Don’t Be Frightened of a Web Refresh

As with everything, tweaks and improvements are no bad thing so why do a lot of people not have that same approach to their websites? Refreshing your existing site doesn’t need to cost the earth – subtle changes can make big differences.

A lot of the time we see clients who we have perhaps worked with years ago, or we know how old their websites are, and their sites are exactly the same as when they were built. Yes, there’s the odd blog post and they’ve updated their plug-ins, but they still have the same look, feel images and language that they did when they launched.

Now, when we look at their actual business and them as business owners and compare then and now, there is so much change and evolution, so it always confuses us why this evolution isn’t represented on their biggest digital and marketing platform.

Sometimes when the phrase ‘re-brand’ is mentioned, connotations of high price points, losing your identity and a hefty workload come with it, but it really doesn’t have to be that way. The hard work has been done – your site is built – updating the look, feel and tone is relatively easy in comparison and the impact can be huge.

We are seeing time and time again that users are a bit frightened of their website. They are frightened of touching it, trying to edit it for fear of breaking it, so they do nothing and their site lays stagnant over the years. But if your web designers are worth their salt, like us, many will be happy to guide or to help with you with updating it.

We recently used an analogy of painting your house yourself on our social media as, although you can have a good go and do a relatively good job, it just isn’t as slick as the professionals. Your website is exactly the same; you can tweak and make it look good, but it often can lack that experienced flair. However, you can ensure that you are in the best possible place for least time and money if you do the work beforehand.

By this, we mean to get things ready. So, if you want to change the copy, make sure it’s written, edited and signed off (to word count) and the same goes with images (the right shape and size) and if you have any other ideas, such as updating your logo, for example). If you can bring as many finalised elements to the table as you can, it will take less time.

But worry not too if you know you need to refresh your site but just don’t know where to start, as we have our brand sessions on offer where we can thrash it out and get the rebranding crystal clear before we set to work.

As we mentioned, subtle tweaks can be so powerful, and a new detail can add so much energy and vibrancy to a somewhat tired site. Something as simple as changing the headline image or re-wording your titles can give it the makeover it needs for you to re-introduce it to your audience.

Updating your website is a great marketing initiative as it gives you news to talk about with your audience, something to entice a potential new audience and give you, the owner, a new sense of vigour about your business.

If you would like to chat more about possibly refreshing or re-branding your business, please do get in touch.