A web organisation company, an advertising authority and a software vendor walk into a client's office. The client asks, "How often should we redesign our site?" The authority replies "two years." The software guy says "three years." The website designer says...

This isn't a joke. I was actually in this meeting. There were eight people from three companies in a conference room and another two more people from another company on speakerphone. My respond at the time was four years, based on that playing and their industry. Since then I've thought more about the question and the factors that determine the answer.

What is the lifespan of a typical website? My short respond is 2-5 years, but that's a pretty big range. Most experts would just say "it depends." But what does it depend on? Here we'll countenance at the reasons why a place lives a daylong happy life, or if it gets old fast.

Website chronicle expectancy factors

Here are the main factors that I'll breakdown the factors into two groups: your playing and the place itself.

Your Business

    * Is your playing changing fast? Any fundamental changes coming up?
    * Do you run a lot of promotions or events?
    * Are you in a creative or technical industry? Times change faster for some than others.
    * Do your visitors hit broad expectations? Do you hit to show (or teach) them a lot to get through to them?

Your Site

    * Does the place countenance narrow on your screen?
    * Is the organisation "trendy" or cutting edge?
    * Do you rely hard on see engine traffic?
    * Is the place difficult or costly to update?

The more nowadays you answered "yes" to these questions, the more likely the website chronicle span is closer your website's lifespan is to two eld than five years.

Example One:

Classic organisation for a non-profit with a pleasant content management tool and a built-in blog. It's a pliant place for a playing that doesn't change too rapidly, for visitors that who are mostly looking for information.

Lifespan: 5 years

Example Two:

Contemporary website for an interior organisation company. The place has a Content Management System but it's not very pliant because the organisation is more about beauty and impression. Visitors hit broad expectations and want to be impressed.

Lifespan: 2.5 years

Live fast, redesign young.

If the nature of your playing puts you on the shorter modify of the scale, you may plan on a field redesign in shorter intervals: every 2 eld or so. This cycle will guide organisation and content decisions. A place that is designed to springy a shorter chronicle may hit more graphical content (charts, infographics, page-specific headers and animation) and more graphic guidance (buttons instead of text, links). In other words, organisation may be more about presentation noesis than flexibility and ease of updating.

Time to pull the plug

Of course, you crapper keep a website active daylong after it's outlived it's usefulness. But you risk becoming one of those people who say, \"I hit a site, but please don't countenance at it.\" You've met people like this. They're so embarrassed that the countenance and content are so discover of date, they genuinely don't want anyone to see their website. At this stage, the website is actually hurting the business. Imagine having a marketing piece that you want to hide from the world!

How to modify your site's lifespan

Now there are ways to verify months or even a year off the countenance of your site*!

    * "Page Injections" - New templates. Maybe you really just need a new landing page organisation or a better contact page with a form and a map. This targeted procedure crapper focus on trouble spots where the old is worst.
    * \"Nip and Tuck\" - Tighten up the organisation with a few style-sheet changes. Refining the type (snip, snip) and making a few tweaks to the color palette (snip, snip) crapper help alter things up to date.
    * "Face Lift" - Home page redesign. This is a slightly more drastic procedure and crapper actually be a bit pricy.
    * "Flash Lift" - If you hit a Flash piece, study a new animation. This is a surgery-free (no coding) option that crapper really change the countenance of your site.

*These techniques were not tested on animals.

Bottom Line

When you, your playing or your visitors change, your website ages. It's old as soon as it's discover of sync with your playing and is not getting you those measurable results. Keep it as teen and fresh as possible, but be primed to make the thickened decision to redesign. And when you do, think ahead as farther as possible.

-Andy Crestodina
Principal/Strategic Director
Orbit Media Studios, Chicago IL

Andy leads playing development for Orbit and connects clients with the firm. Within the company, Andy oversees sales, strategy and client service. Andy employs his extensive knowledge of marketing, interactive media, usability, and see engine optimization to develop the most applicatory and viable web solutions for both current and potential clients. In addition to establishing relationships with new clients, Andy leads Orbit's organisation and production collaboration with agencies throughout Chicago and he is on the Technology Committee for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. Andy is a graduate of the University of Iowa, where he studied Mandarin Chinese and became certified to teach. Andy also writes writes articles on interactive marketing strategies for The Orbiter, Orbit's monthly newsletter.