Your website is your best and most effective marketing tool in the digital age. It serves as your brand’s identity hub an avenue where prospective customers can get to know your products or services and ultimately decide whether or not to do business with you.

Every detail in your website design contributes to the quality of the user experience. An unattractive and unresponsive will not only hurt your brand’s image but may also drive consumers to your competition. If your site is starting to look and feel out-of-date, it may be time to consider a website redesign.

What is Website Redesign?

Website redesign is the process of updating the frontend and the backend of your website to improve both appearance and performance. 

It usually involves updating your site’s content layout, enhancing speed and navigation, and adapting a mobile-friendly design, which results in a better overall user experience.

A website redesign is often the first step in expanding the reach and increasing the conversion rate of your site. 

7 Reasons to Redesign Your Website

Whatever industry you’re in, your business faces tough competition left, right, and center. That being said, it’s necessary to make sure that your site is not only benefitting your bottom line, but doing your brand justice as well.

We’ve listed some of the most telling signs it’s time to update your web design:

1. Outdated Design

A consumer’s decision to stay and explore a particular website is frequently influenced by how aesthetically appealing the site is. A well-organized website with compelling visuals and engaging content will most likely capture the interest of users and lead to conversion.  

The thing is; web design trends evolve constantly. What looks good a few years ago, may appear dated to consumers nowadays. It’s recommended to update your web design at least every three years to give it a fresh and more current look.

2. Takes A While to Load

Ideally, your website should load in three seconds or less – especially if it is an eCommerce site. Visitors are more likely to abandon a website that takes longer to load, regardless of the value it can provide.

Customer satisfaction can drop quickly if your website is slow to load, which can harm your brand’s reputation as well as your SEO efforts. If your web pages take more than 4 seconds to load, a web redesign can help speed things up. 

3. Difficult to Navigate

The navigation of your website is critical to its success. Your visitors should be able to easily tell where they are, where they’ve been, and where to go to find the information they are looking for.

Disconnects at any point in a user’s journey can cause confusion and frustration, which usually results in website abandonment. However, this issue can be solved with proper planning and the application of navigation design fundamentals.

4. Not Optimized for Mobile

Mobile site traffic now accounts for more than half of all web traffic worldwide. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out a lot of traffic and possible sales.

It’s also important to note that Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. This means that your SEO could suffer if your site is not mobile-friendly. 

5. Poor Conversion Rate

Even if your website has a decent amount of traffic, if those visitors are not converting, then you may have a problem.

Websites that struggle to generate leads and conversions typically lack key on-page elements to facilitate the conversion process.  These missing elements could include social proof, clear calls-to-action (CTAs), relevant content, etc.  If you’re not hitting your traffic and conversion targets, you should consider revamping your website to capture more leads.

6. Difficult to Update

Regularly updating your website is essential for the growth of your brand and in keeping your customers informed. However, if you find yourself depending on a web developer even for minor changes to your website such as modifications to your content or adding blogs, you are wasting valuable time and money.

Is your current website platform difficult to update? You may want to redesign your sign and look into using a more user-friendly content management system (CMS). There are numerous open-source CMS options available that make it simple to add, create, and update content.

7. Change in Brand Messaging

Changing your company’s branding is a monumental yet worthy undertaking. And it is only fitting that your site undergoes the same refresh when your company does. Keep in mind that your website is the face of your brand to the world, and should reflect the message you wish to communicate. 

If you think your website can use plenty of improvements or it doesn’t embody your company goals and values, then it’s definitely time to upgrade.

While a website redesign may seem to be a daunting task, it is a worthwhile investment with long-term benefits.

About the Author

Shawn Byrne is the founder and CEO of My Biz Niche, Arizona-based digital marketing, and web design company that has achieved superior results for its clients. Before My Biz Niche, Shawn worked for Venture Capitalists where he built a private portfolio of e-commerce and informational websites that generate revenue through various digital marketing strategies.