Posted 29.04.2024
By Pete Bingham
Nobody would argue the importance of a website in business – your company’s website is your virtual storefront and often serves as the first point of contact for your customers. With user experience at the tip of everyone’s tongues in digital marketing at the moment, a poorly designed or outdated business website will absolutely impact your brand’s credibility, visibility, and ultimately, its success. We’re pulling no punches here.
If you are thinking of investing in a new website or a website redesign, you’ll be aware there are many factors to consider: budget, scope, functionality, features and more. While it may sound like a big undertaking, there are many compelling business reasons for updating your website – let’s take a look at some of them.
A new website presents the perfect opportunity to update your brand’s identity and reevaluate your company’s values and offerings. Whether it’s a full revamp of your brand image or a simple refresh of your digital presence, a new website gives you the chance to align your online identity with your updated business objectives and market positioning.
Perhaps you haven’t fully developed your brand identity yet or are looking to connect with your audience in a more modern or meaningful way to establish a more impactful presence in the market. With a new website, you can position your brand for growth and success and start as you mean to go on. It really can be a clean slate in many ways.
One great example of rebranding alongside a new site launch, is the recent RSPCA rebrand. See how as the animal charity entirely shifted its palette, iconography and messaging to better align itself with a younger audience and their updated goals.
If you’re looking to boost your website traffic, running an outdated site can seriously hinder your SEO efforts and even render your site virtually invisible to search engines. If potential customers can’t find you online, then they certainly can’t buy from you.
A modern website can increase organic traffic for several reasons. Whether it’s leveraging new technologies to enhance speed or making sure you adhere to modern tech standards like Google’s Core Web Vitals and mobile-friendliness, these are all direct or indirect ranking factors which can improve your site’s visibility and, as a result, increase your traffic.
However, a poorly executed website redesign can also negatively affect your traffic and overall SEO and marketing efforts. Make sure you partner with a trusted SEO specialist before proceeding with any web design project.
Of course, what business wouldn’t want that? But if your current website is outdated or ineffective from a customer experience point of view, then your sales are likely to be suffering as much as your customers.
While a new website isn’t a magic bullet, a well-designed and executed website redesign should aim to significantly enhance user experience and be conversion-focused. In fact, by improving user experience you can boost conversion rates by up to 400% and, according to new research, 72% of customers will share their positive experience with six or more people.
It just goes to show that positive customer experiences from a fresh, modern website that focuses on user experience can be an extremely powerful tool for generating leads and increasing sales.
It’s thought that up to a third of users will leave your site if they don’t like the website design. While employing web designers to undertake a simple site refresh can often address surface-level issues, an outdated-feeling site can often signal more serious, underlying issues within, such as the use of defunct technology, dated branding, a site that’s difficult to view on mobile, or even more long term neglect. Just as you wouldn’t be inclined to enter a tatty-looking high street shop, there are deeper trust-related issues with letting your website fall into disrepair.
Never forget thatyour website is often your primary marketing tool and these factors negatively impact user experience.If left unaddressed, this can lead to a significant drop in engagement, increased bounce rates, and ultimately, lost revenue. A good UX audit can help identify key areas of concern and determine whether to justify a complete site overhaul or a few necessary tweaks.
As businesses and technologies evolve, so does the demand for additional features from our websites, especially when it comes to eCommerce. From streamlined checkout processes to the integration of cutting-edge technologies like AI and chatbots, staying competitive in today’s market requires forward-thinking website development to create a site equipped with the latest functionalities.
Even on a basic level, if an older site is running out of date technology, it’s likely to be less secure, slow to load and failing to meet the demands of both search engines and customers. A good web development team will prioritise security, functionality and performance.
Further to the last point, older websites also often lack user-friendly interfaces, which means that, from an admin perspective, simple tasks, such as updating products or publishing content are laborious and cumbersome compared to a modern site.
Modern and regularly updated content management systems (CMSs) like Shopify and WordPress have made it so much easier to update your content, plug in new functionality and customise your website like never before.
