Websites are still a very important part of the company’s digital marketing. People search online every day, and a lot of googling is related to companies. In this context, for the first time, the customer may hear about your company by getting lost on your website.
First impressions are known to be very important regardless of the subject matter. A good first impression increases our interest in getting to know the issue further, while a bad first impression makes us easily hesitant. Websites are very often the route that gives the customer a first impression of your company.
The layout, content and quality of the website instantly creates a certain image of the company for us. If your site looks old-fashioned, the content is blurry and contains spelling errors, the site loads slowly or is not mobile-friendly, it gives us an unwelcome view of the company.
Even if your company has nothing to do with the IT industry or information technology, bad websites easily send out some kind of signal about the company’s operations. If the company’s website is outdated, has the company’s other activities lagged behind? If a lot of typos or negligence errors have been lost on the website, does the company make mistakes elsewhere as well?
For these reasons, the company’s website should always be tip top and represent the last call. No matter how good your company’s products or services are, poor websites can “ruin everything” and drive the customers away.
Diamonds are forever – websites are not
Outdated websites have not always been outdated. They may have at some point represented the latest and hottest trends on the website, now only years have passed. There are also different trends on the website side, not to mention techniques, from which the time has passed several years ago.
If you or your company already have websites, do you remember when they were last renewed completely? If you do not remember, it can be a cautious sign that renewing a website may soon be a topical issue. In the end, the age of selling and really good websites, is quite short.
For us, at SDM, website projects where the entire site is completely rebuilt, the lifespan of the old site has been around three years on average. We often serve companies whose current pages were made 2-4 years ago. It is not unusual that even pages published less than two years ago are now being completely remade.
Let’s take one example of a website’s lifespan, which is closer than you think. These pages of SDM, which you are currently browsing, were published in their current form in late 2016, i.e. about three years ago. I can reveal that at the moment we are working on a completely new website for our company, which means that in the case of our website, that three years will also be the lifespan of the site.
How do you identify websites that are about to die of old age?
The lifespan of websites is influenced by many different things. It makes a lot of difference whether the website has, for example, an online store, i.e. real sales are made through the site, or whether the website has been made just for the sake of sharing the necessary contact information.
The more responsibility, functions, or other features itself has for the company, the more frequently they should also be updated with new ones.
Next, we will go over some practical signs where you can tell your website is nearing its end.
Your website does not seem to have a purpose
The most common problem with websites is that they: do not seem to have a purpose. As it were, the pages are made only as a “necessary evil”, and the site does not direct your customer anywhere. The site does not show the services or products offered by your company, the contact information is hidden around many corners, and the site gives its visitor more questions than answers.
The technology of the site is old
Your site may be made with technology that is no longer up to date. This is quite natural, as development is constantly evolving. Over time, some technologies will improve, and new technologies will emerge at the same rate as older ones die.
We at SDM make websites using WordPress, which has been the world’s most popular platform for websites. With its popularity, a lot of developers have worked around it, and WordPress has updated itself at a steady pace. For this reason, WordPress lasts better than others.
The site is not mobile friendly
If your site does not currently scale to screens on phones or tablets, it is really nearing its end. Frankly, your site has been in its spirit for the last ten years.
Today, responsiveness, i.e. adapting a site to a device as a device, should be a matter for all websites. At best, more than half of the internet users surf on a mobile device. So why would you have websites that more than half of your potential customers cannot access?
The site is slow
Websites often slow down over time. Technologies become obsolete, sometimes you forget to do updates on the site, and material may be slowly added to the site that it slows down. The speed of the site depends on a variety of factors, from servers through content, to add-ons.
When renovating a website, it is a good time to go through the add-ons, content or images of the site. Are these all still necessary, could some unnecessary add-ons be removed from it, or could the images on the site be compressed into a more compact format?
Content is outdated
One of the most important features of selling websites is content. Well-made content makes it easier to optimize your site’s search engine and increase sales or contacts. Therefore, the content should be on top of the last one on your website.
If you are aware that the content on your website is no longer, let alone ever in the final blow, it would be a good idea to combine their renewal with the website renewal.
Restore the old or create the new?
When you realize that your website no longer represents the latest cry and you need solutions for it, there will be one big question in front of you; Will the website be completely renewed, or will it be sufficient to simply give a facelift to the existing site?
The answer to this question will, of course, depend on the amount of reform. If it is enough to create or edit just a couple of new subpages to achieve your goals, or other small-scale files, then just editing your old site might be enough. On the other hand, if there are more different kinds of modifications, then it becomes more profitable to set up a completely new website quite quickly.
Updating the old site is partly subject to the same laws as repairing an old car. Is it worth sticking money to an old car in the form of repairs, or should it rather be used to buy a newer car?
Various options should also be weighed in updating the website. How much would it cost to breathe the current page and how much would a completely new website cost? And how much more life is gained for the site by giving it a facelift compared to a completely redesigned site?
Remember: websites are never finished
Whether you decide to give a small facelift to your website or renew it altogether, one important thing you need to internalize, though; websites are never fully finished.
Websites need to be constantly updated to withstand the competition. Continuously updating the site helps not only to stand out from the competitors, but also helps in the search engine optimization of the site, as search engines value constantly updated and up-to-date content on the website.
In addition to search engines, customers also appreciate the updated website. When a site is updated, it gives the customer an idea of an active and vibrant company.
If your website is getting older and the best blade has worn off, the site renewal may soon be timely. Feel free to contact us to make your website a tireless selling machine.
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Julkaistu 10.08.2021
Päivitetty 24.02.2026
