Your website is the digital persona you present to current and prospective customers. Keeping it fresh, trendy and relevant will improve user engagement and conversions. You may not need a complete redesign, but changing a few elements occasionally can spur growth and signal relevance to search engine bots.
How Often Should You Redesign Your Website?
How frequently you should redesign a site is a complex question. A complete makeover is an intensive and sometimes expensive process that small-business owners tend to avoid. Conversely, frequent additions and upgrades are affordable and can change things enough to make your site more useful to users.
There are 193.5 million active websites, and 252,000 new ones are created daily. However, these numbers fluctuate as sites go online and offline. While no standard states how often a website should be updated, a good rule of thumb is every year or two. Design abilities and trends change frequently. If you wait too long to add elements or fix known problems, you risk frustrating your users, who will bounce to one of your competitors.
It’s best to make small changes frequently than to leave a ton of updates for your designer to finish all at once. This takes more time to get your site where it needs to be, and users may grow frustrated in the meantime.
Signs It Might Be Time for a Refresh
Perhaps you’re on an extremely tight budget and doing most of the content and day-to-day updates on your own. You might wonder how you can know when to pull in a professional designer or set aside time to rebrand your site or add new features. Here are some signs it’s time for a redesign.
1. You’re Getting Little Interaction
You want your website visitors to engage with your brand. They should send you emails, sign up for offers, make purchases and engage on social media. If all you have is radio silence, it’s probably time for a redesign.
Perhaps your business grew and the model changed, so the current design no longer works to draw users in. Revamping your landing page could increase conversions dramatically. Start by looking at your buyer’s journey and fixing any problems you see.
2. You Rebranded or Changed Your Image
Having consistent corporate branding is essential for better brand recognition. So, if your business has changed significantly enough that you’re updating your physical inventory such as signage, marketing materials or products, it’s time for a redesign.
Some common reasons for changing up your physical media might include a logo or color palette change, a company merger or changes in your branding strategy to keep up with competitor updates. In these and similar cases, an evaluation of your digital presence is just as important as updates made to your physical one.
3. You Added Features or Products
If you’ve recently added new products to your lineup, it’s time to recategorize and make room for them on your site. New features may require intricate coding to allow users to take full advantage of software releases or upgrade existing products.
Consider where you want users to head first when they land on your site. You may need to redo your sales funnel and send current clients to one area and new ones to another to fully meet all customers’ needs.
4. Your KPIs Are Low
Key performance indicators are helpful metrics for small-business owners to show how effective everything from a promotional campaign to website design is. Pay attention to how well your site converts visitors. When the numbers drop, it is likely time for a refresh. Look at your calls to action to see if you should change button colors, placement or offers.
5. You Got Hacked
Small-business owners are often targeted by ransomware and hackers out for a good time on your website. In fact, nearly 50% of all SMBs have been victims of ransomware attacks.
You may be at risk of a cyberattack if you utilize a content management system such as WordPress. Cybercriminals have been known to take over a website and add their own code, making it impossible to regain control over the original design.
The only way to be 100% certain all lines of inserted code are removed from your site is to start from scratch. This is an excellent time to redesign your website. Start by shoring up firewalls and antivirus software. Change all passwords, replace SALT keys and block certain IPs from accessing your site. If you’re using WordPress, make your administration page something other than wp-admin and change the name of your database from the default.
Keep Your Design Fresh
You must consider several factors when determining when to update your site. Some website owners add a few things around the holidays to get shoppers in a festive mood. Others only update when necessary. If users complain about some aspect of your site or design, it’s time to take a closer look. Pay attention to feedback, KPIs and interactions to ensure your website provides what your audience needs and keeps them coming back for more.
