Is it time to redesign your website?
You’ve been up and running for a few years. Your business is going well. You’re paying yourself a consistent wage, growing your customer base, you have clear goals and direction, you have a ton of ideas to implement, you’re confident in your offering and the value you deliver to your clients.
The future is bright.
But every time you look at your website, you feel a little twinge of embarrassment!
Maybe it looks outdated. Maybe it doesn’t seem user-friendly. Maybe it doesn’t communicate your value proposition well. Maybe making updates and changes to your website gives you anxiety! Maybe what once looked really appealing now strikes you as something you would ignore if you were a potential client.
So, what should you do? You have an idea of what you want. Maybe you could do it yourself, but you also know a website redesign is not a small task, and investing in a professional will allow you to leverage their experience and guidance to result in the best outcome. You’re likely already busy enough with day-to-day work, growth planning, relationships, family, and hopefully a bit of down time. How do you fit this in? How do you make it work?
Why redesign your website?
We already touched on some reasons you might want a website redesign– outdated, not user-friendly, no longer appealing. Are there other reasons? Have your goals changed and your website no longer reflects them? Is the content you want to promote not the focus of what currently lives on your site? Are you not getting the results you want and expect?
Before jumping into a website redesign on your own or going with a professional website designer, have a clear understanding of exactly why you want to make a change.
Separate the good from the bad
After you know why you want to redesign your site, figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Using analytics can help you here. This can let you determine what pages are getting more hits than others are, which Calls to Action (CTAs) people are responding to and which they aren’t, etc.
Use different sets of eyes
As a business owner, you often can’t see what is close to you.
Step outside yourself as the owner and try to look at your website through a potential customer’s eyes. Have people you trust do this as well, or run some user testing. Listen to the feedback. Doing this will help you figure out what needs to go, what you want to keep, what you need to modify, and so-on. Of course, this will be quite a time-consuming part of the process, and it’s just the start, as then the changes will need to be made! This is one that will be taken off your plate if you decide to go with a professional website design service.
How much does a website redesign cost?
- When do you need your newly designed website to be public?
- What sort of functionality do you need?
- Are you looking for a custom build, or are you happy with a template? (ps, we only do custom here at Seedling).
- What CMS would you like to use?
- Is SEO important to you?
- Do you want to be able to make changes for yourself?
- What is your budget for this?
This may sound obvious, but these all need to be considered when costing is being determined. If you feel it’s imperative to have your new site online in x amount of time and then you find out that what you want to create is going to take much longer, you may be left scrambling to adjust, losing more critical time in the meanwhile, or settling for something that doesn’t fit your vision. Likewise, your budget needs to support your goal, so it’s absolutely necessary to cover all of these aspects before getting started.
Know your business goals
You intimately know the goals you have for your business, but as you redesign your website, ask yourself: What problem am I trying to solve and how will this redesign accomplish that, exactly?
Is there a specific increase in visits or leads that you want? Do you want more CTAs? Fewer? Should customer testimonials be more prominent? Should it be easier for users to navigate? Should users have to make fewer clicks to get the information they want? Is there a need to reduce clutter and noise that distracts visitors from what’s most important? Do you need to improve the overall design, look and feel of your website?
Be as specific as you can. This helps you or the professional website design team you hire meet your needs on budget and on schedule.
Know your audience
Who are the people you are trying to reach? What are the search terms they commonly use?
The more you know your clients, the easier it is to provide content and keywords that will steer them to your site, at the exact time they’re looking for you, at the exact time they’re ready to buy. This is why SEO is so important now.
Silly as this may sound, if you’re selling forks, you don’t want traffic from people looking to buy spoons. They’re just going to move on and look elsewhere while the people looking for forks are viewing other sites. Unless you’re providing a highly specialized service, there’s a lot of competition out there, and you want to increase the likelihood that your target audience finds you, and fast.
Speaking of the competition…
It’s not against the rules to look at competitors’ sites; it’s likely they’re looking at yours, anyway!
Who are your primary competitors? What are they doing on their sites?
Be humble enough to recognize that some of your competitors might be doing things better than you are and that you can learn from them. If you’re an orthodontist but your practice isn’t the busiest in your area, don’t be afraid to compare your websites! And if you are the top practice, keep abreast of the competition so you can stay there!
Is your site friendly to users on different devices and platforms?
Of course, it’s important that a site be user-friendly in terms of ease of navigation and finding desired content. From personal experience, you know that a site that requires countless clicks or doesn’t present clear, easy-to-find information is one you’re going to leave, and not come back to.
Likewise, your site needs to be responsive to different devices and platforms. Have you ever used a mobile device to open a site that looks perfectly fine on your laptop but is an absolute mess on your smartphone or tablet? Have you ever opened a site that literally won’t function on your iPad or Android device? How much of your business did that site wind up getting?
Now that you’ve done all that, you’re ready to begin the actual work of redesigning your website!
Wait, you’re exhausted after all that and not exactly excited to jump into that? Who could blame you?
Fortunately, I can help! From evaluating your vibe and vision to fine-tuning micro-interactions on your e-shop, we’ve got you covered when it comes to redesigning your website. We’ll handle the details so you can concentrate on what matters most: your clients and your services.
