Key Factors That Signal Your Website Needs an Update
Your website is your key marketing asset, and its performance is crucial. Are you aware of the optimal timing for a website rebuild? We collaborate with Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) nationwide and frequently discuss the hurdles they face in marketing technology. Common issues often relate to their websites.
Complaints we often hear include:
"Our website is too slow!"
"It's difficult to work with our current vendor."
"Updates to our website take too long to implement."
"Our website doesn't reflect our brand accurately."
"Our website can't keep up with our evolving marketing strategy."
Do these issues resonate with you? If so, it might be time to consider a website rebuild.
Troubleshooting Your Website Our partners face numerous website challenges, typically falling into one of three main categories:
Backend technological issues
Outdated design and layout
Poor integration with marketing campaigns
While some of these issues can be resolved with minor updates, others may necessitate a comprehensive rebuild. Here’s how you can determine the right time for a rebuild.
Backend Technical Issues Often, a poorly performing website has several backend issues causing slowdowns and negatively impacting SEO. Common problems include excessive third-party integrations, inconsistent tagging, metadata issues, and incorrect or missing H1 tags.
Addressing these issues might be manageable one by one, but this approach can become expensive over time. Moreover, if your website is generally slow, it might indicate multiple significant issues that are costly to resolve.
Additionally, workflow problems can cause delays. Our partners often struggle with developers' ticket systems or slow turnaround times, leading to unresolved issues.
Stale Creative Concept Rebranding or updating a creative strategy can be thrilling, involving new logos, colors, typography, and more. Our DMO partners are eager to showcase their new brands but are often frustrated that their websites don’t reflect these updates adequately.
Some have tried to adjust their layouts or add more elements to their existing websites. However, if the site was designed around an old brand, it may not effectively showcase the new branding. Moreover, updating creative assets like videos and photos frequently can be challenging if the access to modify these elements is restricted, leading to a mismatch between the website and current branding.
Lack of Alignment with Overall Strategy As marketing strategies evolve, it's crucial that your website adapts to support new objectives and innovations. For instance, if targeting meeting planners is a focus, your website should facilitate this with specific landing pages, virtual tours, RFP submission forms, and more.
However, continuous additions can lead to a disjointed and cluttered website. Some platforms may not easily allow for new elements, leading to ineffective websites or delays due to vendor dependencies.
Knowing When to Rebuild Your Website Based on discussions with our partners who have undertaken website rebuilds, they find their new websites more effective, resource-efficient, and easier to manage.
You might recognize some of the issues mentioned here and wonder if a rebuild is the right solution. Quillio Studio helps our partners answer this by posing the following choices:
Would you prefer to:
Invest in building a responsive website OR continue investing in a suboptimal website?
Create a vibrant, dynamic website OR attempt to enhance a static webpage?
Integrate seamlessly with your marketing strategy OR maintain a website that quickly becomes outdated?
Take control of your website's management OR depend on external vendors and developers?
If you find yourself leaning towards the first option in each pair, then a website rebuild is likely the right choice for you.
