With people becoming increasingly reliant on the internet to research the products and services they need, your business website is the most important aspect of your marketing strategy. Not only is your website the way your potential customers/clients will learn about the products and services you offer, but this is how they will discover you and decide whether your business is the best option for them to choose.
For this reason, maintaining an updated website is critical to the success of your business. Studies have demonstrated that most people will form an impression of your business after viewing your website for 2-3 seconds. This means you have very little time to capture their attention and hook them before they move onto a competitor’s website.
If you have an outdated website, it will place you at a significant disadvantage, making it very challenging to achieve your lead generation and revenue goals. The best way to ensure you have a modern business website constructed according to the latest best practices is to redesign it on a regular basis.
The Ideal Frequency for a Business Website Redesign
In general, we recommend redesigning your business website every 2-3 years to ensure it remains up to date and provides the optimal marketing performance you need. Keep in mind that this is a general time frame, and the exact timing of your website redesign should be based on the specific needs of your business as well as how well your existing website is performing.
A website redesign is both costly and time consuming, and it’s understandable that you may wonder why it needs to be done so frequently. The reason is simple. Web design techniques and best practices evolve at a rapid rate, making a website that is even 3-4 years old look outdated and operate in a clunky manner.
Therefore, waiting much longer than three years to redesign your website may result in your competitors having an advantage over you if they’re implementing more updated web design best practices. If your target audience finds that your competitors have a more modern website that provides a better experience, it may be more challenging to convince them to work with you.
Why Do I Need a Business Website Redesign?
While you certainly want to ensure your website reflects current best practices and modern techniques, there are other important reasons why you should redesign it regularly. Over time, you’re constantly gathering additional information about your customers’ habits, needs, buying preferences and expectations about your products or services. This information should be used to guide the construction of your website. By updating it regularly based on your most current customer data, you will be able to convert new leads more effectively.
In addition, your website must represent your business and your brand. Very few businesses have a static brand or a product/service offering that is set in stone. These things evolve over time and as they do, so will your customers’ needs. Therefore, your business website must continually evolve to reflect the changes made to your brand, your products/services, and the needs of your customers. This ensures your audience will have the best experience whenever they visit your website.
6 Signs That You’re Ready for a Business Website Redesign
As we stated earlier, 2-3 years is a general guideline for how often you should redesign your business website. The specific timeframe will depend on the unique needs of your business and how effectively your current website is meeting these needs. The following signs generally indicate that you may be ready for a new website.
Your Business Goals Have Changed
As your business grows, your goals will most likely change. Over time, you may find that:
- Your revenue goals are much higher than they used to be
- Your product/service offerings have expanded, streamlined or changed in a significant way
- External factors in the world have impacted the nature of your business, forcing you to adapt and evolve
- The needs of your customers/clients have changed
- Your new products/services have changed the audience you’re targeting
It’s important for your website to reflect these changes in your business and the goals you’re currently trying to achieve. For example, if one of your new goals for this year is to increase sales by offering your products directly to consumers on your website, you’ll need a website with ecommerce capabilities. To implement ecommerce functionality properly, a website redesign may be necessary.
You’ve Overhauled Your Branding
Businesses undergo a rebranding all the time. This can be an effective way to create a more effective connection with your audience. Often, a brand overhaul may be quite comprehensive and include new:
- Colors
- Typography
- Logo
- Messaging
- Imagery
These changes to your brand must be reflected on your website. Otherwise, there will be a disconnect between the brand experience your audience has on your website and their experience with other aspects of your marketing efforts. If your website no longer conveys your current branding, it’s time for a redesign.
Your Website Isn’t Performing Well
One of the benefits of digital marketing is that it provides a wealth of data to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Analytics data will provide you with a clear picture of the things your website does well and the areas where it struggles.
