Is it time for a website redesign?

Websites typically don't last forever. Technology enhancements, design trends, and business goals shift all the time making websites obsolete in 4-6 years. Sometimes you can refresh your website and improve your user experience and conversions. However, sometimes it is best to start from a clean slate. Here are some of the tell-tale signs that it may be time for a website redesign.

Declining Website Traffic

Your website needs to work for you right? It should be a marketing tool that allows potential leads to engage with you. You expect some ROI. The first place to start is by checking your analytics. Is traffic trending downward? Are you seeing any unusual dips or peaks? Are there problems with your site that have been ignored and have now come back to haunt you? You can learn a lot from Google Analytics and Search Console. This information can help inform your decision as to whether you should redesign the site or if you might just need to focus your attention on some improvements.

Lack of Conversions

Tied to search traffic declining, do visitors to the site leave only a few seconds later? Are they bouncing around the page without making a selection? These could all be signs that your website needs a UI/UX redesign to help convert users. Each page of your website should have a user experience strategy that draws the user to an apex - a decision point. A well-designed website will help focus the user on these decisions and increase your conversions.

Bad first impressions

First impressions matter and your website makes an impression in less than 50 milliseconds (yes that's .05 seconds) to form an opinion about your organization. Maybe your website looks like it's from 1999. Maybe it takes forever to load. Maybe the design isn't appealing at all. These things should all be considered because your first impression is critical.

Poor Mobile Experience

We've been talking about responsive web design since its inception but seriously - if your website is not responsive it needs to be. The simple truth is that more users are visiting your site from a smartphone or tablet than ever before. It is no longer acceptable for your website to have a poor user experience on a mobile device. Mobile devices are now the most commonly accessible devices and this needs to be a major part of your content strategy, user experience design and website development.

Difficult to manage

How painful is it to make changes to your website? Are you held hostage waiting for some outside agency to make the changes only to be charged ridiculous fees for simple edits? Do you have to submit a support ticket to a help desk and wait a week or more for a response? Maybe you can log in and edit elements of your website but it's a confusing and frustrating experience.  It doesn't have to be this way. Your website can be easily managed with sophisticated content management systems that allow you to simply and easily edit all aspects of your website, anytime anywhere.

New goals or direction

Finally, one of the most common reasons to redesign is a shift in the business or organization's goals and objectives. Your strategy plays a huge rule in the design and user experience of the website. Sometimes this means a complete website overhaul to ensure the goals can be met.  A potential customer approached us recently whose business model had changed and to save money they simply changed some messaging on their homepage. A year later, the business is in serious decline because its primary marketing tool (the website) was not focused around their new strategy.  Big shifts in marketing strategy need to include considerations for a website refresh or even a complete redesign.

Do any of these strike a chord with you? Then it's time to schedule a call and talk about your current website, your goals and beyond.