Is It Time for a Website Redesign?

Is It Time for a Website Redesign?

Your company’s website is often the first chance a potential customer has to explore your brand. It serves to represent who you are, help you reach a wider audience, gain new customers, and achieve a better ROI. When’s the last time you redesigned yours?

Time for a Website Redesign?

Redesigning the virtual face of your business takes time and a great deal of commitment. It’s critical to do, though, if you want your website to meet today’s digital challenges. The need for mobile-friendly content, Google’s always-evolving algorithms, and readers’ search for user-friendly sites are just a few of the reasons why you should take a fresh look at your website’s current design.  

A quick and simple way to know if you need a website redesign? You look at other brands’ sites and want what they have. Other signs your website is ready for a makeover are that it’s text-heavy, uses Flash animations, and has content that is focused more on your product or service than it is on your customer. Today your site must have quality images, easy navigation, rich animations, and a responsive design.

If you haven’t updated or redesigned your website in the past year, here are 5 ways to know now’s the time for a re-do.

1. It Isn’t Mobile Responsive. Do users have to scroll left and right to view your site on their mobile devices? Is your website slow to load? Is your content manager system (CMS) up-to-date? Website trends are constantly changing. Yours should be able to handle short videos, animation, and other engaging content. As the migration continues from desk and laptop computers to smartphones and tablets, having a responsive website that displays the same across all devices is a must.
2. It’s Anti-Social. Every successful media campaign includes a social media strategy. Every page on your website should have social media sharing buttons for sharing, liking, and following. Just as important, your social media channels – Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter – should all have a link to your home page or a landing page.
3. Its Search Engine Rankings are Low. If you want to increase your website’s visibility in organic, aka non-paid, search results, it must be optimized so search engines find it. SEO brings technical and creative elements together to improve your site’s rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness.
4. It’s Difficult to Navigate. Offering a great UX (user experience) is key to your website’s success and determines whether viewers will stick around long enough to learn more about your products or services. As you redesign your website, keep the “thumb zone” in mind and keep clicks needed to a minimum. In some cases, having too many pages of content is almost as bad as poorly written content.
5. It’s Needs Higher-Quality Content. Good enough won’t cut it in digital marketing. Great content is a must – it engages readers in your brand’s story and conveys your company’s message in a meaningful way. Sales-focused writing is not good storytelling because it fails to make an emotional connection with audiences. Establishing your brand as a thought leader – a fancy term for gaining respect – is also achieved through great content. Plus, search engines like Google reward high-quality sites that contain original content.

A well-designed website is one of your most effective marketing tools and a vital part of your overall marketing strategy. Remember, your brand is much more than your logo and tagline. Your website is your online identity and should proudly reflect your brand’s vision. Use it to its full advantage by keeping it up-to-date, simple to use, and easy to find.