Is Your Website Due for a Redesign?

Your brand’s website is one of its most visible marketing tools, and potentially the most powerful—after all, it is the center of so much of what you do. Videos, blog posts, landing pages, product pages, all are located on that website. It is your front door. When was the last time you looked at it with an impartial eye? When was the last time it changed?

There are many reasons for redesigning your company’s website, and now is the right time to make plans to include a redesign in your 2023 marketing budget.

Why Redesign Your Website?

Sometimes a website redesign is part of a larger rebranding effort, complete with updated messaging and brand imagery, as with Avanti (which had recently joined with Ricoh) and Yes Health.

But most often, the reason is focused on performance. More than 80 percent of web designers say a low conversion rate is the top reason businesses should consider a redesign. (GoodFirms) Other reasons your website may need attention include a high bounce rate, poor user experience (UX), unresponsive design, SEO challenges, or if it is just simply outdated. If you haven’t changed your website since before Covid-19—and all of the changes in how business operates that came with it—now is a good time to include it in your marketing budget. After all, according to research by Orbit Media, the average lifespan of top-performing websites is 2 years and 7 months.

There can be many reasons for low conversion rates, so be sure to investigate what specifically needs to change:

• Does your website have enough valuable conversion opportunities for your target buyer personas?

• Are there appropriately placed calls-to-action linking to those conversion opportunities?

• Does your website include content that provides SEO opportunities and encourages traffic, multi-page visits and sharing?

• Is your website easy to navigate so users can find the information they are seeking?

• Is your website visually attractive and a strong representation of your brand?

Steps To A Website Redesign

If a low conversion rate, rebranding project or simply the passage of time call for a website update and redesign, here are the basic steps to get you started.

1. Audit your existing website.

As I said earlier, if your current website is failing to perform, it is important to figure out why so you can address those deficiencies in the next iteration. Even if you think it is performing OK, and are instigating a redesign for other reasons, an audit of your current website is the best place to start.

You can use our Website Redesign Audit template as a guide to take a critical look at three key areas and provide an overview of your current site to make it easier to pinpoint where changes should be made in your redesign. Consider:

• Current metrics

  • Website traffic/visitors

  • Bounce rate

  • Top keywords

  • Inbound links

  • Lead conversions

  • Sales

  • Pages

• Technical errors or challenges

  • SEO

  • Technical issues (such as redirects or broken links)

  • Site speed

  • Mobile experience

  • Lead generation

• Design

  • Logos

  • Brand colors

  • Typography

  • Images

  • Layout

  • UX/UI

Our template provides space to examine each page of your site individually to evaluate its current effectiveness and note changes and “fixes” that should be made.

2. Set priorities for redesign: accessibility, UX, SEO, conversions and maintenance.

With your audit in hand, you need to set priorities for your redesign—what are the most important elements or website functions that you want to address. Accessibility is top of mind for many companies, including tools such as alt text for images or considering color palettes that are reading by those with color blindness or including subtitles for videos.

Those accessibility consideration are a great first step in improving UX for all users. Optimizing your site for the latest search algorithms—including Google’s mobile-first indexing—is essential in an online-first environment where 77 percent of B2B buyers say they do their own research before talking to a sales rep. In order to effectively use your website for lead generation, you need to also consider opportunities it presents for lead capture, from newsletter or blog subscriptions to live or recorded webinars and other gated content.

Finally, from a management standpoint, it pays to consider how your website will grow and change with your brand, and who will be in charge of the details of making that happen. When we created a new website for Avanti, a Ricoh company, it was important that the site be built on a platform that had the flexibility to grow with them, could interface with automation tools and be managed in-house, without a need to constantly involve a web designer for each new page or update.

Your priorities for your website will be key in one of the first decisions: choosing a website builder and platform.

3. Choose a full-service partner.

Not many marketing teams have all the talent and time needed to execute a timely website redesign in-house. A website redesign requires a significant investment of resources in planning and executing, as well as expertise in multiple areas, from marketing strategy and SEO to graphic design, coding and copywriting.

Finding all of those skills, and the extra time to manage a redesign, within your own team could drag the project out much longer than the average three- to six-month timeframe for a full website redesign (Impact). Bringing in a partner agency, with access to all of the special skills needed and an understanding of how to blend your new website with the rest of your marketing strategy takes the pressure off your in-house team.

A full-service marketing agency provides a combination of experience, flexibility and accountability to maximize your investment in a website redesign, including an understanding that goes beyond strictly website creation. An agency like JONES is prepared to fully integrate your website with the rest of your marketing strategy because we understand how all of the components work together.

If your website needs a redesign in 2023, let’s talk. Schedule a meeting with our founder and CEO Kristin Jones to discuss your priorities, the possibilities and how JONES can be a full-service partner in your next website.