Is it Time to Redesign Your Web site? 7 Telltale Indicators

Redesigning a web site is usually a main job, however in lots of instances, it’s vital on your website to outlive and thrive. Guests can assess your web site’s visible attraction in as little as 50 milliseconds. Meaning you might solely have a fraction of a second to make a constructive first impression.

A poorly designed web site doesn’t solely result in a adverse person expertise—it could additionally scale back your group’s return on funding (ROI). In at the moment’s digital-first world, your web site is a vital software for driving on-line engagement. With no well-designed and informative web site, you’ll be able to miss out on connecting with potential prospects or supporters and spreading model consciousness.

So, how have you learnt when your web site is prepared for a revamp? Let’s discover seven frequent indicators that it’s time for a redesign.

1. Your web site isn’t user-friendly.

Your web site is supposed to have interaction your viewers members, whether or not they’re prospects, beneficiaries, members, or supporters of your group. In case your website isn’t user-friendly, your viewers merely received’t need to use it.

As you assess your web site for user-friendliness, pay particular consideration to the next parts:

Accessibility

Accessibility implies that your web site is usable and inclusive for all guests, together with individuals with disabilities. If you happen to designed your web site with the Internet Content material Accessibility Tips (WCAG) in thoughts, it needs to be in good condition to have interaction all viewers members equally.

If not, you might be able to make a handful of primary accessibility enhancements, equivalent to including alt textual content to pictures or captions to movies, that make a serious distinction in enhancing accessibility.

Nonetheless, you may want to think about a larger-scale redesign in case your foundational web site and model parts, equivalent to your font and coloration selections, aren’t accessible. In case your web site font is tough to learn or your coloration combos don’t have ample distinction, it might be time for a bigger dialog together with your staff about how one can make your website extra accessible.

Navigation

One other facet of a constructive person expertise is straightforward, easy-to-use navigation. Your menu needs to be straightforward to know and extremely seen on every net web page. Think about using breadcrumb navigation to assist net guests perceive their present location in relation to different pages and navigate again to earlier pages as wanted. Additionally, make sure that your web site affords a search operate to assist customers rapidly navigate to the pages they need to view.

As an example, check out how the San Francisco Worldwide Airport’s web site helps guests perceive precisely the place they’re on the positioning and the way they bought there. The web site’s clear breadcrumb navigation makes it straightforward to examine essential particulars like flight data in only a few clicks.

2. Your web site is simply too static.

A plain or outdated web site can maintain you again nearly as a lot as one that gives a adverse person expertise. There are round 1.88 billion web sites on the web, that means it’s a must to go above and past to encourage customers to discover yours. A visually fascinating design units your web site aside and helps you stand out on this crowded panorama.

Your web site may undergo from a static design if:

• Your content material isn’t participating or interactive. Guests ought to have ample alternative to have interaction additional together with your web site by clicking on buttons, hovering over parts to disclose extra data, and viewing compelling photographs and movies.

• Your design seems boring and primary. Definitely, there’s one thing to be stated about minimalism. Nonetheless, you don’t need to take your minimalist design too far and find yourself with a boring web site. Your website needs to be straightforward to navigate whereas nonetheless providing an intriguing visible element by your use of coloration and graphic design.
• Your design is dated. Analysis from GoodFirms reveals that 38.5% will depart due to outdated design. Your web site ought to characteristic a timeless, responsive design that may final for years to come back.

A dynamic, participating web site can function a sustainable useful resource that appeals to a broad viewers.

3. Your branding is outdated.

Your web site ought to mirror your present enterprise objectives and model identification. If it doesn’t, you could possibly unintentionally confuse viewers members about what your group affords.

At any time when your group undergoes a serious branding shift, it’s vital to revamp your web site to make sure it tells a cohesive story alongside together with your different advertising and marketing supplies.

For instance, maybe you’re fascinated by redesigning your healthcare web site. Over the previous couple of years, your group has shifted from solely accepting grownup sufferers to additionally providing pediatric care. Due to this fact, you need to redesign your web site to mirror your new choices and embody new pages that deal with your kids’s healthcare providers.

