To redesign or not to redesign

in: Web Design by: Michael – 06/09/2012

When do you consider redesigning your website?

There are very few websites that don't change, or at least undergo a facelift, at some time in their life-cycle. If you are a business owner or responsible for your company website, when do you consider a website redesign?

There are a number of important factors to determine whether your website should go through a redesign. I've put together a simple list to keep in mind when considering a redesign. Based on why our clients opt for a site redesign and also other things you may wish to consider.

Metrics Analysis

Measuring your web visitors behaviour and what your visitors are doing on your website should be the first step - we install Google Analytics within our clients' website that allows analysis of the audience - Loyalty, Page Views, Time on Site, Bounce Rate and even actions such as a purchase or filling in a contact form all help to form a picture of where your website can be improved.

Once you've studied the statistics you can decide if your website and the visitor traffic is meeting your business goals or expectations. And you will also have some real facts to help you decide on these next steps.

Search Engine Optimisation

Is the right traffic finding your website. Are you starting to feel that the fancy animated splash page wasn't such a good idea after all?

When you decide upon a website redesign one important factor is to ensure the new website is optimised so that the search engines (and therefore users) will be able to find your website. If the website has already had some SEO optimisation in the past, it is important not to lose the SEO benefit the website already has - and it is an opportunity to improve SEO Optimisation.

Company Goals

Does your website still meeting the goals of the company? If the purpose of the website is to drive inbound enquiries, is it still doing this? Does the existing website contain incorrect or out of date material? What are your competitors doing?

Answering these questions will answer whether your website is still relevant for you buisness. The redesign will be a chance to ensure the website will meet the company objectives now and for the future. Pay particular attention to the text and images to ensure it reflects your current company image and message.

The Design

Looking to refresh the look of the website? No longer like the colour? There is more to the design of your website than simply aesthetics. The look of the website is, of course, an important factor but a redesign is a chance to look closely at all aspects of the design including whether it is user-friendly, aids the navigation of the user and is appropriate for the target audience.

The redesign of your company website can ensure that any navigation structure is integral to the design. Elements should be placed where users would expect to find them. Colour palettes should compliment the company brand. Look at your current website content and decide if there is a better way to present it, for instance, long passages of text could be broken up into multiple pages.

The redesign should ensure that you have maximised the pertinent information, streamlined the key navigation, and that you have simplified the user journey towards the key website goals.

Have you considered how your audience view your website? Consider how your new website will look on mobile and tablet devices. If a high percentage of your audience uses these devices you may wish to specify specific designs for the different sizes of screen.

Oh, and finally, any new design should also look beautiful!

Social Media

Have you consider social media such as Facebook, Twitter, a company blog?

Your redesign should look seriously at adding functionality for these if it hasn't done so already. At the very least you should add 'sharing' links allowing your users to easily share the website with friends or colleagues through Facebook, Google +1, Twitter and other link-sharing and social website.

Depending on your audience it may be appropriate to create a Facebook Page or Twitter account as a new way to interact with your web audience.

And Finally...

The exact nature of the redesign process will be different depending on your business and the state of your current website, but it is not something to ignore. You should be looking at whether your website needs a redesign - whether partially or fully - every six to twelve months. Then based on real facts, such as visitor behaviour and feedback, you will be in a good position to decide if it is time for a redesign.