The average lifespan of a well-designed and structured website is between three and seven years. The decision to redesign should not be taken lightly and should not be made on a whim in order to keep up with the latest trends. Redesigning and redesigning your website to make sure it is in tip top shape can be the best investment you make. The bottom line is that new designs and conversions are expensive. Let’s take a look at Redesign vs Rebuild: What Value For Money Will Offer You Long-Term Results.
Why should you update your website?
Whichever approach you take, you need to keep updating your website (it is best to have a plan in mind) to keep it updated and to ensure that your website is generating leads and engagement. Is your website still working for you? Do you get business? Is your business still growing? Are you actively involved in your channels? If you answered no to any of these questions, you may need to consider a redesign or remodel.
What is a redesign?
A redesign can sometimes be compared to the perfect icing on a collapsed cake (had the cake ever stuck to the mold and you need to glue it back together with icing?). Sure, before you cut into the cake it looks nice and edible, but dig deeper and you’ll uncover a minefield of problems with the cake.
A redesign can help update the interface and look of the website, but it can ignore some of the deeper website issues that have to do with SEO or the underlying code that affects user experience, bounce rate, the time spent on pages and the website affects speed and more.
Sometimes it is much more complicated (and ultimately more expensive) to fix these issues one at a time than simply rebuilding a website. If you think you really need a redesign to keep your branding or update the look and feel of the website, an agency can do a website health check and advise you from there.
What is a conversion?
A website rebuild starts from scratch and ensures that the web build is done correctly the first time so that in the future – should you need a new look and feel – you can redesign because your website has no underlying structure and coding problems.
A high quality rebuild can involve finding and updating your CMS or moving to a new platform, which requires a migration to a new platform and extensive technical work. If your old website doesn’t meet your needs, you may need to undertake a technical remodel that improves your e-commerce functionality, integrates marketing and automation functions, etc. Each remodel ensures that the front-end rebuild has a responsive design for mobile devices Has.
Your website agency will also design pages with your on-page SEO, off-page SEO and local SEO strategy in mind. They’re also designed to prepare you for mobile-first, people-first / ease of use, AI-first, voice search, schema and google search drives.
Why remodel?
Here are some reasons to rebuild your website instead of simply redesigning it.
- You want to stay competitive in the market.
Take a look at your key competitors. What do their websites look like? Do some of these look better than your website? Is it more user friendly? Analyze your competition and think like a user who has never heard of your brand. Which website would you choose? Which business would you choose? Having a state-of-the-art website is often a deciding factor, but also keep in mind that high-tech websites sometimes have slower loading speeds so you need to find a balance. - You want to have the latest web design to showcase your brand. A website stuck in the 90s is showing people that you’re either drastically out of contact or your business hasn’t made a dime in years. A new website shows that you are keeping up with the latest trends (which is important depending on your industry) and that your company’s profits are healthy. You are ready for new business and new customers. A good looking website is showcasing your brand.
- You want your website to be easy to use and accessible to all types of users.
Those who are not into web design often do not understand how different types of users use websites and how many websites are simply not easy to use. A website that doesn’t meet user needs will lose traffic and lose leads. If you want your website to be easy to navigate, have the fastest loading speed, and look the part you need to analyze if your website hits the bull’s eye.Websites have around four seconds to make an impression before users bounce off. Your navigation should be intuitive. Users should know what to do next. You should also know (without digging) what your business is doing (core services), how to find the information you need, where to go on the website, and where to go next. Also, is there a call-to-action when you land on a service or product page to take you to the next step? After all, can they easily access your website from a tablet or smartphone? If your buttons are too small or your lead generation forms are buggy, you’ve just lost a customer (or customers).
If you think like a user and you can’t find what you want without it knowing where it is, you definitely need a redesign. Google will remove your page from the SERPs if you are not optimized for mobile devices and if you consistently provide a poor user experience, page 1 will not show up anytime soon.
- You have a new product or service to present.
You may have had a product or service overhaul, or found a new way to stay competitive in a changing market. But before you start, realize that your old website and branding don’t fit in this new direction. If so, why not upgrade and redesign? A redesign can be based on new sales goals and offer customers a clear path. - You update your marketing efforts.
When you finally reach 2019 and have decided to use a number of marketing tools, does your current website support all of the features you want? Do you have a way to optimize your pages for SEO? Do you have conversion-focused pages (thank you pages and landing pages)? Can you implement content marketing, social media, compelling graphics, underlying technology, and marketing integration? If you don’t have the right foundation, you may not be able to move with the times. Your website needs clear, SEO-friendly URL structures and tools to maximize keyword optimization. You need blog and news templates to get the most out of content marketing with social media integration. You also want conversion-focused product or service pages with clear CTAs. - You update your technology and functionality behind the scenes.
If you are an ecommerce site, do you have the latest tools to support the kind of website structure it needs to keep up? Do you have case studies on your pages? Do you have customizable quote or specialty tools to target customers when you are offline? Sure, you can add plugins for a lot of new technologies, but making sure you have a website that has been rebuilt for these tools means your website is neither in the whims of the app developers nor slowed down by scripts that don’t run smoothly.
If you think of two or more of these reasons, you should consider redesigning.
How can we help?
We’re an award-winning web design company that creates beautiful, bespoke websites with the added bonus of technical sophistication to run. We’re not just the icing on the cake; We can ensure that your money is well spent for years to come (so your website will be itchy for up to seven years instead of just three!).