A Website That Needs Nothing Doing

Nobody writes this conclusion down

Every December review, including the ones in this series, produces a list of things to check.

What almost nothing produces is the finding that a site is fine and should be left alone for another year.

That is partly because it is an unsatisfying conclusion and partly because nobody selling anything reaches it.

It is nonetheless the correct answer for a meaningful share of small businesses, and reaching it deliberately is worth more than a list nobody works through.

The three tests

• Is it producing enquiries.
• Does it load quickly on a phone.
• Is everything on it still true.

A site passing all three is doing its job. Nothing about the design, the age of the template, or whether it resembles current fashion appears in that list, because none of those affects whether somebody makes contact.

Working is not the same as current

Which is the distinction the whole question rests on.

A site built in 2019 that answers the four questions a customer has, loads in two seconds, and produces steady enquiries is working.

It will look dated to anybody who looks at websites professionally and to nobody who is trying to hire a plumber.

The pressure to change it comes almost entirely from people who look at websites rather than people who use them.

So the test is enquiries and truth, not fashion, and a business that keeps that straight saves a great deal of money.

Fashion is comfortably the most expensive reason to rebuild anything.

It is also the one that produces no measurable result afterwards.

A worked example

A business ran through the December reviews expecting a project.

The site produced a steady number of enquiries, unchanged across three years.

It loaded in under two seconds, worked on a phone, and had a form that submitted correctly.

The only findings were two out-of-date prices and a photograph of a van they no longer owned.

They fixed both in an afternoon and did nothing else, having budgeted for a redesign.

The money went into two additional vehicles' signage instead, which they could measure.

Tell the difference from neglect

Which is the risk in accepting this conclusion.

Unchanged because it works and unchanged because nobody has looked are indistinguishable from the outside.

The difference is whether you can answer the three tests with evidence rather than an impression.

If you know this month's enquiry count, have loaded the site on a phone this week, and have read every page recently, then leaving it alone is a decision.

If you cannot answer any of those, it is not a decision and the site may well need something.

Do the tests before claiming the conclusion.

What to do with the budget instead

Which is the more useful question once this is settled.

Vehicle signage, which is seen by more people daily than the website is.

Photography, which improves the site without rebuilding it.

Reviews, which affect the listing that sits above your site in the results.

Or nothing at all, which is a legitimate use of money in a year you cannot forecast.

Each of those is measurable in a way a redesign generally is not.

Signage on a second vehicle can be assessed by asking new customers where they heard of you.

A rebuilt website usually cannot, which is why so few are ever evaluated after launch.

Keep the small maintenance

Which is what makes leaving it alone sustainable.

Needing nothing doing is not the same as needing nothing checked.

The form still needs testing monthly, the prices still need to be right, the certificate still renews, and the photographs still go out of date.

That is perhaps an hour a quarter and it is what keeps the site in the working category rather than drifting into the neglected one.

A site left entirely alone becomes a site that needs something within about two years.

Maintenance is the price of not rebuilding.

Write down that you decided this

Which prevents the question recurring monthly.

Note the date, the three test results, and the conclusion, with the evidence.

When somebody proposes a redesign in March, that note is the answer, and it saves the conversation being had from scratch.

Set a date to revisit it, which for most small businesses is next December.

A documented decision to do nothing is a decision and an undocumented one is procrastination.

Ask what a change would actually improve

Which is the question that settles most proposals to rebuild.

Whoever suggests a new site should be able to name the number they expect to move and by roughly how much, whether that is enquiries, conversion, or something else measurable.

An answer about being modern, fresh, or professional is not a number, and a proposal that cannot produce one is asking you to spend money on an impression.

Where somebody can name the number, the proposal is worth taking seriously and you have something to check against in six months.

That question is not hostile and it is the one nobody asks, which is why so many redesigns are assessed on how they look on the day they launch.

The counter-case

Some sites genuinely need work.

Anything failing one of the three tests needs attention, and a site not readable on a phone fails the second regardless of how many enquiries it produces.

A business changing what it sells also needs the site to change, whatever the current one is achieving.

And steadily declining enquiries across two years is a finding that no amount of loading speed offsets.

That is the one result on the three tests that always requires a response.

Run the three tests with evidence, fix what is untrue, and if all three pass, write down that you decided to leave it alone.

What to do

1. Count this year's enquiries.
2. Load it on a phone.
3. Read every page.
4. Fix anything untrue.
5. Decide deliberately.
6. Write the decision down.
7. Keep the small maintenance.

Step six is what separates this from neglect, since a documented decision to leave a site alone can be defended in March and an undocumented one is indistinguishable from not having looked.

The self-assessment is covered in reading your own site as a stranger.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.