When a Website is due for a Redesign should not be driven by time, but technology, usability, and how critical the Website is to your business. With that in mind, here are some important questions that will help you determine if you need a Redesign.
1. Is Your Website Easy To Use?
Probably the most important question you have to ask (from the user perspective). Most new visitors will determine if they should stick around or leave your Website within the first four seconds. Therefore, all important elements have to be visitable and easy to use. Is your navigation well organized? Does your content flow well? How clear are your CTAs (call-to-actions)? Is the User Experience consistent across different devices (Desktop, Laptop, Phone, and Tablet)?
2. Is Your Website Mobile-Optimized?
If your customers can’t view your Website effectively on their mobile devices they will go elsewhere. Smartphone usage statistics are going up, and desktop usage is going down, so your Website has to look great on mobile devices.
3. Is Your Website Responsive?
Responsive web design is an approach to implementing a Website so that it automatically responds to the size of the screen. Fundamentally, Responsive web design ensures that your Website looks great regardless of what screen size is used (current or future).
Also, Google has stated that responsive design is their preferred mobile configuration, which to us means if all things are equal, Responsive sites will rank higher than a non-responsive site.
Related: Benefits of Responsive Design
4. Have You Outgrown Your Content Management System (CMS)?
If you have outgrown your CMS then you will likely Redesign your Website at the same time you switch CMSs, because migrating content from one CMS to another is not a trivial task, and can take months to complete.
5. Does The Website Match Your Brand?
Consistency is very important, and it is almost impossible to create a great user experience if there is no cohesion between your branding and your Website. The Website Redesign should be an important step in any rebranding you do.
6. Does Your Website Use HTML5?
HTML 5 is a markup language and is the fifth and latest version of the HTML standard. While there are some nice new elements in HTML5, unless your Website is media-rich then not using HTML 5 is not a deal-breaker yet. HTML5 alone should not drive your decision to Redesign.
7. Does Your Website Use Tables For Layout?
A table-based layout contains more code, makes it harder to separate content from design, and don’t cater to mobile devices. So how do you know if your Website is using Tables or DIVs for layout? Most Website developers stopped using table-based Website structures around 2009, so if your Website is less than 7 years old you dodged a bullet, and probably have a DIV-based structure. However, if you still have a table-based structure than you are definitely due for a Website Redesign.
Other Factors
Here are a few other factors that may kick-start a website redesign:
- Are you launching a new product or service?
- Starting a new marketing initiative?
- Are you an early adopter?
- How does your Website stack up against the competition?
Summary
As we covered in the post, there is a lot more to a “website redesign” then changing your website’s design; therefore, when and how frequently you redesign your website should be driven by factors such as usability (ease of use), technology advancements, and best practices (frequently updated).
Your website is your most important digital marketing asset, so give it the attention it deserves.
