10 Reasons to Rethink Your Web Design

Summary: Revamping your website is something you should do regularly. Here are ten reasons to relook your web design.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated with new content in July 2022.

Technology is developing at the speed of light, and along with it, web and consumer behavior. Likewise, your company’s web design must also evolve. To make sure your website is working well, you need constant web development. Sometimes a company’s needs have changed so drastically it’s more sensible to make a brand new site.

Website redesign is not only about a new design. A few years in web technology can bring important changes that offer better user experience, easier management, better functionality, etc. If you feel like your business website no longer meets your business goals, here are 10 points that help you decide whether it’s time for a website redesign.

1. Your website is old

When was the last time your business website was redesigned? The good custom of web hygiene recommends redesigning your site after every 2-3 years. By this time, important developments have happened in technology and design. Although the web develops very fast, you don’t need to worry about every little thing. We have had smartphones for many years now, but only a few businesses have set up their mobile presence.

If you cannot recall when the last redesign of your site was, it’s a good indicator to make a new one. Even worse, does your website include Flash elements, automatic music/video player, shiny banners, etc? Definitely, time to make a redesign.

2. The website functionality does not meet business needs

Growth is a natural part of every business. This, in turn, means that your website needs to change. How else will your customers know that your business is doing great? The problem emerges when the originally created website doesn’t support the developments needed. For example, your website has only product descriptions, but you want to add an ecommerce module. If you cannot develop your page the way you want, your online business will stand by. Sometimes it’s easier to build a new website than merely improve the old one.

3. Your product range doesn’t meet reality

Company growth comes often with changing product range. You need to show the changes on your website if you sell new products or your product range has changed substantially. A lack of fresh information will outdate your website. Also, you will get a negative image if you show products that are out of stock. Without new products your business loses potential clients – they cannot get fresh information about your business activities. The worst scenario is when you cannot make the changes by yourself, it’s too complicated, or you don’t have the access needed. It’s difficult to keep a positive online presence if your team doesn’t have the know-how for making simple updates to your site.

4. The website structure doesn’t meet business growth

Business goals are changing and the changing needs transfer to the business website. A website that was created a few years ago may not support it. Many old websites were created in HTML format where you need to change the code to make any changes on the site. This kind of content management is very complicated. If you cannot add or change existing categories and your site requires a major restructuring, you should take the leap and definitely develop a new website.

5. Your competitor’s website is prettier than yours

Have your competitors suddenly risen from the ashes only to steal your clients with their fancy new website? When you can admit that a competitor’s website is prettier than yours, it’s time for changes. Their site could be more functional, easier to use, better organized, modern, etc. 70% of the purchase decision is influenced by the business website. When your website is worse than your competitors’, you can say “goodbye” to your clients.

6. The content is outdated

Does your website include broken links like 404 error pages? Although fixing broken links is easy, it could refer to a bigger problem: your website is unorganized and poorly maintained. If your website has many broken links, errors, missing images, and other elements that are not working properly, you should consider a redesign. When creating a new site make sure to choose a CMS that makes it easy to update information and add new pages. This helps to avoid outdated content.

7. Target group expectations/needs have changed

Have your website visits dropped? Visitors leave the page without any further inspection causing high bounce rates. Maybe your target group expectations have changed? Your website is not adapting to consumers’ needs. Check your web analytics to determine your visitors’ common path on your site. How do they arrive at your site? When and where do they leave your site? If your product pages have a high exit rate it’s a sign of weak digital marketing and/or a change in consumer needs.

8. No social integration

No one doubts social media’s importance in a marketing plan. If you don’t share your social channels on your main marketing channel – your website – how can visitors find you in the social sphere? Often, people are too lazy or fickle to start looking for themselves. Social media is an excellent tool for developing customer relations and promoting your brand. If your website is missing social buttons, be sure to add them. Check out your blog and add sharing buttons to each blog post.

Flat design style modern vector illustration concept of web page wireframe prototyping, mobile website interface coding, choosing color palette scheme on digital tablet. Isolated on a stylish colored background.

9. Your web design is not mobile-friendly

You see increasing visits from mobile devices but are your visitors leaving your site before converting? The problem is that a regular website doesn’t meet mobile user needs. The increasing mobile trend will bring more and more mobile visitors to your site. That’s why it’s important to offer them the same user experience as on desktop. If your site does not leverage responsive design, it’s not mobile-friendly. You can also create a separate mobile web that doesn’t require rebuilding the old site. Read more about the difference between responsive web design and mobile web.

