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When to Consider a Website Redesign

How do you know when it’s time for a website redesign?

Are you happy with your website’s performance? It may have served your business well when it was fresh and new, but with time, things change. A website redesign can give your company or brand a new lease on life, as your marketing needs have likely grown since your current site was launched.

But how do you know when to redesign your website and stop investing in refreshing your current website? And how do you go about it once you’ve made the decision?

There are many factors to consider when doing a website redesign. Your site will provide clues as to what needs to be revamped, reworked, or redone.

What is a Website Redesign?

The website redesign process overhauls your entire site. It entails updating, revising, and optimizing your content, graphics and the platform on which the site is built.

Whatever isn’t working for you in your existing site will be reworked or phased out to align with your marketing strategy and audience’s expectations. You may also be considering a brand refresh at this time which could alter the direction and vision of your website entirely.

When done right, website redesigns lead to an enhanced user experience, better website performance, improved search engine results, and, ultimately, higher conversions. And that means more success for your business and higher profits.

Website Redesign vs Website Refresh

Many people get confused between the terms website redesign and website refresh. They achieve similar goals, but there are some distinct differences between them.

A website redesign project is a much bigger job than a website refresh. If you’re unsure of which one you need, consider the following:

A website redesign is a complete restructuring of your online presence. It is, essentially, a whole new website built on the foundations of the old one. It aims to improve your old site’s success and fix any issues it had, too.

A website refresh typically leaves the core of your website’s functionality and code intact. Instead of updating or replacing everything, as with a website redesign, you’ll update certain visual elements for a new look or add some new features to the existing architecture.

A website refresh may be all you need if:

Users navigate your site easily, but you want to raise conversion rates, reduce bounce rates, or emphasize a particular product or service.
You have updated your brand identity and need your site to reflect this new look.
Your site was created before the boom in mobile web browsing, and your site is not as responsive on mobile devices as visitors expect.

Warning Signs That It’s Time To Redesign Your Existing Website

If you’re unsure whether or not a website redesign is necessary, there are some tell-tale clues you can look for on your current website.

Before you decide to go ahead with a website redesign project, check for these signs:

Time Since Your Site Was Created

If three or more years have passed since you created your site, you should consider a website redesign. Much may have changed within the technologies available during that time that will impact your website’s performance.

Your user base will undoubtedly have grown, and your target audience may even have changed. Your business goals may also have changed, and your site needs to reflect this.

Avoid looking outdated or out of step with your business. Reassess what it is you are trying to achieve with your website.

In addition, if your site is quite old, it might not be compatible with the latest browsers and devices in use today. A redesign allows you to incorporate cross-browser compatibility and web responsiveness into your website to ensure it runs well for all users.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Results

Are your current website search engine optimisation efforts up to scratch?

Google is the most widely-used search engine in the world, and 77% of its users search with Google three or more times per day. Faring poorly on the search engine results page (SERP) indicates you may need to redesign your website.

Search engine optimisation is essential to the success of any online business. That means meeting the demanding and ever-changing search engine requirements so your website will rank high in the SERPs. If a quick search for your product or service doesn’t list your site in the first couple of pages, users may never find you.

A refresh of your content may be the answer to improving your SEO rankings. But if you fail to meet more than one criterion for search engine rankings, it’s time to consider a website redesign.

Security Protocols

Most website owners are familiar with the terms SSL and TLS. Secure sockets layer (SSL) and transport layer security (TLS) protocols are responsible for authenticating and encrypting links between networked computers.

Website security is critical for the safety of your users and your site and brand image.

Since 2018, the TLS has largely replaced SSL. TLS 1.3 is the current version.

Although a website can function with this layer of protection, it is unwise to do so. Search engines may penalise you if your website doesn’t offer SSL or TLS protocols.

Having no security protocol also leaves your site and users open to cyber attacks.

If your site has been subject to cyber attacks, data breaches, and related issues, it may be time to address this in a website redesign plan.

Content (and Content Management) Issues

Developing a content marketing strategy will greatly improve your users’ experience on your site and your SEO performance. But if you struggle to edit content or are unsatisfied with your content management system (CMS), bigger changes need to be made.

Your site will not perform well without engaging content and a solid content management system. This problem can be resolved within the context of a website redesign.

A complete website redesign and a content management system that works for you will greatly impact your SEO.

Future refreshes will be made easier if you meet current SEO best practices and regularly update your content. By doing so, you can always keep your content relevant, fresh and engaging.

Mobile Friendliness and Performance

Mobile browsing bypassed desktop browsing years ago, and this mobile phone and tablet browsing trend aren’t slowing down.

How does your current website respond when opened on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet? Is every web page mobile-friendly and responsive?

