Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Website Redesign: 10 Key Signs It's Time to Redesign Your Website

Website redesign

In this age of the Internet, your website can also be considered as the face of your brand. Thus, you must keep your website's look up-to-date.

And if you are redesigning your website, a lot of factors should be considered during the process.

But how do you exactly know that it is time for a site redesign? Well, the answer is not as straightforward as you think it is.

To help you decide, we came up with the ten key signs that will tell you if it is now time to redesign your website.

Your conversion rates are decreasing

Adding web analytics is an excellent way to keep track of incoming website traffic, as well as conversions. You can also track phone calls, downloads, form completions, and so on.

Various aspects can cause a low conversion rate on your websites, such as having a poor user experience or an outdated site design. That’s because these issues make it incredibly challenging for visitors to find what they are searching for on your site.

Meaning, there is no clear path of conversion on your site. Users can easily get lost, distracted on their way to filling up forms, or on the check-out.

Also, if ever they make it to your offer, contact, or check-out page, they can still be turned off by forms and pages that are poorly designed. It can also create suspicion and distrust among site visitors, especially if you are asking them payment or personal information.

A good site redesign allows you to create a better UX for your site visitors. Thus, improving your conversion rate.

It’s not helping you with your business goals

If you cannot completely carry out your marketing strategy, you would not be able to achieve your business goals.

How is that so? Well, remember that your website can be a powerful tool for your business. The way that your site will look and feel will have a significant effect on your marketing, sales, and your customer's overall satisfaction.

For instance, part of your marketing strategy is to fulfill a goal and engage more users. You also want to generate more leads so that you can support your business and raise brand awareness.

You cannot keep up with all the demands if you have an old site. It needs to be able to generate enough qualified leads so that you can be able to give a remarkable site performance.

It’s not fast enough for your visitors

Most users expect your site to load quickly. Check out Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool and see how long does it take for your site to load on both desktop and mobile. That’s because speed is one of the most crucial factors in how your site will rank on search engines.

A slow loading site can turn off impatient users away, which will click back if they cannot get what they are looking for in just a few seconds. Over time, you will suffer from high bounce rates, and this can decrease your conversion rates as your consumer satisfaction drops.

A slow loading site can be factored for several reasons. Maybe you have too many videos, too many outdated codes, and erroneous scripts.

As a general rule of thumb, your site should load at least 3 seconds. If your site is not loading in such a way, then it is high time to consider site redesign.

It doesn’t function properly on other devices

A lot of people spend time on their phones and tablets these days. In fact, according to Smart Insights, a whopping 20% of Google searches are done on a mobile device.

But it doesn't end there. More than half of local internet searches are done via mobile devices.

So, these statistics tell you that most of the world has already gone mobile. If your site is not optimized for mobile devices yet, then it is high time to consider a responsive redesign for your website.

It’s not secured and protected with HTTPS

Older sites are in greater danger of being hacked because they mostly rely on the technology's security updates.

The reality is that your website can easily be hacked. That's why, it is crucial that all the important data, which can expose or endanger your users and your business in any way, should be properly secured and protected.

To make your users (and business) a lot more secure, you need to utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). What HTTPS does is that scrambles your data to and from your site, preventing unauthorized users from reading it.

Utilizing HTTPS will also give your website a secure padlock icon whenever its viewed on Chrome.

It contains dead links

Dead links, also known as broken links, can be harmful to your site’s user experience.

Although they may appear to be ordinary links, they do not send visitors directly to the intended page when clicked. Instead, it brings them to a 404 error page.

It’s hard to navigate

Sometimes, users might not easily find what they are looking for and will find it daunting to navigate different pages on your site. Some of them will eventually become frustrated and leave.

Sites that are usually difficult to navigate are the ones that have too many contents and has a lousy site architecture. Plus those websites with an interface that does not help visitors find exactly what they are looking for.

If that's the case, then you need to embark on a site redesign.

Your site's navigation is also important to search engines because Google always wants users to have an excellent user experience. It will rank sites poorly if they have a lousy navigational structure.

You must redesign your site for better navigation, easier to find call to action (CTA) buttons, more internal links, and less clutter.

It uses ineffective calls-to-action

You should have a clear and effective call to action to guide visitors with the next step that they should take when engaging with your business.

Make use of a website design that is innovative when using call-to-actions. That will help take visitors from point A to point B, such as from your home page, to your purchase page. Without these CTAs, users are less likely to navigate your website with ease.

It has an outdated design

As your business grow and evolve over the years, your site that might have worked well back in 2014 may not work well in 2019.

So, if you have a site that is already a few years old, then chances are, it is already outdated.

Websites have changed over the years. Today, more and more people want a clean design and easy navigation. So if you have a site that is cluttered, outdated, and messy, it is time to consider a site redesign.

In a study by ResearchGate, 94 percent of users say sites that have a good design are more trustworthy. Your customers and prospects must trust you, and a powerful redesign can make that happen.

Redesign Your Site to the Next Level

A site redesign can be a major game-changer for your brand or business. That’s because it can help expand your brand’s customer reach, as well as improved your sales and revenue. Consider it as a long-term investment that will contribute to your success over time.

About the Author - Kenneth Sytian is the CEO of Sytian Productions, one of the leading website designer Philippines. He has been designing websites and developing web apps for more than a decade. He is considered one of the top influencers in web design and development.

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