Keeping up with a website can be challenging and needs ongoing efforts. We all want the perfect website, but the reality is that ‘perfection’ is a journey, and websites are virtually always in need of improvement. This article will explore how to boost your website's durability through continuous improvement.
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection” ~ Mark Twain
In years past, this generally demanded constant redesign and reinvention from the ground up to create the optimal experience. But this traditional approach to web design of completely rebuilding your website is not always necessary—or even ideal—anymore.
Your site is like a garden. It’s not finished once planted and buds start to show: it requires consistent tending and support to grow it alongside evolutions in the market and your business. Fortunately, technology for key platforms like Drupal and WordPress has improved so that most websites no longer need to be rebuilt from scratch every 3-4 years.
In this article, we’ll explore why, how and when an approach of continuous website improvement is better than a complete redesign.
We recently looked at how a dedicated and proactive approach to maintenance benefits your website once it goes live. We also noted that maintenance activities often get short-shrift from many agencies.
While a portion of the job of maintenance is corrective or reactive, proactively improving your website is crucial to ensuring it is healthy and resilient. This can only be done through ongoing incremental improvements.
It also keeps your website secure and up-to-date and increases your website's durability. While a complete rebuild may take as much as a year to complete, minor changes made during the lifecycle of your website can incorporate new technologies needed to meet user expectations in a fraction of that time. A philosophy of continuous improvement ensures you are always providing a high overall quality website and an optimal experience while maximizing your budget and providing a greater return on investment than a complete redesign.
Of course, every decision made about your business website needs to be aligned with your business objectives. To that end, iterations made must always come back to your web strategy.
Just as your website needed during its initial development, each iteration must start with a clear strategy and measurable objectives. These objectives could include improving search engine optimization, security, user experience and performance or adding new features altogether. And, of course, every iteration must be consistent with insights from your data. What is the journey you intend to have your customers and partners take when coming to your site - is it working? How does it need to be tweaked?
How your website performs against these metrics lets you know whether it’s time to upgrade.
It is not as daunting as you might worry. Continual improvement doesn’t mean continuous, non-stop change. It starts and stops as needed, constantly improving your website to meet new requirements or align with new objectives as part of regular website maintenance.
A few key metrics can help you know whether your website needs improvement:
Of course, major changes in your organization and industry should also be significant reasons to evolve your website.
As noted earlier, perfecting your website is a never-ending, always-improving journey. It must be viewed in an agile way; once you or your agency have implemented improvements to your website, they must be tested against your objectives, and you must return to your web strategy—which changes over time.
Of course, there are times when a complete redesign or re-platforming is needed (ex: Platform end of life, a major change in your organization’s strategy, the website being 7+ years old). Fortunately, we at Symetris can help with both.
With more than 18 years of experience designing and supporting more than 400 websites, our team of experts can audit and evaluate whether a redesign is needed. Like most of our recent clients, you may learn that small improvements provide the impact needed to achieve your business goals while making the most of your digital budget. We also have a complete guide that helps you improve your existing Drupal website performance without redesigning.
Get in touch with one of our experts to find out more. We can analyze your current situation and help you determine what you need to succeed.