With so many users relying on a mobile website to connect to the internet, your website must have a responsive design. It must adapt to the user’s device or screen size in real-time.

Mobile responsiveness is also an advantage for SEO. If your site is not mobile responsive, you’ll have difficulty ranking well in search engines.

Check your site’s performance regularly by spot-testing all pages on your website. Does it respond to different devices smoothly and offer a frictionless navigational experience across the board?

You’ll quickly discover if your site’s mobile-friendliness is lacking. And you can add this to your website redesign strategy.

Outdated Information And Functionality

Stay relevant by constantly reviewing your content. Does it still seem fresh and on-trend? Does your content still match your client base? Check all your web pages for outdated information.

If visitors to your site see outdated statistics or trends on even one web page, they may assume that everything you offer is outdated. Content and website performance go hand-in-hand, and it’s important to understand the relationship between them and constantly monitor your website.

When only a few things need to be updated, a website refresh can take care of the problem. But if your site needs more than a few minor updates, it’s most likely time for a website redesign. This is especially important if you’re trying to attract a younger audience.

  • Help to improve your ranking on search engines.
  • Build trust with potential customers.
  • Help you to identify areas where your business needs improvement.

5 Things To Keep In Mind Before and During The Website Redesign Process

A website redesign is a large endeavour. But it won’t stress you out if you know what to do.

Before moving ahead with a website redesign, here are some important things you need to consider:

Identify Your Website’s Most Valuable Pages

A website redesign offers far more than just aesthetics. While that is important, your website accomplishes many things at once. It’s a digital business card, a showcase for products and services, an advertising campaign, and even a business listing.

Your site and brand will be more successful when all these functions perform well.

Identify your current website’s most valuable pages. This will give you the content you need to carry to your new site. But ensure that it’s still optimized for SEO.

Hit those SEO checkpoints with the following:

  • Fast-loading website pages/images
  • Relevant and eye-catching page titles
  • On-point meta tags and descriptions
  • The right keywords for all your landing pages
  • Readable and relatable content
  • Sensible headers and sub-headers

Understand Your Visitors and What They’re Looking For

Try to look at your site from an outsider’s perspective. Imagine the type of people who would be looking for your product or service. Are you giving users what they want when they click on your site? If not, they won’t stick around.

It’s sometimes easy to attract visitors, but not always so easy to keep them hooked. Your users may respond to a snappy headline, catchy phrase, or visually appealing image. But once they’re browsing your site, what keeps them there?

Users want easy-to-use sites with fast-loading pages and clear information. So do some research to discover what your users want. Set up user testing and ask visitors to browse your current website’s content and complete a short survey.

Get them to perform various tasks on your current site. Find out what keywords they associate with your product or services. Do user research and find out what they want. This interaction with your audience will quickly identify any issues that need to be fixed in your website redesign strategy.

Your Customer Barriers And Hooks

Some general customer barriers prevent a site from performing well. Fortunately, these barriers can be addressed during a website redesign. So take note of the ones your existing site is guilty of and make the necessary changes when designing your new site.

The biggest barriers to site visitors purchasing your products or services are:

Poor Website Design

A poorly thought-out website design is probably the biggest barrier to engaging your web users.

Cluttered web pages, too many internal links, and broken links will cause visitors to leave your site and not return.

Purposeful user interface design is focused on the content and products. It focuses on the top products to avoid overwhelming the user.

Remember that not all visitors to your site will be regulars. And newcomers can easily be put off when bombarded with too many ideas or products.

Another potential flaw in your old website may be its functionality on mobile devices. More than half of all online traffic comes via mobile devices with touch screens. That makes responsive design for mobile devices a top priority in your website redesign strategy.

Users often use their smartphone’s zoom function to see what they’re buying. But high-quality images are essential for this feature.

Low picture quality will undo all the hard work you’ve done to establish your brand. Users will inevitably move on to another site with higher-quality images and enhanced user functionality.

Brand Mistrust/Unfamiliarity

Website visitors decide in seconds whether or not to stay on your site, and brand credibility plays a large role in this. Brand credibility creates trust and drives buying decisions more than anything else. So establish a clear brand and apply this to your new website design.

When your target audience is unfamiliar with your brand, they won’t trust it. Clarity about your products/services and company mission must be included in your new website design. It helps to include user-generated content, reviews, and other features that build trust.

Your website is where most people will first experience your brand. Thus, the design of your website can make a positive or a negative first impression. Your site’s perceived trustworthiness will establish your company image in their minds.

Professional web design, therefore, builds brand familiarity and brand credibility.

Slow-Loading Pages

One of the main reasons visitors leave a site prematurely is page loading speed. An astonishing 53% of users will leave your mobile site and go elsewhere if pages take more than three seconds.

