When was the last time you had your website redesigned? For a lot of companies, a website can be an afterthought – something you think that you don't need to do any work to keep it up once you've gotten it live. Your website, however, is like any other piece of marketing material that you use. Every so often you need to take an objective look at it and ask yourself if it is time for a redesign, to update the message that you're sending out to current and potential clients.

As a general rule of thumb, websites should be redesigned every three years. Both design trends and web technology grow and change so quickly on the web that by the time three years have passed, your website is starting to look and act dated. A little freshening up of your website design could be what is standing between you and the ability to really connect with your users.

Here are five reasons that you may want to look at a potential website redesign:

You've rebranded your company

Whether it evolves slowly over time, or whether you suddenly change the branding of your company, you may want to consider redesigning your website. Your website is a part of the marketing message that you put out to potential clients, so should be cohesive with your other marketing materials. Your designer can work with you to ensure your redesigned website is reflective of your new brand.

The purpose of your website has changed

If you had previously wanted your website only to generate leads for residential properties, but now also want your website to be used as a recruitment tool, or want to showcase your commercial division, you will want to redesign your site. Previously, your site was designed with one particular target market in mind and changing the purpose of your site will change the group that you should be targeting. Your designer will know how to redesign your website to better target the new audience.

You've started using social media and want to incorporate it in a more visible way on your site

Social media is becoming a more prominent way for companies to communicate with clients, and most social media platforms have some kind of widget to incorporate your updates onto your website. This gives you a better opportunity to connect with your users when they are on your website. Talk with your designer about creative ways that you can showcase the social media platforms that you are involved in.

Your website still uses Flash

Flash used to be the go-to technology for anything fun and dynamic on your site. As technology has advanced, Flash has become supported less on popular devices, so it would not be surprising to discover that Flash content on your website isn't always viewable on tablet or mobile devices. New technologies have emerged, and your designer can create eye-catching effects that are widely accepted on modern browsers and devices.

You want to remove or tweak features on your website that haven't gotten you the desired results

You may find through the use of analytics that there are features on your website that aren't performing as desired. If this happens, a redesign can help by either removing the underperforming features or redesigning them to improve performance. Sometimes, even just changing the positioning, color, or wording of an element can improve performance of features on your site.

I encourage you to take a critical look at your website and determine whether it's time for you to have your website redesigned.

This post comes to us from the Lone Wolf blog.