Having a website is all about presence and it takes a fair amount of work to not only create one, but maintain and update it regularly too. Below we explore the benefits and limitations between upgrading an existing website and starting a brand new one from scratch.

Website Upgrades vs. Doing A New Website
Credibility and professionalism are very important factors where a business's website is concerned. Often, in the ever changing societies of the world, websites will require a facelift of some kind. How you choose to give your business this facelift largely depends on your company's current needs and requirements. Sometimes starting from the beginning and designing a brand new website makes more sense both in terms of cost and in the quest to fulfil aims and objectives. Other times, a "simple" upgrade is all that's needed and can provide just as pleasing results.

1. Comparing The Two: Advantages & Disadvantages of Doing A New Website

• Upgrading allows you to take more controlled and manageable steps rather than leaping into virtually unknown territory.
• Upgrading allows you to see results from smaller ambitions and make adjustments without having to commit to a larger project, such as creating a new website, which may have big consequences and extra expenses if not all goes according to plan and the desired results are not achieved.
• A website already in existence may, through thorough research, not be worth your while to build on and upgrade. A business may have changed dramatically since the website was created, cannot be found on major search engines or is simply not good enough by today's online standards.

Website Upgrades
Upgrading an existing website is often necessary, especially if the look and feel is outdated and gives internet user viewers the impression that it might very well have survived the age of the dinosaurs. Just the same as human beings do, websites "age" and require updates and upgrades constantly. Standards change and that extra special something (X-factor) that proved remarkably impressive with a target audience before is bound to fade as time passes by. New look and feels are vital for website survival. It's human nature for the general internet user to get bored and desire something new to excite their imagination and stimulate a reaction. The general internet user is fickle and requires some form of incentive to be convinced that they should attempt to enjoy a particular website..  

It is best to take advantage of the professional services of Web Developers, when deciding to go about upgrading a website. Website upgrades or re-designs need not be expensive or even time consuming, but it is essential that they are well thought out beforehand. Your company's website reflects on the professionalism and credibility of your business, its products and services. If this impression is not a good one, internet users won't be coming back to your website.

1. Tips & Benefits For Website Upgrades / Re-design

• When dealing with web developer professionals, it is essential that you get exactly what you want. It is also important that a business relationship between yourself and a chosen web development company also works well with the different styles each may have. In discussions, it is important that proposals not seem too dense, jargon - laden or somewhat confusing.
• Keep the upgrade of the website simple. Make list a of the top 2 / 3 reasons why a refreshment is necessary and determine what potential problems there may be that require resolving. Identify the precise customers that you are trying to please and entice with your products or services and what features you may have that sets you apart from your competitors. A great tip is to stick to these basics and others that may be of relevance to you, weeding out any "fluff" (useless information or space fillers with no obvious purpose or function).
• The internet is an ever changing environment. It is for this very reason that an updated website must evolve along with the trends and times in order to avoid going stale and dying off. The keyword here is relevance. Developing a website, whether from scratch or not, must be regarded as a process that can be improved upon over time. As with a living organism, such as a plant, for instance, a website requires nourishment and maintenance. There should always be room for more multimedia design elements such as buttons and tabs to be added to an updated website. The budget must therefore always allow for improvements to be made.
• SEO (search engine optimisation) has had a great influence on how a website operates and achieves rewarding successes over the past several years. It is important to integrate the best possible SEO techniques into a website upgrade process as this can make or break your chances of attracting the maximum amount of visitors to your site. To gain a higher ranking spot on any major search engine (Google, Bing and Yahoo) simply changing the use of meta-tags (concise keywords that provide information about a website, showing on a search engine page after a search has been entered by a user) and keywords can make all the difference. A specific, structured design process is necessary for SEO to truly work and accomplish desired results. Ways in which SEO can be utilised when upgrading include:

1. Protect existing rankings - an updated website must ensure that an existing ranking on any given search engine is properly maintained through pages already in existence.
2. Balance multimedia with text (copy or content) - search engines must be able to read copy content as well as multimedia elements, such as graphics (images) and video. Copy content allows search engines to recognise and "understand" what a website is all about (indexing). The use of keywords is crucial here if a desired ranking is to be successful.
3. Keyword research - searches are done by users who enter keywords. Competitors will also be using similar keywords with the sole aim of getting a good ranking spot on a search engine over and above your company's ranking. Keywords must, therefore, be as unique and relevant as possible so as to attract significant amounts of searches and potential clients or customers.

2. Upgrading A Website? - Questions To Ask Yourself

• Does my website capture the attention of my target audience and general visitor?
• Does my website deliver the message that I am trying to get across to my target audience and general visitor?

If the answers to the above questions are not a conclusive and resounding YES, chances are an upgrade may be a potential route option in order to achieve new standards of success for your business. It is always good to keep in mind that these questions are essential components about the personality of an internet user. If a user doesn't receive the information that they want almost instantaneously, a competitor is simply a mouse click away.

Doing A Brand New Website
An existing business always has the option of being able to do a complete revamp of their company website. A brand new website, depending on a company's aims and objectives, is often the best avenue available to "keep up with the times" and enhance the success rate of a business.

1. Creating A New Website? - Questions To Ask Yourself

• What content (copywriting) should be included on my website to enhance its rate of success?
• How should content included on my website be delivered to my target audience?
• How do I intend to market my website to get the maximum number of visitors and potential customers?
• What is it about my website that visitors will remember or take away from it?

2. Tips & Benefits For Creating A New Website

• Domain name - If a total change is in order, getting a new domain name (a website's name) that best represents your company, it' services, products, aims and objectives (i.e.: the name and theme of your business). Business specific keywords in the domain name are a good idea especially where SEO is concerned.
• Keyword research - a good idea is to identify and decide on which keywords best target your intended audience or customer and then base the rest of the website around them. Chosen words and phrases must be relevant to the content that can be viewed on the website.
• Web hosting- consider signing up for an account with a web hosting company, who will ensure that users around the world will have access to view and interact with your new website. Working with a web hosting company ensures that your website has a home.
• Designing web pages - the designing of the website itself requires a great deal of thought and planning. If making use of web designers ensuring that your aims and objectives are met and shine through the design is imperative. SEO is important to integrate into the design and set up of the website as well, and is a fantastic online marketing tool for your company's products and services.
• Website testing - testing should ideally be done throughout the development process. As the development cycle of your website progresses, testing should be done on all browsers to try and eliminate any potential problems that internet users will eventually encounter.
• Getting noticed - once the design of the website meets all of your objectives, it is a good idea to submit it to major search engines, especially Google. This submission will prove pointless if no other links to your website are available for viewers to make use of. Google will also be hesitant to index your website or show search results that include your site's pages if there are no other links.  On the other side of the coin, if your new website is linked to many other sites, a simple search by a user conducted through a search engine will bring it up anyway. In this case, submissions are not always entirely necessary in the quest for getting yourself noticed on the World Wide Web.

In Conclusion
The environment of the World Wide Web is an ever changing, and in many ways, an unforgiving one. Competition is rife and reputation determines whether you will sink of swim in the online world. Clever planning, marketing and effective execution or implementation of business goals and objectives is vital if a website is to survive. Ever changing times means evolving online businesses. Upgrading or creating a new website is a decision that relies heavily on what objectives your company intends to meet and accomplish. Budget plays a strong role, but need not be the primary deciding factor. Where competition is allowed the opportunity to take your place in the online world, they most certainly will. Choosing to upgrade or create a new website from scratch must, therefore largely take into account business goals and objectives, and go about executing them in the most rewarding way.