Because of this, search engines’ algorithms take page-loading speed into account. Slow-loading website pages frustrate users and impact your online success.

If your web pages take a long time to load, you’ll suffer a high bounce rate and, ultimately, a lower site ranking. So it is in your best interest to determine if page speed is an issue for you.

Google made speed a landing page factor for ads and searches, including mobile devices. To diagnose issues like page speed, use Google PageSpeed Insights. This free tool not only gives scores but also recommendations for improvement.

Of course, this speed is not always under your control. Your web hosting service, the user’s internet speed and connection, as well as their browser can all affect your loading speed. But the culprits are usually images that are not optimized, videos, and large files. And this is an easy fix.

When redesigning your website, keep images small. Large images and videos slow down a web page’s load time. And if many users play the videos simultaneously, your web server response time slows. A solution is to upload videos to a streaming service and embed the link on your webpage.

Big files like eBooks or tutorials can also slow your page loading speed. Decrease the size of these large files by making them available for download as zip files.

Unnecessary data and unused code impact your webpages’ load speeds. A web developer can also assist you by reducing your CSS files, HTML code, and unused JavaScript.

Complicated Navigation Menus

No matter how exciting your web content is, visitors will abandon your site at the start when the menu is too complicated to navigate.

That does not mean that your layout can’t be artistic or creative. But when you try too hard, it shows. And this can be a barrier to attracting new users.

A simple, clear drop-down menu with categories and sub-categories and a prominent search bar are all required.

Don’t be too wordy or artistic with the menu; you have other content for that. Make it simpler to navigate your site, and visitors are more likely to do so.

If visitors can’t navigate your site easily, they’ll find another one they can. So keep the creativity to your images, videos, or blog posts. And keep your navigation tools clear and simple.

Mandatory Sign-Ups

You’ll lose out on customers/clients when you force them to do a mandatory sign-up for a newsletter or loyalty programme. Encourage these, of course, but don’t make it a deal-breaker. Many users will leave a site and look for what they want elsewhere if ambushed in this way upon arriving on your site.

What are your marketing hooks? This content grabs their attention, creating more interest in your brand or service. A staggering 92.6 % of users are influenced to purchase goods or services online by visuals.

So make sure that your hooks incorporate visuals that users will respond to. Be different, be authentic, and you’ll lure them in. But don’t force visitors to sign up to be able to view your content. There’s a more effective way to hook your customers.

Look at what other sites in your niche are saying and what they’re not saying. Is there a vital bit of info that they aren’t offering users? What are the complaints about their site saying? Find a way to answer these needs, and address these points in your attention-grabbing banner.

If users see you’re answering their concerns, they’ll see you as the authority on the product/service you offer.

You’ll also boost confidence in your product or services with customer reviews, awards for service excellence, and news reports on your success.

Your Team

Are you and your team prepared for the redesign cost, time, and effort required to redesign a website? If you don’t have the time to be closely involved with the process, you’ll need a dedicated team working on it for you.

A qualified web designer understands the importance of good design elements. Certain colours, negative space, and the right fonts are examples of things they can use to your site’s advantage. But once the web redesign is executed, what then?

Just like your content, your brand identity needs to be managed. It is as crucial in an online business as in a brick-and-mortar one.

Brand management regulates the elements that create your company identity. This covers your logo, emblem, or slogan and your target audience’s awareness of them.

The right team and effective time management for each aspect of your online presence are key to the success of your website redesign. If you are a sole business owner responsible for your site, you may want to reconsider going at it alone.

Unless you are skilled in all aspects of web design and development, graphic design, and content, it is unlikely that you’ll check all the boxes with a website redesign. A redesign is as successful as the team behind it.

What Do You Want To Change?

Before you even start with the first steps in a website redesign plan, you must have a plan. And the way to formulate that plan is to consider what you want to change.

Make a list of what your reasons are for the redesign. This will pinpoint what you want to achieve.

And don’t forget, your success has relied on the loyalty of repeat business up to this point. Your visitors to the site become regular customers/clients, and you don’t want to lose their interest. But rearranging your site and changing stylistic aspects may not be enough to get the desired results.

If you feel overwhelmed by the content that needs updating on your current website, it may be time for a complete website redesign. But if the content doesn’t resonate with your new brand image or site design, all will be in vain.

Your new site design must retain existing users from your current site while attracting new ones.

But will your existing users find enough that is familiar on your new website? Look at what they have commented on in the past. What has garnered you praise? What has earned criticism?

This can give you direction when deciding what to change with your website redesign. SEO and performance metrics will tell you how likely new users will find you. But your existing customers, who are familiar with your site, will tell you how to keep them.

Get a free quote to redesign your website and grow your business.

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