how often should you redesign your website?
how often should you redesign your website? There is no hard and fast rule. A lot depends on the industry you are in and the current state of your website. However, every website does require a redesign at some point in its life. So don´t leave it too late.
Many websites suffer from a lack of focus, a lack of consistency and a lack of relevance. If your site doesn’t do these things, it can leave potential customers scratching their heads wondering why they’d want to buy anything from you.
Most of us don’t spend nearly enough time on our websites. Too many small businesses simply throw money at a website without really understanding why they’re building it, what’s important to them, or what works and what doesn’t. At the end of the day, your website is a reflection of who you are and what you want your customers to experience. So whether it’s a big redesign or an easy change, there’s a good reason to make your website look as great as possible.
The web is changing so fast that many people still don’t realize that redesigning your site every few years is absolutely necessary.
With the advances in technology, redesigning a website does not have to cost the earth. So if your website is looking dated, this is a great time to think about a redesign.
how often should you redesign your website? - stick to a budget
While the answer to this question depends on your own business, it’s a good idea to set a budget and stick to it. It may seem like you’re spending too much time redoing your site when you’re really trying to build the best version of your product or service. So, if you’ve only got a small budget to spend, you may need to think about how you want to use that money wisely. You may decide to spend it on a new logo or a complete redesign. But even if you’re spending a lot of money, you should always have a clear goal in mind before you start designing a new version of your site.
how often should you redesign your website? - do a website audit
Website audits are a key part of any digital marketing strategy because you’re essentially getting a snapshot of how your site is performing. They help you understand the current state of your site, and what changes you should make. They give you a clear picture of where you’re succeeding and where you’re falling short.
With a thorough website audit, you should be able to identify which areas of your website are functioning well and which are not. This should give you a clear outline of things that need to improve.
how often should you redesign your website? - Establish a purpose for your website
Websites exist to accomplish a certain purpose, and that purpose needs to be clearly articulated. For example, if you’re a B2B company selling high-priced office furniture to large corporations, the website should showcase the office furniture products available. If you’re a local mom-and-pop restaurant, the site should display menus and photos of dishes offered. Your website should tell a story about who you are, what you sell, and how you want people to interact with your brand.
Why do people come to your website?
Most people don’t come to a website to learn about the brand. They come to learn something or to solve a problem. To achieve this, the website needs to be able to answer specific questions and solve problems. Once you know what kind of problem your audience wants to be solved, you can then start designing a solution to that problem. After that, you need to find what the best format is to present that solution.
how often should you redesign your website? - know your target audience
While knowing your target audience is essential, defining who they are takes some thought. You need to consider the following: Are they in your target market (or any other related market)? Do they care about your products or services? Is your product or service in the same category as theirs? Do they want something similar to what you offer? Do they have an obvious reason for needing your product or service? Can you describe the problem they face? This is the point at which you need to really dig into what makes your potential customers tick.
how often should you redesign your website? - research, research, research
Website redesign research is a major part of our work at Muzz Web Design. We’ve seen many of our clients (and our own) fall into a dangerous trap with redesigns. They start with a blank canvas, a clean slate, but then just dive into building the site without understanding the user and their needs. The result is that all of that hard work just goes down the drain because the new design is completely ineffective. Before starting a redesign, our process requires us to understand the target user and determine whether or not the target audience would find the proposed redesign effective.
see what your competitors are doing
There is no better way to start a redesign process than by looking at other websites. Specifically, websites that are in your industry. This will give you many ideas of what your new website redesign should look like. Also don´t just look at the design, also look at the content and functionality.
Be objective and admit that these websites are better than yours and you will get confidence in the need for a website redesign.
how often should you redesign your website? - have goals
To help make sure the changes you are making reflect the direction you’re headed in, it’s helpful to think about the overall goals you’d like to achieve with your new website. These might include better engagement and conversion rates, more relevant content, better navigation, a cleaner user experience, improved SEO, etc. Make sure to keep these things in mind while you are working through the steps of creating a new design.
identify things you can improve
It is important to remember that you have complete control over the content that appears on your site. So don’t make any sweeping changes to the look and feel of your site before you have a clear idea of what you want it to do. If you make a change without thinking about its impact on the site, you could end up making the site worse. Start small and keep refining your ideas until you find the best way to make them work for you.
