How do you know when it’s time to redesign your website?
You know the signs indicating your house is in need of a remodel. The room with dark brown paneling on the walls or maybe the kitchen lined with laminated cabinets and Formica countertops. But how do you know when it’s time to redesign your website?
Is your website responsive?
As a business owner you pride yourself in responding to your customer’s needs, but does your website reflect this responsiveness? A recent survey suggests adults use mobile devices for over 51% of the time spent on the Internet. This means a good portion of your visitors are likely visiting you from a mobile device.
Responsive websites automatically provide an optimal viewing experience for your visitor.
A responsive site displays the content in a friendly way based on the size of the screen the visitor is using. Menus, images, and content reorganize themselves to give the user the optimal viewing experience.
How do you know if your website is responsive?
- If you view your website on a mobile device and it appears very tiny and zoomed out, it’s not responsive.
- If you need to zoom and pan around the site to view the content, it’s not responsive.
- If you rotate your device from portrait to landscape and back and your website freezes in the transition or looks disproportionate, it’s not responsive.
For more official testing check out Google Mobile Friendly Test Site.
Can you update your own website?
DIY is all the rage for homeowners. You hire a contractor to build your house, but you expect to have the ability to paint the walls, lay new flooring and change out the light fixtures as your tastes changes. You should expect similar control over your website.
Business is moving fast and your website needs to stay current with industry trends.
Many older websites were built as static HTML web pages. If you want to make a change to those sites you need to hire a web developer. These sites are often hosted with local hosting services that charge $20-30 per month hosting fees.
New low cost and easy to update sites are built using a content management system (CMS), like WordPress, which allows business owners to update the content of the site without having to hire a web developer. These sites can usually be hosted for a fraction of the cost of the old model.
Like building your house, you can hire a web developer to design and build the site for you, then you can keep it up to date yourself by updating store hours, changing content, staff members, etc.
Is the overall design past its expiration date?
Website design trends change over time. Just like updates to paint, furniture, and flooring make your office more appealing to visitors, a fresh, modern website will do the same.
When visitors arrive at your website the first impression they have of the site will reflect on their willingness to do business with you.
Website design should be revisited every 3 years to ensure it remains fresh and up to date.
Walk through your website looking for these issues.
- Are there too many colors on your site? Whitespace enhances user experience by drawing visitors to the important features and highlights.
- Are the images tiny and blurry?
- Does the font look nice in a variety of browsers?
Redesign to showcase your content
Ultimately, content is king for a website and most business owners are confident in what content should be on their website. However, if visitors are unable to quickly view the content they will lose interest and leave the site in favor of one that is more easy to digest. If your website is suffering from a lack of responsiveness, an inability for you to keep it up to date or the design is showing a little wear and tear you might want to consider a redesign soon.