As of writing this, we’re in the middle of a global crisis. Our lives have been turned upside down, and so too, have our businesses. For some of you, it’s tempting to use this time to redesign your website. A redesign is new and exciting. It can feel like you’re solving a problem. Your website isn’t performing, so get it redesigned, right?
Hmmm…not exactly.
A website redesign isn’t a magic solution. And often, redesigns take a long time and a lot of money. The average time for a website redesign with us is between 3-5 months, and our prices range from 5k, right the way up to 35k. But it’s not just the money, it’s also the cost of your time and your staff’s time. A website redesign is an intensive project, and sometimes (yes, we are website designers saying this) it’s not the best solution.
We’re not saying this to deter you from getting your website redesigned – website redesigns allow us to eat! But sometimes when you have a problem with your website, a redesign isn’t the best solution.
Below, I’ve highlighted common website problems so you understand if a website redesign is the best option for you.
Problem One: Low Website Traffic
Should You Redesign Your Website? No.
To clarify, by traffic problem, we mean the number of visitors to your site. We don’t mean people visiting your site and leaving after a few seconds (that’s bounce rate issues).
If you have a traffic problem, nine times out of ten, you won’t need to redesign your website. If you’re happy with your current website design, that’s even more reason not to go down the redesign route.
A website redesign does not mean you’ll get more traffic to your website. In fact, if your redesign is done incorrectly, you may receive less traffic than you did before.
What Should You Do Instead of Redesigning Your Website?
We use a rather cheesy analogy when we talk about your website. Imagine your site is the heart of your business. You need to get the blood pumping to it, right? In order to get the blood (traffic) to your website, you need to invest in promoting your business. That means focusing on five key areas:
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing (leading back to your website)
- Ads (such as Facebook or Google ads)
Essentially, you need to step up your game in these areas. A website, by itself, will not be successful. It takes work. That’s why a redesign doesn’t usually help with a traffic problem. The exception would be if during the redesign, your website sees an improvement in search rankings.
Problem Two: To get better search engine results
Should You Redesign Your Website? In the majority of cases, no.
You have a website and you do a quick search in Google for the kind of things people might search for to get to your website (aka keywords). You click from page one to page two, two to three, three to four….and you get to page 50 and realise you’re not ranking! Eeeeek.
Or perhaps, you’re on the second or third page of Google for your keywords but no one is going to look there and you need a way of bumping yourself up to page one.
Or maybe…you’ve searched for your business name and you’re no way near page one of Google. Ouch.
Whatever your SEO problem, a website redesign might not be the best solution.
What Should You Do To Boost SEO Results (Instead of Redesigning Your Website?)
Investing in SEO and content marketing is not a luxury, it’s vital for website success. You can either do this yourself or find a decent company to do it for you. Either way, if you want your website to generate traffic and leads, you need to focus on these areas.
In order to get the best search engine rankings from your SEO or content marketing, you’ll need to form a strategy. Hiring an SEO consultant can help with this, even if you go on to do the work yourself.
When Should You Redesign Your Website Because Of SEO?
There are certain instances where you will need to redesign your website because it simply will not rank on search engines. These are websites that are usually built on an out-of-date or older system, it may not be search engine friendly.
Also, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, then you’re most certainly going to have issues with ranking in mobile search results. You can check to see if your website is mobile-friendly here.
Problem Three: The competition has redesigned their website and it’s looking good 👌🏻
Should You Redesign Your Website? In the majority of cases, no.
Your competition has just had their website redesigned and it’s looking all fancy. This sets you on edge, right? What if your audience buys from the prettier website?
First things first – design is not everything. Design is only one key element that makes a successful website. So yes, your competition’s website may look beautiful, but is it user-friendly? Does it rank well on search engines? Is the copy on-point? If it fails at these things then the likelihood is, it will fail as a whole. Remember, a pretty website on its own does not generate sales.
What Should You Do To Instead Of Redesigning Your Website?
We get it. It’s still a worry when the competition gets their website redesigned.
But a lot has to go into making a website a success. That’s where you need to judge how successful you and your competition are at things like…
- Content Marketing
- Website Copy
- Branding
- SEO
If you’re doing amazing at the things listed above and all your competition has is a pretty website, then we wouldn’t recommend you rush into a redesign (but maybe have it as something you can do in the future).
We look at this way – are there website design agencies that have more beautiful websites than us?
Yup.
But, do they spend as much time and effort into content marketing as we do? Or SEO? Or focus on the user experience of their website? Possibly not.
So yes, we could spend our time redesigning our website to make it the most beautiful website you’ve ever seen. BUT, will we see a better return from doing other things? Most certainly.
Problem Four: Somethings Not Working On Your Website And You Don’t Know What It Is!
Should You Redesign Your Website? No
Okay, you have a website but it’s not delivering sales and leads. Somethings wrong with it but you have no idea what. So, you might think – well, it’s clearly not working so why don’t we just redesign it?
Yeah, don’t do that.