10. Your website is not visible on search

Rocking on a search engine results page requires constant technical adjustment and content updates. Technical elements include activities like choosing keywords and optimizing pages for relevant keywords. Some CMS systems make it easy to set metadata by yourself without having to change the code. If you don’t have a CMS, you probably need a little help from professional web developers. Search engines like Google, Yahoo! Bing, Yandex, etc. consider fresh and relevant content as a ranking factor. To meet their conditions and stay on top of search results you need to add fresh content regularly. So it’s really important that you can update your own site content and add new pages independently. The easiest way to keep your site fresh is by facilitating a blog!

Why Do You Need to Revamp Your Website?

The list above represents situations that might prompt you to consider revamping your website, but the question is, how will the revamp work to your benefit? What will you gain from a website revision? Let’s take a look at five ways you will grow your business by reworking your web design.

1. It gives you an opportunity to rebrand. If your site has accumulated design inconsistencies over the years as you have added and tweaked content and put new pages, a complete revamp is a good opportunity to bring everything in line with your branding. If you have recently rebranded your business and products, a website revamp is essential so that you can bring the palette, fonts, button styles, and logos up to date with your new look.
2. It can help you increase traffic to your site. A website revamp gives you the opportunity to optimize your pages and create a new content marketing strategy (or revise your current one). Doing so will help you to drive more traffic to your site.
3. You can add new functionalities to your site. With a new website design, you can bring in new functionalities to improve your UX. Your site needs to be easy to use and understand, as well as easy to navigate, and your function needs to evolve to suit the needs and expectations of both visitors and back-end users. When you do a revamp, spend some of your time and budget on researching your buttons and functions, and upgrading them as needed.
4. You can take the opportunity to optimize your site for mobile users. Mobile devices make up more than half of organic search engine visits. The proportion of mobile users accessing your website is likely to increase in the future. If your website is not yet optimized for mobile, that is something you should include in your revamp.
5. It can help you boost your lead generation and conversion stats. If you are already driving lots of traffic to your website and want to increase the number of conversions, you can go into your web redesign with a clear conversion strategy in mind. Your site may do a good job of telling people who you are and what you do, but it should also convince them to take the next step towards becoming paying customers. Take some time to assess how well your current site fulfills this role, and then update the design to increase conversions.

What Are the Benefits of Redesigning Your Website?

Looking at all the reasons we have listed above, it should be pretty clear that redesigning your website offers plenty of benefits. You should never make the mistake of thinking that web design is only about aesthetics. Sure, it is great to have a beautiful website, but that’s only a fraction of what you are aiming for. In the end, you want a website that serves your business goals. Here is how site revamps can do that for you:

1. It helps you create and refine a cohesive and updated brand identity. A good perception of your brand will foster recognition and trust in your customers.
2. It keeps your UX up to date and optimized. A website with slow, outdated, or counter-intuitive functionality and UX is pretty much dead in the water. Visitors come to your site with questions that they want to be answered, or with a need that they want you to fulfill as efficiently as possible. Every tweak and revision your make to your site should be done with that in mind.
3. Increase sales and conversions. As your brand perception and UX improves, so should your conversions and sales.
4. Improve site performance and SEO. A redesign is a great opportunity to address any shortfalls in your SERP goals and take steps to correct them.
5. Improve functionality and content management. After reviewing the current functionality and content management practices you are using, you can use the opportunity presented by a redesign to make improvements. The site will then be more streamlined and efficient in the future.

When Should you Revamp a Website?

There is no simple answer to this question. Basically, you should update your website as often as it needs to be updated. Minor updates may be necessary every week or every month, while a full revamp is probably best done every two or three years. That being said, it isn’t so much a question of a specific length of time. Updating your website is about responding to your needs and those of your customers. If it is falling short of its aims in this regard, then you should consider a revamp. Technology moves rapidly, search engine algorithms get upgraded regularly, and your customers’ preferences also progress and shift. If you want to know whether your website needs to be revamped, look out for the following signs:

• Your website is missing information and it is becoming difficult to make updates.
• Your brand has evolved. We have mentioned this a couple of times already. If your branding has changed, your site must be updated to reflect the new look and feel.
• Your website is not optimized for all platforms and devices. You will quickly lose sales if your site is not accessible on mobile. Make sure your site can be viewed on all devices.
• Your traffic has leveled off or started to drop. If you are not getting the traffic you want, it may be that your website needs to be upgraded and made a bit more attractive.

Conclusion

If some of the situations sounded all too familiar, it’s an indicator of an outdated website. Maybe you don’t have to start from the ground and build a brand new site. But it’s important to remove the errors and keep your website at the top level. You can be sure that your potential clients are looking for service providers with prettier, more user-friendly, and more trustworthy web designs. So make sure you are the one who stands out!