratch. But, which path should you choose? Revamping or rebuilding?

To help you decide, let us take a look at the differences between revamping and rebuilding a website.

Reasons Why the Website is Not Attracting Traffic

• Changes on the website may have affected traffic if the website used to get regular visits.
• Your website may have been affected by changes in the search algorithm of Google.
• Some keywords or meta-information may have been removed.
• Plugins installed on your website may have affected incoming traffic
• Your market channels may have become ineffective
• New websites have started to take some of your markets

The reason listed above should be a sign for you to make changes to the website. But the same question will come out: should you revamp the website or rebuild it?

Let us now take a look at what revamping and rebuilding a website would require.

Revamping the Website

Revamping or redesigning a website simply requires you to update its overall layout and design to suit the current needs of the market. While it may require you to enhance some areas on the website, it can still have the same basic components. When you initially set up the website, it used the technology available at that time. But technology has grown by leaps and bounds since then. So the design of the website may already be outdated. You can also make changes in the content while keeping the current search engine optimization (SEO) trends in mind.

You can use the following points as your guide when you should revamp or redesign your website.

• If the list of changes you need to make is specific, you may want to revamp or redesign the website.
• Your website does not look as good as your competitors offering similar products or services.
• The website does not effectively communicate the brand of the business.
• Your Google ranking is gradually going down.
• Website traffic may be consistent, but conversions are going down.
• Your website is not mobile-friendly or it does not look good when accessed using a mobile gadget.

Advantages of Revamping the Website

• Keep up with the latest trends – the most important advantage of revamping the website is it lets you keep up with the latest trends in technology. This is particularly true if the website was created years ago.
• Effectively communicate your brand – a revamped website allows you to effectively communicate your brand to your market.
• Extend your market reach – with better brand recognition, you will also extend your reach into your market.
• Minimize the bounce rate – if the website looks better, you will reduce the bounce rate and keep your visitors engaged until they make a purchase.

Rebuilding the Website

When you rebuild your website, you will have to go down to the core of the website itself. You have to look into the technology used in creating the website in the first place. It also requires you to look into the content management system, codes, databases, and servers you use.

You may opt to rebuild the website when you encounter the following issues:

• If the list of things for you to work on is not specific to certain areas on the website, you may have to rebuild it from scratch.
• When you have issues with website management or the management of user input and content.
• Changes in technology cannot be supported by the marketing strategy you used when you first created the website.
• The code you initially used cannot suitably support the new features of the latest content management systems in the market.

Advantages of Rebuilding a Website

• Faster and responsive website – if you opt to rebuild your website using the latest technology available in the market, the website will load faster and will be more responsive.
• Better user experience – a newly-rebuilt website will enhance the user experience of your visitors. This will translate to an increase in return visitors who may be keen on using your website.
• Updating will be easier –if you rebuild the website using new technologies, it will be easier for you to update its content

Taking a look at the points mentioned in this article, you will be easily guided on whether you can simply revamp the website or rebuild it. Basically, if the issue is limited to the design and layout, a simple revamp may be required. But if the issue is much deeper than its look and overall design, you may have to rebuild the website from scratch.

You should also take into account your budget. While rebuilding is ideal for websites using dated technology, it will require a bigger budget compared to simply revamping it. You have to consider the cost-effectiveness of the two methods of enhancing your website. But one very important thing to take into account is that rebuilding and redesigning all pages on the website may not allow you to save costs in the long run. You have to decide whether to revamp it or to rebuild it.

In the end, it all depends on what you want for the website. ­

We hope you find this post useful.

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