Without knowing the problem, you won’t know if a website redesign will solve it. And even if it does solve it, it could’ve been solved much faster and cheaper. For example, if the problem is user experience and your user’s not being able to navigate your site correctly, then yes, a redesign would solve that. But so would tweaking your existing website to make it more user friendly.
What Should You Do To Instead Of Redesigning Your Website?
If you have no idea what’s wrong with your website then a redesign is the last thing you should consider. The cheapest way to find out what’s wrong with your website is to check out your Google analytics for things like how much traffic you’re getting and bounce rate (the percentage of people who leave your website). You can find out what keywords you’re ranked for to see how well you’re performing in search results.
If you’re still struggling you can look at a website critique, which we offer to business owners to help them identify problems with their website and how they can improve.
Problem Five: You Hate Your Website
Should You Redesign Your Website? Yes
Honestly, this is a controversial one. But if you look at your website, and you absolutely hate it, redesign it.
If the thought of having your website details on your business cards makes you want to run the other way, you might be suffering from what we call website shame.
When you have website shame, you don’t put any effort into your website. You don’t invest in content marketing or SEO, because the last thing you want is actual eyeballs on your website. If this is you, we recommend you redesign it. In order for your website to be a success, you need to feel confident sending traffic to it. If you don’t, then it won’t work.
It might be a sign it’s either time to hire a web designer or to make some big changes yourself, perhaps using a better template.
And if you are looking for a better template, check out our membership, Make Your Mark Online – we offer all our members’ page templates that you can plug into your website as well as training videos and weekly advice to help you DYI your website.
Problem Six: Your website has A Lot Of Technical issues
Should You Redesign Your Website? Yes
If you’re overall happy with the look of your website but find it’s too slow or not performing as it should, a re-design might be the right option for you.
There could be a number of reasons why your website isn’t performing, technically. Maybe the framework you’re using is out of date, the website takes too long to load, or your page builder keeps crashing.
It’s not unusual for established business owners who’ve been running their own website for a while to add plugins as time goes by. Sometimes though, plugins clash with each other. They can slow your website down, or even make it crash. And unfortunately, a website with a lot of technical issues behind it is a bit like a time bomb – it will explode at some point, and your only choice will be to build a new one!
So if you find yourself sitting on a ‘monster of a website and don’t even know where to start to try and identify the problems, you might want to hire an expert to build you a bespoke website that’s tailored to your needs.
Problem Seven: You are re-positioning your business
Should You Redesign Your Website? Yes
If you’re at a stage in your business where you’re pivoting, re-branding, or re-positioning yourself (and changing your offers and audience), a website re-design might be what you need. As your business shifts, you’ll want different features and functionality, so you might need to go back to the drawing board and start afresh.
You could edit your current website, but this can get messy, especially if you’re changing your entering offering or who it’s aimed at. Sometimes, it’s actually quicker (and cheaper) to start again.
Problem Eight: Your CMS (Content Management System) is Causing Issues
Should You Redesign Your Website? Yes
Some of our past clients have to come to us because they can’t access the backend of their website. They might even be happy with their current website, but they can’t update it without their website design agency. Their agency will charge them for every update, and may take a while to get it done too. This just isn’t feasible for many business owners, who choose, instead, to redesign their website so they can have full access to the content management system.
We recommend everyone ask their web designer (whether agency or freelancer) from the outset, who has control of the website and how much access you will have to it. Be wary of design agencies who will charge you for every little change.
Problem Nine: It’s Not Converting
Should You Redesign Your Website? Maybe
If you’re getting traffic to your website but it isn’t converting, then it’s tricky to say whether a redesign will help. It all depends on what’s preventing your reader from converting.
You may look to redesign your website if it’s not converting because of…
- User experience (i.e. your reader can’t navigate your website)
- The design is poor and makes you look amateur
- Technical issues such as page load speed, not mobile friendly etc.
You may not need to redesign your website if your conversion issue is due too…
- Poor website copy
- Lack of information about what you do
- Lack of content marketing
- Ultimately, a product that people aren’t interested in
Tweaking vs Redesign – Which is Best?
We hope that the blog post helped you to decide which option is best. It’s always tricky working out whether to tweak your website or do you redesign it.
But if you’re generally happy with how your website looks, and you don’t have any major technical issues, tweaking your website, rather than going for a full re-design, could be the perfect option for you. There’s a reason that websites like Amazon or Facebook don’t do HUGE redesigns, instead choosing to continuously tweak and test.
However, we do get to a point when a redesign is necessary. This is when the look of the website doesn’t reflect your level of expertise. The technical stuff is wasting too much time and money. Or the user just can’t navigate around the website.
One Sure-Fire Way to Decide If You Need A Website Redesign?
When you think about a website redesign, think of it this way: is it worth my time and money? Will I get that back. If I invest x pounds and x hours, will I see that return? If the answer is yes, then do it!
A new website should save you time (by streamlining processes) and deliver you more leads and sales. If it doesn’t, it’s just a vanity project.
Leave a Reply