Like any good investment, your website needs to be proactively managed. It’s not just about keeping the content up to date, but it is also about bringing the technology and design up to date to meet the needs of your business and your customers. When is a website redesign needed? In general most companies redesign their website every 2 years, and rebuild their website every 5 years.
Key drivers for a website redesign:
- The website looks old and dated
- It doesn’t reflect the business direction
- It looks terrible on mobile devices
- It doesn’t convert any sales or leads
- It is hard to navigate and find information quickly
- It takes too long to load
- It is not easy to update the content
- It is not user friendly
Check your Google Analytics data for signs that your website needs help. If you have low repeat visits, high bounce rates and low average time of site – then something isn’t working. Check the technology data to see how your website is performing on different browsers and mobile types. It is also advisable to ask a professional to perform a website analysis and propose recommendations on how to make your website work better for you.
Pros of website redesigns
- A fresh design gives the impression that your business is dynamic and growing
- You move with the times, and your website is attractive and easy to use on mobile devices
- Your website works harder for you with new functionality such as social media integration, a blog, forums, e-commerce, contact forms and more
- Your users are happier when they can find what they want quickly and easily
- You save money, because you can easily maintain and update the website content yourself
- Your website will be more search engine friendly
- You can gain a competitive advantage over your competitors by captivating the online market
Negatives of website redesigns & how to overcome them
Regular users of your website will be see a different looking site, and may take a while to get used to it. To overcome this, it is important to consider the user experience in the design – what information do they need? What action do they need to take? Make it easy for people to find what they want in 3 clicks or less. You can also work with your designer to find a new design that is implemented over time so as not to confuse your users so much. When you redesign a website, your website page URL’s will often change, and this will have an impact on your SEO power. To combat this, a SEO expert can inform the search engines where your old URLs have moved to, and minimise loss in ranking and traffic by preserving your highest performing pages. Make it easy for search engines to find your new pages by submitting a site map to the major search engines. Website rebuilds will require resources such as time and money. It is important to factor in website maintenance and redesigns every 2 – 5 years and treat your website as a growing part of your business. To keep costs feasible, it’s important to choose the right developer that understands your business vision and has the skills and expertise to make the website redesign happen without unforeseen costs and delays. Overall, keeping on top of how your website design is performing is an important part of making sure it meets your business goals online. There are powerful advantages to be gained in terms happier customers, better functionality, and a competitive advantage over your competitors. There are some major areas to look out for, but with proper planning and the right web design team in place, these negatives can be turned into positives. [av_font_icon icon=’ue8ab’ font=’entypo-fontello’ style=” caption=” link=” linktarget=” color=’#fc6435′ size=’40px’ position=’left’][/av_font_icon]How is your website performing? Contact us to discuss a functionality audit or how a website redesign can support your business goals online.
