Some Good reasons to Redesign a Website
- Old Look and Feel
- Poor UX – User Experience
- Not Responsive Mobile Friendly
- Pages Not Optimized
- 404 Errors
- Functionality Errors
- Low Conversions
If you’re running your business with a 5 year old website that has not had a single change made to it since its initial design, we recommend a redesign ASAP. If you consider a car for a moment, ever so often a service is necessary to check that all is in order and running as it should, your website is no different.
A design overhaul is a MUST, and here are some good and valid reasons why a website redesign might be necessary.
Outdated look and feel
An outdated design that looks as though it was designed by Fred from the 50’s can hurt your business. People relate to the aesthetic appeal of websites. With many different design trends constantly on the rise, you need to find a look and feel that perfectly matches your product and service offering as well as your brand identity.
Poor UX – user experience
They say design with your website user in mind, the importance of this is paramount to the amount of site visitors who will choose to stay on your website long enough to convert into a potential client. A poor user experience translates into poor results, and you potentially losing out on serious business.
Not mobile-friendly / Responsive
We mentioned keeping your user in mind, it’s equally important to bare in mind that majority of your website visitors will view the site on their cellphones. This has paved a path for responsive designs that takes mobile users into account and offers as good of a mobile experience as one would when browsing on desktop.
Pages not optimized
You want search engines to recognize your pages, right? Consider your website undiscoverable if your pages aren’t optimized for search. This effectively makes your website redundant and a waste of money.
404 errors
A 404 error simply means that a page cannot be found, this could be as a result of the page being removed or moved without it being redirected. Such errors will make your website visitors perceive your site as a dead end.
Functionality errors
If your site is 10 years old and hasn’t been updated since its initial design, you’re bound to have many functionality errors. Load time might be slow, navigation may be poor. Poor functionality is a definitive sign that your website could do with a design overhaul.
Low conversion rate
High converting websites yields better results. You cannot expect a website designed in 2010 that was left to lie dormant to convert the same way in which a website designed in 2020.
Planning Process
While many wish to do an immediate redesign as they are unhappy with the current look and feel of their website, they fail to consider the data their website contains that need to be analyzed before they opt for a redesign.
Redesigning is about more than just a fresh new look; it requires proper planning, understanding the reason behind the redesign. And if planned and executed well, a redesign can give you great results.
Ranking and Traffic
How are users currently able to find your website? You’ll often find people saying they wish to do a redesign as they aren’t getting any business from their current website. This does not necessarily mean you’re not getting traffic to your website. That traffic you’re getting is perhaps just not converting into leads, and this in itself, stands as a good enough reason to redesign.
Are you ranking for any keyword phrases in Google? Surely you do not want to lose those rankings. How are you tracking your current website visitors? Do you have a tool like Google analytics installed to track and monitor your stats? You also need to be mindful that some of your current pages are already indexed in Google and other search engines, so URL’s can’t be changed without redirecting those old pages to your new pages. When you fail to redirect, your website visitors will receive a 404 error.
Competitors
Doing a competitor analysis and researching what they are ranking for will give you a good guideline and some ideas on the type of content you can add to freshen up your current content.
Target Audience
They say you need to design with your audience in mind. Having a good understanding of your audience and where they are in their intent cycle will give you a good indication of whether they are simply browsing or ready to take action. You therefore need to know where to place all your necessary call to actions – these buttons will direct the user to the specific page in their buying process.
SEO
A redesign serves as the perfect opportunity to optimize your website. Redesigning with SEO in mind will help you better plan your website’s architecture and navigation so that you’re able to include pages with targeted keywords. This will take your client on a journey through the various pages that’ll increase your page views and decrease your bounce rate.
Mobile Responsive
Most outdated websites have to be redesigned because they are not responsive on mobile phones or tablets. With majority of your audience likely viewing your website on their mobile device, part of the responsive redesign process will require you to know how to outlay and display the content when viewed on a smartphone.
Cost
The cost of a redesign will vary, depending on how old your website is, the amount of content it contains. And these factors need careful consideration, the same way in which it would when you’re opting for a new website design.
Contact Us for your Website Redesign