Your website is the engine room of pretty much everything your club wants to achieve – whether you are looking to grow your membership, reach existing and new supporters, deliver value to your sponsors, and sell tickets to your events; or raise funds for your community, increase event and venue attendance, engage with your members and guests, or promote your club to a greater audience… it all starts with your website.
As stated in a previous article “How Ignoring Your Digital Presence Could Break Your Business”, you spend a lot of time and money planning your refurbishments and redevelopments on your physical venue, so you should be doing the same for your digital venue, aka your website, as it is truly the first thing that people will see and make a judgement on.
Your website is the face of your venue, and a redevelopment will deliver multiple benefits, including improved user experience, increased traffic, happier members, and increased attendance at the venue and your events.
Read on to discover the top 5 reasons why you need a website redevelopment!
What is a Website Redevelopment?
In simple terms, a website redevelopment (or redesign) is the process of revamping the look and feel of your website. It generally involves a complete makeover of the existing site from the programming up to improve on design and functionality for the end user; and more specifically ensuring that your website is up to date with all of the comprehensive requirements of the new web 2.0 you need to survive in the digital space.
Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Redevelop if you Haven’t Already
As the most critical tool in your marketing toolbox, it is important to keep it fresh and up to date. That’s why many businesses choose to undertake a website redevelopment on average, every 3 years, to maintain relevance, update to current requirements, and improve performance.
But how can you tell if your website needs to be redesigned? Below, we’ll take you through the top 5 reasons why you may need to rework your website.
Reason 1: You Haven’t Updated Your Website in the Last 2 Years.
This is by far the biggest indicator that you need to redevelop your site and fast. The last few years online have seen such sweeping changes to how the internet works, that any site older than 2 years will soon be so far out of date that eventually it will just stop working effectively and disappear from social and search altogether. Do yourself and your venue a favour, seriously consider a redevelopment to get your site up to date ASAP if you are in this situation.
Reason 2: Your Website Isn’t Optimised for Mobiles or Tablets
If your website isn’t optimised for mobile, then it is definitely time for a new one! With over 50% of people accessing websites via their phones and tablets, it’s now crucial that your website is responsive, i.e. appears clean and easy to read on mobile or tablet size screens, so that users can easily engage with you no matter what device they are using.
Reason 3: Your website has Become Slow or Unresponsive
Another significant sign that you should consider a website redevelopment is if your site has become slow or unresponsive. In this case, there could be several underlying causes, however, no matter the cause a slow or unresponsive site is a huge cause of frustration for your users and can result lost members and guests, without you even knowing it!
Reason 4: Your Site Is Out of Date
If your site is looking outdated or doesn’t have the functionality that modern users expect, you’re going to cause frustration amongst your members and other guests. Features like booking events online, an up-to-date calendar of “what’s on at the club”, even chatbots or online ordering of your merchandise or bottle store products, are just par for the course in this digital age. However, if your visitors can’t find what they want, or feel like they’re using a “backward” website, they’ll likely become frustrated and leave your site (and your venue) behind.
Reason 5: It’s Time to Improve the Experience for Your Users
User Experience (or UX) is so important on a website, however, if your site’s user experience is poor, you are going to lose business. While there are many factors that contribute to poor user experience, including clunky navigation, outdated design elements, broken links or images, or slow loading times; it is critical that you address it to keep visitors coming back, because it won’t just be the website they stop visiting.
If you can relate to any of the above reasons, it is definitely time to redevelop your website before it starts impacting your bottom line, and we can help!
At DWS Hospitality Specialists, we have a team of dedicated web designers, developers, marketers, and digital experts available to assist you with any of your online needs, including web development. Contact Lauren, our Digital Marketing Advisor, today to learn more about our digital services and get started on your website redevelopment project!
