When is a website redesign necessary?
Determining the necessity for a website upgrade involves recognizing several critical signals that indicate your digital presence is falling behind current standards. These include:
Challenges in Updating: If adding new content or performing security updates is cumbersome, it signals inefficiency in your content management system (CMS). A modern CMS can streamline these processes, saving time and improving security.
Frequent Downtime: Regular interruptions not only frustrate users but also hurt your reputation. A stable, reliable website is crucial for maintaining customer trust and engagement.
Non-responsive Design: With the majority of internet traffic now coming from mobile devices, a website that doesn’t adapt to various screen sizes risks losing significant audience engagement. Responsive design ensures accessibility and usability across all devices.
Conversion Optimization Issues: A website failing to convert visitors into customers or leads likely lacks clear navigation or compelling calls to action. Strategic redesign focused on user experience can significantly increase conversion rates.
Visual Inconsistency: An outdated or inconsistent visual design can dilute brand identity and impact. Aligning your website’s look and feel with your current branding reinforces your market position.
SEO Underperformance: If your site is not ranking well in search results, it may not be fully optimized for search engines. A website redesign can address these issues, improving visibility and attracting more organic traffic.
How to prepare for a website upgrade?
It is always good to have a plan and a strategy – why am I taking this action, how do I prepare for it, what do I need to know before I start working on a project? It is no different with the website redesign process. Let’s find out what you should know before you start action.
Determine your website redesign goals
Why do websites get redesigns? When evaluating a new design, the reasons should be well explained. If you answer by saying “there has been awhile since our last redesign,” those reasons can not be considered sufficient. Remember, this doesn’t just depend upon how you view a web page. Tell about the objectives behind the redesign and how to measure that outcome. Tell your company the goals of your business and your team.
Check what doesn`t work – test your website using right tools
Integrating proper tools into the website redesign process is crucial for capturing accurate user behavior data, which informs more effective design decisions. Tools like Hotjar and Crazy Egg offer heat mapping capabilities that visualize where users click, scroll, and spend time on your pages, providing clear insights into user interaction patterns. These heat maps can highlight areas of high engagement and potential problem spots that may require redesign.
Session recording tools, such as FullStory or Mouseflow, allow you to record and replay real user interactions on your website. By watching these recordings, you can identify confusing navigation elements or friction points that could be causing users to abandon your site. These insights are particularly valuable for understanding the user experience from a real-world perspective, making them essential during both pre- and post-redesign phases.
For optimization and validation of new designs, A/B testing platforms like Optimizely or VWO are indispensable. They allow you to test different versions of your website with live traffic and statistically analyze which variations perform better in terms of user engagement and conversion rates.
Benchmark your current performance metrics
Documenting your current site analysis is very important, as it will give you a good idea of where your current website is and what metrics you can improve by redesigning. Analyze the monthly performance of your existing website in the following areas. Of course, the relevance of each may vary depending on your website redesign goals:Traffic – number of sessions, clicks, users, unique visitors
Total number of leads ( e.g.: forms submitted, purchases)
Top pages – what pages bring the most valuable traffic
Top ranking keywords – analyze the most effective keywords
Total sales generated
Time spent on site and on particular subpages
Page Load Time: This is crucial for user experience and SEO. Slow-loading pages can lead to higher bounce rates and lower user engagement
Mobile – tracking and analyzing how much of your website traffic originates from mobile devices is essential. This includes understanding user behaviors, such as how they navigate, the duration of their sessions, and their interaction patterns on a smaller screen.
Gather inspiration
Perhaps you have an idea in your head or you have written down on a piece of paper or computer pages that inspire you? If not, it’s worth looking around and searching for ideas that might turn out to be a hit. Remember not to limit yourself to the online world, you can think outside the box and get inspired by graphic design magazines or other not online places.
Protect your SEO
Keep in mind that it is crucial that your target audience can easily find your website through search engines like Google. You may have already taken steps to optimise your SEO, but it is worth reassessing this when you update your site. There are many seo-related things to pay attention to, such as: a simple and easy URL structure, good internal linking or appropriately optimized graphics. If you don’t have access to paid SEO tools, it’s worth using free ones that will give you a basic analysis of your site.
Choose the right tools and software
A key step in the renewal of a website is the selection of the right content management system (CMS) to enable its creation, design and publication. A CMS is useful for both beginners and advanced users, making it easy to build an attractive and functional site. The choice of CMS should be tailored to the needs of your business, taking into account your experience and design requirements. There are many CMS systems available on the market, including advanced solutions that combine CMS with CRM, which is worth considering when looking at the options available.
Develop a post-launch strategy
Developing a post-launch strategy is a crucial step in the web design process that extends beyond the initial excitement of unveiling a new website. It’s about ensuring that the website continues to meet business goals, engage users, and stay ahead of technological trends. This strategy should include regular performance monitoring, using tools like Google Analytics to track visitor behavior, conversion rates, and the effectiveness of content. It also involves SEO optimization to keep the website visible and highly ranked in search engine results. Engaging with the audience through feedback mechanisms, conducting usability testing, and updating content regularly to keep it fresh and relevant are also key components. Additionally, a post-launch strategy must include security updates and technical maintenance to prevent downtime or data breaches.
5 Website redesign tips and best practices for a good user experience
For a revitalizing website redesign focused on enhancing user experience, consider these best practices:
Leverage Visuals: Incorporate captivating images, videos, and graphics. Custom visuals can significantly boost conversions and create a memorable site experience.
Brand Personalization: Tailor your site’s aesthetic to mirror your brand’s identity, using specific colors, fonts, and imagery to establish a unique presence.
Color Contrast: Utilize contrasting colors to draw attention to key elements, enhancing both appeal and navigation.
Content Strategy: Implement a blog to engage and provide value to your audience, driving traffic and improving SEO.
Conversion-focused Design: Create dedicated landing pages for specific actions, continuously optimizing based on user behavior insights.
Arguments why you should redesign your website?
Revamping your website is crucial for staying competitive and relevant in today’s digital landscape. Here are compelling reasons to consider a redesign:
Modernization: Outdated designs and technologies can deter users. A fresh look with the latest features enhances user engagement.
Mobile optimization: With increasing mobile usage, a mobile-responsive design is essential for accessibility and improved user experience.
Improved performance: Enhancing site speed and functionality can significantly reduce bounce rates and improve visitor retention.
SEO and visibility: An updated website can better meet search engine guidelines, improving your site’s visibility and organic reach.
Brand alignment: As your brand evolves, your website should too, ensuring consistency in your marketing message and visual identity.
More users equals more customers and a higher return on investment. The principle is simple, if you have a site that makes users want to stay on it and at the same time inspires trust – you can be sure that users will become your customers.
Why you should upgrade your website with UniqueDevs
We have extensive experience in creating modern websites, web applications and ecommerce, we also modernizing existing ones. Our scope of activities includes a comprehensive strategy from the analysis of the current situation, market analysis, trends, competition, through a detailed action plan, implementation and post-implementation support. Our clients can count on our knowledge and experience at every stage of the project. We also encourage you to check out our case studies and feedback from satisfied customers.