Written by Torie Mathis, Digital Marketing Coach
Torie Mathis helps entrepreneurs, like you, use digital marketing to grow their business without wasting time, money, or your sanity. She is a best-selling author, Army veteran, speaker + trainer, and digital marketing coach.
Have you looked at your website recently and thought it might be missing something? Or does it look a little dated? At my digital agency, we’ve redesigned hundreds of websites for small business owners, and we’ve found that most business owners think about a website redesign for quite some time before making the decision to go for it, but now may be the perfect time for your website redesign.
Updating your online presence isn’t just about keeping up with design trends; it’s a crucial step in enhancing your brand’s impact and functionality. If you're on the fence about giving your website a new look, let’s explore the reasons why this might be a brilliant move for your business.
Keep up with the times
Stay current with design trends
Website designs are constantly evolving. What was trendy and user-friendly a few years back might now seem outdated or clunky. A website redesign can breathe new life into your website, ensuring it looks sleek and aligns with modern aesthetics. This is crucial because a visually appealing site can make a strong first impression and communicate professionalism to potential customers.
Enhance site navigation
As design trends evolve, so do expectations on how easy a website should be to navigate. Users today expect an intuitive interface where they can find what they need in just a few clicks. During a redesign, you can reevaluate the structure of your site to make sure it’s organized in a way that makes sense to your visitors, potentially reducing bounce rates and boosting engagement.
Adopt new technologies
Redesigning your website also means you can incorporate new technologies that enhance site functionality and performance. Whether it's advanced analytics, better hosting solutions, or dynamic content like video backgrounds, adopting these technologies can set you apart from competitors and provide a smoother experience for your visitors.
Improve user experience
Streamline user interaction
One of the primary goals of a website redesign should be to enhance the overall user experience. This involves ensuring that your website loads quickly, has minimal downtime, and features a user-friendly layout. An intuitive and fast website encourages visitors to stay longer and explore more of what your business has to offer, increasing the chances of conversion.
Personalize user experiences
With advanced tools and plugins available today, you can create more personalized experiences for your visitors. For example, by using cookies smartly, you can display customized content that appeals to returning visitors or suggest products based on past browsing behavior. This level of personalization can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Reduce user frustration
Nothing turns visitors away faster than a frustrating website experience. Common pain points include hard-to-read fonts, confusing navigation, or slow loading times. Addressing these issues during a redesign can help make your website more accessible and enjoyable to use, which in turn helps retain visitors and convert them into customers.
Boost your SEO
SEO best practices are continually changing, and a website redesign offers the perfect opportunity to update your site’s SEO strategies. This includes optimizing new content for keywords, improving site structure for better crawling, and enhancing your metadata based on the latest search engine algorithms. Better SEO means higher visibility on search engine results pages, which leads to more organic traffic.
Improve content strategy
A redesign isn’t just about the visuals; it’s also a chance to overhaul your content strategy. Refreshing your existing content and adding new, valuable content can attract more visitors and improve engagement. This could involve integrating a blog if you don’t already have one, which can significantly enhance your SEO efforts through fresh, relevant content.
Enhance backend SEO elements
Many elements that contribute to SEO aren’t visible to the average visitor but are crucial for search rankings. This includes optimizing your website’s code for faster loading times, making sure it’s mobile-friendly, and ensuring that it’s accessible to visitors with disabilities. These technical improvements can boost your SEO significantly, making your site more favorable to search engines.
Enhance mobile responsiveness
Increase accessibility on all devices
Mobile internet usage has skyrocketed, making mobile responsiveness a necessity for any modern website. A redesign allows you to ensure that your website not only looks good on all devices but also works seamlessly across different screen sizes. This is essential as Google and other search engines penalize websites that aren’t mobile-friendly, which could impact your search rankings.
Improve mobile user experience
Mobile users tend to have different needs and behaviors compared to desktop users. They value speed, efficiency, and ease of navigation. During a website redesign, you can optimize for these factors, creating a mobile experience that is just as comprehensive and enjoyable as on a desktop. This includes touch-friendly interfaces, faster load times, and streamlined content that looks great on smaller screens.
Leverage mobile-first design
Adopting a mobile-first design approach not only enhances the experience for mobile users but also streamlines content and design across all platforms. This means designing with the limitations and features of mobile devices in mind first, then scaling up to larger screens. This approach can lead to a more cohesive user experience and strengthen your SEO strategy.
Realign your website with your brand
Update brand representation
As your business evolves, so should your website. It’s crucial that your site accurately reflects your current brand identity, values, and message. A redesign can facilitate this realignment and help present a coherent brand image to your audience. This is particularly important if you’ve undergone a rebranding, as inconsistencies between your brand and your website can confuse customers and dilute your brand message.
Strengthen brand consistency
Consistency is key in branding. Your website is often the first point of contact for potential customers, so it’s vital that it communicates your brand effectively. This includes consistent use of colors, fonts, and messaging that aligns with your overall branding strategy. A redesign can ensure that every element of your website contributes to a unified brand experience.
Showcase brand evolution
A website redesign can also be a public demonstration of your brand’s growth and evolution. It’s a chance to highlight new products, services, or shifts in your business strategy in a dynamic way. This not only keeps your current customers engaged but also attracts new customers who are interested in what’s new and improved.
Redesigning your website is more than just an update; it’s a vital part of your business’s growth strategy. It can enhance user experience, improve SEO, boost mobile responsiveness, and ensure your website accurately reflects your brand’s evolution. Take a good look at your current site and ask yourself if it’s doing everything it could be to support your business’s goals. If not, it might just be time for a fresh start.
Torie Mathis, Digital Marketing Coach
Torie Mathis helps entrepreneurs, like you, use digital marketing to grow your business without wasting time, money, or your sanity. She is a best-selling author, Army veteran, speaker + trainer, and your digital marketing coach. You don't need crazy tech skills, buckets of cash, or dedicated staff to market your business. In fact, you don't even need a lot of time. What you need is to be SMART. Torie hosts SMART AF, a show for non-techy entrepreneurs looking to grow their small business, with her husband Sean Mathis, and is the creator of SMART AF Magazine. Learn digital marketing for your small business at toriemathis.com
