Website Redesign: When and Why?

In this article we look at when and why a website or an e-shop needs a redesign, and why it is important to act on it promptly.

Every business wants to present an attractive, appealing image so it can reach more customers. A website plays a big part in showing that image and is a key tool for growing the business, as it builds recognition worldwide and makes you part of a global market that grows every day.

Most people believe that the more polished and well designed their website is, the longer it will last. They are also wrong to think that the more money they spend on a modern design, the more the website will refresh and grow by itself, attracting more customers. The truth is that, as the years go by and trends change, we will certainly need to redesign our website.

Let’s look at a website redesign case

Is a website that just looks nice enough, with competition growing every day?

In recent years, the rapid development of technology, and of the internet with it, has made internet users far more demanding. The internet changes every day, so building a website has to keep up with these developments, follow current trends and be easy to use. Potential customers must be able to navigate easily and find what they are looking for quickly. If a website doesn’t meet the user’s expectations, they simply leave and never come back.

How well a website has been built shows over time, as a well-designed site with a simple user experience can last for more years without many changes.

Think of it this way: just as we refresh the window display of a physical shop, or even a company logo, to make it more attractive to customers, a website also needs to follow current trends and be refreshed. The solution is to redesign the website or the online shop. A website redesign is no simple process, but it shouldn’t scare you either. It needs proper research and a fresh look at every aspect of the business or the e-shop, so that it can deliver the results we want.

Features a website should have after a redesign:

• Easy, fast navigation: Your potential customers must be able to find what they are looking for quickly.
• Responsive design: The site must adapt properly to mobile, tablet and desktop.
• Adding content: You can add new content yourself, without specialist knowledge.
• Modern look and functionality: Your website must look up to date and work flawlessly.
• Simple structure: A clean, organised structure for the best user experience.
• SEO optimisation: Better search engine rankings for more traffic.
• Selling services and products: The option to add an e-shop and sell directly.
• Fast loading: Quick loading so visitors don’t abandon the site or e-shop.
• Ongoing support and upgrades: Easy regular updates and support to keep the website running properly.
• GDPR compliance: Protecting users’ personal data.
• Security: Protection from attacks and malware.

Here is a website redesign we did at WebMate for the Decentralised Administration of the Aegean, a Greek regional government body

You can see more here

When should you redesign your website?

A website is considered functional as long as it is modern, both technically and in how it is used. In other words, it keeps up with technology trends. As a rule of thumb, though, the average “lifespan” of a website is between 36 and 48 months, which is 3 to 4 years. 

Now, a website may need only a few upgrades to how it works and to its UX, without a full redesign. So the figures above are only a rule of thumb. Every site needs regular updates, whether to its content or to add new, improved features. It is a living part of the business, and to give you more it needs constant review and upgrading.

Is it time for a new website?

A few years ago, simply having a website could give you quite an edge. Today, though, almost every business has one. So to get ahead in this tough competition, you may need to take a second look at your website or e-shop and assess it. Does it do what you want? Are you getting new customers and visitors? Or is it time to redesign your website or e-shop?

To find out whether you need a website redesign, just answer the questions below

Is your website tablet and mobile friendly? Does it have responsive web design?

By responsive web design we mean that the website content adapts automatically to the device it is viewed on. In other words, whether the user is browsing on a desktop, tablet or mobile phone, they can easily see all the content.

More and more people now use their mobile phones or tablets to browse the internet and shop online. Imagine how annoying it is when a visitor can’t see all the content and has to zoom in or out to read it. That visitor will quickly leave and never come back to your website.

By building a new website with responsive web design, we give users comfortable browsing and also climb the rankings in Google’s results. Google has announced that it favours mobile-friendly websites and e-shops over those that are not, because it wants to improve browsing on these devices. So if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you will lose significant positions in organic search results. Then, when people search for the services and products you offer, they won’t find your website.

Does it load fast?

As we said above, with advances in technology and very fast internet speeds, users “demand” a fast-loading website. So your website needs to be fast. According to research, internet users expect a site to load in two to three seconds or less, and a large share will leave if it takes more than three seconds.  This also affects your SEO, in other words how your website is promoted in search.

There are several reasons why a website may load slowly. For example, if your site is hosted on a slow server or was built with old techniques, it won’t load quickly and you will lose customers. This is especially true when an online shop is slow to load, or when the site is hard to navigate and the user struggles to find what they want or can’t find it straight away: they will most likely leave and go to other websites or online shops.

With a website redesign, we can use all the new technologies that have appeared online and finally monitor and fine-tune loading time. We can optimise images, remove videos that are slow to open, and add new tools that run alongside our site and give us the best suggestions for making it load fast.

Is navigation easy and modern?

When users visit a website or an e-shop, they should find what they are looking for through easy, clear navigation, without getting lost. They don’t know how the site is structured and expect to find what they want easily, whether it is an article they want to read or a specific product they want to buy.

A click on our site is only the start of what we want from a user. We want to give them a clear picture and easy navigation so they can find what they are looking for. Loading the website with lots of information, banners, ads and pop-up windows in the hope of reaching more customers can sometimes backfire, simply because it doesn’t give the user a clear, easy path through the website.

So by building a new website we can achieve easy navigation and a clear structure. The first impression a visitor forms of the website matters a great deal. How you guide the user to take an action, or how you lead them in a simple, clever way to buy a product, is very valuable.

Is it properly optimised for search engines?

It is widely accepted that the higher your site appears in search engine results, the more clicks, the more traffic and the more customers you will get. So are you wondering why you have no customers or visitors on your website? You try hard, you search for your site online and it doesn’t show up in search engines? The same will happen to users. They won’t be able to find you, simply because your website isn’t SEO friendly. In short, it doesn’t keep up with modern SEO, or website promotion, techniques. 

SEO (search engine optimisation) involves carrying out a series of essential, very important tasks by experienced people, and it shapes how Google and other search engines see your website. The keywords used, the website content, the meta descriptions and alt tags, and the creation of internal links are some of them.

With a website redesign and modern SEO-friendly techniques, your website or e-shop can climb the search results and be seen by more users. You will also be able to check your website’s traffic statistics, see whether you get organic visitors from search engines and, using all the useful information Google Analytics gives us, achieve the result you want. The right website structure is very important for reducing the bounce rate and improving its search engine rankings.

Does it have all your business information?

When users land on your website, the first thing they will look for is the “About us” information about your business. They want to know who you are and what services or products you offer.

It is extremely important to give a clear picture and explain in simple words who you are and what you offer. Imagine visiting a website with nice graphics, modern and well designed, yet you can’t work out what it offers. Would you go back to that website? All the more so with an e-shop. Most people build an e-shop to start selling. What they don’t consider is how important it is to give the user or customer clear answers about who you are, what you sell, how you ship it and how returns work. Simple, obvious things, you might think, but when you cover all of them and present them on an attractive, modern website, you inspire trust. People trust you and you gain more users.

By redesigning the website we can take all of these steps, always using new technologies, so that we give a clear picture of who we are, inspire trust and become people’s first choice.

So as you can see from the above, there are lots of advantages to a website redesign. We fix any past mistakes and keep up with the times. We climb the search engine rankings and achieve the result we want. 

More and more SATISFIED customers and visitors.

At WebMate, with our thorough knowledge of all these new technologies, constant monitoring of new trends in commerce and the internet, ongoing staff training and proven results from previous successful website redesigns, we can offer you the right solution for your website, or help you grow your e-shop or website

Contact us for an initial assessment of your website.