Website Rebuild vs. Website Refresh
Website Refresh vs. Website Rebuild: Which Do I Need?
“Website refresh” and “website rebuild” are two terms that are often thrown around interchangeably, despite meaning different things. A website refresh leaves the core of your website intact while giving it a facelift; a website rebuild involves recreating your website all the way down to the code.
Generally, a website rebuild is a better option, but there are few circumstances where a website refresh is a good choice. If you want help to determine whether your website is in need of a rebuild or a refresh, just keep reading.
How to Decide Whether You Need Website Rebuild or Refresh
Before you contact a digital marketing agency about refreshing or rebuilding your website, you should first consider why you feel your website needs to be improved. One of the most common reasons for a business owner to request these services is because their business has experienced exponential growth. A website that works well for a very small business run by two or three people may no longer function optimally when that business expands to twenty full-time staff. As the scope of your business changes, the scope of your website must change in tandem to better accommodate it.
In this situation and in most others, a website rebuild is your best option. For your website to keep pace with your growing business, you’ll need to do more than add a couple of pages. You’ll need a new, larger engine to display your business online, complete with new branding and visuals. This means your website will need to be rebuilt from the ground up, not just refreshed with more eye-popping visuals.
Speaking of new visuals, a business owner’s desire to update the visuals and branding on their website is another reason that website refresh services are often sought. You may think it’s easiest – and cheapest – to just get a website refresh to improve the branding currently featured on your site but in reality, that’s easier said than done.
Improving the visuals and branding on your website takes a lot more effort than just slapping new and improved images over the current template. Modifying your current template to accommodate new visuals and branding is a difficult process and the end results are often underwhelming. Rebuilding your website to incorporate the desired images and branding from the beginning will almost always look better than refreshing your existing website to add these visuals.
Another reason that a business owner may want a website refresh or rebuild is due to a change in website platform or software. Let’s say you’d like to transition from Squarespace to WordPress to take advantage of different features. In this case, you will definitely need a website rebuild, not a mere refresh. A platform change always necessitates a from-scratch design and development process.
While website rebuilds are usually the better option, there are certain cases where a website refresh can be a better choice for you. A website refresh is, essentially, an addition of new content. If you’d like to keep the same platform and design while adding new services or features to your site, a website refresh can be a cost-effective means of doing so.
Find Out If You Need a Website Rebuild or Refresh
At NorthWing Digital, we often have clients reach out to us asking for a website rebuild. In some cases, we determine that a full rebuild is overkill and a refresh is the better option. Other times, a client’s needs necessitate a full website rebuild. If you want help determining whether you’re in need of a website rebuild or refresh, please reach out to us today so we can advise you on the best course of action.