Arrested development: When to redesign a website

It’s easy to think of web development as a one-off, and online marketing as an ongoing process, leading many online brands to commission a relatively static site, and then go about trying to promote it.

But research conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia reveals when it might be better to redesign a website, rather than trying to generate leads for the pre-existing site.

Detelina Marinova, an associate professor of marketing at the university, explains: “If online customers already perceive a service as efficient and high quality, continuing to invest in direct marketing should have beneficial effects for the company’s revenue.

“In contrast, when online customers perceive a service as inefficient but high quality, direct marketing investments are likely to have diminishing returns.”

What does this mean? Well, it’s fairly simple: if you have an efficient but under-performing website, online marketing should help you to build your audience and customer base.

If your website is inefficient to use, or perhaps suffers from a slow checkout process, it might be better to invest your budget into getting it redesigned around a more effective e-commerce platform.