With two-thirds of SMEs slated to increase their spending on digital marketing this year, it’s vital to do everything you can to keep up with the competition. One of the ways to ensure that you’re staying competitive is to opt for a website redesign. If your website is old or outdated, redesigning your site can ensure that you’re competitive and that you don’t lose your footing in your industry.
Here are five reasons why you might need to think about a new design.
1. It’s Been A While
If you haven’t updated your site in a while, you might be doing more than just missing the latest in technology for your site. You could be using old technology that ‘s keep you from communicating with your audience. You could also be unprepared for the way that things have changed in recent years.
Old technology on your site means that you’re not necessarily using things that your customers can even see with their devices. So many browsers have stopped supporting Flash and other types of media players that your site could be woefully outdated. If your customers click on your website to see an error message, a grey box, or content that doesn’t load, they’re going to browse somewhere else.
If it’s been five years or more since you’ve updated your site, it’s likely you’re not mobile optimized. It takes a lot of effort to create a site that’s ready for mobile devices and since you should be designing with mobile as a priority, you need to solve this. It’ll leave you behind all of your competitors if you don’t prepare to be future proof.
2. SEO is New To You
Search engine optimization is a powerful buzzword in the world of internet marketing. SEO helps to ensure that you’re able to appear at the top of search results when customers are looking for products and services like the ones you offer.
However, if you’re completely new to the concept, you’re going to struggle to stay ahead of your competition.
When people use a search engine, they’re either looking for a specific service or the answer to a question. If you start a blog, you get the chance to ensure that you capture both potential audiences – by creating content that solves problems with your services as the answer. Potential clients are already going to be partially interested in your products and services since they’re already searching for things close to what you offer.
If you’re able to update your website often, you get a boost in the rankings on search engines. Since people inherently trust search results that are higher than other results on a search engine, you can build trust and attract clicks with your blog.
Throughout your site, make sure you’re adding long-tail keywords using natural language. When you’re prepared for the way people ask questions to virtual assistants like Alexa or Siri, you’re going to be way ahead of the pack
3. You’ve Rebranded
Companies are constantly growing and changing. “Evolve or die” is the motto for lots of companies created before yours and lots of companies to come. If you’ve taken a pivot or recently refreshed the way you do things at your company, then you need to redesign your website.
If you’ve merged companies or you’ve absorbed something else, it’s important to make sure your website looks new and fresh. Rebranding requires a 360-degree approach to the way your brand currently looks and how you want it to look in the future.
When you’re in the midst of rebranding, your site should look new to show off your new look. If you’ve got a brand new logo, you’ll need to have a site that matches your logo to ensure that your brand identity is complete.
People don’t visit websites on a whim anymore. They visit when they’re looking for more information about your products and services or need to order more of your products and services. Make sure your site reflects that.
4. Your E-Commerce Doesn’t Match Your Site
If you’ve got a modern e-commerce site, you need to make sure it looks unique and branded. When your customers are buying your products and services, seeing a page that looks nothing like your site is jarring. If they browse over to your site to see more about what you have to offer, it should be a smooth experience.
Make sure that your e-commerce site looks like your page and vice versa. When you’re trying to create a strong brand, everything needs to match or else your customers are going to struggle to build trust.
There’s a lot of trusts invested in how things look and whether or not they match. When your customers start asking questions or feeling insecure about where they are relative to your brand, it breaks their trust up.
5. Profits Are Dropping
If you’ve noticed that profits are dropping for your company, you need to make some changes. Perhaps people feel like your site looks outdated or that your brand looks like it needs to catch up with the times.
When profits dip, sometimes you need to spend more money. If your clients and customers are trying to get products and services from your site and can’t, you need to help them to.
Watch for a dip in profits and look at what your competitors are doing. Perhaps you’re falling behind and need to catch up.
A Website Redesign Yields Profits
If you opt for a website redesign before it’s absolutely necessary, you ensure that you don’t lose money or fall way behind the competition. Making regular updates to your site ensures that you know when it’s time for a redesign. You’ll know what’s deprecated and what you can’t continue to do.
If you want to stay ahead, check out our guide to all the hottest trends in web design that are coming.
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