Should I Rebuild my Website for SEO?

March 23rd 2022 | By Emma Grant

When it comes to investing in search engine optimisation, there’s something you’re going to need, and that’s a website that is primed and ready to support your campaign. Without decent foundations in the shape of an SEO ready website, you may find that your SEO efforts take longer to start working. Then again, it may be that they don’t work at all.

If your website hasn’t been updated for a while, and you want to enjoy a decent return on your SEO investment, it could be time to give some thought to refreshing it. It may even be a wise move, or even completely necessary, to rebuild your website altogether. Let’s take a look at the circumstances in which that might be what you need to do, and why it’s generally good practice to keep your website up to date.

Why is it important to keep a website up to date?

The internet and technology are evolving so quickly these days that you can literally blink and something’s changed. What’s more, search engines update their algorithms on a regular basis. Google in particular makes hundreds of updates every year. So, if you launch a website, despite it being up to the minute at the time, it could quickly fade out of date.

If you want to stay competitive in an increasingly burgeoning online market, you need to keep your website up to date with current best practice, and in line with the latest user expectations. This means regular technical sweeps to make sure site speed and code are optimised and no bugs have set in that could be damaging ranking potential. And adding fresh content on a regular basis to show Google and the rest of the world that you’re alive and kicking.

But that’s not all. Every so often, you’re going to need, at very least, to redesign the look of your website so that it doesn’t appear dated. It’s a bit like redecorating at home, or upgrading your kitchen. You get to benefit from a fresh new look, and all the latest mod cons.

Website redesign, or full rebuild?

A website redesign alone is fine if all the background workings of your site are in good working order, you have access to edit the site, and the technology it was originally built on is still current. However, if this is not the case, then it’s likely time for a complete website rebuild.

Outdated web technology

Going back to the home upgrade metaphor, you wouldn’t redecorate in order to paper over cracks caused by sinking foundations. Well, put it this way, you shouldn’t. Because sooner or later, those cracks will reappear.

It’s the same with a website that’s built on ageing technology. You can bring it up to date visually, but behind the scenes, it’s not going to be doing the business for your Google rankings efforts.

Did you know for example, that Google will no longer rank websites built using the once popular Flash technology? Flash isn’t supported by Apple devices any more, which means if you have a site built on this technology, you are alienating a whole host of potential traffic. What’s more, Flash is well known for slowing websites down. And with page loading speed such a vital Google ranking factor and element of Core Web Vitals, you really don’t want this to be the case with your site.

Static HTML is another issue. If your site was built on this obsolete technology, you won’t be able to use modern plugins and other all-singing-and-dancing, incredibly powerful content management features that can help your website rank better in the search engines.

Flash is well known for slowing websites down, and isn’t supported by Apple devices.

Non-responsive

You’ll also need to rebuild your website if it wasn’t designed as responsive, in other words, it’s not mobile friendly. Mobile browsing has taken over desktop as the device of first choice of internet users.

What’s more, Google’s mobile first policy for indexing websites means that if your site isn’t able to adapt to the screen size it’s being viewed on, then it’s going to fall at the first hurdle in terms of search positions.

No edit access

If you can’t access your website to make your own edits and add fresh content yourself, and you instead have to pay a third party to do it for you, then it’s time for a full website rebuild.

Adding fresh content and keeping your site up to date is a crucial element of any SEO campaign, so you’ll want easy access via a content management system such as WordPress to do so easily on a regular basis.

Limited SEO functions

When a business is just starting out and has limited funds to spend on website design, often the decision will be made to go with a DIY platform, such as Wix. When the only ambition is to quickly get a business online, this is usually fine. But down the line, when things get a bit more serious and you want to start actively building the business or selling online via eCommerce, and you find that you are limited in what you can do with the website, that’s when you’ll start to look for more flexibility.

Here are just some of the limitations that Wix website owners may stumble across unexpectedly:

• Unable to export the site to another platform – therefore have to scrap the site and export to a brand new platform
• Can’t be indexed by Google – the Google bot finds it a real challenge to crawl Wix websites, which is bad news for SEO
• Limited technical customisation – if you bring an SEO agency in to run a full campaign to get you found online, they’ll hit a brick wall with a Wix site as there is little beyond the basics that they can do in terms of technical SEO

Even with its upgrades in recent years, this platform still continues to lag behind the likes of WordPress in terms of SEO functionality.

Wix websites have limited SEO functionality, so you may need to rebuild your Wix site from scratch on a different platform if you are serious about SEO success.

Time to up your SEO game?

If you’re looking to boost your online visibility and grow your business through the power of search engine optimisation, talk to Figment.

We’re here to help you get the most out of your SEO budget. We can work with your own web developers to improve, redesign or rebuild your website to make it SEO ready, and then implement a fully managed SEO campaign to get your business found online. And if you already have good rankings, we can help to maintain them for you courtesy of our SEO care and monitoring service.