Websites and the technologies running them are constantly evolving and the requirements of your web presence is always shifting. In our experience across the many sites we manage we find that often the platform that a particular project is built upon can be several years old and has been updated and maintained throughout its working life… at a certain point it does become cost effective to re-evaluate your need to upgrade your web presence.
At mtc. we look at each project we are asked to revitalise in depth to see what the options are going forward. Each project can be wildly different in terms of what the requirements are in bringing the project up to date and satisfying the needs of a proposed redesign or upgrade. Usually this takes the form of different routes we can go in terms of what we can offer clients.
What are my options?
mtc. do not just create fresh web sites we also inherit and maintain projects that have come to us from other companies from large web agencies to student coders producing their first website. The options we present to a client when we are asked to upgrade and add to an existing project are tailored to the codebase that is present, the goals of the client and the time budget we are able to use.
There are many ways that a web site can be improved so at mtc. we offer a range of different services from marketing to design and bespoke development. Each of the services we offer will improve your website in a very specific way. Clients come to us with very different criteria for the value they want to add to a site. One client gave us a sales conversion rate they wanted to achieve and we came up with a new improved checkout process together with visual design tweaks that helped that client exceed that conversion target while another gave us a simpler task of increasing contact form enquiries which we did by making links to the contact form page more prominent and the form simplified to make it less daunting to fill in. Other clients have had entire sites redesigned and redeveloped to fulfil the requirements they have asked us to help achieve.
One of the main reasons recently for clients asking us for advice on how to improve their websites has been the shift towards mobile friendly websites. Google famously changed their search algorithm in a very public way recently and have downgraded sites which are not judged to be mobile friendly by its ever changing criteria. This has prompted many businesses to review the way their web projects are experienced on different devices. This has led to many interesting conversations with clients about the problems they experience not just in terms of how the website is viewed on mobile but in the course of the discussion other areas are highlighted as well.
When is it time to upgrade?
A well built website will be serviceable and useful for many years… technologies may change but an attractive web presence that allows your users to navigate easily to the information they need and the services they want will continue to perform long after the technologies used to build it have been superceded and deprecated. Your decision to upgrade your site should be based on if your website is doing what you need it to do in the best way possible, if it is an attractive web presence that will impress your visitors and if you can use your website to keep the information up to date and relevant for users. Improvements can always be made and maintenance of your website is essential to keep your online presence an inviting and pleasurable experience.
If you find that your site is not meeting this criteria then it is time to explore your upgrade options. It could be that you have a fantastic front end to your site but you find it difficult to get the content you want into it due to the limitation of your platform. It may be the answer to this is to change the engine running your site underneath. We have had very happy clients who have been able to more easily administer websites that have had nothing visibly changed on the actual site… a shift towards a different method of being able to change the content can make the world of difference to the content you can provide.
Conclusion
Your web presence can be one of the the most important aspect of your business… if your website is not performing as well as it can then it could be costing you money, time and be harmful to your brand or service. It can be daunting when faced with decisions about how best to move forward as there are a raft of options as to what can be done to meet your needs and get your web project online in its best form. At mtc. we listen to issues you have with your current online presence and come up with proposed solutions that will best solve your needs. Contact us if you think your website is in need of an upgrade of any type and we can explore your options with no obligation.