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A website redesign can be motivated by several different factors. Changes in technology, a branding change, new developments in your area of business, new products or services you plan to offer and changes in society are all potential factors that drive the need for a website change. While this list is not all encompassing, it includes some of the top factors for starting a website redesign.

Past changes in technology include the proliferation of mobile phones creating new screen sizes for website display and new compression methods for website images resulting in image formats like .WEBP and .SVG. If you have an older website that is not yet optimized for mobile sized screens, it is past time for a redesign. Some industries like restaurants can see as much as 90% of their overall website traffic coming from phones. Having your website look appealing and informative on a phone sized screen is a must.

If your website still uses older image formats like .JPG and .PNG, it may be time for a redesign. The newer compression methods result in considerable savings in file size. Smaller file size means faster load times. Faster load time leads to improved user experience. Load speed is also a major factor in Google’s ranking algorithm. Older images on your website are motivation to consider a redesign.

A branding change almost always includes a website redesign. New colors, new logos, new slogans and font changes all lead to a desire for new presentation on your website. Be sure to include your website as part of a branding change so you don’t leave your digital presence lagging behind your other marketing efforts.

New developments in your area of business can range from a new standard being released, new laws passed or new opportunities. Business changes often drive what potential customers will enter into the search engines. If your website does not talk about the new developments, your business will miss out on that search traffic.

New products and services can sometimes be handled by a website update, but can also be a good motivator for a full redesign. Especially if the new item helps drive new business to your company. A new home page coupled with new content pages can properly promote the new part of your business to maximize website impact and customer response.

One change in society that impacted the online world was COVID. As face to face interactions were limited, many organizations looked to their websites to help carry additional load. Online ordering systems increased, changes in hours or business behavior required new communication and websites played a major role in communication the response to the changes happening around us.  Watch for other changes in society that may drive change in how your company communicates online.

The main question when considering a website redesign? Is your website still effective at communicating your message to your target market and driving the response you desire? If your website misses on one or all three parts of that question, let’s talk about redesigning your website.

Simple, Clear and Focused summarizes our design philosophy here at Convergent Design. When you work with us to build or update your website, this philosophy helps guide our decisions, advice and actions. What does this mean for you, our customer?

Simple –  Simple refers to the navigation system of the website. We have seen websites where navigation systems change depending on which page of the website you view. Lack of consistency in navigation creates confusion and frustration. Not what you want your website visitors to feel when they visit your website. Simple navigation is consistent and makes it easier for visitors to find what they are after.

Clear – Clear is the overall messaging on the website. Are you a house painter? We want that to be incredibly obvious on the website. If the main point is communicated clearly, visitors are more likely to engage your content and look deeper for more information. If you are a painter and someone is looking for an electrician, we don’t want them to call you and waste your time. Clear messaging captures attention and leads to deeper engagement.

Focused – Focused revolves around what you want a visitor to do next when visiting your website. We work to identify your primary response and hammer that response through multiple calls to action throughout the content on your website. Your primary call to action may be potential clients completing a “Request a Free Estimate” form. We will place prominent “Free Estimate” buttons in the main menu system, at the bottom of the website, and woven throughout the content encouraging people to complete that form.

These three items: simple, clear and focused help us create websites that move your customers to the next step in your process.

Online forms have multiple uses that can include collecting needed details, requesting more information, event registration and processing payments. This is not an inclusive list by any means but we wanted to share a couple of examples to show how a form may benefit your business.

A simple contact form may be helpful for several reasons. You may not want to expose your email to limit spam. Website users can use the form to send information to you that will still reach your email, but not let all the spam bots see your email address.  You can see a simple contact form at the bottom of our website at https://www.convergesc.com/.

An example of collecting needed details can be seen on the Phoenix Roofing website at https://www.phoenixroofingsc.com/contact-phoenix-roofing.htm. This form specifically asks for the address where the roof is located and what issues the roof may have. Generic contact information without those details are not as helpful in this situation and the form helps make sure the needed details are collected.

