Website Redesigns
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Last month I looked at the redesign of 7 different websites. Personally I love redesigning websites. I get to work with each business finding out how their website can work better for them, and give it a fresh look.
From a business point of view redesigning your website isn’t ideal. Once you have a website you want it to work for you as long as possible without many changes. Your website reflects your business, so extremely changing often can confuse your website visitors. Some of the reasons businesses get their website redesigned are:
- It’s been a long time since the website was created and nearly all the information is out of date
- New logo and/or corporate image
- The design doesn’t display products/services promently
- No products are selling
- No-one is contacting about services provided
- The website needs to be updated by staff and this wasn’t a feature available when it was originally created
- Something on a competitors site looks or works better
- The internet has changed so much since the website was created and the website hasn’t been updated along the way
- Different people have updated the site over a period of time and there is no consistancy with design and information architexture
- It’s not being found by search engines
- New business owners or management
In the case of having a new logo or corporate image I believe it is important to have your website redesigned. If you have a new image, logo, colours, even fonts then you want your website to reflect that. Your website is part of your business, so just as you would get new business cards and letterheads you should incorporate your new look throughout your website.
Usually the decision for a redesign comes from more then one of these points, but most of them happen because the website has been forgotten or ignored for a certain amount of time, then thought too much trouble to update.
It is good to put aside time to work on your website regularly, making sure information is correct on each page. Adding new product photos, client testimonials, news about your business, latest specials are just a few items that you can update regularly.
Search engines prefer you to update your website regularly, rather then leaving it for months or years at a time without new information. If you leave your website too long without an update then they may think that it has been abandoned. Also if your competitors are regularly updating their websites they may start appearing above you in search results. More importantly your current and potential clients need to see accurate up-to-date information. Wrong contact details, or your latest article dated 2 years ago could make people think you’re out of business now.
Take the time to review your website. If not many people are signing up to your newsletter, have a look at how the page is laid out. It could be people are just overlooking the signup button and by moving it or changing it’s colour your results could change.
