Website Redesign & Search Engine Optimization

WHY YOU SHOULD

Update Your Website

A lot of our clients ask us, “I spent a lot of money to build my website a few years ago. Why should I invest even more money to redesign it?”

Our typical answer is that things move very quickly in terms of technology and best practices with web design and development. It is important to update your website every few years to keep it relevant in your industry. The best example of this is that a decade ago, websites were only built for desktop monitors without a thought about what it would look like on a mobile device. At that time, cell phones barely had browser capabilities, and those were primitive at best.

Another example: 10-15 years ago, building a website in Flash, or using Flash slideshows used to be the height of web design technology. By the end of 2020, the major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) will stop supporting Flash altogether. Websites also have to be responsive in order to rank well with Google, whereas not too long ago, it wasn’t even a consideration.

It is crucial for businesses to refresh their website every few years to take advantage of new technologies, reassess if their website still reflects the main focus of their business, and to stay on top of changes in search engine optimization strategies.

Step into our “Wayback Machine” and take a look at how important updating your website can be for your business:

OUR WEBSITE

Through the Years

Adam's First Website

2006

This website does not even display anymore. It was built completely in CSS/HTML, which meant every page had to be coded individually.

Not mobile-friendly
Coded in pure CSS/HTML
All “special features” (gradient backgrounds, icons, hover effects) were images, not styles
Alt-text was an afterthought instead of a key SEO tool

View in the Wayback Machine

Implementing PHP

2010

Adam and I had a lot of fun designing this one. It was the first time he explored using PHP to enhance the look of the website. The exciting feature with this site was that on each page, the header image changed to a different image – the HEIGHT of innovation a decade ago!

Still not mobile-friendly
Coded CSS/HTML and PHP
Header image changed on each page using PHP
Very rudimentary Portfolio page
Boxy design
Remember Facebook badges?

View in the Wayback Machine

Moody Blues

2011

We redesigned the website again in 2011 when “dark themes” became popular. All of the overlays and gradients had to be put in as images instead of set in the style sheet. We also updated our logo to a brighter shade of blue from the more purple tone in the original.

Also not mobile-friendly
Got more creative with gradients and overlays in the header
Dark theme and more corporate image-wise
First use of JQuery on the Portfolio page (which no longer works)
MANY examples of “exciting” JQuery features that we could include on our clients’ websites (these also no longer work).

View in the Wayback Machine

Lighter and Brighter

2013

We lightened up the website, moving toward pastels and more “pops” of color in the header images. This was also our first use of a slider in the header, which became very popular around that time. Also lightboxes for portfolio displays were very common at this point.

STILL NOT MOBILE-FRIENDLY YET!
Used a slider with text embedded in images in the header
Portfolio was displayed using lightbox pop-up
Several brightly-colored social media icons prominently displayed in the footer, including FOURSQUARE

View in the Wayback Machine

A Responsive Website

2015

This website was a huge change for us, for many reasons. The first is that we rebranded from Adam Harness Design to Harness Design Indy. This was also our first mobile-friendly website. In 2015 it was more challenging to develop a responsive website because a lot of the “shortcuts” most developers use now were just starting out. On the other hand, there were way fewer screen sizes to design for.

Finally mobile-friendly!
Moved toward flat design elements (no gradients)
Began using Fontawesome icons instead of creating images
Implemented carousels to view projects in the portfolio
Portfolio was database-driven
First use of JQuery accordion for FAQ’s page

View in the Wayback Machine

Monumental Change

2016

This redesign was probably our biggest shift. We rebranded to the current “water droplet” theme and retooled our tagline. We switched to a fully responsive website and played with a lot of moving elements like CSS and JQuery-driven buttons and animated text. We also used parallax backgrounds for the first time. Finally, we moved to a single-page design, which was very popular just a few years ago – now it is extremely taboo for SEO.

Fully responsive website
Utilized parallax (moving background) design elements
CSS/JQuery-driven text and image animations
Single-page design
Database-driven portfolio section (extremely hard to maintain)
WordPress-like design, but still a static website

View in the Wayback Machine

Current Design

2020

After building several websites in WordPress for our clients, we finally found time to convert our site to WordPress as well, and made a lot of improvements. We changed to the current style of single-page/multi-page design, added a lot of new design elements throughout the site, and made the website more interactive with users. The portfolio is now managed by the WordPress CMS which makes updating the site with our most current work easy.

Responsive WordPress website
Top SEO plugins and techniques in use
Easy to update portfolio and pages to keep the website current
Even more design elements to make pages engaging
Multiple areas for users to interact with the website
Use of CSS Flex to make responsive styling even easier