Payment forms can help streamline an overall business process. We built a recent form for ISI Consulting that enables users to register for select trainings and pay as part of the registration. To see these forms in action, visit the ISI Training page at https://www.sharpertogether.com/isi-training.htm and scroll down and click the Register Online buttons.

Do you have an idea on how a website form could benefit your business? Let us know and we can explore options and help you collect better information from your website visitors.   

A website domain name is the “address” the user types into their device to reach your website. As an example, www.convergesc.com is often considered the domain name for our website. However, to fully understand the domain name and the options available as you explore domain names, the domain name is actually broken into three different parts: the domain name, the top-level domain, and the sub domain.

The “convergesc” portion that appears between the two periods is technically the domain name.  This is the part of the name that is most closely associated with your website.  The domain name can contain English letters from A to Z, the number from 0 to 9 and the hyphen (-) character. (As with most rules, there are the occasional exceptions to these rules). For examples, we could have chosen any of the following as our domain name:

                convergent-design

                converge01

                convergentwebsites

The portion of the domain name after the second period is called the Top-Level Domain or TLD.  The most common TLD is “.com”. You may also be familiar with other common TLDs like “.org” (often used for non-profit causes), “.edu” (generally limited to educational institutions) and “.gov” (reserved for organizations that are part of the U.S. government).  TLDs are created and managed by an international oversight organization called ICANN. Individual users cannot create their own but are limited to choosing from existing TLDs. Yet a bit of research will show there is quite the selection available. Potential TLDs include “.pizza”, “.ninja”, “.tech”, “.world”, “.shop”, “.art” and “.church”.  Different TLDs can have different pricing ranging from under $10/year to over $1000/year.

The domain name and TLD combination is unique and generally controlled by one entity and pointing to one website. This gives us confidence that when we type “convergesc.com”, we will usually see the Convergent Design website. To gain control of a desired domain name, you need to pay a domain registrar to reserve the domain on your behalf.

The portion of the domain before the first period is known as the subdomain. “www.” is the most common subdomain, referring to “World Wide Web” or standard website related traffic. Subdomains generally follow the same rules as the domain name itself. Each domain can utilize multiple subdomains for various technical or marketing purposes. If you add a blog to your website, it may help to access the blog using the subdomain blog.convergesc.com.  Some may use the subdomain mail.convergesc.com to help accurately route email to the correct location. As part of a marketing campaign or seasonal special, you may find benefit in using specials.convergesc.com or christmas.convergesc.com to direct people that respond to special content related to your marketing campaign.

If you are looking for your first domain name or options for using subdomain, Convergent Design will be glad to help explain and use options.

Building a functional publicly accessible website requires 4 core technical components: a domain name, DNS server, Website Hosting, and the website code itself.

A public website starts with the domain name. The domain name is how most individuals refer to their website and communicate it to others. The www.mydomainname.com format let’s people access the website content from any browser connected to the internet. Choosing a domain name can involve multiple considerations from length of the name, to consistent branding to availability. Domain names are not actually purchased, but rather leased from a domain registrar.

The domain name then connects to a DNS server using a nameserver name. The nameserver name connects the domain name to the DNS server which routes web related traffic to the appropriate location. Website traffic will be routed to the web hosting server and email traffic will be routed to the relevant email servers. The DNS servers can be used for other purposes like validating connections to other services.

Once the DNS server is connected to the domain, the DNS server will then direct website traffic to the website hosting server via an IP address. An individual hosting server may host multiple websites. Protocols on the server will route traffic to the correct website. The website hosting server gives us a location to load or build the website that the public can access.

The final piece of the puzzle is the website itself. The website is the pictures, text and graphics that people actually see and engage when typing the domain name into their browser. The website consists of code that the browsers on individual devices interpret and display for the end user. That website code is often created using some type of editor like WordPress.

Each of these four components is required for a functioning public website. While it may sound confusing, many website design companies will handle all of these components on your behalf. Here at Convergent Design, we work with clients at any level they are comfortable from purchasing the domain all the way through website creation to simply providing the hosting and website creation alone.