7 Reasons Why you Should Rethink your Website Design Today
Imagine you are going to buy a villa or house for you. When you visit the site, it appeared ruined, dull or decades old, what would be your reaction?
Forget about buying it, you won’t even visit it thoroughly. The same logic applies to your website design. The look and feel of your website is very crucial for its users.
Did you know: 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content/layout is unattractive?
If your website is not as effective as you would prefer, perhaps it is the time to go for website makeover. Nobody, these days, surf a website that is tired-looking and static. According to a research, as a website owner, you have only 10 seconds to leave an impression on users/visitors to convey what they’ll get out of your website and company. And if you fail, they will leave.
Importance of Website Design
Why a good website design is must for any website owner? And how did an owner can decide whether his website design is good or bad? Well, it all depends upon UX and UI. Both are equally important.
According to Steve Jobs, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
First of all, avoid readymade website design templates as far as possible. We are not saying that they are of no use. But, if you are able to come up with a tailor made website that is completely customized as per your needs and best possible UI/UX, go for it.
Quick Tip: UI is how it looks and UX is how it feels and works.
Hence both are equally important. UI design focuses more on colors and typography; whereas, UX touches the architecture of the content and the site map.
Think of it this way: UX design is the journey and the UI is the destination.
Not only website, but a good website design is must for any business. Why it is so?
1. To build trust among users
A good website design leaves professional as well as friendly impression on its visitors. This comfort makes them visit your website on regular and frequent basis. If required, they can approach you through the customer support number provided on your website. Or they can follow you on your social networks listed on the website. Such trust elements ultimately build a genuine trust in the brand.
2. To promote brand in a consistent manner
In this fast paced era, branding is not just restricted to your logo. It has expanded its wings to a great extent. A strong brand needs both reputation and visibility. Branding includes brand voice, brand personality and brand engagement too. This all can be achieved with a well-designed and user friendly website.
Example: Imagine coca cola in your mind. The first thing that will appear in your mind would be bold sans-serif fonts in either red or white colour in vice-versa background. This is what a brand impression is.
3. To provide comfortable reading patterns
However good you are at advertising your products and services, all those efforts have short shelf life. Are you able to find the advertisement in a single click that you have seen five years ago? Probably no! But, if you have easy access to the website, you can anytime visit it and find the info you are looking for. To leave a long lasting impact on your followers and provide them a comfortable reading pattern, a well-crafted website design is must.
4. To ensure smooth navigation for visitors
Organized and easy-to-follow navigation for a website is very beneficial and important for the overall user experience. Smooth navigation helps in increasing user stay time on your website, thereby reducing bounce rates.
5. To improve conversions
Website design plays a crucial role in your conversion rates. Experts advise to keep it simple, with minimal distractions. Optimize your website design by adding contextual CTAs. And, get rid of sliders and carousels – it can hurt your conversions.
Website Elements to Redesign
There can be more than one website elements to redesign. Here are few of them!
| Messed up spacing | If your website looks too cluttered, you need to work on spacing. Spacing enhances readability and dictates flow. |
| Ambiguous navigation | Navigation has to be clear – that’s it. If you want your user to stay on your website, work on easing navigation. |
| Content of About us page | Other than home page, most frequently visited page for any website is “about us’ page. Ensure it is neither wordy nor boring. And top of it, it contains all that information which a first time visitor usually expects. |
| Inconspicuous contact information | Why you need a website? To inform your users about your whereabouts – right? Hence, include comprehensively all contact details in footer as well as relevant web page. |
| Call to action buttons | A good website results in the best possible conversion rates. All credit goes to the proper and visible placement and aesthetics of call to action buttons. |
| Footer | The way your feet help you to walk, website footer helps its user to surf through the website. Keep it simple, consistent, and informational. |
| Content and images | Neither your content nor your images should piss of the users. |
Top Reasons Why You Should Rethink Your Website Design Today
Now you know what the website elements to redesign are. But when should you rethink your website design? What is the right time to go for website makeover?
These are the top reasons why you should rethink your website design today:
1. Check out your design – is it outdated?
How is your website design? Does it look outdated?
Outdated design means website having sliders with meaningless CTAs, huge featured images or series of images on homepage, boring or flat graphics, highly distracting pop-ups, or stale typography. These days a website which is not responsive is also considered as an outdated website.
If any of the above mentioned disaster exists on your website, it is an outdated website and it the right time for you to rethink how to improve it. The world of internet is changing by leaps and bounds. Hence get rid of the website that you have set up years back and stay updated with the latest trends.
2. Take a look at your conversions – are they near to zero?
A good website brings quality traffic, and targeted traffic boosts conversions. Is this true for you? Has your site evolved with desired business growth? If you are either unsure or dissatisfied about your conversions, it’s time to rethink your website design.
