Why Redesign Your Website?
“My website is working fine. The links work. Content is added regularly. We have new features. Why do I need a website redesign?”
Good question.
Websites should be updated regularly, have new features added, and by far have working links. However as the site grows, it soon outgrows its foundation or shelf life.
This leads to an unorganized use of content, poor usability, and worst: poor sales.
How do I know if my website needs redesigning?
Freshness is important. A fresh website keeps people visiting, and is placed higher in search results. Fresh new look which is better and more professional.
Even the best designs lose their appeal after a period of time. Even Facebook changes its web design frequently to fix the often-cluttered news feeds.
Ask yourself 5 questions to know if your website needs redesigning
Before we go on to the tips, let’s find out if your website needs redesigning
1. When was the last time the website was developed (designed)? If it was more than 5 years ago then there is an 80% chance that your website’s design is outdated. When visitors land on an outdated website that looks ugly, old or neglected, they usually assume some things about the company. And most of your assumptions are not good.
2. Have you checked your website’s speed recently? A slow website is bad for business because it can turn off visitors. if a website doesn’t load fast enough, visitors will have left without having seen any of the content. To measure or test your website, Google provides a very efficient tool that can measure your website’s loading speed.
3. Are your inquiries decreasing? If you have an ecommerce site, are your sales decreasing? This could very well mean that people are not looking at your site anymore.
4. Is your website mobile friendly? Many statistics show that most users now make use of their mobile phones to surf the web. Chances are, your visitors are doing the same thing. A mobile friendly website is important because your website will less mobile visitors. Who knows, they might even visit a competitor’s website which might be more responsive than yours.
5. How’s your website’s security? All websites are prone to attacks from hackers. A website redesign or redevelopment can solve this. It is important that you secure your website in the best manner possible because all your website data is valuable specially if you run an ecommerce website.
From your answers to these 5 questions, you can already tell if your site needs redesigning.
Website Redesign Tips
Listed below are tips or checklist that should be met in your next revamp of your website.
Tip 1 – Reorganize
Almost every business is is trying to do more, offer more to customers. But people will often forget one of the simplest and easiest ways to improve their onlIne sales is to reduce complexity. Study your content and keep it as simple as possible.
Tip 2 – Restyle the right way
What might have been an awesome layout back in 2000 may never work now for 2018. Website design trends keep on changing because of how visitors make use of different devices. Stay on top of these trends and consult your web designer.
Tip 3 – Make the words more appealing
Use strong headlines, subheadings and bullets whenever possible. Keep your sentences short as well. The Internet is not the place for complex sentences. Because text on a screen is harder to read than text in a book or magazine.
Tip 4 – Add more graphics
Many research have shown that websites with photos and videos attract significantly more visitors. It can also help highlight important parts of your content.
Tip 5 – Improve website optimization (SEO)
Majority of search engines users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the results pages. To take advantage of this and gain visitors, your website needs to appear in one of the top positions with the help of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Tip 6 – Make the website more user-friendly
Having a user-friendly website will definitely increase traffic. Visitors using various devices will have no problem in viewing your content in any screen resolution. Make sure that a visitor is only 1 to 3 clicks away to an information that he needs.
Tip 7 – Make it more professional
A website doesn’t necessarily need to have multiple special effects. While these effects grab attention, having a clean design that makes sense, paired with good color balance and effective graphics, plus readable text is vital. Your website’s overall appearance must match the visitors it was intended for. Corporate sites tend to have conservative colors and graphics them. While those websites for the entertainment industry will have a different approach to it.
Tip 8 – Match the competition
Take a look at how your direct competitor’s are doing it. Take note of what works and what doesn’t. Even if you’re in the same industry as them, businesses should be different in some ways. Research on what they lack and focus on what solutions are needed to overcome these.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Redesigning a website will definitely help increase your web traffic and eventually improve sales if done correctly.
Begin by research. Learn from what your current website has delivered. You can even ask feedback from your clients on how they found your current site. Did they have trouble navigating, was the text readable or were the graphics distracting?
Then follow the 8 website redesign tips I mentioned above and begin rebuilding it slowly but surely.
If you are planning to rebuild your website, maybe I can help. Visit my contact page now for a FREE website redesign quote.
