So you have a website online with some credibility and great functionality, but it has been a couple years. If you are feeling like your website falls a little flat compared to the competition, it might be time for a website makeover. Fortunately, there have been a lot of software innovations and great tools developed to update your site. The hardest part sometimes is deciding what direction you want to take, and how you are going to implement your plan. No matter what, you’ll want to put your best foot forward to drive traffic to your site. How can you do it? Follow this 3 step guide to keep your site current and competitive.

Update the Visual Design

Nowadays you can’t just have a site that functions. Even if you offer the best products and/or services in your industry, if your site doesn’t appeal to people you will be missing out big time. One way to revamp your site to keep it fresh is to change the visual layout.

Meet with a marketing consultant or a trusted advisor to make sure your content and graphics are compelling enough to sell. Consider updating your logo. This is essentially re branding your company, so you need to think about what effect this will have on your existing clients. Be careful, an example of re branding gone wrong is Blackberry.

Their rebranding was more a case of not showing up to the game. By not taking initiative and focusing on their brand, Blackberry went from cell phone hero to zero in a short time. Remember all the lessons you’ve learned. If you change your logo, remember to keep everything that worked for your before.

Upgrade your Platform

If your web design platform is out of date you need to upgrade to bigger and better things. Get a design template that is current and has trendy features. If you haven’t already, optimize your site for mobile devices. Over half of all the traffic on the web is from mobile phones and tablets. Many business owners missed the boat on mobile optimization, and often come to us asking for help making their site mobile friendly. Make sure your site is responsive, Google now penalizes sites that aren’t mobile responsive, which results in a lower index ranking. Think about all the features you need to get more exposure. Social media widgets, blogs and shopping carts are all good ideas.

There are many content management systems like Wix, Drupal or WordPress that can help you update your site by yourself. If you have more time than money this is a great options. It’s not rocket science, but remember, there is a lot involved in maintaining a professional website, so always consult an expert if you run into any questions.

Test Then Launch

If you haven’t found a problem with your site, then you aren’t looking hard enough. Aside from the obvious grammatical errors, HTML or CSS discrepancies there is always something that needs to be changed or edited. Always test your site before it’s live. For blogs you may not need to be so thorough with tests, but ecommerce and businesses can fall prey to disaster without the proper testing.

If you are looking for more advice from the experts, contact us at any time for a free consolation.