You’ve had that inkling that it’s time for a refresh. Your brand consultant tells you that your site is more than six years old. You just learned that the most recent version of WordPress has caused a compatibility issue with your theme or plugins. Your plugin updates are starting to send errors to you. Or it just looks outdated and unappealing. Any one of these is good reason to pay close attention.
What is the average lifespan of a WordPress website?
Although there is not a definitive answer to this question since lifespan varies so drastically depending on the purpose of the site, the expectations of its audience, and the technology it’s built on. You may be surprised to learn that the average website lifespan is only 2 to 5 years. If you’ve kept yours going past three years, you’re definitely lucky. And you should start thinking about your next upgrade.
Here is a rough timeline of when it is good to start thinking about that refresh or overhaul:
- 2-3 years old – If you are in a competitive industry and leadership role, it is time for a new website. In a non-competitive environment, you need to start planning.
- 3-4 years old – It is time to start analyzing your current website and plan for immediate upgrades or plan a brand new site.
- 5+ years old – Start updating now!
I know you are thinking, “Why would I need a new website when mine works fine? Age can’t be the only indicator of the need to update.” Here are some considerations to help you determine whether it’s time to do a site refresh or overhaul. Start by pretending you are a new customer viewing your site for the first time. Once you finish your “customer” assessment, take a look at how well the technology of your website is working for you.
Try this approach:
1. Be the customer.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. This might be tough considering that you know a lot about your company and your industry, and probably even a lot about where you stand among your direct competitors. Knowing these things is totally and completely counterproductive to an effective, objective evaluation of your site’s effectiveness, so try to erase this knowledge from your mind as best you can.
2. List your concerns
Write down five (and only five) priorities related to buying the kind of product or service you offer. What are your key concerns? What pricing do you hope for? What kind of deliverables and services do you (the customer) seek?
Make your list through your customer’s eyes, not your own. Don’t reverse engineer your answers. Try to be as accurate as you can to what your customers are looking for and prioritizing, even if you don’t like the answers. Don’t list the concerns of your ideal customers – stay in the real world and answer from the perspective of your real customers. Many businesses have failed trying to market to an audience they wished was out there and just isn’t.
3. Now review your site with fresh eyes and ears.
Spend two minutes clicking around your site. ONLY two minutes – set a timer. Remember, the average person’s attention span on a web page is measured in seconds, not minutes. Most people scan pages instead of reading every word. Which of your key concerns are addressed? How quickly and how directly? Did the home page get to the heart of your main concerns or was it focused on something else other than your needs? How much clicking around did you have to do to find what you wanted to know? Were you pleased or disappointed once you got there? Was there too much focus on what the company wanted to say or on what you wanted to know? (This is very common.) Was it clear how you, the customer, fits into what the company does and how you benefit? These are some very rudimentary questions. But you may be surprised by the answers and how obvious it becomes to see what’s missing or off the mark.
4. If you like, invite others to conduct the same test.
If you’re happy with what you find, then move on to the technology assessment. But if you think you have a problem, invite others to conduct the same test, or try another “persona” or key customer type. Find out what their most important challenges were.
Here are some of the basic questions you should try to explore:
- Does your site provide clear statements about what you do in a way that is customer-benefit oriented?
- Does it support its claims with a customer or third-party quote or endorsem*nt?
- Does it proactively address potential concerns?
- Is it conversational?
- Does it look and “feel” like you?
5. Finish up with a technology assessment.
Just as important as the customer experience with your website is the underlying technology. You have far less control over website technology than content. Is the site optimized so it’s loading quickly? Is it responsive? More people use a variety of devices to view websites – so a responsive website is not only necessary for a good user experience, it can also improve your search engine rankings. Have you paid attention to SEO best practices so that you come up in searches?
Website technology moves quickly and new technologies are always emerging – which can allow for more creative designs. For example, when WordPress first became popular there were only a handful of fonts you could use to design your site. Now you have thousands of typefaces at your fingertips with the introduction of Google Web Fonts. These changes can be great but they can also cause issues.
Has your webmaster experienced recent issues with updating the content on your website? Did a recent release of WordPress interfere with the layout or functionality of your pages? If so, it’s time to take a closer look at your technology.
Over the past month, we have witnessed the downside of this rapid technology advancement. The most common problem is unsupported themes and plugins. There have been tons of themes and plugins developed for WordPress to help facilitate a beautiful and functional website. But when an older theme or plugin goes unsupported due to changing technology, you definitely need to start planning for a change.
The good thing is you don’t need to start from scratch. In the case of plugins, there is often a new one that has the same or better capabilities. With a theme, WordPress supports swapping in a new one, so you don’t necessarily need to start from scratch. Installing a new theme will keep your content, so you only need to configure the new theme to fit a look that’s on brand. A new theme makes for a less expensive investment and a beautiful new site – especially if you get some design and functionality improvements.
If the final result of your customer and technology assessments is not good news and you realize you may need to add a redesign or rework of your website to your to-do list, don’t panic. It isn’t always an expensive proposition. What’s really expensive, is losing customers one at a time (without knowing it) from a site that isn’t working.
Things change quickly in the website industry, and there is no substitute for a full redesign or technology overhaul every so often to keep ahead of things. You can extend your average website lifespan by following the tips above and making sure that you continually maintain and update your current site. With careful planning and a commitment to your visual presence, your website can lead a longer, functional, beautiful life.
If you’re ready for a WordPress website upgrade and need some guidance, give insight180 a call. We’d love to help you put your best digital foot forward!
