Your website is the centre of business. It shows your brand and trust. Thus, you need to be regularly updating your website so that you are above ground. What might have worked five years ago might not work today. A well-thought-out website revamp will aid in driving sales, reducing the bounce rate as well as improving your UX. We need to fine-tune the baseline things i.e. code, content, layout, visuals. Let’s look now at the big reasons why this might be the time for a website revamp.
i. Outdated website design:
If your website seems old, it’s probably time for a redesign. Text overloads, dead ends, large hero images, and background videos don’t use SEO best practices. It makes it difficult for your content to be found and consumed. It also fails to get users to engage as it builds distrust and ultimately leads to the brand’s reputation being harmed. Users usually connect the appearance of your website with the quality of its products and services. More so if you’re in a services business, the expectation customers have is to have an easy-to-use, responsive, and fast website.
ii. Slow website speed:
Website speed is crucial for user retention and SEO. Users don't wait around hoping a website will make up for its web speed. If your page takes more than 3 seconds to load, then users will move to your competitor’s website instead. You can test your website load speed through Google's PageSpeed Insights. While everyone always talks about wanting a “fast website speed” –there are multiple reasons why this is necessary today. Most internet users have fast internet access. They browse 100s of websites monthly – which means your competition isn’t with your competitors necessarily. But, with anyone who has a fast website that’s the benchmark you’re looking to beat. Frustration builds easily when sites don’t load fast.
iii. Poor user experience:
When you visit any website, and ads cover the website more than the content, blocking parts of the page, you end up pressing the exit button. A company can lose more money in situations like this than they ever expected. Of course, this is limited to companies that have leveraged their website for ads. Or, if the UX itself isn’t designed to serve the audience. For example, if you’re targeting students, the user interface, and experience will be vastly different than a company that’s targeting CEOs –right from the color palette of the website, to the buttons, CTA, and a whole number of other design decisions stem from who is the user of the website, and what is the information that they need. Common issues of poor user experience include confusing navigation, unclear calls-to-action, slow response times, and as a result, poor conversions or interactions. If your website design doesn’t address accessibility, appeal, and high bounce rates is a big no, then your website is doing more harm than good. The best metric to analyse this poor user experience is the bounce rate. If your bounce rate is higher than 60%, from the home page itself, you can be sure that your website isn’t doing the job it should be doing –getting users to visit other parts of your website and get to know more about your business, itself and ultimately make a purchase, or fill a lead form.
iv. Your competitors' websites perform better:
Go and have a quick look at what your competitors have on their website. The more user-friendly, visually appealing, and higher in the search engines, is a good indication that your site needs some work. You do not need to redesign yours every time its rivals change theirs. But, looking at what your competitors are doing is a good yardstick –for understanding what to do and what not to. Sometimes, even adjacent industries benefit from learning from best practices. For example, companies in the products space typically follow a specific user flow, while those in the services industry follow a very specific user flow. From there, depending on the industry such as SAAS, PAAS, or hospitality, e-commerce businesses such as apparel, skincare, etc –tend to rely on specific, common, and predictable user flows and that is all with good reason. At this stage of the digital evolution of tech, consumers expect a certain level of user experience to be a default. You would after all expect an apparel company to list their sizes, colors, styles, prices, and gender as absolute basic filters for what they’re selling. Much like you’d expect a brand like IKEA to categorize their website into rooms of the house, and types of furniture, further broken into subcategories. Ask yourself therefore is your competitor’s website following an industry standard while you’re not?
v. Lack of social media integration:
Social proof is one of the biggest cues to trust a website. How does one go about gathering it? Ensuring that your website is definitely shareable socially – because people who buy and trust brands often end up recommending it to their friends. Whether that happens through your social media directly, or even if users tag you, social proof allows potential customers to see other users' experiences. But before social proof comes to the stage of even being able to share the product with friends/family for opinion seeking. This is particularly helpful in apparel, skincare, makeup, jewellery, or other industries where our self-esteem is on the line, based on our shopping choices.
