A web redesign project is not something that you could take lightly and to help you decide, we are listing 10 reasons for you to know if you and your company should consider taking up this project in 2022.
Here is the list of the 10 reasons and some might seem obvious, but believe me countless sites have one or more of these items on the list.
- The website is not optimized for multiple devices
- Updating the website or adding an improvement is a complicated task
- Website design doesn't align with your brand
- Your website is underperforming in search engines
- Conversions remain the same or have decreased
- It is difficult for your potential clients to find information
- User experience and design leave much to be desired
- Your website is very slow
- Your website cannot be part of your marketing strategy
- Your website does not usually influence the sales process
To have a better context of each of the reasons I am going to detail them.
Before I would like to consider a key point regarding the use of a website today.
A website should be a source of information for your potential prospects to become customers, in this way you inform and dispel the doubts that exist around your service, product or industry, thus being able to be at the right moment in which you decide to move forward in the acquisition of a product or service.
That said, your website must be prepared since it is just like a salesperson: if you do not equip it with the right tools and information, it will not do much for your company when you have a potential client in front of you.
So, now let us start breaking down each reason.
1. The website is not optimized for multiple devices
I wanted to start with this reason since, while it seems the most obvious, there are still websites that are not optimized for different devices. They might look fine on desktop, but that's because they were originally only created for those devices.
Now, an optimization for cell phones, the most used mobile device, is not just about stacking the blocks of content. Although it is something that must be done initially, the optimization has to contemplate adjustments that facilitate user interaction.
So if your website still doesn't provide a good experience on mobile devices or tablets, it's time to think about a redesign.
2. Updating the website or adding an improvement is a complicated task
In the past, a website was built and considered complete, which was valid at that time. Currently, for a website to be effective, it must be alive and I mean it requires content and information that the industry or your potential prospects demand.
If your marketing or sales team cannot edit the website in an agile way or add new content, it is a strong signal to think about a web redesign.
Sometimes, this is because the area in charge of updates is the IT area or similar, and when these areas exist it is usually to provide other types of support to the company and not necessarily attend to requests for marketing changes or sales.
If this is the case for your company, it is a good time to think about a web redesign and, also, consider that the CMS is easy to use for marketing and sales.
3. The website design doesn't align with your brand
I mentioned at the beginning that a redesign project is usually a complex decision, but not because you have a lagging website does your brand stop growing.
What I mean by this is that perhaps your brand is already in other markets, it has services and products that are more comprehensive, in general terms, the brand's value proposition grew.
So sometimes all this growth and these differentiators from your competition are not reflected on the website. Therefore, it is necessary that for them to align, you consider web redesign.
Today, your brand's presence resonates more digitally than in the physical world, and it's time for its great value to be communicated on your website.
4. Your website has a poor search engine performance
The favourite place for most, if not all potential prospects, are usually search engines, so if your website is not listed in them, it means that you are not winning customers.
The topic of search engine optimization is usually a bit complex, but having a website that complies with the technical aspects adequately makes it easier to achieve better performance.
Indeed, having 10 out of 10 in technical SEO is not enough since more actions are required, but it makes it easier to compete for certain queries, among other advantages.
Some of the key points you should check are:
- You have an active SSL and all your pages lead to it
- You have an XML sitemap
- You have a robot txt file that indicates which page and files should be excluded
The list covers more points and the best way to know if your website is performing well is to know the number of keywords where your site is positioned, in addition to the words that include your name.
Another point is to consider the visits you receive from search engines. If you know that it is not the ideal number, it may be a good reason to think about the web redesign.
5. Conversions remain the same or have decreased
A salesperson must get leads, right?
If a website is to be your best seller, then it should provide you with enough leads. Although not initially, after implementing a strategy, this should change, but if it is not the case, it is time to think about how to improve conversions.
There are different marketing and sales tactics that help improve lead generation; the main one is to provide content to the website through the blog; the other is to be able to optimize the content of the conversion pages, among other actions.
The fact that conversions remain the same or have decreased is a reason to think about a web redesign.
6. It is difficult for your potential clients to find information
Within the buying process, prospects require information to make a good decision. For this, prospects perform searches intending to obtain everything they need to contemplate.
Finding comparisons and understanding why prices vary from one supplier to another is one of the research tasks that almost any potential customer performs before purchasing a product or service.
If your company can be in the moment that potentials are looking for, it is a point won, but if your website is difficult to continue exploring to solve more doubts, then you have an area of opportunity to improve.
All information must be accessible to your potential clients. Although it is something that can be solved relatively quickly, the reality is that sometimes it is not possible because that information does not exist. If this is your case, you have a reason to think about redesigning your site.
7. User experience and design leave much to be desired
There is a saying in marketing issues and a website: a user will spend 0 minutes of their time to understand how to interact with your website, what it refers to is that there are standards that your website must meet; These standards are aligned with the user experience.
So, for the user experience to be ideal, the interactions and actions that we want the user to perform must be as simple as possible and mainly clear.
Design plays an important role in the user experience and while you can assume that it would be worth experimenting with making changes, in some respects the result will not be entirely good unless your community is equal to or greater than the main social channels, which are a benchmark of the habits users are used to.
Although you can design incredible tabs or accordions, among others, the user is more used to scrolling and leaving clicks exclusively to perform a key action.
So simple is better. If you consider that there are old-school elements that hide information, you have a reason to think about the web redesign of the site.
8. Your website is very slow
Everything is better if it is fast. There are things in which it does not apply, but when it comes to a website it is a maxim that you should consider. It may not directly affect your search engine rankings (a constant debate in the SEO world), but it does have an impact on the user experience.
It is important that you do not become obsessed with speed. Perhaps in terms of tools, your site still shows a metric not of 100, but that may be due to technical issues of the same tools that measure speed.
The best way to test the speed of your website is to perform a real test, perhaps via mobile with the data connection. If the site responds in less than 3 seconds everything is fine, but if the time is longer, you should consider redesigning your website.
9. Your website cannot be part of your marketing strategy
This reason could be obvious since the weight of a digital strategy is more relevant today, but you would be surprised to know that sometimes other tools must be used since the website is not updated, is very slow, or is almost impossible to think of adding or modifying some elements.
If when you think about lead generation it is usual that your website is not taken into account, then it is one more reason for a website redesign.
10. Your website does not usually influence the sales process
Last but not least reason is how much your website influences the sales process. This applies not only to the users who visit your website, who are undoubtedly relevant but also to your sales team: how likely it is that they can use the content that is hosted on the website.
You should think about how possible it is that the sales area can collaborate and provide relevant data so that the website is modified and, with this, the commercial area can generate greater trust with potential customers.
If this is not possible on your website, you should consider redesigning your site in 2021.
Final thoughts
While a web redesign project takes time and dedication, the reality is that if your website fits some of the above points, web redesign is worth considering.
A website is not complete even when it reaches the launch stage in the website redesign process, but growth or improvements are sometimes slowed by the CMS.
Although you must take into account relevant aspects for your potential clients, you should not lose sight of the fact that your site must provide the tools for your marketing and sales team to make improvements or add new pieces of content.
If after reading this article, you wonder how long does a website redesign take? The answer is: it depends. If you already have several advanced points before approaching an agency like us, the time may be less, but if planning still needs to be done, it may take more time. The range is usually 30 to 90 days.
You must not forget that it is the most important element of your company; therefore, although it should not take more than 3 months, it should not be urgent that it be concluded in weeks. The reason is that you must take into account all aspects beyond the visual issues.