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What is the lifespan of a website

A website, it moves, it lives and it grows. On the other hand, after a while, it comes time to know if it is still relevant. Technology is also evolving and giving rise to new features that can be, all in all, interesting. Is your website in the process of a redesign? What is the lifespan of a website?

In general, for your website to be able to keep up with new technologies and the latest trends, it is estimated that its lifespan is between 2 and 5 years. How old is your website and how determined if it needs a redesign?

The lifespan of a website: what you need to know

As mentioned earlier, the lifespan of a website is said to be between 2 and 5 years. On the other hand, it is on condition that you maintain your website regularly. Updating and maintaining your website is an important part of its survival. Especially considering that updates often bring fixes to security vulnerabilities, so it is very important to do them.

Then comes the question of search engine optimization. Everyone agrees that the main way people access a website is through search engines, primarily Google. Well, the methods Google uses to rank websites in search are constantly changing. Maintaining your website well helps a lot with “SEO”, but you have to understand that technology advances even if your website does not follow it, and this will eventually affect your results.

Even so, it’s hard to judge when your site needs an overhaul. Several factors are to be checked, such as those mentioned above, or even the effectiveness of your content management system (CMS), the functionalities of your website, or whether the facade of your website has been able to follow trends over the years.

If you think your website needs it, or if you’re not sure, Caffeine can help answer your questions or move forward and ensure your website is on the cutting edge of the current trend and technology, starting with this article which might help you make a final decision.

SEO

référencement site web

The main factor in the lifespan of a website could be your results on search engines. On the web, Google is your best ally. Being familiar with the changes in SEO methods is essential. If you’ve noticed that your website has had fewer visits lately, it’s time to remedy the situation.

To have better results online, it is essential, among other things, to have a content manager (CMS) that allows you to make adjustments and updates to your content and your meta tags used for SEO. Google is always looking to provide users with the best results, so you need up-to-date content. Frequently posting new content is a good way to keep or increase the number of visitors to your website.

Images are also an important source of SEO. So you need a content manager capable of introducing alternative text, dimensions, and a title to your images. If your content manager doesn’t allow you to do all that, it might be time to switch technology. In other words, it’s time for a major overhaul.

User experience

The experience that users have on your site is of paramount importance for the retention of potential customers. The experience must be as pleasant as possible and all the information must be easily accessible so that people want to stay on your site. Your website must also load its content quickly. After 2 seconds of loading, most people leave the website and look for another one.

In addition, mobile versions are now very important to have good results on Google. We cannot say it enough, more and more people are using their mobile phones to search on Google. It is therefore essential to have an adaptive site (also called “responsive”), or at least to have a mobile version. If you’re not sure, tools like Google Search Console let you know if your website is mobile-optimized.

In short, if the user experience is optimized, it would have a good impact on the life of a website. Otherwise, it would be time to think about making changes, either visual or organizational, to your content in order to optimize them.

Visual trends

Of course, the functionality of a website is very important. However, it’s not just that. The visual of your website counts for a lot when a user arrives for the first time on your website. If the visual is outdated, the first thing people will think is that your website is outdated, the content is outdated and therefore obsolete, or even that your company is no longer in business.

From 2 to 5 years is plenty of time for fashion to change. It is good to follow it for several reasons reminiscent of those mentioned earlier. First, an inactive and too old website does not perform well on Google. In addition, it plays on the user experience and gives a bad impression to Internet users who arrive on your site.

In short, if you find that your website looks old, or if you see that people are not staying on your site or even never getting there, it’s time to give it a makeover.

Go ahead with a redesign?

As you can see, the lifespan of a website is very subjective and depends on all the elements we have covered. In short, the questions to ask yourself are:

  • Is your website mobile friendly?
  • Is your website secure and all updates have been made since its creation?
  • Is your traffic starting to drop or is it now non-existent?
  • Is your content manager keeping up with SEO trends? That is, does it allow you to easily make changes and manage images and videos according to Google criteria?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to think about optimizing it to make sure it’s a sales tool and not a burden for your business.

What do you have to gain by doing a redesign?

  • Better SEO (search engine optimization)
  • A more attractive website, able to hold the attention of your potential customers
  • Improved user experience that will improve visitor retention
  • A better conversion rate
  • All in all, an improvement in your audience

As you can see, a complete or partial redesign of your site has the potential to be an excellent investment for your company. Caffeine can offer you a redesign that will adapt to all online needs, and can also offer you maintenance of your website to keep it safe and thus increase its lifespan. Are you ready?

Do you need help modernizing, optimizing or redoing your website?​

Josée Barrette

I started working in the web industry in 2005 as a project manager/coordinator. Subsequently, I led production teams and project managers. In 2014, I decided to put my knowledge and experience at the service of small businesses and self-employed workers.