“Freshen Up” Your Website: 10 Ways to Redesign More Effective
When people think of Fall, they just think about how the leaves are dying and falling from the trees. However, the Fall is really about rebirth and growth. Leaves fall to make way for newborn leaves. This is exactly how the process of refreshing and redesigning your website works.
You need to make space to allow your website to go through this rejuvenation process so that it can better serve you and meet your goals.
Redesigning is about creating a better user experience for your customers. Just like in the fashion and the cosmetic industry that always care to renew the range of products and services in accordance with their market demands.
This is a vital move particularly during this period, Covid-19, as a new market was born and the rules of the game have changed in the global business arena.
It’s also important to note that “redesigning” your website can include a whole makeover of the site but also can be just small changes in the graphic design elements or making functional modifications to improve the user experience for better conversion.
Why should you redesign your website?
First of all, because your website is your main storefront and a key player in your marketing strategy. Besides that, did you know that about 94% of negative feedback about a website was related to its design? Your website is the first impression of your brand. It’s crucial to have a well-designed website that can help you gain trust and guide visitors to take action. So, keep in mind that the first impression is your last impression. But it’s not just about the first impression; it’s also about great user experience (UX) that leads to conversions. Otherwise, 89% of consumers will spend their money with a competitor if they had a negative experience with your website.
If you aren’t achieving your goals and it doesn’t serve you anymore, it’s the perfect time to freshen up your website.
Here are 10 practical ways to refresh your website:
1. Identifying Your Priorities
Get some clarity if the goals of your site have changed and ask yourself: What are your priorities with this web redesign? What message are you trying to convey to your audience? What are your new goals? Does it appeal to your optimal target audience or maybe you just want the new design to align with the changing design spirit?
Understanding the answers to these questions is as important to the website redesign process. You shouldn’t just redesign your website because you feel like it; it should be serving your new purpose. Maybe you want to improve your authority in your industry. Or, you might desire to get more traffic or higher conversion rates. Your website design depends on your priorities and if you don’t consider priorities, then your redesign won’t help you achieve your goals.
2. Rebranding
Part of your website redesign will bring rebranding. Whatever your branding is, whether you go for a total rebrand or just change a bit of what you have, you want to make sure that you are consistent and clear with your branding. You want to effectively articulate your unique value proposition. Using concise branding language, create a clear message that will inspire customers to trust you as an authority in your field who can offer the best solutions that they need. If you’ve created a new logo or color scheme as part of this process, make sure these are included in the website redesign to ensure cohesive branding.
3. Declutter
Do you have any pages on your website that you no longer use or other services that you don’t offer anymore? Delete them! You need to delete anything on your website that no longer serves you. You should then reorganize your pages in the order that they appear on your website. Lastly, make sure that you have the proper names for these pages. You don’t want customers confused when they go to a page expecting something, then get something else. This could lead to a negative experience for your visitors.
4. Updating Your Target Audience
You want to make sure that people who visit your website understand what you do and what value and solutions you offer to help them. This should be clearly communicated on your website so that customers don’t get confused.
The combination of the KISS (keep it simple) method with smart copywriting always wins.
5. Update Your Business Information
This is a golden opportunity to update your customers on a change in the services you offer. You can also share about compelling achievements or innovative studies in your field. If there’s out of date information on your website, whether it be about your company or location, make sure that all of your links are active and up-to-date. Customers can get easily frustrated by clicking links that lead them to error or broken pages that don’t exist and surely you would want to avoid that.
6. Refresh Your Graphic Design
You don’t want to put in all of that work redesigning your website and still have the same dated design. Take this opportunity to update the color palette of your site to something modern, fresh, and representative of your brand. Use a font that is easy to read but visually appealing. Consider even adding new functional plugins or apps to serve your new goals.
‘The power of visibility can never be underestimated.’ ~Margaret Cho
7. Add Fresh Content
You want to be an authority in your industry as this helps you become a trustworthy source for your products or services. They won’t turn to your company if you offer old or outdated content. Add recent videos, informative blogs, and other media that are relevant and valuable. In addition to growing your reputation by showing the latest information, this is also important for your SEO. Search engines like Google love websites that regularly add new content to their pages, meaning you’ll rank higher on search engines.
8. Perform UX/UI Test
It’s important that you test your website to make sure that it not only looks good and optimized for SEO but also that it’s optimized for users on all devices. Be sure that there are tests conducted on all browsers and mobile devices to ensure that everyone can get access to your website with a highly responsive design. Make sure all the pages load quickly and properly on all devices otherwise customers will have a negative experience on your site, causing them to leave and turn to your competitors.
9. Review Analytics & Insights
Analytics are essential to your website design because it helps you observe all of the important data about your website. You can see how long customers stay on specific pages or what they do when they visit your site. You learn a lot about their behaviors and can use that information when you plan your marketing strategies to move your business forward. If you notice pages that have a high conversion rate and low bounce rate, these pages are performing well. Compare them to the pages that are underperforming and see what isn’t working for you. Analytics provide valuable information that will help your website redesign work effectively.
10. Offer Testimonials or Reviews
When potential customers are considering the different companies for their products or services, they really want to see testimonials and reviews (the more recent, the better). Reviews and testimonials can increase your conversion rates significantly. People are more comfortable with their decision to purchase products and services after they read the past experiences of other customers. Herd mentality is important to tap into with your site, which is why many top sites include these reliable testimonials. However, you should be aware that people can see right through fake reviews and this could leave a negative impression of your brand.
To help you get started with redesigning your website, review the infographic below.
These 10 effective ways will help you move on with your business to better serve your customers and meet your new goals!
Conclusion
You don’t have to invest a lot of money or change it all at once. You can make first the essential improvements and then continue upgrading other features as you go.
Your website is your virtual business card. Therefore, improving the user experience and refreshing your website are critical and vital keys to achieve a successful marketing strategy.
Refreshing a website is a long-term investment. It improves your visibility, shows your customers something fresh, and also attracts new visitors to your website as well.
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Originally published at https://www.aqenglish.com on September 15, 2020.
