I recently built a new theme for this site. Since launching my own personal site in 2012 this was my fourth version of the site. I’m making a change about once every 1.5-2 years, but why?
New Technology
I began building websites in 2011 and professionally in 2013. As an intern in 2012 I was introduced to multiple CMS (content management system) platforms. I got my first experience in working with Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress. Like many developers I originally gravitated to WordPress because quite frankly it was easier to use. The first version of my website was actually a premium theme I picked up and I primarily used it to get my head around using WordPress from a user standpoint. Soon after I was developing custom themes, followed by developing custom plugins.
Since that initial start with WordPress I’ve tried out multiple platforms, build packages, themes, and tools. As web technology changes, new tools and techniques become available to make the build process better, and websites better. Each CMS has improved in its own ways over the years, but in developing with WordPress I seen how powerful it was compared to other platforms, but also in how WordPress has grown over the years.
Since 2012 WordPress has added many new security updates, a new UI, the Rest API, new plugin installation UI, privacy tools, and many more. WordPress also released a desktop tool that is pretty awesome called calypso. Not only is WordPress introducing tools to improve it’s platform, it’s making updates that other platforms are bringing over and using. Recently WordPress released the gutenberg editor which is being adopted by folks in the drupal and laravel communities.
Technology is constantly moving, and while an update may not always be necessary but without occasionally making an update you run the risk of your site becoming outdated.
Redesigns are Important
As a rule of thumb, most marketing agencies recommend you redesign your site about every three years. Some recommend as often as 6 months, but I think that may be a bit much. You basically though want to make an update when things begin to look dated, UI trends change, improve structure for SEO, improve the structure for user navigation, your site is just getting stale, change to a better platform, or a number of other items.
With a redesign typically there will be some minor if not major page and structure changes that if not dealt with carefully can impact your SEO negatively. So just keep in mind things like redirects and properly submitting the site to google once the new version goes live.
Ready for your redesign?
If you are considering redesigning your website, or just want to get a second opinion on if its needed or just some basic tweaks, shoot me a line!