2021 Website Redesign: 10 Things to Consider

December 27, 2020 Big Hit Creative

2021 Website Redesign: Top 10 Things to Consider

Since the year is winding to an end, you might be wondering if redesigning your website is a good idea. Maybe you think that after your website gets a fresh look you will generate more leads, improve user experience (UX), and make your website more interactive. Perhaps there is a new trend that you would like to try. Whatever the reason; redesigning a website shouldn’t hurt your business. That’s why it’s essential that when you redesign your website you do it right.

In past years, most business owners didn’t invest enough time in having their website revamped. And in most cases, when entrepreneurs opt to redesign their websites, it is an egocentric decision – focusing only on aesthetics. While a website redesign should make your website look better, you must also focus on making it perform better than the previous one.

Quick facts:

● 94% of potential customers compare brands based on how their website looks alone.
● It takes only 50 milliseconds for an average user to form an opinion about a website.
● 57% of consumers are not likely to recommend a business without a mobile-friendly website.
● 88% of online shoppers wouldn’t return to a site because of a bad UX.

According to Customer Think, entrepreneurs make some of the following mistakes when they redesign their websites:
● Redesign without analyzing their current website,
● Redesign without knowing what they want their website to achieve,
● Hire a wrong website design agency,
● Redesign without having a proper content strategy, and
● Not making a website mobile-friendly.

To help you avoid making one of the aforementioned mistakes use the following questions as a guideline:

1. Is your website underperforming?

2. Have you received any complaints from users?

3. Is your website mobile-friendly?

3. Do your website visitors convert?

If you have answered NO to any of these questions, then you should consider redesigning your website. And there are 10 factors that you should consider before you engage in a design overhaul. Before we explore them, first things first:

What is a website redesign?

A website redesign involves a complete overhaul of the content, structure, code, and general aesthetic look of a website. A website that is well redesigned should be a great boost to your marketing and sales endeavors. Additionally, website redesign factors in realignment and prototyping with your business goals.

10 things you need to check before you start:

1. A full audit of your website

The first step you need to take to confirm if a website redesign service is necessary is conducting a full audit of your website. Questions that you can use include: Is the website converting, if so by how many percent? What’s the bounce rate? Which part of your website gets few visitors, and why? Are there any website issues that contribute to the current performance of your website? Are there any broken links that need to be fixed? And many other similar questions. The good news is there are several website audit tools that you use to carry out an audit on your website.

2. Your website needs

In order to have your website redesigned successfully, this should be your top priority: identifying the part of the website that needs to be redesigned. While at it, establish if that part needs to be redone or only to be improved. This will save you a lot of money and time.

3. Web design trends

There are several trends that can boost the overall performance of your website. For instance, minimalism, and mobile-first design. When there’s quantifiable proof that a design technique is needed, go for it! However, any trend that is not helping your website to perform better should be avoided at all costs.

4. Your business Objectives

Before you have your website redesigned, make sure that you set realistic goals that are easy to measure. Even in 2021, the SMART model will still matter; your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

Some examples of SMART website goals for your website:
● Marketing goals → include increasing engagement, driving traffic to your website, and generating leads.
● Sales goals → include pitching to prospects and closing sales.
● Customer Support goals → include improving the overall customer experience.
● Timely goals → include setting realistic dates as well as deadlines to accomplish tasks.

5. Your Competitors
Spy on your direct competitors to find out what works for them, and what doesn’t. Are there any trends that your competitors have adopted recently, if so, what features do they use? Remember, whatever that isn’t working for your competitors’ website is not likely to work for your own website, too.

6. Know your website visitors
There are several web analytics tools that can help you gather sufficient data from your website. Google Analytics is one of them, use it to get a good understanding of your website visitors. Depending on the nature of your business, you can use categories such as browsers, comparison shoppers, deciders, familiars, new visitors, or competitors to categorize your website visitors. Furthermore, you can use the keywords they searched for when they found you, links they clicked on, and so on.

7. Find out what’s stopping people from converting

Invest time to find out why the visitors of your website are not converting. Is there anything wrong with your messaging that should be changed? Is it because your website visitors don’t trust your brand? Or are they concerned that their information is not in good hands? And several other reasons that you might want to consider.

8. Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

There are different KPIs that you can use to find out if your current website is delivering results. They include:

● Conversion rate – the number of website visitors that end up buying,
● Number of Qualified Leads – a number of people who might buy from you,
● Net Promoter Score (NPS) – This tells you, on a scale of 1 – 10, the likelihood of a customer buying from you based on their experience.

9. Know what to change

In most cases, you don’t have to redesign the entire website, just some parts of it. So, before you destroy the entire website, find out what to keep and what to throw away. And the best way to know this is by hiring someone who is highly experienced at designing great websites.

10. Hire an experienced web developer to redesign your website

A website is a window through which potential customers are introduced to your business. There are a couple of essentials that help in making a website stand out. Perfecting the look and feel and improving the user-friendliness of a website, are some of them.