4. Your conversion fee is lowering.

Your website could obtain an honest quantity of visitors, however maybe that visitors isn’t changing into precise assist or gross sales. If that’s the case, your web site could undergo from a conversion downside.

Relying in your group sort, you’ll need to control the next kinds of conversions:

• Donations. For nonprofit web sites, donations are among the many most vital conversions to trace as a result of they signify a nonprofit’s capacity to rework web site guests into precise supporters. You’ll be able to improve donations by making your on-line donation kind extra accessible throughout your web site. Embody a hyperlink to the web page in your menu and all through your weblog posts.

• Registrations. Whether or not you’re a enterprise internet hosting an occasion or a nonprofit recruiting volunteers, registrations are an vital indicator of how prepared your viewers members are to have interaction together with your occasions. You can too improve registrations by together with pop-up messages or buttons directing guests to the registration web page.
• Purchases. If your small business affords a web-based retailer, purchases are a vital conversion to watch. If you happen to observe a big drop in gross sales, it’s value contemplating redesigning your on-line retailer to make it extra user-friendly. Characteristic high-quality product photographs, present an easy-to-use search/filter software, and provide a spread of fee choices.

Whether or not you’re a nonprofit, enterprise, or one other sort of group, conversions exhibit your viewers’s willingness to contribute their time or cash to assist you. Redesigning your web site to spice up conversions can positively impression your ROI.

5. Your bounce fee is growing.

Bounce fee measures what number of guests depart your web site after solely visiting one web page. In case your bounce fee is excessive, it is perhaps an indication that your web site isn’t successfully protecting guests’ consideration.

You’ll be able to encourage guests to discover a number of pages in your website by incorporating extra calls to motion and enhancing connections between pages. For instance, let’s say you obtain a big quantity of visitors from individuals clicking in your weblog posts, however these readers don’t stick round in your website after viewing your posts. You’ll be able to add hyperlinks to different academic pages on the finish of your posts or buttons that ship guests to your on-line donation web page or retailer to increase their engagement together with your website.

6. Your web site isn’t search engine optimisation optimized.

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the method of crafting the content material of your web site to attraction to guests, leading to rating extra extremely on search engine outcomes pages. If you happen to’ve famous a current drop in search engine optimisation efficiency that’s impacted a number of web site pages, your design and heading construction may partially be responsible.

search engine optimisation efficiency instantly corresponds to the standard of your person expertise. Responsive design is without doubt one of the most vital search engine optimisation issues—the GoodFirms research reveals that 73% of holiday makers will depart a web site due to unresponsive design. Different search engine optimisation design greatest practices embody website velocity and accessibility.

Lastly, by your redesign course of, it’s vital to make sure that your web site pages are optimized for particular key phrases. Every web page ought to embody a novel key phrase that you just use all through the headings, meta descriptions, and different metadata. This reveals search engines like google that your pages are helpful for individuals researching associated phrases.

7. Your web site isn’t mobile-friendly.

Cellular-friendliness is a key think about your web site’s usability and search engine optimisation efficiency. About 59% of all net visitors comes from cell units. In case your web site isn’t mobile-optimized, you could possibly be lacking out on participating cell guests.

The excellent news is which you could enhance your website’s cell friendliness with just a few fast adjustments in your redesign course of. Compress all photographs to advertise quick load speeds and guarantee your textual content is massive sufficient to be learn on cell units. As you design your web site, constantly examine the cell view to make sure that any design adjustments don’t trigger cell formatting points.

As a part of the cell design course of, you should use Google’s free cell friendliness check to find out the place your website at the moment stands.

Not each web site wants a full-fledged redesign. Some web sites merely want smaller design changes to enhance facets like accessibility or weblog publish search engine optimisation optimization. Nonetheless, in case your web site displays any of the indicators mentioned above, it may very well be time to think about a extra sturdy overhaul.

As you start the redesign course of, don’t hesitate to achieve out to an online design and growth company as wanted. These professionals can assist handle the redesign course of to make sure your web site follows greatest practices and affords a cohesive, fulfilling person expertise.