# UI/UX Design
7 signs your business needs a website redesign
Red Rocket teamJul 5, 20246 min read
In This Article
Outdated design and technology Poor user experience (UX) Non-responsive design High bounce rates and low conversion rates Poor SEO performance Difficult content management Rebranding and business growth Planning your website redesignChanges are the only constant thing in the world, which is especially evident in the case of internet technology. Many people require a website redesign with different goals in mind. Some are trying to keep up with competitors, while others are trying to retain an audience or attract new users. Looking closer, rebranding has become a trend that is common to many large corporations. Brands are changing logos, developing strategies, introducing new technologies - doing everything to maintain and increase market recognition.
How often to redesign your website? Speaking about online platforms, experts recommend modernizing your resource at least once every 3-4 years and ideally - every 2 years. The fact is that the world of IT is developing and changing too rapidly. What was relevant five years ago is now considered outdated and inconvenient. To understand whether you need such a service, you need to understand the topic. That is why we have prepared for you 7 important signs you need a website update.
Sign 1. Outdated Design and Technology
If your website gives such an impression as if it was created a decade ago, then it is high time for a redesign. Modern website design trends and standards are not static and one which is outdated will make the customers or the visitors feel that the company is outdated as well. The switch to a modern and minimalist look will improve the conversion rates of sites as they offer better looks and guide the visitor to what is important on a page.
Old and inefficient software used for website development may hinder operations. It may cause delays in loading pages, create errors, or fail to allow the inclusion of certain features. The transition to a new CMS or a newer and more advanced e-commerce platform is more secure, offers greater functionality, and includes better SEO options, integration of e-mail campaigns, and much more.
Sign 2. Poor User Experience (UX)
First of all, apart from the aesthetic point of view, websites today should operate easily. If having a navigation system on your website feels like being on a wild goose chase, taking ages to load your page, or being stuck in a never-ending form, then you can bet that your visitors are not going to waste time on such a website. Here are some examples of poor UX holding your business back:
- Hidden menus and other navigation elements. This issue is caused by one having to click many times before getting to the most important pages.
- Delayed loading, slow-moving and flickering on a page that contains many images.
- Shocker ads that hinder reading and browsing.
Redesigning your website UX enhances the flow, which is all about tuning in to the customer and making procedures seamless. For instance, redesigning the menus according to visitor’s goals mined from the data, enhancing the mobile-friendliness of the site.
The benefit? Specifically, this encompasses enhanced conversion rates and return on investments. A study indicates that effective and well done website design could lead to increase in sales and conversions.
Sign 3. Non-Responsive Design
Responsive web design means that when accessed through a web browser on a mobile device, computer, tablet, or other device, the layout of the website changes to fit the screen. In other words, such sites adjust to the different resolutions of the devices used for browsing, such as PCs, laptops, tablets, and other portable devices. As the number of mobile internet usage has surpassed the 50% of global web traffic, having a responsive web design is not just a trend but a necessity. Using a website with a non-responsive design can have several significant drawbacks that can negatively affect your business. Here are the main ones:
- Inconvenience of mobile users. Often, the content does not adjust to accommodate their screen size, it becomes challenging to navigate through it and sometimes even forms may not be responsive to their inputs. This amounts to poor experience of users.
- It hurts SEO and conversions. Google now prefers sites that are friendly to mobile devices. And there are fewer chances for converting visitors into customers if the site isn’t optimized for the devices.
What is the solution? Making your site responsive enhances the manner in which users get to the content they want on touch screen devices. This is of great benefit in form of higher engagements by the users, lower bounce rates as well as high conversion rates in the long-run.
Sign 4. High Bounce Rates and Low Conversion Rates
Bounce rate represents the proportion of visitors who come on your site and then proceed no further, that is, they go out of the site. Conversion rates determine the portion of visitors who accomplish a specific objective, such as form submission, webinar sign-up, or purchase some products. These metrics are the ways that business owners track how marketing campaigns are doing in general and what successes the company is having.
High bounce rates and low conversion rates can be attributed to differences in designs between websites that negatively impact visitor interaction and prevent them from reaching the primary call to action. Some of the problems that might be attributed to this include slow page loading speeds, confusing navigation menus, messy and uncoordinated visuals, etc.
The remedy for this issue is to refresh the website design based on customer experience design fundamentals. Eliminate all confusing paths, define clear visual layers, cut all unimportant elements, and remember that content must be relevant to business objectives at every stage. It will help the visitors to understand about various offerings in a better and more effective way for lower bounce rates and higher conversions in the future.
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Sign 5. Poor SEO Performance
Perhaps for many people, it will be unexpected, but the design of the website also affects its position in the search engine. Accordingly, SEO promotion should take this factor into account as well. We are not just talking about the external attractiveness of the website. It also takes into account such factors as the quality of the layout, the presence of all the necessary elements, the convenience of their location, the organization of scripts, and the structure of the website.