One of the reasons could be your growth and expansion as a business. When you started your business, your website and homepage have minimal information. But along with passing years, things do change. And that change must reflect on your website.
Quick Tip: Take look at your home page, about us page, and products / services pages. If you have expanded product/service portfolio, ensure it reflects on your site. Any change in management team should also be highlighted on your website.
3. Look into your website traffic – is it minimal?
Are you doing your SEO right but not generating enough website traffic? There can be two reasons behind minimal website traffic. First of all, you need an SEO expert to do effective keyword marketing. Then, you need to rethink website design from search engine’s point of view.
Search engines should be able to understand the content of your website to crawl it. Hence, SEO parameters are vital when you design a website.
Quick Tip: SEO should be a fundamental part of your website design (or redesign) process.
If your website design is not SEO-friendly, you should immediately opt for its redesign process.
4. Investigate bounce rates – are they too high?
How often you visit your analytics to check bounce rates? Do they hurt you? Anything over 35% is a cause for concern. And, above 50% is alarming.
Bounce rates are usually high in the following circumstances:
- Your website is not user-friendly in terms of functionality
- It is very difficult to navigate
- Either too many CTAs or no CTA at all
- Page loading time is higher than 4 seconds
Visitors love the site that loads fast and gives information in a quick glance. They will not prefer to waste their time on a website which is poorly planned. If your website bounce rates are concerning or alarming due to any of the above-listed reasons, it’s time for you to rethink your website design.
5. Check subscribers list – is it static since ages?
How many subscribers do you see in your email lists? Are they zilch in amount? Ok then, it means your website visitors are unable to understand how you can assist them. Internet surfers are highly impatient. They have multiple options online to get the required information. And, if your website fails to provide them info they are looking for, they will run away without subscribing.
If this is the problem with you as well, it’s time to rethink your website design.
Quick Tip: design your website in such a way that your visitors feel being valued. Provide them easy access to join your email list. Keep “sign up for newsletters” in visible manner; footer is the best place for it. Offer them freebies e.g. eBook, tips, tutorials, and others.
6. Explore your number of sales transactions – since how long you are waiting for a sale to occur?
This is one of the common concerns for all website owners, especially ecommerce websites. It generates traffic but does not make any sales. The reasons could be any of these:
- Wrong placement of CTA
- No explanation of how your products can benefit users
- Difficulty in placing order
When you see consistent website traffic as well as new sessions in your analytics which has failed at conversions, it’s time for you to rethink your website design.
Quick Tip: Have clear CTAs on your web pages that result in your goal conversions.
Buttons like “Buy Now”, “Book an Appointment”, “Download Now”, “Read More”, should be visible and attractive so that user can find it easy to click.
7. Get tested look and feel – is it too boring to surf?
Let’s assume for a while that everything is all well in your website. Still you need to test its look and feel on timely basis. If you come across any outdated links, remove it on immediate basis. Check the performance and loading speed of your site in all devices and various browsers. Test your order processing system and payment credit methods. Check for any outdated content or images on your website.
In no way it should be too boring for your visitors to surf. Let your website design talk about your personality and vision.
Quick Tip: Prepare your website design keeping your buyer persona in your mind. Naturally, websites for baby food products should have different voice and images than websites for software developments.
Takeaway…!
Use this article as a checkpoint for your website designs. If any of the above listed concern makes you think twice, it’s time to rethink your website design today. It is one of the vital digital marketing tools. Don’t let it become obsolete. Most of us think website redesign as a daunting, time-consuming, and expensive task. But when you think of its resultant benefits, it could be cheaper, faster, and easier than you think. Keep your site up-to-date, useful, and understandable.
I would argue this websites design is out dated. Are updates coming couse this looks like it was built a long time ago. HMU if you need a developer.
Nice article, I found it to be a good read.
As a developer I do have to also think a lot about the design of the website. I know a lot of developers turn a blind eye to the design aspect, but I can’t help but take it into account.
For instance, you mentioned brand consistency, I like a certain amount of branding to be hard coded into each page of a site, that way, even if branding doesn’t get enough consideration down the line there will still be a baseline amount of branding on each page.
I employ most of your tips on my site and other sites I do. I seem to have better luck with other sites than I do my own. Regarding outdated sites, there are so many out there that a web designer can keep busy doing makeovers until retirement! I redo my site often and am thinking of doing another makeover soon. No slideshows on my site! Thanks for the article! :-)
Nice article, I found it to be a good read.
For Redesigning your website you need to check all the aspects. Because After redesigning google search ranking will decrease. So be careful when you redesign it.