Thinking about website redesign? Here are 5 reasons to act.

Website redesign doesn’t mean building the website again from scratch, to rebuild every single branding element. Just as mobile phone companies like Apple or Samsung launch the upgraded version of their products on a regular basis, or organizations train their staff year after year, the company’s website needs the regular update as well.  It is crucial for organizations to do a makeover for their websites so that these digital platforms continue to serve their best, draw users’ attention and successfully convert visitors.

Having a website is no longer an option for businesses. It can be seen as the salesperson for the company. Visitors can come to the website, browse through, find all necessary information about the products, services, and pricing, and finally make a purchase. In other words, a website is a digital store where potential clients can be converted.

The industry is changing fast, and the organization needs to keep up with the change. Your website can be outdated, some problems make your website unable to convert leads, or the increasing rate of shoppers abandoning their carts on the e-commerce site. Renovation is required to keep your online platform going forward. Here are five (5) signs to active the website redesign process for businesses.

Change in brand identity

Website is the digital representation of the brand. When the brand operates in both online and offline space, a consistent look must be prioritized to provide a seamless customer experience, which is a so-called integrated marketing strategy. If the website is different from the brand identity, which is presented through colors, logo, objects, physical spaces, and so on, customers will be confused, left without any impression about the brand.

When the managers have the intention to re-brand with new brand guidelines, color palettes, logos, cohesiveness is the key point so that customers will not be lost when visiting stores, regardless of where they are. Depending on the scale of growth, the scope of a website redesign can be a small change or a big project.

The minor rebranding can be color palettes, button style, fonts and font hierarchy, iconography. In many cases, it is a big project that can last for more than 3 months and involves a variety of stakeholders. The procedures start with deciding on the templates, drawing sitemaps, and UX/UI research, and end with testing and operating.

The current website is not mobile-friendly

Statista in 2021 recorded approximately 6.4 billion smartphone users worldwide, making up 80 percent of the global population. This number is expected ​​to reach seven billion in 2024. In terms of online shopping, half of the internet users (54.5%) purchase products online using their phones (DataReportal, 2021). The data has proved the importance of having a website that is mobile-responsive.
In addition, 63 percent of Google’s organic search traffic originated from mobile devices (Merkleinc, 2019). Mobile-friendly pages are more likely to be displayed at higher ranks on Google search results. Therefore, the website must be optimized for not only desktops but also mobile as well.

Understanding this demand, the majority of website builder platforms have automatically adjusted the full-width website to fit any screen size. In some cases, builders need to toggle between the website version and mobile version to re-arrange some elements to ensure the optimized versions.

You want to drive more traffic to the website

A website represents the brand in the digital space, and most importantly, it can be seen as a virtual salesperson. Especially for e-commerce businesses, traffic to the website is extremely important. In order to increase the website visitors, search engines optimization is a key criterion when managing the website.
If your current website is not SEO friendly, then, in the long run, your business will lose the ranking on the search page, leading to lower sales and revenues.
A website redesign pairing with an SEO strategy will boost your website ranking, and drive more traffic to the page.

The current website generates no new leads

A low conversion rate is another popular sign for the business owner to reassess their current website and decide on an upgrade strategy. If the website drives lots of traffic but cannot convert those into sales, a new website with a clear conversion strategy should be prepared.
One of the reasons for the low conversion rate problem is the poor user experience, which involves UX/UI process. It is obvious that, when you visit a website that is frustrated to use, you are likely to close the screen.
The website can be redesigned to provide the visitors with a great overall experience on the landing page, which include:

• User interface (UI) Design – the websites’ aesthetic elements match the customer’s expectations.
  UX design focuses on the user flow when interacting with a product

For example, The page should have a clear call-to-action button so that visitors will know exactly what they need to do when crawling the website. The contents will be arranged in the strategic order, from telling who you are, what you do, and convincing the visitors to become the customers.

Here is the sitemap we built for our client in the Construction industry. Understanding the fact that the customers are looking for real projects to interpret the quality of the company, we have put the “Project” section is put just after the “Homepage” on the search bar, so that visitors can navigate the projects easily.

Change in business strategy and goals

If the business’s purpose or goal has changed, the website must be redesigned to keep updated with the message from the brand. For example, when the business changes the target audience, and with the release of new products for that certain segmentation, website redesign should reflect that shift through:

• The way to communicate with customers on the website
  The arrangement of the site that matches the user’s behaviors
  The contents reflect the insights, needs, and wants

It is suggested that the website should be reviewed on a regular basis to make sure that the site is still aligned with the latest marketing strategy.

Outdated website

The outdated website can be clarified through two categories: the outdated look and the outdated functionality.
The industry your business is operating in is always changing every few years. So does the design trend and customers’ demands. A two or three-year-old website will seem old-fashioned compared to the others’ websites that update the latest trend. However, it is not necessary for businesses to overhaul the whole website. Weighing the pros and cons of website redesign based on the design trend to ensure that this action will be beneficial to brand position, and the competitors’ websites on the market.

For example, the website overhaul project for our client, who is one of the prestigious law firms in Australia. The old website was outdated, incoherent, and could not convey trustworthiness. Intelligence4Start has redesigned the new website for the brand. As a highly-reputed Law Firm, the company’s new website demonstrates a high level of professionalism and brand identity, as well as helps their clients easy to navigate on the platform. Here’s our final result:

When discussing the outdated functionality, it involves how easy it is to add functionality to the website. New technologies are introduced every minute, and businesses will grow over time. Your website should be able to cope with those changes. Without well-thought-out functionality, the organic traffic and conversion rate efforts will completely be wasted. Third-party widgets and tools, such as email marketing, shopping cart widgets, landing page tolls, should be easily embedded into the site. Otherwise, it is time for you to redesign your website.

We know that website renovation is a big project that requires much time and effort. Leave the hard work to professionals, and contact us for the website redesign that assists your business growth.