Do I need a new website?

This sounds obvious, but it's surprisingly easy to forget.

You've probably looked at your own website hundreds of times. You know where everything is, what all the buttons do and what you mean by the things you've written.

A new visitor doesn't.

Open your website on your phone and pretend you've never seen it before.

Can you work out what the business does within a few seconds? Is it obvious who you help and where you're based? Can you find the information you'd want before getting in touch?

And perhaps most importantly, is it obvious what you should do next?

If the answer to most of those questions is yes, that's a good start.

Sometimes a website looks like it needs replacing when what it really needs is better content.

Maybe you've changed the services you offer. Perhaps you've moved, changed your opening hours or started working with a different type of customer.

Or maybe the words on the site simply don't explain your business very well.

Those things can usually be changed without throwing the whole website away.

The same goes for search engines. If your website isn't appearing where you'd expect it to, that doesn't automatically mean the website itself is bad.

There may be work to do on the content, page titles, local SEO, your Google Business Profile or the way the site is structured.

A new website might help, but it isn't a magic SEO button.

This is probably the thing that makes people think they need a new website in the first place.

And sometimes they're right.

Web design moves on. Something that looked modern five or ten years ago can look pretty dated now.

But ask yourself whether the design is actually stopping people from using the website.

If it's easy to read, works well on a phone, loads reasonably quickly and gives people the information they need, looking a little old-fashioned isn't necessarily a disaster.

A tidy-up or redesign of the important bits could be enough.

You don't have to replace a perfectly usable website just because you don't particularly like the colour scheme anymore.

There are times when I'd say rebuilding is probably the better option.

For example, if your website doesn't work properly on mobile, is difficult to update, has important features that are broken, or is built on a platform that's becoming a problem, you're likely to be fighting against it every time you want to make a change.

It's also worth considering a new website if the business itself has changed significantly.

Perhaps you offer completely different services now. Maybe you're targeting a different type of customer, have expanded into new areas, or the website no longer reflects the business you're running today.

And sometimes you simply need the website to do something that the current one can't.

In those situations, trying to patch up an old site can end up costing more time and money than doing the job properly.

A website doesn't have an expiry date.

I've seen perfectly good websites that have been around for years, and brand-new websites that don't do a particularly good job.

What matters is whether your website is helping your business.

If people can find it, understand what you do, get the information they need and contact you, then you're already starting from a decent place.

It may just need some attention.

Ask someone who doesn't know your business to look at your website.

Don't explain anything first. Just give them the address and ask them a few questions afterwards:

What does this business do?

Who do you think it's for?

Where are they based?

What would you do if you wanted to contact them?

Was there anything you found confusing?

You might get some surprisingly useful answers.

And if they can't work out what you do, that's useful information too. It doesn't necessarily mean you need a new website — it tells you where to start improving the one you've got.

A new website can be a worthwhile investment, but it isn't always the answer. If your current site is basically sound, it might be possible to improve the content, tidy up the design, fix a few problems and make some SEO improvements for considerably less than a complete rebuild.

That's why I think it's worth getting someone to look at what you've already got before deciding what to do next. At Coast, I offer website health checks for exactly this reason. I'll look at the site, point out what's working, what's not, and what I'd concentrate on first.

And if I think you don't need a new website, I'll tell you.

You don't have to work it out before getting in touch. If you're wondering whether your website needs a complete rebuild, a bit of attention, or something in between, I'm happy to take a look and talk through the options.

Sometimes the best solution is a new website. Sometimes it's a few sensible improvements to the one you've already got. And sometimes, you don't need to spend any money at all.