A website redesign is one of the most effective ways for a business to stay competitive in this digital age. A proper redesign strategy helps you update and upgrade your site while keeping the core features that make it helpful to visitors and customers. This guide will help you understand when is the right time to give your website a fresh look and how to go about it.
When Should You Redesign a Website?
One of the biggest questions for many website owners is when they should consider revamping their website design or content. Here are some signs that your website needs a new look.
Rebranding
If your company changes its branding, such as logos, slogans, or colors, an updated website can ensure everything aligns with these new elements. The same applies to launching a brand-new product or service.
Increase Traffic
As an online business, competition is stiff, and ranking on the first page becomes more challenging. As such, companies need to redesign their website to increase the visibility of their product and services.
Most of the time, you must update your landing page; you can include a video showcasing how your products and services benefit your clients. You must also SEO-optimize your website. Or add a blogging section on your website to educate people about your products.
It’s More Than 2 or 3 Years Old
Websites can quickly become outdated due to technological advances, changing trends within web design standards, and updates from search engines like Google. Therefore, websites older than three years may not perform as well as the new ones. In this case, you must update your website with modern features and plugins depending on the industry standards.
Your Website is Not Mobile-friendly
Looking at the various online surveys, you will notice that mobile users account for the highest percentage. If your website is not mobile-friendly, you’ll lose many potential customers.
If you have a habit of browsing both with your phone and laptop, you may notice that the pages that appear on your phone and laptop are different. Therefore, ensure your website is both mobile and PC friendly to ensure you are visible on all devices.
Not User-friendly
Since COVID-19, people have become more dependent on online shopping; as such, you must ensure that your customers have an easy time browsing your website. If your customers have difficulty navigating around certain sections or find themselves lost among pages, there are high chances you will lose many customers.
During your redesign, you must ensure your customers have a smooth experience when selecting, adding to the cart, checking out, and paying. You must also ensure that your customers have a smooth experience across all the devices.
Launch a New Product or Service
Some businesses usually update their website when launching a new product or service. Redesigning the website helps customers easily find information about what’s new, sign up for trials, or purchase the product or service.
Website redesign also allows your businesses to market themselves in different ways. If you recently launched a video streaming platform, then creating dedicated web pages with videos of demos and tutorials is essential.
How to Redesign a Website
Once you have ascertained that your website needs a new look, you can do it in-house. Alternatively, you can subcontract a web design company, such as a company that offers services in web design Gold Coast, Brisbane, or Sydney, as they have a team of experts with experience designing various types of business websites.
Review and Analyze the Current Website
Before you embark on your website redesign strategy, you must analyze your current website. The first step is understanding your visitors interact with your website, such as bounces, clicks, and converts.
You must also analyze the feedback from your customers and implement it in your redesign. This will help you make informed decisions on the following website redesign stages.
Determine Your Redesigning Goals
Identify what it is that needs updating on your website. Is it just changing the outward appeal, or does it require substantial changes, such as SEO optimization, reducing bounce rate, enhancing the domain authority, and increasing the number of visitors and time spent on your website?
Knowing exactly why you want to go through the redesigning process helps ensure everything runs smoothly during the development and implementation stages. So create a checklist for your goals before continuing into the planning stage.
Define Your Website Branding and Messaging
It is essential to decide on the look and feel of your website, as this can affect how visitors perceive you as a brand. Consider colors, fonts, and images that will help differentiate yourself from competitors and reflect what your company stands for message-wise.
You must ensure that everyone visiting your site knows exactly what you offer and how you can benefit them. Use clear and concise language to deliver your message, and avoid using hard words that make you sound like a robot.
Define Your Buyer Personas
Who are the people visiting your website? Knowing who they are is important for marketing as you can tailor content towards them and understand their needs more clearly.
This includes researching demographics such as age range, gender, location, and job titles. For instance, if you manage a hotel, your target clients should be travelers, businesses, event planners, and families.
Prepare the Content
A blog section is essential for all websites as it helps drive traffic to your site. Therefore, before starting the development stage, ensure all content has been written, proofread, and ready for insertion into webpages. You must also ensure that a web design expert has curated and optimized your web pages.
Analyze the Competition
Look at what other websites are doing, particularly those within your industry. You can use diagnostic tools to measure how well your website is performing among the competitors.
Use these findings to inform design decisions and learn from mistakes you’ve been making. This way, you can avoid repeating any common pitfalls your competitors may have made while also gaining an insight into what works best for them.
Choose the Right Software
Depending on the site’s complexity, choose content management systems such as WordPress or Magento if you require more flexibility in customizing product page designs and descriptions.
You can also consider using website builders like Wix or Squarespace if you don’t want to manage coding side things but still need access control over various elements like fonts, colors, or layout options.
Testing
Once the development stage is complete, always run tests across different devices and browsers before launching the live version. This step ensures that the bugs are eliminated and do not cause errors later once the public starts viewing the website.
Final Thoughts
Redesigning a website takes time and requires careful consideration during each step. However, implementing an effective design strategy offers numerous benefits. These include keeping visitors engaged longer and encouraging them to return more often by providing new content regularly.
Businesses that invest time in redesigning their sites will reap the rewards from improved SEO rankings, increased profits, and higher customer satisfaction rates. Irrespective of the size of your business, a website redesign is crucial for the success of your business.