In today’s digitalized world, your website is the face that your business presents to not only your core audience, but the world. And just like your business, your website shouldn’t be a static thing, but rather an evolving tool to assist with your sales, marketing, and support teams.
Now, perhaps more than ever, it’s crucial to maintain your website in its best possible shape. Whether it’s a partial or complete redesign, know that you’re investing in a vital portion of your business.
If you’re a business owner in Chicagoland, and can’t think of the last time your company went through a website redesign, it might be a good time to consider a reliable WordPress developer in Chicago to help you with website optimization or even a total website redesign.
No matter what your company’s needs are, there are web design packages that can meet them perfectly and breathe life into your website and your business image. If you’re still on the fence, we will dive into the most common signs that it might be the right time for a website redesign. But first, let’s talk about what a website redesign project actually entails.
What is a Website Redesign & What Goes Into It?
A website redesign is a process that includes the restructuring of elements and features on your existing site. This means changing structure, visuals, navigation, user interface (UI), and user experience (UX). Depending on what your end goal is with the new design, everything from coding to content can be affected by a web redesign.
When you’re investing in a website redesign, you are making sure that any changes made to your website can be maintained and updated easily going forward. Additionally, by investing in a professional web design team, your new site will reflect modern trends and improvements such as mobile-friendly designs, SEO best practices, lead generation tactics, and so much more.
Before you can begin a redesign of your website, you’ll first need to ask some of the following questions:
- What is of the utmost importance to address first? Are there any glaring issues with how the site currently functions from a technical standpoint?
- Which areas of the website need to be improved in order to maximize performance? Who is your target audience and what do they expect from your website?
- What should the user experience be like as compared to its current state? Is it easy to navigate through or figure out how to find what they need?
- Once your new site launches, how will you track and measure performance? What are your KPIs for determining if the site redesign was a success? Do you have a designated team member to run through a post-launch checklist to ensure your site is being crawled and indexed properly, and that all internal links and pages are functioning as they should?
- What are your goals? Are you looking to drive more sales and revenue, are you striving to be positioned as a thought leader in your industry, or are you attempting to make strong relationships with influencers or experts? Perhaps it’s all of the above, or something else entirely.
Knowing the why behind your site redesign will help to ensure you are making the right decisions throughout the entire process.
Most Common Signs That Your Site Needs a Redesign
1. Slow Site Speed
While there are other aspects of your website that might seem more pressing, the speed of your site is actually a determining factor for your search engine visibility as well as bounce rate. Your audience really doesn’t hold much patience for loading speed, and will simply exit your site if it doesn’t load within 3-4 seconds. That means you only have that much time to either draw your reader further into your site or lose them without ever having a chance to show what you have to offer.
The reasons behind your site’s loading speed could be further indicators that your site needs a redesign. For example, overly large images or duplicate content can seriously bog down the speed of your entire site. While “great quality photos” once meant uploading lots of incredibly large images onto your site, today housing too many oversized photos will cost you more than just your loading speed. Consumer patience has waned over the years, and those extra few seconds of loading time it takes to get those high-res images loaded in can cost you innumerable conversions due to an increased bounce rate and lower SEO rankings.
A total website redesign can clean your site of any bulky or outdated elements to deliver lightning fast load times and a boost in your SEO rankings as a result.
2. Your Website Is Stuck In The Past
Another sure way to know if it’s time for a website redesign is if your site looks and performs like it’s stuck in a past decade. Websites, like most technology, don’t age well. So if you think you have a “classic” or “retro” look to your website, it might be time to reevaluate those euphemisms.
The truth is, an outdated site, whether it’s the design or functionality, isn’t serving your business. In fact, it’s doing the opposite; hurting your bottom line. Nothing about an outdated website signals trust to an audience who has an endless amount of other companies competing for their business.
Your website needs to go to work for you and actively drive leads and conversions. If it’s doing anything short of that, it’s probably time to think about a redesign.
3. You’ve Gone Through A Rebranding
If your company has recently undergone a major (or minor) rebranding, your website should reflect and celebrate those changes. After all, your site represents your company to your customers and potential audience, and it should clearly communicate your vision in its most updated form.
