If you already have a functioning website, why would you give it a redesign? The reasons for a website revamp can vary, from generally feeling out of date to the need to address specific problems. Since your site is a valuable asset for selling your products and services, redesigning it should be seen as an investment in your business.
Determining the scale of your website redesign
Updating your website regularly is vital for ensuring it’s as relevant as possible, but an extensive redesign of the whole site is a larger undertaking. Analyze the performance of your site in relation to your business goals to determine a website design strategy that maintains the elements that are achieving results and changes those that aren’t.
6 signs it’s time for a website redesign
While you can take advantage of the benefits of a website redesign any time, there comes a point when it’s apparent you shouldn’t put it off any longer. If you’re starting to notice the following telltale signs, you need to start your site’s overhaul.
1. There are design inconsistencies on your site
There are various reasons why inconsistencies may have crept into your site, such as a rebrand or change of direction. These can be very unsettling for a user and even subtle differences across web pages can make them think they’ve been redirected to a malicious page or simply away from your company’s site.
Put together a set of brand and style guidelines as part of your website redesign strategy to ensure consistency throughout. This means everything will continue to be added in the same way as it grows, even if a large team is working on changes.
2. Traffic numbers have dropped off
Driving traffic to your website is vital for converting leads and if you haven’t redesigned it in a long time, there’s a good chance it’s not fully optimized for search. You want to be performing well in the top search engines and directing potential customers to your site with relevant, up-to-date content.
As well as conducting keyword research and applying SEO techniques to your evergreen content, it’s worth implementing a blog if you haven’t got one already. Updating it regularly will indicate your site is relevant when it’s crawled by search engine bots, as well as demonstrating your relevance to your clients.
3. You’re losing mobile visitors
Research suggests that 68.1% of all global website traffic came from mobile devices in 2020 and this percentage is only set to rise. If your website isn’t responsive - adapts to fit the screen size of any device - then mobile visitors will not continue to use it. This will result in a high bounce rate and a loss of leads. Google now also has a mobile-friendly test, informing searchers of the result before they click on a site.
Implementing responsive best practice as part of your website redesign will offer huge benefits. Pre-designed layouts can help you do this and all elements, including images and videos must be responsive to adapt to all mobile and touchscreen devices.
4. Updating your website is difficult
Many older websites have been built in a way that makes them difficult to update quickly. If you have to wait for someone to make changes for you every time you launch a campaign or want to add elements, it’s time for a revamp.
Among your website redesign considerations should be the ease at which you can manipulate pages yourself going forward. Such control over your own site will mean issues shouldn’t build up in the future and you can use it to its full potential going forward.
5. Your website’s not compatible with external tools
There are so many tools out there that can make marketing so much easier and efficient, but if your website doesn’t facilitate integrating with them, you won’t be able to take advantage of this technology. That means you could be missing out on data capture opportunities or manually completing tasks that could be automated.
While it’s a good idea to consider the tools you’d ideally like to incorporate into your website design right now, your strategy should also be futureproofed. The industry is constantly evolving and while a web chat functionality may be at the top of your list right now, you may want to integrate new tools in the coming months and years.
6. It offers a bad user experience
Keeping the user experience (UX) in mind when assessing your website is paramount to ensure you’re aiding the customer journey and not detracting from it. Often, marketers can be too close to their own site to notice elements that aren’t working well for their users.
Take a look at competitors’ websites and include new features adapted by others in the industry to keep up with the latest trends. Also, get an outside opinion on how your site is performing in terms of UX, as objective points of view will prove the most useful way to determine necessary changes.
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