Design your way

Websites are expensive assets. Sure, you can build one for free if you know what a website builder is and how to use it.

But professionally built websites lighten your pockets for four-figure amounts of money and upwards. And that’s just the things you pay for before the launch — there’s plenty of expensive things that go on after.

The best way to think about a high-quality website is to consider it an important investment. And just as with any important investment, you have to do your best to take care of it.

One of the ways you take care of your website is by giving it a redesign when it’s called for. Here are some of the signs that will alert you it’s time to redesign your website.

It’s Missing Important Elements

It doesn’t seem likely that a website you’ve invested money in will have important elements missing, but it can sometimes happen. Usually, it’s because some time has passed since the website has been built, and some new elements have emerged as effective in the meantime.

Social proof in the form of testimonials, for example, is a very effective trust signal that can increase conversion rates. Slapping a testimonial or two on a page on your website will not suffice to get the full advantage of social proof.

There are specific ways to implement social proof, and it will probably require you to redesign your website’s front page, and probably change its copy.

It’s Getting Difficult to Update the Website

Some issues with your website will require you to redesign it. Others, however, will only need you to update your website a little bit. These are either small cosmetic or functional changes or backend changes that don’t entail too much structural change.

As your website and the technology it uses is getting older, it will become more difficult to perform these updates. Maybe even impossible, if there are some elements like plugins that are not supported anymore. At the point where it starts to be too difficult to update your website, you might consider giving it a serious overhaul.

The Look Isn’t Fresh Anymore

Web design trends change with time. Some of the new ones are good. Some are bad and annoying.

But good or bad, they are probably very different from the trends that reigned six or seven years ago. If that’s the last time you gave your website a refresh, the visitors will notice your website is out of date. And they will not like it.

You shouldn’t change your website’s design every year. That would be overkill. But you should keep in mind that a website that looks old will not appear trustworthy. So, when it becomes obvious that the world has moved on from whatever design philosophy was standard at the time you built your website, you should move on too.

The Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly

Americans spend around eighty-seven hours a month browsing the web on their mobile phones.

You probably can’t build a website that will make them spend all of that time browsing it. But you can build a website that will almost guarantee they will spend none of their mobile browsing time on it.

A website that’s not mobile friendly will get significantly less mobile traffic. Mobile-friendly design is not a new hype. It’s been around for years, and lots of businesses are doing it.

Whatever you are doing with your non-mobile friendly website, someone is also doing with a website that displays well on mobile devices. And the people who use mobile devices to browse the web will prefer the mobile-friendly website.

You’re Seeing Serious Performance Issues

High bounce rates, slow loading speeds, and low conversion rates are some of the worst things that can happen to a website.

The problem with these issues is that they can be caused by several different things. Some of them will not need a website redesign to fix them. Others, however, will.

Before you decide that a redesign is needed to fix any performance issues, you should first try to determine what’s the cause. A redesign is not an easy or cheap process, and you don’t want to go into it without a good reason. Anything else would be a needless waste of resources.

It pays off to react quickly to any signs of trouble with your website.

However, you shouldn’t rush into a web redesign without first considering whether it’s needed. And you also shouldn’t postpone a badly needed website redesign project. Redesign is a normal part of website’s lifecycle. You just need to find the right place for it.

The post How to Know It’s Time to Redesign Your Website appeared first on Design your way.

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