5 Signs You Need a New Website
If you’re wondering whether or not it’s time to redesign your current brand website, ask yourself these five questions:
1. Was your website built 10 or more years ago?
2. Is it best serving the needs of your audience, brand, and business?
3. Are you missing the boat on mobile without responsive design?
4. Are you launching a new product, service line, or brand positioning?
5. Do you need to revamp your marketing efforts?
If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, it could very well be time to take the leap and plan for redesign. Remember the longer you put off a redesign, the longer you will be missing out on opportunities to increase conversion and revenue.
There are numbers to back this claim up. For instance, conversion jumped up 60.3% after Purl Soho redesigned their website. This premium knitting and craft brand had outgrown their existing website and found that the redesign was well worth the investment.
Are you showing up in Google search?
Another advantage of redesigning your website is that it can improve your search ranking so your audience to find you more easily. A redesign gives you a chance to think through and plan content with search optimization in mind. This includes targeting keyword phrases and offering valuable content that encourages people to link to you, which ups your ranking.
A redesign also allows you to create a more search-friendly platform by implementing best practices. For instance, you can ensure that important content is in text or HTML. This way it can be indexed by search engine crawlers, which won’t find other content types, such as images without alt tags or Flash files.
Making the decision to redesign
Even if you’re sure it’s time the redesign, it can still be difficult to make that final decision. It is a large undertaking that requires time, resources, and money. You’ll also probably need to hire a website design agency. Most companies don’t have an internal team of digital user experience, design, content, and development experts available for this kind of project.
If you hire an outside agency, you will still need to dedicate some internal resources to the project. For instance, you’ll need a point person to manage the project on your end. This involves making sure the agency has access to the information they need about your business, brand, etc., and helping them gather input from stakeholders.
How should you choose an agency?
You should look for an agency with strong experience and a proven website development process. Of course, you’ll also want an agency that can deliver results in a reasonable timeframe at a price within your budget range.
Keep in mind that it is important to be realistic about timing and cost. For instance, you can find agencies that promise fast, cheap website design. However, they might not be able to stick to their promises leading to deadline extensions and unexpected costs. Additionally, you could end up with a subpar website that doesn’t meet your expectations.
Also be careful if you’re considering big name agencies. You might end up paying more simply because of their brand name. In addition, these agencies sometimes have clients meet with their senior staff, but then hand of the actual work to less experienced employees. If you go with a larger agency, make sure you know who will be doing the work.
Ultimately, you should go with an agency that fits your needs and feels right to you. It’s important that you’re able to communicate comfortably with one another, since communication is a big key to a successful website redesign. And don’t be shy about asking questions. A good agency should be open to helping you understand the process so you know exactly what to expect from your partnership.