An often asked question is how often should we redesign our website. You’ll get as many different answers as different people you ask. Although all the answers may be correct, you would likely still be left without clarity. Here at Whitaker Web Design, our answer is, you should redesign your website when the time is right. Now you may be saying, “thanks, there’s another crazy-making answer”. But it is true. A good rule of thumb is to redesign your website when it is no longer meeting your company objectives. Maybe that’s today, maybe it’s two or three years from now.
Not meeting objectives
If your websites main objective is to capture leads but it takes 3 clicks in different areas to get to the contact form, you may need a redesign. If you notice a significant trend in mobile users visiting your site, yet your website is not mobile friendly, you may need a redesign. If your website is made up of 80 percent images, 20 percent text, and you would like to rank better in organic search, you may need a redesign. Is this starting to make sense? Your website should always align with company goals and objectives that can be measured and analyzed.
It’s been a long time
When we receive an inquiry for a redesign, the first question we might ask is “why?” Most often, the answer is because the site is outdated. While we believe it is important that your site looks current, you may not always need a redesign, especially if it’s performing well. A good rule is If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. You may actually cause more harm than good. Keep in mind when you redesign your website, if you are performing well in organic search, you may possibly lose rankings depending on the structure of the site and if significant changes were made to the content. It also depends on the industry your business in.
Once you decide
If you have determined that its time for you to redesign your website, it’s a great time to do some measuring and research. Hopefully, your site has google analytics built into it. Take advantage of this. Try and figure out what worked, what doesn’t work. Where are your visitors going when they visit your site, are they converting to sales, or are they dropping off at a certain point. Data is key, so measure wisely. You might also want to look at what the competition is doing.
There are a lot of reasons you may want to redesign your website, just make sure you have a valid “why” when making the decision.
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