When’s the last time you updated your website?

On average, a website’s lifespan is 2 years and 7 months, although it varies from organization to organization. That means that at just shy of 3 years, your organization needs a new website.

And when we say “new website,” we really mean it. Evaluating your website and restructuring (as needed) puts your audience first, but it can seem like a daunting task. Even the smallest changes can make the biggest impact.

Not sure where to get started? Ask yourself the questions below to begin evaluating your site.

1. Is our purpose clear?

When evaluating your website, it’s important to ensure that your purpose is clear. Every website has a purpose and there’s a good chance that yours is to make some sort of conversation, whether it’s recruiting a new volunteer or accepting a donation. Pretend you’re a new visitor: Is it clear what you’re supposed to be doing?

This ties into the intent of your website too. Think of intent as your goal: What do you hope a visitor does when they access your website? It should be relatively easy for someone to get from Point A to Point B, reaching the goals you’ve set for them.

2. Is the information we present accurate and current?

While a user is navigating your website, the information that is accessed should be accurate and current. A staggering number of websites are inactive and inaccurate: Only 18% of the 1.13 billion websites in the world are actively used and updated.

Your goal? To be in that 18%! Your organization is constantly adapting to new ideas and needs from your community. As you adapt and change, be sure that your website does, too. When evaluating your site, be sure to check for outdated mission statements, inactive programs and broken links.

3. Is our website well-designed and accessible?

This question is twofold and deserves a dedicated amount of time. First, examine the design of your website: Do you stand out from the crowd? Are your brand colors and logo on all your pages?

When asked, consumers said that imagery (40%), color (39%) and videos (21%) are the top visual elements they like in website design. High-impact updates can be made to your website by focusing on these visual components.

But, there is another side to these visual components.  While color and imagery is important, it’s important to remember that text should still be legible. Mixing light background/dark text and dark background/light text is one of the best ways to ensure legibility on your website.

Alt. text on your imagery is also a great way to enhance accessibility. When someone who is visually impaired uses a screen reader, it will read the alt. text aloud since they cannot see the imagery.

These questions just scratch the surface of ways to evaluate and update your website. Looking for a partner to help you evaluate and elevate your website this year? Catalyst Collective can help! Contact us here to learn how.