Your website is your online storefront. It’s the first impression potential customers have of your business, and it’s often the deciding factor in whether or not they choose to do business with you. That’s why it’s so important to keep your own website up-to-date and looking its best.
If your website is updated or cluttered, it will likely look unprofessional and trustworthy to potential customers. This can lead to lost sales and a decline in business.
To avoid such a decline, you can revamp your website pages with a fresh and modern design that reflects current best practices. This creates a brand image that encourages people to make purchases and interact with your business without any hesitation.
In this article, we explain what goes into a website redesign, how to figure out if you need one, where to start the process, and finish up with a helpful website revamp checklist.
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What is a Website Revamp?
A website redesign project is like a makeover for your online presence. It involves making significant changes to your website’s design, content, and functionality to improve its effectiveness and appeal. Think of it as giving your digital storefront a fresh new look and feel.
Website revamps can include one or several main focus areas. You can update the visual elements of your website, enhance the user experience, optimize it for mobile devices, and h refresh your content to align with current trends and customer expectations.
Tl;dr Version – Why You Need a Website Redesign
Revamping your website will make your brand more trustworthy and appealing to customers.
Here is a bit more explanation of why this is the case:
- Trustworthiness: A modern website that is simple to use and easy to navigate signals to customers that your company is up-to-date and reliable. This can be especially important for businesses that sell products or services online, as customers are more likely to trust a company with a professional-looking website.
- Appeal: A well-designed website can make your brand more appealing to customers. A modern website can help you showcase your products or services in a visually appealing way. It can also help you tell your brand story in a way that is engaging and informative.
“Do I Need a Website Revamp?”
Things move at lightspeed in the digital world. If you haven’t updated any aspect of your website in the last 3-4 years, it is probably looking a bit clunky compared to your competitors.
Clunky is never good, so here are five surefire signs to look out for:
1. Outdated Design
If your website appears as if it’s stuck in 2002, it’s high time for a change. Outdated websites can convey an unprofessional and untrustworthy image of your business. A lack of trust is a surefire way to deter potential customers. Remember, we only get one first impression.
2. Lack of Mobile-Friendliness
With the rise of smartphones, tablets, and many other devices that browse the web for us, having a mobile-friendly website is mandatory. Failing to optimize for mobile devices means more than just missing out on a large audience; it also impacts your SEO and overall visibility in search engines. For every person that reads this thinking, “Yeah, obviously,” there are five successful law firms who haven’t felt the need to update their website… ever.
3. Ineffective Design
A cluttered, confusing, or difficult-to-navigate design can lead visitors astray. Ensure that your website’s user design (UX) is intuitive and eye-catching, and understandable. A well-designed website guides users to take the desired action that they want without a hitch. If you make users look around for what they want, they’ll just look elsewhere instead.
4. Outdated Content
Outdated content creates the impression that your business is inactive or not keeping up with the latest trends. Regularly updating your website with fresh, relevant content helps portray your business as active, current, and engaged with your target audience. If you’re on social media, blogging, or podcasting, try to find a sustainable content cadence – and keep it up-to-date.
5. Low Conversion Rate
If your website isn’t generating the desired results, it’s a clear sign that a revamp is needed. Improving the UX, engagement, and persuasive elements of your website can significantly enhance its conversion rate, helping you achieve your business goals.
If any of these signs hit a bit too close to home with your current website situation, it’s probably time to consider a revamp. You can start by using the Revamp Checklist below. Another option is to let our team connect you with marketing design agencies who specialize in this stuff.
Customer-centric Revamp, Better Customer Service
Lack of information is a big barrier to entry for potential customers. As mentioned above, if people can’t find the information they’re looking for, they’re likely to just look somewhere else.
Having features like live chat or chatbots on your website means customers can get quick answers to their questions. Instead of waiting for an email response or making a phone call, they can chat with someone right away. This makes it faster and more convenient for customers to get the support they need.
Another customer-centric approach is to gather the most frequently asked questions about your products and services. Go through emails, talk with your customer service representatives, and look through reviews. Collate all of that information into a well-documented FAQ page.
Aside from a practical FAQ page and clear communication, there are a number of ways you can improve the UX of your new website:
- Use clear and concise language: Customers should be able to understand your website without having to read through a lot of jargon or technical language.
- Use high-quality images and videos: Images and videos can help to break up text and make your website more visually appealing. They can also be used to demonstrate your products or services or to tell your company’s story.
- Make it easy to navigate: Your website should be easy to navigate, with clear and logical menus and a search bar.
- Provide clear calls to action: Tell your customers what you want them to do, whether it’s to sign up for your newsletter, make a purchase, or contact you for more information.
By improving customer service through a website revamp, you can make things easier and more efficient for your customers. This helps them feel satisfied and loyal to your business, which can lead to more growth for your business.
A Practical Website Redesign Checklist
To guide your website redesign, here’s a helpful website revamp checklist for your website redesign plan:
- Set your goals
Clearly define your objectives for the website revamp. Do you want to increase traffic, improve conversion rates, or simply refresh the overall appearance? It sounds simple but people tend to stumble out of the gates when thinking of an answer.
- Audit your current website
Start by identifying areas that require improvement. Assess the design, content, functionality, and usability to pinpoint specific areas for enhancement. Assess what google analytics may favor and what the redesign process could change. Make notes of what you want to keep and what you want to go away.
- Do your research
Explore what other businesses in your industry are doing with their websites. Conduct thorough research to gather inspiration and ideas that align with your vision. Explaining exactly what you want is much easier to show than to tell.
- Hire a web designer
Unless you possess web design skills, you’re going to want to engage a professional web designer or a marketing design agency. Their expertise will help transform your vision into a visually appealing and functional website. They can navigate technical issues like changing a content management system or other site structure changes.
- Create a design brief
Document your vision for the revamped website in a design brief. Outline your expectations, preferences, and key elements you want to incorporate. Bard or Chat-GPT can help. The brief helps the web designer translate your vision into reality.
- Test and launch your new website
Before pushing the new website live, test out every aspect of the design to ensure it aligns with your requirements. Thorough testing mitigates the chances of costly issues down the line. Your design team should agree.
- Promote your new website
Once the new website goes live, you need to promote the new launch. Getting the word out through your marketing channels is a great way to generate awareness (or even re-awareness) and drive traffic to your new website.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, redesigning your website can help you build trust with customers and make your brand more appealing. And through appeal, help your business become more profitable.
But revamping your website can be a daunting task. If you aren’t sure where to begin, kick off the process by setting clear goals. Create goals from your customer’s perspective and keep in mind what you like and dislike about browsing your competitors’ websites. Try starting here:
- What do you want to achieve with your website revamp?
- Do you want to increase traffic, improve conversion rates, or simply refresh the overall appearance?
By following the tips included in this article, you can create a website that will help you attract new customers, increase sales, and grow your business.
Streamline Your Website Revamp With Credo
If you want to improve your brand image and make your existing website more appealing to customers, Credo’s digital matchmaking service streamlines the process of revamping your website.
Our team connects you with qualified web designers or specialized marketing agencies that can help you create a website that meets your needs. Or even better, the needs of your customers!