A rebranding usually means new logos and marketing collateral. Your website is the natural space to house these elements and needs to match them in terms of look, feel, design, and functionality.
What better way to celebrate your new brand image than with a website launch party? Engage with your current audience and gain more visibility and reach than ever, while promoting your new brand. Otherwise, you risk letting all of that time and budget spent on the rebranding go to waste due to an underperforming site and an unrealized potential for reach.
4. Your Bounce Rate is Through The Roof
Your bounce rate tells you how many people simply decide to leave after taking one look at your site. Understandably, a high bounce rate can signal it’s time for a website optimization or website redesign. Whether it’s a symptom of a slow loading speed or another factor on your site, it pays to seriously consider the reason behind a high bounce rate.
If your audience isn’t getting the experience they’re looking for, it might be time to consider redesigning your site. You might be surprised just how far technological advances have taken the world of user experience (UX) and have the opportunity to streamline your site in multiple ways that provide value for your audience.
5. Your Site Isn’t Helping Your Bottom Line
If your conversion rates or sales are not where you would like them to be, you might find that your underperforming website is the reason behind those low numbers.
Why settle for plateauing performance when you can have a site that drives sales growth and improves your bottom line?
When it comes to converting your audience, you need a site that functions seamlessly and provides a smooth and delightful user experience. Anything short of that is costing your business sales.
6. Your Site Isn’t Compatible For Mobile Use
Most of today’s readers access their information through their smartphones and other mobile devices. That means if your site isn’t optimized for mobile viewing, you’re most assuredly losing a high volume of traffic to better optimized sites made with mobile in mind.
In today’s competitive market, no business can afford to sacrifice that level of viewership. A mobile friendly web design will ensure your site stays competitive regardless of the device used to search for and browse it.
7. Your Competitors’ Website Is Leagues Ahead Of Yours
Look no further than good old-fashioned competition for a reason to redesign your website. The truth is, your business needs to stay competitive if you want it to succeed, and your website plays a massive part in that.
If your competitors have recently undergone a website redesign that outperforms and outshines your current site, it’s a great time to raise your own bar and win back your customers.
8. Your Site Has Become Difficult To Update
Outdated technology comes with an endless set of drawbacks and inefficiencies. If you find that it’s become increasingly difficult to maintain and update information or graphics on your current site, you’re probably due for a website redesign.
Stop wasting valuable time on a site that doesn’t return you any favors. With an efficient new design, routine updates will become a breeze – as they should be. Services like Wordpress have made website design infinitely more customizable and manageable for both website designers and developers, as well as business owners.
9. Your Site Is Difficult To Navigate
If you find your own website difficult to navigate, you can only imagine the experience your audience is having. If you want to draw your target market in and not scare them away immediately, you’ll need a logical and smooth navigation across your entire site. Not only will a straightforward structure make the site more readable for your users, but also for the search engine crawlers that need to index and rank your site.
10. Your Content No Longer Serves Your Mission
Things change and evolve within any business. Whether you’ve outgrown your website in terms of content, products, or services that you offer, you could benefit from a web or an e-commerce site redesign. You might just find that your site no longer has the feel and targeting behind it that you need to capture your audience, and that a fresh look and feel can make all the difference.
11. Your Site Isn’t Driving Enough Revenue or New Sales
If your website is not driving the kind of revenue or new sales that you need to keep your business afloat, it may be time for a redesign. Your website should be an effective tool for pulling in new customers and generating interest among potential buyers. A fresh design can help capture visitor’s attention and lead them through the sales funnel more effectively. Consider adding features such as a call to action, better visuals, improved navigation and more. All of these can help get more visitors to convert into customers and increase your bottom line.
12. Your Site Hasn’t Been Optimized With SEO in Mind
Search optimization is a key factor in building your online presence and driving traffic to your website. If you haven’t been optimizing your site for the latest SEO trends, or if it hasn’t been optimized at all, then a redesign could be beneficial.
A well-designed website that uses best practices in SEO can help boost your rankings and get more eyes on your content. Investing in SEO friendly web design can help optimize your website, increase organic rankings and improve the overall user experience.
