It’s 2022. Many of us use the new year as a time to start fresh. We set new goals and come up with new ideas. Some businesses take this opportunity to redesign their website.
The following text is about how businesses may not realize their website needs refreshing, and how their competitor’s website improvments may give them a competitive edge.
If your website is experiencing any of the following issues, it may be time for a redesign.
- The business has an identity, but the website doesn’t reflect it.
- Some links are broken, causing the user to drop out of the conversion flow.
- Users are trying to communicate with you, but are finding it difficult.
- The website overall feels outdated, leaving users unimpressed.
- The usability is poor. Users are finding it hard to navigate the website.
- The UI is confusing and inconsistent. Users keep making mistakes.
Branding (or Rebranding)
A brand is more than just a logo, and rebranding should be about more than just a new website design. Tone of voice should be considered when rebranding, as it’s a way of communicating with the audience. This includes website copy, FAQ sections, and online customer support.
The way a business wants to be seen by the public (for example, as helpful, relaxed, or dependable) is called branding, so the extent of a website redesign depends on how much the company wants to change its image. A financial institution whose customers are having doubts about its trustworthiness would benefit from a rebranding that creates an appearance and tone that convey trustworthiness.
Regardless of whether you’re improving an existing brand or creating a new one from scratch, here’s what you need to consider:
- Do the colors make you feel a certain way?
- Does the imagery/photography make the user feel something?
- Does the overall visual aesthetic satisfy users?
- Is the landing page copy compelling?
- Is the FAQ copy helpful?
- Does the overall tone of voice portray who the business is?
- Does the website need any additional functionality, such as live chat?
13 Website redesign tips
1. Spend time on user understanding
Do not base the design of your website purely on what you think looks and feels good. The aesthetic appeal of your website is important, but other factors should be taken into consideration as well.
Your company’s website needs to be focused on your market and not on your personal preferences. If the website does not appeal to the people who will be directed there, it will not be effective in terms of conversion rates.
If you don’t understand your target market, your website will become a liability instead of an asset.
You should create marketing personas that are based on data, and then explore the market further. Find out what other websites your customer base engages with, and try to copy or improve the user experience of the ones that are the most popular.
2. Define a purpose
Don’t just give generic answers like “marketing” or “to improve ROI.” While those answers are technically correct, they’re not very specific.
It is advisable to set goals that are both achievable and specific. Companies typically want a website redesign or refresh to last for a few years, so it is best to focus on goals that are eternal or have a long-term outlook.
When creating a website, it is important to decide what the main purpose of the site will be. For most companies, the website exists to serve as a source of information for the public or to promote and sell services.
Other goals for a website might be to act as a tool for users to generate quotes online, or to act as an ecommerce hub. Some websites might want to become a portal for customer interactions.
3. Don’t overlook basic functionality
Redesigning your website can be exciting. You can completely change the way it looks and take advantage of some of the latest trends that have been shown to increase conversion rates.
If you begin with the bells and whistles rather than functionality, you will likely have trouble. It is better to start with functionality when redesigning.
Look at your analytics and make some solid decisions about site navigation and content. The core purpose of your website is essential. If you try to go too big too quickly, you may have to spend time backtracking and redesigning these basic building blocks.
4. Spend time on the homepage
Your homepage is the first opportunity to engage consumers and should be used to display your main message, branding, and site navigation.
Web designs that use long scrolls tend to be more successful than those with just a screenshot of the information.
Choose a homepage design that works for you, but make sure that the most important content is near the top where users can see it right away.
Users have come to expect certain elements from websites, such as being able to click on the logo in the top left-hand corner of the page to take them back to the home page from any other page on the website.
It is generally a good idea for your website’s homepage to link to a contact page, content (services, products, programs) page, about page, and a news or blog page. This allows visitors to easily find the information they are looking for.
5. Invest in a responsive design
Avoiding accessibility in website design is not an option.
Any website that is built or rebuilt today needs to have responsive design.
Company information is being accessed by users in a variety of different settings – at work, on the go, and at home. Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are being increasingly used to access this information, even when a computer is available.
People expect to be able to find information easily on any device they use.
As increasingly more products get connected to the internet, companies will be able to tailor their web experience to any new device by using responsive design. The UI (user interface) on these devices may be even more important than the desktop experience.
6. Set yourself up for SEO success
When creating a new website, SEO should not be an afterthought. Google algorithms and industry projections should be taken into account to make sure the website is focused on SEO practices that will be rewarded.
SEO is important, but you can’t just base your web design around it.
