Therefore, reviewing and refining your website marketing plan and strategy is just as important as reviewing your profit and loss statement. Has it been meeting the website’s objectives? Is your website inviting, and does it convert visitors to avail your products and services?

If you are not sure whether to get a website redesign based on sales figures alone, here are other factors that may help you decide if you totally need to make website redesign as a top priority this 2010.

1. You have a template website. You got a template website because everyone else says you should have a website, but now you want to take advantage of the internet to see what it can really do for your business. Working with a professional website redesign company to build a website for success and implement a solid website marketing strategy will help you increase your business lead generation and sales.

2. Your website has not been updated in 2 years (or even more). If your website was made years ago, most likely your website looks dated, or worse, abandoned. The acceptable “professional look” years ago look pretty unprofessional today, and may have had your potential customers look elsewhere without your company realizing it. Within the last two years so much has changed. You need to update your website to meet web 2.0 standards and take advantage of the tools that it provides so that you can take full advantage of your website. Not to mention an outdated website reflects bad on your company and can make you lose credibility.

3. Your website is getting visitors but sales are still low. This is a big no-no. Your company website is there to generate more sales for your company. It was not built to see how many people would visit in a day. It was built to get leads, and even close the sale. If you have substantial traffic, but no conversions, it is time to get a website redesign. A intelligent and intuitive website redesign can help direct a potential client into the sales process step-by-step to get your product or service easily.

4. Your website is not optimized for search engines. If you noticed that your website is all alone in the wilderness and nobody seems to be dropping by, maybe your pages cannot be found by search spiders. You can ask for a website redesign that will help put SEO tags in all your pages so that it can be indexed properly by search engines for keywords that potential customers are using to search the internet to find businesses like yours. If you are one of those who jumped early with the SEO bandwagon years ago, you may even be doing some SEO violations without knowing it. The acceptable SEO tactics 2 years ago - to arrive at the top of the pages - are totally different now. Some SEO strategies that were harmless years ago are now black hat. Also, search engine requirements that consider a website relevant for a keyword have changed many times already. If you are still using the older techniques, you may not be indexed by search engines optimally.

5. Your website is 100% flash based. Before, flash animations cannot be indexed by search engines. These days, flash-based articles can be seen by Google, if optimized with keywords correctly. However, both potential customers and search engines still want a website to open quickly. If your website is full of clunky flash pages that take forever to open, your audience have definitely looked for products and services elsewhere, so it’s time for a website redesign.

======

Nicole McCullum is the Founder of Captivate Designs, http://www.CaptivateDesigns.com a Web Design Company that provides professional and effective website design that’s affordable to businesses throughout the US and Canada. Ms McCullum has been featured on Inc.com as a Web Design Expert and her web design tips and articles have been published in NY Enterprise Report and Strategy Magazine. You may reach her by emailing her at info@captivatedesigns.com.

For more tips on successful web design strategies and internet marketing you may visit her blog "Turn Your Website Into a Lead Generation Machine" at http://www.captivatedesigns.com/blog .