Is it time to refresh your website?
Have you been using the same web design for a while? It may or may not click with your audience now.
If it does, it makes sense to keep using it, but if it doesn’t, you probably need to change it.
A website depends on many factors that can make or break a customer’s experience. While some issues are easy to find out, others are hard to pinpoint, for instance, SEO + browser incompatibility.
And so, we wrote a guide on precisely when it is time to refresh your website. A neat and fresh website will keep your brand exciting and your customers engaged and willing to do business with you.
Refreshing Your Website
Web design can be as simple as changing one or more of its elements. It’s akin to changing the interior of one room of an apartment instead of that of every room in the building.
Ideally, your website should be renewed every year at the least. However, by saying this, we don’t mean switching to a completely new design, which will negatively surprise your usual audience.
But some websites need to be updated more often, especially if you’re often communicating with your clients, setting dates for a concert, or updating your available products and services and their prices.
Now, here are certain signs that tell you it’s time to refresh your website:
- Your brand image has changed – If you are changing your product line or catering to a new market after a couple of years, then your website, in terms of its design and logo, has to reflect it.
- You have high bounce rates – A high bounce rate means customers view a single page on your website and decide to leave for some reason.
It’s not certain whether this is a sign of a good or bad user experience. Because, for instance, some people might just want to check on the news and come back soon again.
But, then again, you’d want to engage your customers so they’re viewing your content and pictures for a longer time, even just a few minutes longer.
Using a digital marketing tool or analytics will help you understand customer behaviour and compare that to the other statistics you have to know if your site needs to be improved.
- Your competitors’ website is better – In the business scene, you always have to know your enemies in order to top them or go ahead of them.
You’d want your website to be equal, if not better than them, and to accommodate market and social trends, which will significantly help your business.
- Your communication is ineffective – If you aren’t getting the message across to your audience through your website, then that’s an issue so it has to be changed in some way.
A website is your main hub of information and updates for your customers. Your social media has to complement it and lead to it.
In short, they should be consistent with each other.
- Your online goods and services aren’t updated – If you have an online store, it’s necessary to update it regularly to match your current brick-and-mortar products and stock.
This way, you can leverage your sales and get more client traffic to your website. And in doing so, you can also help meet their needs and wants.