Every major engagement we have had has involved a significant update of the client’s website and sometimes even multiple updates. We have come into these web projects at every stage. We have driven the updates, we have come in halfway through the project and we have inherited websites after the updates had already been made. So we have seen the good, the bad and the truly ugly. A foundational question with these updates is, “Does our website need to be completely replaced or can it simply be significantly updated?” The answer to this question is one of the most critical in terms of project impact.
To start let us define what replaced vs updated means. While many people think replacing vs updating is based on how extensive the appearance and content changes are, the simplest way to look at this is whether the page and content urls change as part of the new website.
To replace a website: The page urls for most pages and content have changed regardless of what changes are made to the appearance and content of the website.
To update a website: The urls for pages and content remain the same but the appearance and content of the website is changed to some degree whether it be fairly minor or significant.
Foundational Questions to Consider
The decision on whether the website needs to be replaced or updated like all other marketing decisions must be grounded in a few basic foundational considerations to make sure you achieve your ultimate goals:
- What is best for the customer?
- What is best for the internal teams?
- What will best drive growth?
- What will allow the company to scale?
Factors That Influence Whether to Update or Rebuild Your Website
Beyond these foundational questions are some additional tactical questions to be considered:
- Does the current content management system (CMS) need to be replaced? If the current CMS needs to be replaced due to lack of technical support or key functionality, then the website will need to be completely replaced and not simply updated.
- Has the company name changed? If your company name has changed as a result of a merger or rebranding, you will most likely need to change your domain name which will change all page urls. Changing your domain name will have an organic search impact, so this means you can replace your website without significant additional organic search risk.
- How extensive is the current site’s navigation? If there are only 2 or 3 pages on your website then you will essentially need to build a new website.
- How much organic search traffic does your site currently have? If your current website is driving a large volume of organic search traffic, it would be best to modify your existing website if possible. We have seen rebuilding websites cause a loss in organic search traffic even when every precaution is taken to minimize the effects.
TL;DR
The decision to replace or update a website is not based primarily on how extensive the appearance and content updates are but based on how extensive technical and site structure changes are. Making the right decision is a major factor in whether your website project is successful or not.
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