vi. Not having a mobile responsive:
Today, Google’s crawlers don’t crawl a website that doesn’t have a mobile version. As of H2 2024, the biggest search engine brand in the world decided it would stop crawling the desktop version of websites. This is driven by the fact that most users tend to visit sites on their mobile devices. There are some exceptions to this of course, but overwhelmingly, across industries, the average mobile usage for sites is between 80-95%. This means that every website needs to have a mobile-first approach and philosophy to be discoverable, and most importantly, retain users on their home page. Any user having to fiddle with clunky buttons that don’t work on their device is a surefire recipe to frustrate potential buyers.
vii. Technical debt:
‘The problem with ‘something went wrong,404 errors’ is that while it might frustrate you, it can really upset your users.’ If your website has been running unnecessarily old technology, it should come as no surprise that you’re quickly losing your potential customers. Investing in up-to-date technology safeguards against potential security vulnerabilities. A website is not just about how pretty it looks, but also more importantly –whether it’s useful to users. If web hosting, themes, plugins, page builders, and third-party integrations are not fixed, it is understandable that your site is seeing low traffic, and it might be time for you to get a digital makeover.
viii. Rebranding:
If your company recently completed rebranding, your website should be consistent and represent this rebranding exercise. Consistency in brand messaging and visuals is paramount for building brand trust and recognition. Some businesses are more vulnerable to this need for consistency than others. For example, if you’re in the services business and sell branding to businesses but your own brand is all over the place –it’s not going to be an easy sell.
ix. Inadequate SEO performance:
If your website is not ranking well on search engines, it may be due to outdated SEO practices. Among the multiple signals that search engines use to rank websites, technical SEO which includes having the right time for DNS resolution, minimal CSS, and adequate JS scripting, alongside caching are among the cues that bots tend to look for. The other signals include keyword stuffing, thin content, low-quality links, broad keywords, duplicate content are the biggest red flags for search engines from an on-page and off-page SEO standpoint. Primarily, fixing your website will give you an opportunity to rethink your SEO strategy, which includes having a clear website taxonomy and page hierarchy that in turn supports the content type, semantic SEO, and other levers to help you start ranking. SEO strategies thereby improving your site's visibility and driving organic traffic.
7 strategic approach to the website revamp:
Website revamp requires a thoughtful and user-focused strategy at the starting point. However, it doesn’t mean that you need to change every tiny thing on your website. It is essential to prioritise changes based on user needs and preferences and it is done by conducting thorough user research. As a rule of thumb, your website needs evaluation every 2-5 years. Here are key considerations to keep in mind for a successful website revamp:
i. User Research:
Most businesses should have a clear understanding of who their target audience is and what information they would typically need your website to address for them. If we take a dental clinic as an example, one might logically assume that patients want to know include doctor credentials, the types of treatments available, the areas served, if the doctor is covered by insurance, testimonials, clinic hours, how to make an appointment, and the address. This would be commonsensical, almost. But when it comes to something like The user experience research comes into play to understand what are the common reasons people seek out a dentist. That’s where if you don’t understand what your users in the locality, city, or country need, a user research study is crucial. Your audience is a fundamental aspect of redesigning the website. Participate in user surveys, interviews, analysis of user behaviour data, and data collection to identify pain points and preferences. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to analyse customer behavior after you have made changes.
