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You may have an effective marketing strategy for highly desirable products, but if you’re pushing traffic to an outdated, technically flawed and uninspiring website, it could all be for nothing. If you feel that your website’s current look, feel and functionality is holding you back from achieving your business goals, contact SearchWorks immediately for prompt assistance.
SearchWorks can help you revamp and redesign your current website into an online hub that drives your business even while you sleep. With a highly experienced team of web designers and developers, we can bring your business concepts to life using powerful technology, proven processes and human intelligence.
Contact us today for a free analysis and quote!
What is a Website Redesign?
A website redesign is the process of changing a website’s existing look and feel without moving it from its original domain to another. The changes may be subtle and purely cosmetic in nature, though some redesign projects may completely overhaul the existing look, feel and functional makeup of the website.
Many businesses apply regular website redesign work on a small scale to keep their web properties fresh and up to date. However, full website revamps are sometimes deemed necessary if it no longer serves the needs of the business properly. More often than not, complete redesigns are done when websites are several years old or if the site is migrating to a new platform.
When Does a Website need a Redesign?
Many business owners who’ve had websites running for years tend to develop an attachment to its design. However, familiarity has a psychological tendency to make people develop blind spots for areas of improvement. Over time, changes on the website that might yield positive effects may be neglected, preventing the website from achieving its full p[potential.
When clients ask SearchWorks for advice on whether they should have their websites redesigned or not, we often say that they should when:
- The website has an unsatisfactory look. If something with the website’s design bothers you or if you no longer feel that it effectively projects the image that you want people to see online, that’s a strong indicator that it might be in need f a redesign.
- The website has remained the same for more than four years. Technology advances on the web all the time and web design trends tend web design trends can change significantly every few years. If your website’s design has stayed unchanged over the past few years and is starting to look unfresh by today’s standards, it may be time to seriously consider a redesign.
- The website isn’t SEO-friendly. Some web design schemes are better for search engine optimization than others. For instance, parallax, infinite scrolling and dynamic filter-driven websites have consistently been proven to perform poorly on search results. If your site’s design is hindering your website’s ability to generate traffic from search, it’s probably time for a redesign.
- The website is very slow. A website may look pleasing to the eyes especially when it’s loaded with plenty of fancy visual assets. However, these assets tend to take up a lot of storage space on your servers and will require plenty of bandwidth for users to load on their devices. This will likely slow the webpage load speeds down significantly and disrupt your planned user experience.
- When It’s not mobile-friendly. You may not realize it, but the bulk of traffic on the Web now comes from mobile devices. This trend is expected to continue until smartphones and tablets become the primary browsing devices that people use. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile screens, it’s definitely time to do a redesign.
- When it can’t support necessary functions. If you’re planning to add features and functions to your website but its code and technical configurations are getting in the way, it may be time to consider a revamp.
We generally don’t recommend website redesigns unless there are no easier remedies and avenues to meet a client’s business needs. If an existing design is still viable, we tend to favor introducing more minor tweaks rather than blanket changes. However, there are times when there’s no alternative to an overhaul. This is when we recommend a reasonable redesign plan with reasonable rates and timelines.
Benefits of Good Website Design
There are many ways in which improving your website’s design can help your business grow. Here are the most common effects we see when an old, ineffective design is replaced by a much better one:
- Better user engagement. Users tend to be more satisfied when a better design scheme is introduced. This can be observed and measured using Google Analytics and statistics such as bounce rates, average times on site, pages per visit, and more.
- Greater visibility on search engines. Effective web design does not conflict with a website’s visibili ty on search engines. In fact, it should be a synergy to SEO. When websites are redesigned, organic traffic should remain the same if not increase dramatically.
- More mobile traffic. When a non-mobile friendly website adopts an adaptive or responsive design, it can dramatically increase search engine traffic to its pages. Visits to the site are also less likely to bounce since the display will be optimized for their device.
- Better conversion rates. With an optimal design, you can streamline user experiences better and improve your conversion rates. This means that you can multiply the number of leads or purchases on your website without necessarily increasing your traffic.
- More returning visitors. Good web design has consistently been linked with higher visitor return rates. When people perceive that your website is useful, easy to navigate and pleasing to the eyes, they’re likely to not hesitate about dropping by again.
- Less maintenance work. A well-designed website is stable and will not require frequent care from designers and developers. It won’t just look good on the surface – its code, structure and other inner workings will be stable as well.
- Easier for your staff to use. An easy-to-use site from the front end is one thing. A site that non-coders can use from the back end is another. Ideally, your website’s redesign should involve the use of a CMS that can be used buy content staff, merhandisers and other members of your team easily.
- Easier to scale. A well-designed site should be built with expansion in mind. That means your team should be able to add new sections and features in the future without necessarily gutting large portions of the website.
If you’re convinced that your website is in need of a redesign, contact us today. Our web development and design team is eager to listen to your needs and offer reasonable recommendations.