Your website gives a powerful first impression of your brand while also being one of your most important sales and marketing tools. As technology evolves and your business grows, you must ensure that your website is up to date, visually competitive, and working smoothly in all the ways you want it to so that you can maximize its effectiveness. In order to do this, a website refresh or redesign might be just what you need.
Website refresh vs redesign.
The terms “website refresh” and “website redesign” are often confused as the same thing, however, they are quite different. While a website redesign requires starting from scratch with a whole new design, development, and structure, a website refresh can be simply explained as making regular updates to your existing website in order to consistently get it looking and working as you need it to, without having to build from the ground up. The latter approach may be less of a financial undertaking as it likely requires fewer resources.
When do you need a website redesign?
The general rule of thumb for when to redesign your website is at least once every 2 to 3 years. However, implementing consistent refreshes to your website is equally as important. In fact, there are a lot of reasons why your website may need to be refreshed or redesigned sooner rather than later. Not sure what those reasons might be? You’ve come to the right place.
Here are 7 reasons why your website might need a refresh or redesign:
1. When you no longer love the look of your website.
This is an obvious one. If you no longer love the look of your website, chances are the target audience that you’re trying to reach won’t love it either. Whether it’s out of date or not in style with the current web design trends, modifying the look of your website is an undertaking you can implement with a full redesign or over time by changing small parts here and there without starting from scratch. Just like when renovating a house, the structure might be in good shape, but some cosmetic renovations and new paint could make it look great once again.
2. If your website is not optimized for mobile.
In our technology-driven mobile world, mobile optimization is crucial for all websites. In 2021, over half of the global internet traffic now originates from mobile devices. Therefore, without a mobile responsive website that works seamlessly, your business could be alienating a huge percentage of visitors, resulting in the loss of potential customers or clients.
To assess if your mobile website is as effective as it should be, browse your website on a variety of different mobile devices. If you find that the website doesn’t seem mobile user friendly and or is difficult to navigate, then it may be time for a web design refresh with mobile optimization in mind.
3. When you’ve updated company branding assets.
Whether it’s a new logo, new promotional materials, more current imagery, or improved visuals, you should update your website when changes occur to your company branding assets. These changes can often be done quickly and will definitely help in keeping your website current and fresh. Frequent users of your website will notice these changes, and it will further entice them to visit more often.
4. If your SEO hasn’t been updated.
About 3.8 million Google searches are made every minute. It’s how we all find the information we’re searching for on a daily basis. Have a question? Google it! So, with that in mind, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a key part of getting your business’s website found online.
It’s important that over time, you adapt and update your website to current SEO best practices in order to continue climbing the rankings and optimize your organic reach of search engine results pages (SERPs). To refresh or improve SEO throughout your website, there’s no need to complete a whole website redesign. Instead, this can be effectively planned for when you’ve scheduled your website refresh.
5. If you have poor conversion rates.
The main goal of your company’s website is for it to help generate more customers or clients through conversions. Therefore, your website should offer many opportunities to convert visitors into leads and sales. If this isn’t the case with the current setup of your website, it might be time for a website refresh. Add more conversion pathways, improve your content and strengthen your calls to action so that your website can be as effective as you need it to be.
6. If your website isn’t optimized for user experience.
It can be hard to notice user experience issues as someone who knows the ins and outs of how your website works. So, consider taking a step back, allowing outsiders to navigate your website and give their honest feedback. Prompt them to find crucial information you want clients and customers to access and see if they can simply do so. If the optimal user experience of your website is in question, then it might be time for a website refresh, and you should work towards making some changes to optimize your site better based on their feedback. Main elements of improvement may include your menu structure, the flow of information throughout your website, completing link testing, among other user experience factors.
7. When you need to add new website functionality.
As your business expands, you might want to add new functionalities to your existing website, such as an online store or appointment scheduling feature. A site refresh is an ideal opportunity to add these types of new features to your website using plugins or simple code that can be included in your current website without disrupting the existing site that is established and running smoothly. Especially today, when online shopping and appointment bookings are more common than ever, you can adapt quickly without having to redesign your entire website every time you want to make simple additions.
Admiral Creative can Help!
Web Development and Web Design is one of the key services we offer at Admiral Creative. Our experienced and professional web development team is prepared to help you at any stage of your website refresh or redesign, whether that be for Content Creation & Writing, Live Chat Integration, E-Commerce Development, UI / UX, SEO, and so much more.