What Are the Main Reasons that Businesses Hold Off on Site Redesigns?
Clearly, there are many reasons that a site redesign may be entirely worthwhile for your company. However, we’ll often come across a variety of reasons as to why business owners are reluctant or trepidatious to undertake a website redesign.
Here’s the most common reasons we’ve heard over the past twenty years at CyberOptik:
1. “A Site Redesign to Too Expensive”
It is true that redesigning your site is going to be an investment, but in our experience the ROI of a website redesign pays off. If your other option is to simply keep the site as it is, then your issues will not only remain, but they will grow increasingly worse. You never want to get to a point where your website is barely functionable, or has been hacked or compromised, because you start figuring out a budget for a new website.
Site redesign and web development also do not need to break the bank. We offer extremely reasonable packages for whichever point in the redesign process you are currently at. Whether you need some help with site speed, if you need a site migration over to WordPress, if your site needs some rebranding help, or if you really are looking for a complete overhaul across the board – we work with budgets of all sizes.
2. “I Don’t Have Enough Time to Take On a Web Design Project”
One of the biggest challenges businesses face is finding enough time to dedicate to a major website overhaul. But at CyberOptik, we make it our goal to work within your timeline and your schedule. We understand that behind every website is a business, with its own needs and goals. You may not have the time, but we do, and we will handle the entire process from start to finish with as little or much input as you feel comfortable providing.
We are also extremely proficient in working through the steps of website redesign quickly and effectively. Our team of web developers, designers, copywriters and project managers will take on the task of redesigning your website while you focus on running your business.
We believe that a well designed and properly functioning website should work in tandem with a business, not be an obstacle that needs to constantly be overcome. That’s why we make sure every website project is approached as if it were for our own business.
3. “I’m Worried My Site May Not Turn Out the Way I Want it To”
We completely understand this fear. After all, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to a website redesign. That’s why we like to start with a thorough consultation process which allows us to get on the same page about what you want your site to look like and how you want it to function.
From there we create mock-ups for you to review, and then begin the process of developing the design. Once everything is in place, we will have multiple reviews with you so that you can test out the functionality and make sure that what’s being created is exactly what you had in mind.
At CyberOptik, we want to make sure that your website is everything you need it to be and more. We pay attention to the details of each project so that when we launch your redesigned site, you can confidently feel proud of what has been achieved.
4. “I’m Not Convinced that it’s Worth the Investment”
For most businesses, investing in a website redesign can yield amazing results. It’s hard to put an exact dollar figure on the ROI that a website redesign can generate for your business, but it is important to recognize that there are many different benefits associated with having a properly functioning and well-designed website.
Website redesigns help make existing content and features more accessible to users. This can lead to increased engagement and improved conversions. A modern website design is also an important factor in branding. Your website creates a powerful first impression, so it’s essential that it reflects the values of your business in a positive light.
5. “I’m Not Sure How to Start the Process”
We understand that it can be overwhelming and intimidating to begin a website redesign project. That’s why we like to start with a free website review and consultation. During this step, our team will get to know your business, your goals and objectives, and what makes your company unique. We will also discuss your current website and how it can be improved in order to meet all of your needs.
Once we have a comprehensive understanding of what you want, we will outline the website project plan and timeline for you so that there is no confusion about the process or when various deadlines are due. By involving you throughout every step of the way, we can make sure that you get exactly what you need in order to have a successful website redesign.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to knowing when it’s time to invest in a website redesign, if you’re asking yourself this question, then the answer is usually right now. Don’t wait until your website isn’t functioning properly or your design starts to look outdated.
Investing in a redesign of your site can bring many benefits: increased visibility, improved user experience and enhanced traffic generation. With the right web design partner by your side, a website that looks great on any device and a user experience that is second to none can be achieved.
Remember: Once you’ve got a brand new design, you should also put equal effort into maintaining your website, online presence and fresh content to keep the effects of your new site benefiting your business into the future. The CyberOptik team is here to help, so don’t hesitate to reach out and get your website working for you.
