You have a WordPress website, which is working great. Business is doing well, everything is looking awesome. The time has now come for some business expansion – SELLING YOUR PRODUCTS INTERNATIONALLY! Congratulations! The next question is – how do you do that on your website? Do you need to create a separate website for each market or country? Do you continue with your existing WordPress and simply add an option to ship internationally? This is just one scenario when you need to decide if a new WordPress website is ideal for your business or not.
A different scenario could simply be when you want to update the website; take out the outdated information and refresh the overall look and feel – a rebranding, if you will. Would it be practical to just start from scratch or tear down the old one and use the same structure for the new content?
Girls Who Web will help you decide the best option for your business so let’s discuss!
The Pros and Cons
It sounds so much easier to create a new website from scratch vs having to change everything on your old one. You can easily build a new look and feel with thousands of templates to choose from, without having to tear down an existing design, which could potentially create errors on the backend. You can scrap the old design and select a whole new different theme that suits your needs. However, when you really think hard and consider some factors, doing a refresh on your website might just work for you!
Here’s why:
1. You don’t actually need to put up a separate website for each country if you’ve decided to ship your products internationally! Especially if customers can buy from third-party sellers like retailers and distributors. Simin, one of Giulia’s clients, added a section on her website that redirects visitors to the appropriate seller when she started selling her craft gin internationally. However, when you want to handle shipping yourself, most e-commerce platforms would give you an option to integrate international shipping rates and times. So really, just a few adjustments here and there and you’re ready to ship your products overseas!
2. You don’t want to lose all the SEO efforts that you’ve worked so hard for your WordPress website! If your current website is doing well in terms of SEO ranking, then you need to consider this when you want to create a whole new one from scratch. You can check this by going into Google Analytics, and tracking what percentage of traffic comes through Google Search. However, there is another option that you might want to consider if the budget allows you to. Create a second website! This is what Esme, one of our clients, did. She opted to create a second website solely for another product line that has a different ordering process than her previous products. This allows her to manage enquiries efficiently, increasing her chances of closing each sale.
3. If your WordPress website is performing well in terms usability – meaning there are no complicated codes to add new features to your website, you may want to save yourself the money and stress of a new website. If you simply need to change the brand colors, and add a few new features and pages, trust us if we say that it would be easier to work on an existing structure than to start all over. Check out our Website Refresh service where you can be present while we do all the work on your website! Feedback is real-time, saving all the unnecessary back and forth to finish your website!
4. Finally, building a new website is MORE EXPENSIVE and takes MORE TIME than tweaking your old one. A new website can range from $3000 – $50,000 depending on complexity, requirements and designer. Tweaking your existing website to make it better instead starts from as little as $10 if you hire a freelancer on Fiverr.
Conclusion
While we recommend you use your existing WordPress website as it is less expensive and takes less time to achieve the goal versus creating a website from scratch, we understand that there are websites built by different developers, creating a HUGE MESS on the backend. Sadly, this gives you very little option for improvement. If it’s going to take hundreds of hours to resolve existing issues left by these developers, then it might be better to create a new one! Remember to select a company that can understand your needs and goals. It might also benefit you if you have an idea on how it is built so you don’t need to be under their mercy, when the time comes you need to refresh your website.
If you’ve decided to simply update your existing website, this is what Girls Who Web specializes in. Our services are designed to be effective, efficient and small-business friendly. ! Visit our website to learn more about our services