- Make your blog's navigation easier to understand. Use the drop-down menu to show categories or sub-categories, and use tabs to quickly jump to a specific topic.
- Create an easy-to-read format for your blog posts. Make sure that the font is large enough to read comfortably, and use bullet points wherever possible.
- Make your pages load faster. Use images and video sparingly, use compressed code, and use a fast CDN (content delivery network) to host images.
- Create pages that are mobile-friendly. Use a responsive web design so that your site will look good no matter which device someone views it on.
These are just a few examples of ways to improve your website. Of course, there are many more. If you hire a professional web designer, they can help you enormously in ways to improve your website.
how often should you redesign your website? - what to keep
There are several things that you want to keep in mind when deciding what to keep from a site redesign. First, you’ll need to identify what’s important to your site and what isn’t. Then, you should figure out what you want to keep, and what you want to remove. It is possible to get rid of unnecessary elements, but it is also very easy to forget what’s really important to your brand. Remember, even though you’re redesigning your site, you’re still trying to tell a story about yourself. Keep that in mind when thinking about what to remove and what to keep.
what to include?
To my knowledge, there’s no real secret formula for this, but the basic approach is to take a critical look at your current site, evaluate your competitors, and determine what’s missing. What do you wish your website had? What do you want it to convey about your company?
1. Make sure that you keep the top four things you want to include in mind as you develop your new site design.
2. Your mission statement.
3. Your branding.
4. A clear call to action.
5. The reason why you created the business in the first place. It’s important that the site is cohesive and has a strong theme to help reinforce this. These are the four things that make up your brand.
new features that should be included in your redesign
Brainstorming website features will help you come up with ideas for a redesign of your site. By thinking of new ways to present the content you have on your website, you can come up with a better user experience and more interesting ways to promote your products.
You may want to add a few different features to your site so that you can increase the number of visitors you have. One of the things you may want to consider is adding a page that shows what is going on around the world. This can help you attract more attention from other users, so it’s a good idea to add it to your site. Also, it is possible to add a blog to your site. People enjoy reading blogs, and a lot of them have a big impact on the success of your business. It is a good idea to add a blog to your website because it gives you a chance to write articles and share information with your customers. Blogs are also a great way to improve your SEO.
have a strategy
A site redesign isn’t just a new graphic design. It requires a lot of work, from developing a new set of web pages and content to updating your business’s overall branding and marketing strategy. To start this process, consider the following questions: Why do people come to your site in the first place? What do you want them to do when they arrive? How will you promote your site? What do you want them to see when they visit?
content is king
To write compelling content, you need to start thinking about what kind of topics will keep your readers engaged, intrigued, and coming back for more. You should start brainstorming ideas and writing them down. Then, begin to narrow your ideas down to one or two. If there are multiple ideas, which one resonates most strongly with you? Which one would you prefer to share on your site?
A great way to figure out what the content should be is to brainstorm some possible content for each page on your website. What kind of content might help people find what they’re looking for and what kind of content might help them solve a problem? Ask yourself, What’s the purpose of this page? Can I provide useful, relevant, actionable content that solves the user’s problem? What’s the most valuable thing I can give them in this space?
conclusion
In conclusion, I don’t think you need to redesign your website every year. It’s up to you to determine the best timeframe for your website’s design and functionality. Personally, I don’t think there is a magic number. Instead, I would say that a good time to do a redesign is when there’s been a significant change in your website’s user base. It could be that your traffic has decreased, that there are now more pages on your site, or that your customer demographics have changed.
Whatever the reason, I would consider doing a redesign at least every three years to make sure that you’re keeping up with the changes in technology.
Also, very important to think about the platform you are going to use. We recommend WordPress and Elementor because they are easy to keep the content updated and if in the future you need to redesign or expand your website. This platform is ideal for this (as well as many other things!).
