What do Mullets, Macarenas and MySpace have to do with your website?
Last updated May 20, 2022
Just like in fashion, oftentimes website designers do what's trendy at the time.
Of course, the downside to this is obvious: if you don't stay up with at least somewhat current design, you'll look like the guy you graduated high school who still dresses the way he did in high school (because he peaked).
Maybe it's those '90s style Oakley shades or the neon-green track suits.
Whatever it happens to be, is your website stuck in the figurative '80, '90s, or 2000s?
When should you consider a redesign?
The answer is always: it depends.
Typically, we find every 24-36 months a good timeframe to reassess.
A lot can happen in 3 years. Even 1 year. Business models change. And design trends change.
If the content is great, the site speed is awesome, and people are sticking around, oftentimes, a figurative "coat of paint" is all that's need.
But it can go deeper than that.
Ultimately is the website still a good representation of your organization?
If not, why?
The "safe" things that never change
Creating an awesome website that stays "evergreen" can often be a challenge but it's not impossible.
Separating content from how its design now can make that eventual redesign much, much easier down the road.
Making sure that content displays on multiple devices will never go out of style.
When you have great content, you'll continually be able to use it or keep it updated.
Designing with the end in mind
Oftentimes, when we do an assessment of our client's websites, we find they are simply not setup for marketing success.
Maybe an agency who is technically proficient at building websites comes in and builds a great site. (Or so the client thought.)
However, when a client calls the shots, the web designer obliges but it then turns out the site wasn't really setup for the end in mind.
That end in this case is actually driving traffic and customers to it. What you need is a website marketing system not simply a website.
Design a marketing system
Many businesses are still building websites like they are print brochures—spending a ton of time and money on one upfront and then eventually let it figuratively rot for awhile until it becomes so outdated the website is begging to be started over.
What's worse is the site functions but it's really a trainwreck for getting customers and moving them through the customer sales journey.
And what's worse, there's no tools built-into the site for really doing effective marketing.
No wonder little emphasis—or marketing investment—is placed on the website.
Unfortunately, this rinse and repeat cycle happens over and over and has become somewhat of the status quo.
The new way to build websites
We're here to tell you it doesn't have to be this way.
While our roots began as web design agency, we realized early on that this is a terrible model for both the agency who built the site and the client.
The client is buying something effectively broken to begin with. They end up having to find two agencies, one to do the website and another to help them market the website.
Or worse, hire people in-house who weren't even involved with the website design to begin with. So then the in-house people start making a mess of the old regime's work to the point that it becomes unusable that you're left with no other choice but to start over.
We're here to advocate that clients stop hiring web designers and hire people who know how to actually build a website with the end in mind.