Faced with a huge website redesign task but still unsure whether it’s worth the hassle? Learn how simple changes can have a big impact on your business and what your team needs to consider before beginning a website redesign project. Here are nine tell-tale signs it’s about time to give your website a makeover. If you are doing business online, the first impression really does count. With average site-loading speeds of two seconds and ever-changing technological support, you can’t afford to take a break. 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience. And the source of such can be anything from annoying pop up banners and difficult check out forms to unpleasant colour choices and font sizes. Websites need to look visually pleasing but also be functional. There’s no point to a website if it doesn’t work properly and has poor usability. In this highly competitive digital world, customers will take minor delays and tiny glitches as reason enough to abandon your ship and join the competition.
Brand loyalty has generally eroded, yes. Today’s customers have a vast amount of options available at their literal fingertips, with technologies making it a breeze to shop around and hunt the best deals for their money. Instant gratification and increased personalisation are now the holy grails of customer retention and that is where a great website can go a long way.
Your website not only represents your brand and lets people know what services you are offering but is a great portfolio of your past work. Not to mention that it’s giving your customers 24/7 access to your products and services whilst being a highly cost effective way to market and liaise directly with your customers. Need we say more?
Here are a few indicators that it’s time to make a move and improve your web design:
- Is your bounce rate too high?
- Does your page take more than 2 seconds to load?
- Are visitors not converting?
- Maybe you’ve realised that your page isn’t mobile friendly?
- Does your site not align with your vision any longer?
- Is your graphic design outdated?
- Are you slacking in on-site SEO basics?
Creating the perfect website is an art that requires a refined skill set. It’s therefore smart to hire a professional to discuss your issues and the goals of your business. Together, you can develop and employ a strategy that will have you surf the wave of change. Sometimes it’s good to hold on to old things. But when it comes to web design, it’s not the time to be nostalgic. So let’s have a closer look at the obvious and not so obvious reason to redesign your website.
When Do You Need to Re-design Or Update Your Website?
1. Your site no longer aligns with your brand vision
Your company has evolved a lot since you first started your business. With it, your sales and marketing goals will have changed. But growing pains are no excuse to go on and ignore that your website can’t keep up with the natural evolution of your company. Re-aligning your website with your goals and vision should be a priority, with reviews scheduled in regularly. When a brand changes its direction, it is likely to draw in a new audience, too. Which takes us straight to the next issue pointing out the necessity of a redesign.
2. Your audience has changed
Once your vision or brand image has changed, it will attract a new crowd that’s interested in your services and products. But if your audience has changed, it might be worth re-designing your page to suit this new clientele. Different age groups for example, expect different things from a website. A site made for kids will need to use a brand mascot to guide them through the site, whereas their millennial parents appreciate scannable content with headers, shorter paragraphs, and plentiful white space. Research and design for your target audience are therefore the first step in redesigning your site.
3. Your website isn’t accessible
People want access to information whenever and wherever they need it. Making your website mobile-friendly should therefore be a no-brainer. Nowadays it’s good practice to design mobile sites first, as it has more restrictions. This ensures that your website works not only on desktops but on a lot of devices. Here are a few things to consider when designing mobile friendly websites:
- Is the information easy to find and are menus as simple as possible?
- Are calls to action clearly displayed?
- Size matters: Are you using large enough font and button sizes?
- Are forms as short as possible?
- Did you get rid of pop-ups?
- Are site-loading speeds a priority?
4. Your page isn’t visually appealing
Blurry pictures, poorly designed layouts and small texts in flashy colours. If the sound of these design fails doesn’t make you cringe, it’s probably about time you have an expert look at your website. Bad user interface design (UI) delivers confusing information and will have site visitors jump ship faster than you can say Jack Robinson. They make navigating your site difficult and leave a bitter aftertaste. Keep in mind: The better a site looks and the easier it is to navigate and find relevant information, the more credible you seem. So keep an eye out for our expert design trends series coming soon.
5. Your site could use a lesson in User Experience (UX)
Are people finding it hard to get to where they want? Do you have too much animation? Bad user experience (UX) can cause nightmares, too. If your site is unnecessarily complex or loading very sloooooooowly, it can (and will) cost you valuable leads. As you are considering giving your website a redesign, the emotional experience connected with the use of your page, should move into the spotlight. Still unsure about the relevance of UX and UI for web design? We’ve created just the right guide to bring you up to speed on user-friendly web design.
6. Your content is outdated
Google algorithms are constantly changing, making it difficult to stay up to date with your SEO efforts. Content performance can decline with time, as it naturally becomes less relevant. A website redesign might be a great opportunity to spruce up your existing content.A few good signs that your content needs to be updated:
- Your content is simply not written well
- You’re getting very little to no search traffic
- The information you’re providing is outdated
- Your articles contain broken links
7. Your site has a lot of old links and broken elements
Finding and fixing dead and broken links is of great relevance as they are hurting your website in many ways. 404 urls are not only highly frustrating, they will also drive your site authority down and are very unprofessional. Time to rid yourself of them to save your ranking and reputation. Hot tip: There are a few great tools out there that help you discover broken links in no time. Make use of them!
8. You want to convert more leads
If your website looks visually pleasing but you still don’t see the expected results in leads and conversions, there could be an underlying problem with your CTA’s or landing pages. It is also quite possible that your conversion paths are falling short. Only continued optimisation and testing will help you understand user behaviour and where their journey isn’t as smooth as it should be. Support your customers in their quest and keep this in mind when you’re planning to redesign your website.
9. You haven’t been on top of SEO basics
You might be tired of hearing it, but SEO is one of the most important ingredients to the secret sauce of leads and conversions. Knowing how to successfully drive organic traffic to your page might just be the key to lasting success. Developing an SEO friendly back-end for a website isn’t an easy undertaking, and you’ll most likely find yourself in need of consulting a professional back-end developer. If this seems like a daunting task, start off using Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Wordpress, as they are already fully developed and customised according to best practices.
Now it’s up to you
These are just some of the reasons why you might need to have a website overhaul. Redesigning an entire website is not an easy undertaking, but we’re here to help you in every way possible. Have an eye out for future articles where we will explore in detail how to redesign your website. Then again, conversions do not change overnight. But with patience, dedication and a little help from experts, you will turn your website into a conversion factory soon enough. Keep in mind: Everything is changing, and so should your website.