Most experts recommend that content developers focus more on creating value for consumers and providing a seamless user experience, rather than working on specific tactics that might be rewarded by search engines.
7. Collaborate often
Typically, websites are not created by one person. Usually, the design is a group effort that involves people with different skills, such as graphic artists, developers, strategists, and marketers.
Each aspect of a website usually has to be approved by someone before it can be published. Collaboration is more than just communication; it also involves creating a realistic timeline, making a streamlined approval process, and being creative.
If a team can’t manage to creatively combine all the different ideas about a website from different people, it can take a really long time to fix it up.
8. Don’t copy and paste old content to a new site
Websites are similar to living creatures in that they have different appearances and personalities. Content that was effective on an older website may not be effective on a newer website.
Make sure to budget enough time and money to update your written, visual, and video content, as well as the overall design.
You may need to do some editing in order to better connect with your target market. This may include cutting out some information, rewording your message, and developing new and more interesting content.
Make sure your content is valuable and relevant to your audience.
9. Stay true to your brand
Some companies are so focused on following the latest trends that they forget to consider what their users want or what kind of image their own brand should project.
If your website is not an accurate representation of your brand, mission, and goals, it will be difficult for your audience to connect with it.
If you want your site to stand out, you need to create a connection between your content and your brand. Otherwise, it’ll just get lost among all the other sites out there.
Make sure your website’s overall look is attractive and consistent with your brand’s personality, to keep visitors on your site.
10. It’s not over when it’s over
A truly wonderful user experience is one that changes subtly over time.
It’s a new starting point for how you want the world to see you. Every time you load your newly designed website, it gets better- faster, more intuitive, and more relevant. When you finally launch it, that’s just the beginning. It’s a new starting point for how you want the world to see you.
If you want your website to be successful and generate a return on your investment, you will need to make changes based on how users interact with it.
The things you thought would work well may not have a significant impact on the user experience, and there may be some unexpected surprises.
Your website launch is just the beginning of your long-term ROI strategy, so choose a website development team that you can see yourself working with in the future.
11. Responsive design and usability
Websites that are responsive adapt to any screen size, whether it be mobile or desktop.
Mobile traffic first became greater than desktop traffic in 2015, and Google began showing preference for mobile-friendly websites in its search results soon after. Although most websites technically adjust to fit smaller screens, many don’t have enough optimization for mobile devices.
Since 57% of internet users say that they wouldn’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website, responsive design is a huge deal, and designers need to be doing a lot more than “making everything fit.” Here’s what you need to consider:
- Are the tap targets large enough (at least 44px in height)?
- Are the tap targets accessible to thumbs, or are they out of reach?
- Is the mobile website “trimmed down” for simplicity?
- Does the website load fast on 3G connections?
- Overall, how would you rate the mobile usability?
12. Outdated copyright notices and broken links
This may seem minor, but spelling mistakes, broken links, and out-of-date copyright notices show that the website has been neglected or that only a small amount of care was put into it.
It’s normal for users to check a website’s copyright notice to see when it was last updated, which is especially important for SaaS companies because users want to know that the service is constantly being improved.
If a website looks old, users might wonder if it’s still active.
The most important thing to do is fix these things.
13. Redesigning with data
To improve UI, start with user research and then use website analytics tools to identify areas that need to be improved. Hotjar and CrazyEgg can be help with this.
Analytics are extremely useful for understanding everything there is to know about your users. The data is endless and can show you things like how much time users spend on certain webpages, if they’re actually converting, where they drop out of the conversion flow, what device they used, and where they’re from.
UI can be measured by analyzing data collected from website users. This data can show which areas of the website need improvement.
If the client is not aware of what is missing, then website analytics can be used to suggest improvements or new product ideas. You can then work together to create a roadmap for what the redesign might look like.
A website redesign requires planning.
If the website you are working on does not have website analytics installed, your first step should be to install Google Analytics. It is free and provides very detailed reports.
Once you’ve looked at your website using Google Analytics to identify any potential problems, the next step is to do some usability testing. This involves using Hotjar or CrazyEgg to see where users are clicking, and you can even watch how they behave on the site using session replays.
If you have any web pages that are not converting well, user recordings can help you understand why this is happening.
Conclusion
Design is about solving problems that clients have in their lives or businesses.
A designer cannot simply rely on a list of skills to get hired by a client. The designer must be able to communicate to the client why a website redesign is necessary for their client’s business. The designer should highlight what the end result of the redesign will achieve.