Five Techwe are
Feb 3, 2014

Reasons for a Website Redesign

Your website is your business or organization’s biggest marketing tool. It delivers the first impression of your brand and serves as the go-to to learn more about your offerings. Starting a website redesign takes a great deal of thought, preparations, and investment. Before redesigning your website, you should discover a purpose for the redesign.

A redesign doesn’t necessarily mean a whole revamp of every graphic design element of your current site, it could just be added functionality, or small enhancements to the site’s look and feel.

Are you having trouble finding purpose for a website redesign? Hubspot came up with “8 Reasons Excellent Reasons to Redesign Your Website” – Author:  Jessica Hill, 99Designs.

website-redesign

We agree with all of these reasons because all of them have a greater purpose than just enhancing the design of your current website. Check them out below:

You aren’t getting the results you want

You might have a great website design that looks good and represents your brand, but it’s not getting the results that you want. If this is the case, it’s kind of a pointless website don’t you think?

Your website should exist to achieve results. Whether that’s selling products online, generating leads to grow your customer base, or provide crucial information to your clients and industry; your website should be driving results to achieve these goals.

If you aren’t getting the results you want, it’s time for a website redesign. Part of the redesign process should be examining your website’s conversion rates (sales, contact form submissions, etc.)

According to Jessica Hill, 99Designs you should ask yourself these questions to guide your redesign process:

  • Does your call-to-action convert visitors into leads and customers?
  • Do your landing pages inspire people to learn more by digging deeper, or are they simply aesthetically pleasing pages that convey little value?
  • Is your site too text-heavy or riddled with corporate speak?
  • Does your site’s look and feel match your company’s voice and speak directly to your target audience?

The purpose of your website has changed

Most companies these days have a fairly flexible marketing strategy based on the results it’s achieving. Your website might not always reflect the changes in your strategy, but it should.

You might not be a prospect for a complete website redesign, but you should be making minor alterations to it to reflect your current marketing strategy.

If the purpose of your website has changed, your layout, design, and functionality should change too:

For instance, if you’re new goals are now to provide more lead generation content (perhaps some “how-to” blog posts and ebooks), ensure you include CTAs on your homepage and other popular webpages. (Jessica Hill – 99Designs)

Your website just doesn’t work

Is your website dysfunctional? Links don’t work, your navigation isn’t easy to follow, your information isn’t easy to find, your services and company information aren’t up to date, etc.? It might be time for a redesign of your website.

If visitors/customers can’t find what they’re looking for, or the information their finding isn’t accurate or up to date, it is definitely time to redesign your site. Functionality should be the main focus of any website design. If it’s not, your conversion rates are going to suffer.

Jessica suggested answering these questions to see if your website is functional?

  • Can a visitor readily find the most basic things on your site, such as contact information?
  • Is your site navigation confusing?
  • Is your important content hidden?
  • Are your product and service offers completely up to date?

You have an effective web design strategy

Before starting the redesign process, you should nail down what currently works and what currently doesn’t work about your existing website. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Improve upon the stuff that needs improvement and enhance the stuff that already works to make it work even better.

We don’t want to re-invent the wheel when small changes can get the job done. However, if nothing currently works for you then it might be time for a complete website overhaul.

Your don’t have a responsive web design

Responsive web design is a necessity for most websites in this day and age. If your site isn’t responsive yet, it’s probably time to consider a redesign to make it responsive.

More than 17% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets.)

Mobile users need to have a great user experience on their devices and have access to the same content that they would on a desktop site. Responsive web design can achieve this.

You want to incorporate a better content strategy

Creating a content marketing strategy can really improve your website redesign. It will dictate the layout and content areas found on certain pages and help build an easy to navigate website.

Navigation is important because if you can’t find the content on your site, then it’s really not worth having a content strategy. That being said, if you’re thinking about enhancing your content marketing strategy you should also consider redesigning your website.

Your competitors changed their site

Most companies pay close attention to their competitors and their marketing tactics. You’ll probably notice pretty quick if your competitor has changed its website.

If you spend some time on a competitor’s site and realize it could meet your goals far better than your own site does, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get busy. (Jessica Hill – 99Designs)

We’re not saying you need to upgrade your site every time a competitor does. However, if they’ve upgraded their site so much that it’s pushed you down in the search result rankings, it’s probably time to do a website redesign or enhance your Internet marketing strategy.

You need more custom website development

Custom website development can greatly enhance the functionality of your site, increase business efficiency, and most importantly lead to more online conversions. If your site isn’t as functional as it could be, it might be time to consider implementing some website development and a redesign to make these tools look good and enhance the user experience.

If one or more of these items hit home for your business we would suggest to start looking into doing a website redesign. Your website is your company’s greatest asset, you might as well make it as good as possible. Contact us to learn more.

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