With over two decades of experience building websites for organizations big and small, we’ve heard it all.
Here are three common complaints that signal your site might need a refresh—or a total rebuild.
1) You Can’t Make Updates
This may be the number one issue recently with clients. The current site cannot easily be updated. Simple changes take weeks instead of hours, and when the changes are made they are causing other problems on the site. In other words, things are breaking every time someone touches the website.
This is a bad situation and it’s a clear sign changes are needed. Typically, when a site gets to this point it’s better to scrap the old site and start new.
Occasionally, there are steps we can take to stabilize the site and put it on life support until the rebuild can begin.
2) You Have to Work Through a Third-Party to Make ANY Changes/Updates
This is an issue I can’t believe we still run into – but we do. Here’s what happens.An organization works with a third party to build a new website. Once the site gets built everything is great, high-fives all around.
After some time, the site needs updating. Content becomes out of date, product information needs a refresh, etc; but the internal marketing team can’t make these changes. They don’t have access. Instead, they have to work through another party to make the updates.
If this sounds at all familiar – you’re in a terrible situation. I’m sorry to break the news. You should NOT have to work through a third-party in order to make any changes to YOUR website.
At Ascedia, our goal is to create your site and turn the keys over to you. Because, it’s crazy to have a third-party control over your site. It’s slow and it’s expensive. Every time they touch your site – they are billing you for their time. Not good.
That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news – the site may not need a complete overhaul. It may only need some updating and some UX work.
But if you’re in this situation, it’s time to make a change.
3) You Can’t Find What You’re Looking For
Something happens to websites once they launch – they expand in size. Sometimes it’s a little, other times it’s a lot. Pages get added, content gets added, images get added, PDFs get added. A lot of stuff gets added. But nothing comes down.This expansion causes all kinds of problems. It slows down your site. It causes compliancy issues and, maybe the biggest issue, it makes it hard to find key pieces of information.
If your visitors have to click around to find what they need, that’s a problem. It usually means it’s time for a rebuild or at a minimum pruning back on the content.
How Long Should a Website Last?
A quick search will tell you the average website lifespan is 3–5 years. That’s not very long, considering how much effort goes into building one.But here’s the good news: With the right care and maintenance, you can extend your site’s life significantly.
In our next newsletter, we’ll share practical tips to help you get more mileage from your current website.
