If you’ve found yourself wondering, “How often should I redesign my website?” then the chances are that it’s time. Still, we’ve put together a guide for when and how to redesign your website when the time comes.
How to Tell If Your Website Needs a Redesign
Whether you’re not hitting your business goals, your page isn’t showing up on the first page of search results for your industry, or your web page design doesn’t reflect a recent rebrand or design update, your website will need a refresh every once in a while. As a general rule of thumb, you should redesign your website every two to three years or any time you update your branding.
Why Should I Redesign My Website?
There are many reasons why you should redesign your website—either because of the benefits you’ll receive from redesigning it or the detriments you’ll face by keeping it out-of-date.
Design and Branding Issues
If you’ve recently rebranded, you want to make sure that your website reflects your new brand identity. If you’ve adopted a new commitment to ethical operations, for example, you would want to make sure that all of your platforms highlight that for potential customers. Furthermore, the design of your current site may seem out-of-date compared to the trends on popular sites today.
Current design trends are all focused on dynamic and engaging ways to present content—from parallax scrolling to customized typography, website designers are learning to adapt to the shorter attention span that users have developed from constant entertainment. Having content that isn’t engaging or presented thoughtfully may lead to a higher bounce rate; users would rather read the same content on a site that they perceive as trendy.
Low Website Performance
Sometimes it’s obvious when you need a refresh. You’re offering a high-quality product or services, but its packaging isn’t doing you any favors—whether you have a high bounce rate, a lack of web traffic, or you’ve received complaints that your website isn’t user-friendly, there are many web design techniques that will update your website without necessarily changing the content. This includes something called responsible design, which means, in part, that your website should be accessible to all of your users, whether they’re on desktop, or mobile, or have visual or physical limitations.
Changes to the Algorithm
Google changes its algorithm, in addition to search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, frequently. The phrasing or layout of your website that got you on the first search engine results page (SERP) three months ago may not do the same now. Especially on a professional website, it’s important to make sure that your website content is phrased and laid out in a way that encourages more hits on search engines. While your website’s design may be up-to-date, it won’t matter unless Google is directing people to the site in the first place.
Website Redesign Methods
Depending on your current website and your goals for traffic and lead generation, there are various avenues for redesigning and updating your website.
Rebuild
Rebuilding a website often means remaking it from scratch. The site may change in content, but a rebuild is typically reserved for website redesigns that impact the layout of the pages and the sitemap. This can be done by rewriting the code for the site or, if it is hosted by a site builder such as WordPress or Squarespace, changing the website template. This can include a style refresh but is most helpful when the layout of your site is clunky or outdated and you want to improve the site’s user experience (UX). You can also upgrade or otherwise change the website’s server so that it can run more smoothly or handle higher traffic, among other things.
Remodel or Renovate
Remodeling a website involves minor changes to the speed and performance of the site in addition to changing its design. While this approach is more advanced because it tackles two potential problems, it isn’t as in-depth as rebuilding the entire website. This typically involves updating the pre-existing code and the back-end infrastructure of the site.
Rewire
Rewiring a website takes a strict back-end approach to the redesign. It focuses on the performance and maintenance of the website and includes services such as upgrading the content management system (CMS) and modernizing the back-end code. Furthermore, this may involve adding new plugins, UX design services, migration plans, or additional subscriptions.
Redecorate
Redecorating a website is less extensive than rebuilding or rewiring one, but it still involves changing the design of the site itself. This is a great option for those who have well-running websites that look out-of-date but have the hosting capabilities for high traffic and a followable layout. In other words, the back end of a redecorated website will be the same both before and after, but the customer will see a refreshed and renewed website when they enter.
Web Design With Versa Creative
Now that you know the answer to the question, “How often should I redesign my website?” you can begin your website redesign journey. Although you can go through numerous third parties to handle the website development, graphic design, and content orientation of your new website, the easiest way to undergo a website redesign is to hire a full-service marketing agency that can take care of every aspect of the redesign under one roof.
Versa Creative is a team of highly experienced marketing professionals who have all of the necessary skills to facilitate and develop your updated website. With a website development team who can handle the back-end code, a graphic design team that can spearhead your brand refresh, a search engine optimization (SEO) team to curate your content for more leads, and a copywriting team to develop your new website copy, Versa is ready to handle any website redesign need. Visit our website for a free website audit to see how you can refresh your online presence!