This is especially valuable if you run a small team on a tight budget and need the entry-level skill curve to be less steep. It allows your team to manage the website efficiently without requiring extensive technical expertise.
Choosing to update your web design is sometimes as straightforward as “keeping up with the Joneses” If your competitors’ sites are slicker and quicker than yours, you stand a very good chance of losing your customers to them. We see it all the time: when Blockbuster Video didn’t keep up with the times, Netflix swooped in and took all their customers.
Furthermore, even if all other things are assumed equal between you and your competitors, your customers (and Google) will favour websites that provide a better user experience and meet modern standards. This means that if your competitors’ sites are more visually appealing, faster, and easier to navigate, they are likely to convert better and rank higher in search engine results.
All of the above are valid business reasons for undertaking a new website redesign, but knowing you need a new website and knowing what your website needs are two very different things. Although each business will have specific function and design requirements, any good website redesign project should, at the minimum, consider the following.
Ensure that your new website is not only responsive but designed with a mobile-first approach. This means that the website layout, navigation, and content should adapt seamlessly to various screen sizes and devices, providing an optimal user experience for mobile users. A mobile-friendly website not only caters to the preferences of the growing mobile user base but also improves SEO rankings, as Google prioritises mobile-friendly websites in its search results.
Accessibility is sadly overlooked by many businesses when it comes to web design, and often deemed as less important or time-consuming to implement. But when you consider that around 10-20% of people online have some form of accessibility requirement, then it’s fairly obvious there is potentially a very compelling business case to prioritising accessibility, particularly if you’re undertaking a major redesign from the ground up.
By making changes such as adding alternative text for images, enabling keyboard navigation, and making colour contrast adjustments, you open up your website to all users, and also demonstrate inclusivity and compliance with accessibility standards.
Any business undertaking a new website redesign is going to have to consider the very serious SEO implications of doing so. Ensuring that the redesign not only mitigates the risk of losing existing rankings but also jumps on the opportunity to maximise organic visibility and attract relevant traffic.
There are so many factors to consider, here are just some:.
There are, of course, so many more factors and many will be specific to your own individual site requirements but by addressing these with an SEO partner agency early on in the process, you can optimise your new site for improved search engine visibility, user experience, and overall digital performance from the beginning.
Website security, trust signals and data protection measures build trust and credibility with users and search engines, and keep sensitive information safe from cyber threats, legal liabilities and unauthorised access. However, many older sites are likely to be running outdated software, lacking essential security patches, and employing obsolete encryption methods, potentially putting website visitors at risk.
Upgrading to modern security protocols and having a site you can regularly maintain is crucial for protecting valuable data and maintaining a secure online environment for both businesses and their customers.
Customers often ask, “how often should you build a new website” and the standard industry answer is: around every 2-3 years. However, the reality is that if your site is built on good foundations, it should be scalable and therefore future-proof, leading to a much longer lifespan.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t give your site regular updates or even a fresh new look every few years, but the core of the site itself should be built on something that is robust enough to adapt and evolve with your business needs and technological advancements.
This is why, at Frogspark, we aim to really understand your business needs and goals so that the project we plan together is built on firmer foundations. From choosing the right CMS, to keeping the content and code easy to update – we consider your future expansion needs to ensure your website remains adaptable and capable of evolving with your business over time.
As mentioned at the start of this article, your company’s website serves as your virtual storefront and is undoubtedly your primary marketing tool in the modern age. When considering a new website redesign, the key is to ensure it’s done right.
As digital marketing experts, we strongly recommend consulting with a professional web design agency (ideally us, of course) when you’re ready to kickstart your web project. We understand the critical role your website plays in your business’s success and our dedicated web designers, developers, and SEO specialists have extensive experience in launching and optimising hundreds of websites.
We are committed to aligning with your vision and delivering a high-quality website that meets your specific business objectives.
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Part of The Digital Maze Group