ii. Performance Analysis:
Before you begin, analyse your existing website’s performance metrics, including bounce rates, page views, and conversion rates. You can also do regular statistical audits, identify underperforming pages and analyse the reasons for the decrease. This analytics-driven methodology prioritises fragments that need attention during the redesign. For example, a good website design company might indicate the code bloat that exists in your website which is slowing it down. But an even better one might give you some workarounds to find inexpensive solutions instead of having to redesign the whole site if budgets are a constraint. Knowing which technical parameters are holding your website performance back is a crucial part of auditing tech audits
iii. Clear Value:
Set clear and measurable goals for website updates. It is very important to know why you are updating. Ask yourself if your goal is to increase conversion rates, improve user experience, or increase brand visibility. Strive for goals that reflect the look and feel of the site. Often marketing teams, or even C-suite executives tend to look at a website as a thing that exists in isolation from the rest of their business. But, most users today will look up a website, and make assessments about the brand or company, based on it. Let’s say you want to hire a consulting firm for your civil engineering business. You’d definitely want to know how well they can support you –and what case studies support your industry. And you’d expect to find this information on their website, quite readily. Or, at least hope to find some way to guide you about their competencies. All of this translates to having a holistic brand experience, and your website is a digital calling card.
iv. Mobile-First Design:
Any website, including yours, should be responsive and adaptable to different screen sizes. A fluid mobile experience not only increases user satisfaction but also predominantly, contributes to better search engines. With technology, today, not only do we design with wireframes for mobiles, but also test across devices through cross-browser testing to audit how the UX responds across different mobile types –all of this is done in service to ensure anyone coming to a mobile-first website has a good, and consistent brand experience. In the short term, it may seem like a lot of time and effort for something so simple but in the long run, this small element makes a big difference to companies that are selling to customers directly.
v. User considerations:
Prioritise what people are saying about your website specifically, the principles of user interface design to create an intuitive and enjoyable user experience. . Designs that prioritise usability foster positive engagement, inviting visitors to engage with your content. Let’s say you're a real estate company aiming to sell to customers buying a second home –what are the visual cues you’d want to see, versus a real estate company selling fragmented ownership? These are essential questions that will guide your design considerations. Some elements of good website design are now considered table stakes –such as a navigation menu, clear CTAs, catchy headlines available, clear and concise text, and a focus on readability
vi. SEO optimisation :
Ultimately, we all want our website to land on the top page of search results. Therefore, integrating updated SEO practices is a natural requirement. Often, even listed companies fall prey to poorly designed websites that lack a clear understanding of the user personas and the people who need to access information on their websites. When you hire someone to design your website, ensure they understand your target audience and their needs and can justify the design decisions they’re suggesting. A pretty website won’t always be functional. But an excellent website is designed in service to its users first, search engine bots second, and meets the principles of accessibility all along. Research keywords, optimise meta tags, titles, and URLs. Make sure your content is compatible with search engine algorithms. Try to build high-quality backlinks from popular websites. You can use tools Ahrefs and Semrush to do a good SEO audit. Or if you’d much rather hire SEO specialists who marry design and SEO expertise for your business, speak to us.
How often should you redesign your website?
The truth is that there is no specific frequency for renovation. It depends on the requirements of your enterprise. But it is advisable to review your site every 2 to 5 years.
A common concern with our clients is we’ve just spent money rebuilding our website a couple of years ago –and we’re now being asked to invest again. The reality is tech is evolving at a much faster pace than any of us can keep up. Therefore, the need to stay updated with user experiences across the web demands that we also evolve. A website is your digital office address, and making sure anyone can find your office, and enter it is necessary to stay relevant.
Revamping your website is not just about keeping up with trends; it's about ensuring that your online presence truly reflects your brand and meets the needs of your users. By finding the indicators of a need for redesign and pinpointing the process, you ensure your website sustains to meet the evolving needs of its users. We, at P.Labs Ventures, recognise the importance of website revamping realising that it goes beyond aesthetics to increase revenue, reduce bounce rates, and enhance user experience. With signs like outdated systems, slow speeds, technical debt, and lack of social media integration in mind, our strategic and user-centred approach ensures your website doesn’t lag behind. The updated version will not only meet current standards but better align with your business objectives. Count on P.Labs Ventures for a transformational website transformation that takes your web presence to new heights.
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