Your website plays a critical role in the success of your online marketing efforts and is likely the first thing that potential customers will come across when learning about your business. That’s why it’s so important to make a good first impression and an updated website is the first step towards creating that first impression. Not only do you want your website to look appealing, but you also want it to be functional and more importantly, mobile friendly. In this post, we will explore the signs your website may need a redesign and how to ensure your redesign is successful.
The signs your website may need a redesign:
Your Website Looks Outdated
The first and most obvious sign that your website needs a redesign is an outdated appearance. The web design industry is constantly evolving, and if your website screams made in the 90s, it’s time for an update. An outdated website can make your business look unprofessional and unreliable. It can also make it difficult for visitors to navigate your site, find what they are looking for, and complete a desired action. By updating the look of your website and optimization, you can ensure more driven traffic.
Your Website is Not Mobile-Friendly
Nowadays, everyone uses their phones and mobile devices more than not to access the internet. If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, this means you are missing out on a significant amount of potential customers. If your website looks misaligned and scattered on a phone or tablet screen, then this is an indication you need a redesign that is optimized for mobile. A Mobile friendly website is designed to automatically adjust to different screen sizes. This ensures a better user experience by providing an ideal layout on whatever device they are using.
Your Website is Slow
If your website takes more than a few seconds to load, this can significantly impact your users experience and your search engine optimization (SEO). visitors are likely to abandon your site just after a few seconds of loading time, before they see any content or complete a desired action. A slow website also interferes with your SEO rankings on Google, since speed on your website is a ranking factor. Redesigning your website can help improve the speed, performance and overall user experience.
Your Website is Difficult to Navigate
You want to ensure that your website navigation is easy for your visitors. If it’s not, visitors will have a hard time finding what they are looking for, resulting in possible frustration and loss of business. One of the main purposes of your website is to provide your visitors with information that is useful to them and the information they are looking for. It’s always important to keep the user in mind when building your website. Part of a website redesign will be improvement of your sites navigation, so this will help improve your websites performance and user experience.
Your Website is Not Generating Leads or Sales
Maybe you’ve noticed you haven’t been generating any leads or sales, which is the ultimate goal of your website. If your website is not doing this effectively, it might be time for a redesign. A website redesign can help you identify the issues that are preventing your website from converting visitors into customers and implement solutions to fix them. Whether it’s redesigning your call-to-action buttons, improving your product pages, or implementing a new lead generation strategy, a website redesign can help you improve your website’s effectiveness.
Your Website is Not Aligned with Your Brand
Your brand and how current and prospective customers see you is extremely important. Your website should align with your brand and so should your content, meaning your site reflects your brand’s values, personality and messaging. If your content doesn’t align with your brand, viewers may become confused and question your credibility. Your website can be redesigned to reflect your brand and promote your message more effectively.
Your Website is Not Performing Well in Search Engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical aspect of online marketing. If your website is not performing well in search engines, it’s time for a redesign. Redesigning your website can help you identify issues on your site that are hurting your search engine rankings, including speed, keyword optimization and the structure of your website. A redesign will help improve your website’s structure and in turn, give you better SEO rankings.
Steps to Ensure a Successful Website Redesign
Now that you understand and know the signs that a redesign may be in order for your website, you may be wondering how to successfully redesign your website so it performs its greatest. Below is a list of the best strategies to ensure a successful website redesign.
Set Goals:
Before you begin your website redesign, it’s important to set clear goals for what you want to achieve. This is especially important if you are hiring a designer to do the job. This might include increasing website traffic, improving lead generation, or enhancing overall user experience. Setting goals helps the designer figure out how to best go about the design process of your website and also helps you figure out what you want and need for your business.
Conduct Research:
Conduct research to understand what your audience wants and needs from your business. This might include analyzing website analytics data, conducting surveys, or doing market research. You want to ensure that all content is directed towards your target audience and resonates with them.
Plan Your Website Architechture:
How your website is structured is really important. You want to ensure it’s easy to navigate and visitors can find what they are looking for with ease. You can use wireframes and sitemaps to plan out the layout of your website that resonates with your brand and helps you decide which content is most important to show. When doing so, you want to ensure you are focusing on the user experience. It should be easy to navigate, have clear call-to-actions and be fully optimized for mobile devices.
Optimize for Search Engines:
Optimizing your website entails optimizing your content and using relevant keywords and improving the speed of your website. It is extremely important to optimize your website for search engines such as Google. If your site is not optimized, search engines will not be able to read your site, which affects your search engine rankings and the amount of traffic driven to your website.
Implement Responsive Design:
Your website should have responsive design, ensuring that it looks great and works well on any device, whether it’s a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop.
Test Your Website:
Before you launch your website, you should thoroughly test everything. This includes checking links, testing the navigation on all devices, testing your website speed and its usability.
Your website is a critical aspect of your online presence and should be periodically updated and refreshed to remain effective. By keeping an eye out for the signs that your website needs a redesign and following the steps outlined above, you can ensure a successful website redesign that enhances user experience, improves search engine rankings, and drives leads and sales for your business. Oregon Marketing Group (OMG!) can help you find the problems and redesign your website, tailoring it to your business for the best results possible.
