When’s the Right Time for a Website Redesign? A Question Worth Asking

The answer to this question depends on a lot of factors: technology, online strategy, changes in your services—just to name a few. And when making technology decisions, it never hurts to ask, “What’s everyone else doing?” Not that you should strive to be imitative—far from it—but trends can reveal a lot about how (and when) to put you’re your best digital foot forward.

In a study of 500 professional services providers, 46% of the firms interviewed had redesigned their sites within the last 12 months. Nearly half—that's a significant chunk.

Professional services firms with high growth were twice as likely to have redesigned their sites in the last twelve months than their counterparts who experienced average growth. As you can see, more than 80 percent of high growth firms had redesigned their websites within a year, and none had gone more than 2 years without changing up their design.

There are many reasons for a website redesign and our research doesn’t capture the why as much as the when, but the anecdotal evidence points towards changes in how firms are using their sites. The growth of online tools (social media, SEO, web analytics, etc.) has transformed previously passive websites into much more dynamic platforms. Business websites are no longer just digital brochures, they are interactive marketing machines.

Only 10 percent of average growth firms update their sites daily, but twice as many high growth firms make fresh content available on their websites daily. Over 60 percent of high growth firms update their sites weekly, and only 10 percent of them withhold updates for a year or more.

But High Growth Isn’t Just About Website Redesign.

Website redesign is just one part of how high growth firms are making online marketing tools a priority. It takes an up-to-date site to effectively serve as a platform for publishing fresh content. High growth companies are deeply involved in all online marketing tools.

In a measure of the relative focus that firms placed on these leading digital marketing techniques, high growth firms once again lead the pack. From blogging to banner ads, high growth firms show significantly greater engagement across the board.

High growth goes hand in hand with a firm’s attention to online presence. If your firm’s website doesn’t reflect and support a genuine engagement and commitment to online marketing and networking, it’s time to rethink your strategy—and your site design.

About the Author

Sylvia Montgomery is a Senior Partner at Hinge, a branding and marketing firm for professional services. At Hinge, Sylvia provides strategic counsel to national clients and her on-the-ground strategy and marketing experiences provide a “realistic” dimension to the practical advice she shares. She is a co-author of Online Marketing for Professional Servicesand Inside the Buyer’s Brain. You can find her on Twitter @BrandStrong.