Strategy Before Website Re-Design
As an all-in-one service for SEO, digital marketing, web design, and other website needs, we get a lot of clients whose websites – to put it nicely – leave something to be desired. It’s then our responsibility to provide recommendations on how to redesign a website to be competitive.
Here’s are some of the things we consider when examining a website as a possible candidate for website redesign:
1. Usability – Your Site Doesn’t Work and/or Is Difficult to Navigate
Users are going to leave your website immediately if they can’t easily find what they want, and/or the site isn’t working. By “isn’t working,” I mean links and buttons aren’t clickable when they should be, people can’t submit forms, random pages won’t load, etc.
2. Mobile Friendliness
This sort of goes along the lines of usability but for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
In 2014, mobile usage surpassed desktop usage for the first time. Moreover, 63% of consumers used their phones to access the Internet and 15% made purchases over mobile. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, this is a very good reason to invest in a redesign.
3. Feature Social Media
If your website lacks social share buttons, you’re most likely far behind your competitors.
At the very least, you should have links to your company’s social media profiles. Providing opportunities for users to share your content and connect with your company on social media can increase your company’s online presence, enabling you to attract more potential customers to your site.
4. Implement an Improved Content Strategy
Poor quality content won’t get your website in front of the right users. What do I mean by “poor quality?” In short, having no or next to no content on your site, or content that doesn’t provide truly useful information to visitors.
So why can’t you just re-write your content and put it up on the existing site? More often than not, implementing a new content strategy requires deciding what new pages you need to create and how you’re going to organize all of pages in the navigation.
5. When You’re Not Getting the Results You Hoped For
If you’re not getting any leads, maybe your original design strategy isn’t as effective as you thought. Taking a different approach to how you present the contents of your website might be necessary.
6. Ancient Tech and 3rd Party Tools Like Widgets
Technology changes so quickly that what was brand new and exciting a mere 3 years ago could feel like it was from a decade ago. It’s important to update bits and pieces to incorporate newer, better technologies that will allow for improved user experiences. If you haven’t been making updates as things evolve, chances are your website is running older technologies that impede the speed and efficiency of your site. In this case, an overhaul may be in order.
7. Broader Website Functionality
Let’s say you want to add a blog, or a forum, or a shopping cart to your website. Depending on the current setup, you might need to redesign your website so that these new functionalities are seamlessly integrated with the site rather than appear haphazardly stuck on.
8. You’ve Re-Branded Or Changed the Purpose of Your Site
New brand = new website. It doesn’t make any sense to try to make the web design for an old brand fit the new one. If you tried, how exactly would that be re-branding? Am I right?
Furthermore, a new brand strategy will require new content, which will require a new navigation. Plus, there are logos and colors and pictures, etc.
Or, let’s say that your website used to provide information about teacup pigs because they’re cute and why not make a hobby out of that? But now, you want your site to primarily serve as a means to connect breeders with buyers. This takes us back to our previous reason (broader website functionality) because this will require an entirely new set of features that might necessitate a new site design for compatibility and usability purposes.
9. Your Competitors Look Better Than You
Well okay, it’s not just about looks. And I’m not saying you should make the same change a competitor makes every single time one of them changes something. But if you’re checking out a competitor’s site, and you’re thinking to yourself how much more effective a site like that could be for you… hint, hint.
10. Vanity
Maybe there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with your website. You’re getting traffic, the navigation is intuitive, your content is spot on, and you don’t need a new design, but the current design looks tired. If it’s within your budget, why not give your site a facelift?