How does design affect SEO promotion? It is very simple, so it has a direct impact on the position of the web resource in the search engine. Behavioral factors of users are very important, if the site is not convenient, the user will spend a minimum of time there, and therefore the ranking of the page will be negative. Here are what are website redesign SEO benefits:
- Better places in the ranking of individual pages and the site as a whole.
- More regular flow of new users who visit your resource.
- More sales of services or goods.
If we talk about SEO promotion and web resource design, then don't forget about the mobile version. Any project aimed at success must necessarily develop a convenient mobile version. Why? Because according to statistics from Google, today most of the users use smartphones to go to the desired website.
Sign 6. Difficult Content Management
Any website owner knows that it is necessary to add useful content for users on a regular basis. Such tasks are mostly performed through a special software called CMS. If your current CMS makes editing, adding, or removing pages and content in your website clumsy, then a rebuild can fix this problem.
Older CMS systems can be considerably less advanced in their design than the newer systems where usability and easy navigation are the priorities. It implies that if creating new blog posts or editing product pages entails engaging the IT or developers’ assistance, then timely updates are hard. This also prevents the ability to frequently re-optimize, which is critical for ranking factor success.
Using a contemporary, efficient and intuitive CMS platform enables you or specific employees to modify articles and/or the layout of the page. This sustains the update and freshness of the content to attract more visitors, responding to the customer questions more quickly through new Web pages or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Web pages and sustaining individual Web pages for improving the visibility in search engines.
Sign 7. Rebranding and Business Growth
If you have had a major overhaul of your branding scheme since the creation of the website, it is very probable that the design reflects your old branding scheme. There are often instances where aspects such as the color schemes, logos, images, and the message portrayed may seem irrelevant to the brand image that one wants to establish. Major branding elements can be aligned during a website redesign, which involves the graphics of the company’s assets.
Another sign that your company needs website redesign services is a desire for business growth. If you feel that your company needs to scale and you are planning to expand your horizons, introduce new products or services, you need to make changes to your existing design. It should reflect everything that your business is about right now.
To confirm all the above, you need to look at a real website redesign case study. Pay your attention to the Optima Partner website redesign, which was implemented by our specialists. Here, you can see perfectly how the website, functionality, UI/UX design, and navigation system can change after the work of experts. The Optima Partner transportation company website also received optimization on all devices, including computers, laptops, and mobile.
Planning Your Website Redesign
Website redesign is a stage that almost any web project goes through. It can be used to improve the perception of your resource in the eyes of potential customers, improve the speed of its operation, increase the level of conversion and sales. However, such results are possible only if the work is done correctly and the involvement of experienced professionals. In the opposite case, the consequences can be sad: you can provoke a lot of technical errors and eventually lose traffic and positions, which takes a lot of time and money.
So that you can make your website even better and more technologically advanced, you need to learn how to make website redesign project plan. We have gathered the main points that you need to fulfill.
Analysis and Work Plan
If your website hasn't been updated in a few years, it may have become outdated not only in terms of appearance and usability, but also technically. It would be illogical to transfer old bugs to the new design. To avoid this, before the redesign it is necessary to conduct a detailed audit and make a website redesign checklist.
Based on this, a list of errors that need to be corrected and a step-by-step plan for implementing the new functionality, including both technical aspects and changes to content, graphics, and other elements. Answer these questions to boosting sales through website redesign:
- What do you need to keep, and what can you get rid of?
- What sections or pages are you missing?
- If your current site design limits your capabilities, how can you fix it?
- Can you take something interesting from your competitors?
Based on this information, you can start drafting clear and detailed ToR for the relevant specialists. Also, don't forget to conduct an SEO audit for website redesign.
Work on the Test Subdomain
It is never a good idea to make changes on a live website. This can cause errors that will provoke global problems. Here's what the right approach looks like: make a copy of the resource on a test subdomain, closed from indexing by search engine robots, and already on it to refine all the changes.
Thus, you can immediately understand if something goes wrong, you will have enough time to test the performance of all the functionality. Then, the final version, without problems for a few hours, was transferred to the main domain.
Cooperate With Professional Website Redesign Company
Naturally, one person cannot be able to write code, change the design, and conduct comprehensive SEO optimization. To increase your chances of success regarding the creation of a professional website redesign, turn your attention to experts in this field. Request a website redesign consultancy first to discuss all existing problems in detail and tell us about your website redesign proposal. We can help with defining your issue, whether it’s improving user experience, getting more customers or boosting sales.
Conclusion
Now you know how to tell if you need a new website. By improving website navigation, and working with the color scheme and visual effects, you can achieve results that will affect your company. In simple words, a professional website redesign is a repair of an Internet resource. Many people mistakenly think that this kind of modernization involves only visual design. Actually, it is a complex work that includes changes in functionality, visual effects, technical work, and much more.
