In life, there are many instances when it’s apparent you need to let go of the old and bring on the new. For instance, is the milk in the refrigerator taking on a chunky texture and giving off a sour odor? It’s time to go to the grocery store. Is it taking longer to coerce your zipper up and your button closed than it takes you to commute to the office? It’s time for some new pants. Does your car start less than half the time you turn the key in the ignition? You better cancel your weekend plans because it’s time to go car shopping.
When it comes to business assets, however, when to abandon the old and adopt the new can be a bit trickier. One place we see companies struggle with this most often is their websites. It doesn’t matter if you’re a young SaaS startup or a healthcare company that’s been serving the community for decades; it’s not always easy to know when the time is right for a website redesign.
To help you know when that time has come, we've compiled a list of reasons companies seek out website design services:
Poor web analytics are the first indication your website may need a redesign. If your web analytics show visitors are landing on your site and quickly leaving or they’re clicking around without converting, then they clearly are not finding what they came for.
You know search engines reward websites that make regular content updates, but you’ve been avoiding updating your website because your coding skills are subpar. (And because if you bother your trusty developer one more time, you know he’s going to steal your lunch every day for the next month.) You should be able to easily make content updates to your site without fiddling with code. A Content Management System (CMS) like HubSpot or Wordpress gives you the ability to easily make updates.
Your business has evolved over the years. So too has your branding. Mergers or acquisitions, new leadership and new products or services are just a few things that impact brand positioning and brand messaging. Does your current website match up to how you’re positioning your company in the marketplace?
Let’s face it: How your website looks makes a difference. According to a study by ResearchGate, a whopping 94 percent of people say websites with good designs are more trustworthy. Some of today’s top websites feature sleek, minimalistic designs that eliminate ornamental elements (like textures, gradients and drop shadows), creating a simple, aesthetic user experience.
Sources show smartphones and tablets now account for 55 percent of Internet usage in the U.S., and nearly half (48 percent) of mobile users say if they visit a business website that doesn’t work well on mobile, they take it as an indication of the business not caring. As our creative director Dan Ulichney said at the beginning of 2014, there are so many devices and resolutions, there’s simply no way you can create a mobile version of your website to cover all of your bases. This means a responsive website is no longer an option—it’s a necessity.
Navigating your company’s website is second nature for you and your team. But your website wasn’t built for your team—it was (or should be) built to convert web visitors into leads and then customers. Large websites with layers of subpages are tedious to navigate. And the more difficult it is to navigate your website, the less likely visitors are to try.
Websites of the past often read like product brochures. Websites today need to speak to potential buyers. Long paragraphs of product-centric copy should be replaced with simple value propositions and solution-centric messaging that address buyer pain points. Branding and imagery should be what buyers want to see. When buyers visit your website, it should feel as if it was custom built for them.
According to Forbes, 80 percent of B2B purchase cycles are completed before the buyer contacts sales. One of the first stops in that buyer journey is often your website. As we learned above, looks matter to potential buyers. If your competitors’ websites are simple, well-organized and customer-centric, your website is at a distinct disadvantage.
There’s no hard and fast rule for how often you should redesign your website; however, to keep up with web technology advances and design trends, the design experts at Kuno recommend major updates every one to two years and content updates regularly.
There’s room for improvement for every website, but at the end of the day, you know when your website isn’t working as well as it should be. Allocating the budget for a website redesign can be a hard pill to swallow, but the sooner you undergo a website redesign, the sooner you’ll be back on track to meeting your 2014 marketing and sales goals.
Want to talk more about redesigning your website? Request a consultation with Kuno Creative to learn what our in-house team can do to build you a website that gets results.