Poor website performance can be measured in a variety of ways:
- A high bounce rate indicates people are leaving your website very quickly without viewing multiple pages
- Low time on page indicates your pages aren’t engaging your audience well (this could be a combination of a poor design and poor content)
- Low conversion rates indicate your CTAs aren’t effectively getting users to take your desired actions
- Low search engine rankings indicate your website is most likely hard for your audience to find
- Long load time indicates your website may be using outdated or bloated code that is slowing down its performance and providing a poor user experience
If you find that your performance metrics are consistently low, you will most likely need to redesign the website to achieve your desired results.
Your Website Doesn’t Provide a Good Mobile Experience
Mobile internet usage continues to rise each year, and this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Consider the following mobile internet usage statistics:
- 3% of users browse the internet from their mobile devices
- 55% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices (a 75% increase from 2015)
- Mobile website traffic has been greater than desktop website traffic since early 2017
- 20 countries have over 90% of internet users browsing on mobile devices
- 32 countries have over 85% of internet users browsing on mobile devices
- 4% of internet users are likely to have utilized ecommerce websites and bought something online in the past month using their mobile device
If your website isn’t providing a good experience on mobile devices, you’re going to lose a lot of visitors to competitors who prioritize a good mobile experience. The best way to ensure you provide a good mobile experience is to have a responsive website. Responsive design ensures that all the elements of your website – navigation menu, text, images, CTA buttons – are formatted properly on all devices.
You can easily determine whether your business website provides a good mobile experience by viewing it on your cell phone. Try to play around with the website and see how easy it is to interact with:
- Is the navigation menu easy to use?
- Can you easily move from page to page?
- Is the text easy to read?
- Are images formatted properly or are they out of proportion to the screen size?
- Do your CTA buttons work properly and are they positioned properly on the page?
If your website isn’t providing a good mobile experience, it’s time for a redesign.
Your Website Has an Outdated Appearance
Web design trends are constantly evolving, and it’s important to keep up with the latest trends. Even a website that is only 3-4 years old can look and feel old or stale compared with a competitor’s website that has been redesigned in the last couple of years.
For example, techniques such as parallax scrolling (a 3D-like screen process) have developed in recent years that have allowed new websites to look much slicker and more engaging. In addition, more sophisticated animation techniques have been developed that can only be implemented using the latest website development best practices and coding. These items will provide a modern feel that will resonate with your audience, keep them engaged with your website longer, and convey that your business remains current with the times.
If your website looks like it was designed years ago and doesn’t incorporate any of the latest web design trends, it may be time for a redesign.
Your Website Doesn’t Rank Well on Search Engines
You can have the most beautiful website that delivers an exceptional user experience, but it won’t help grow your business if your audience can’t find it. Therefore, effective search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical component to your website’s success. While the knowledge and skill of your SEO specialist will play a major role in your ability to rank well on the search engines, a poorly designed or outdated website can cause your rankings to tank even if your SEO specialist is leveraging all the latest best practices.
Some ways a poorly designed website can negatively impact your search rankings include:
- Using bloated or outdated code that slows down your site speed
- Failing to deliver a good experience for mobile users
- Implementing a poor navigation architecture which makes it hard for users to access interior pages on your website
- Failing to perform redirects, resulting in broken links and error messages
- Implementing a poor URL structure that isn’t optimized for search engines
- Failing to utilize proper website security best practices
- Utilizing duplicate content
- Providing a poor overall user experience that drives your website visitors away
If your website struggles to rank well on the search engines in spite of all your best SEO efforts, it’s a sign that you’re ready for a redesign.
Webolutions Can Set Your Business Up for Success
Due to the important role your business website plays in your marketing efforts, it’s critical to work with an experienced web design agency for your next website redesign project. At Webolutions, we have almost three decades of experience building high performing websites, and we can redesign your website to ensure it generates the quality leads you need to grow your business.
Our unique Websites Right Methodology™ has been carefully crafted based on the lessons we’ve learned from building thousands of websites over 30 years. It provides you with a fully integrated, strategic approach to website development. This process ensures you receive a customized website that addresses the specific needs of your business while effectively conveying your brand messaging, highlighting the transformations you achieve in the lives of your customers, and maximizing your lead generation potential.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation. Webolutions serves businesses nationwide from our offices in Denver, Colorado.
