9 Reasons to Consider a Website Re-Design

1. Is your site serving its purpose?

What is the purpose of your website and is it currently serving that purpose? Experience tells us that the majority of small business websites do not fulfil their purpose, either because that purpose was never clearly identified or because the site design, layout and content are not aimed at getting users to take the required action.

2. Does your site's design accurately reflect your business?

Think of your website as your online reception area with a difference: they're not meeting you personally, they're not seeing the environment you work in and so, if they don't already know of you, your website is going to make up their entire first impression of your business, your products, the service you offer, the value you provide… and everything else.

What image are you projecting through your website, and does it accurately reflect your business? Ensure your website ties in nicely with any existing logos and colour schemes, that your content is aimed directly at your target market, is written in benefits (rather than features - see point 6 below) and the general feel of your site is indicative of your day to day business.

3. Is your content up to date?

How do you react to a company when you land on their website, only to find their content is massively out of date? We're not usually that impressed and find ourselves hitting the 'back' button to go to another website.

Ensure your site is kept up to date or risk losing visitors' interest. Arranging a maintenance package tailored to your needs is one way of achieving this, and by regularly adding relevant and useful content, you're giving your visitors reason to return to your site as well as reason to recommend your site to others. Not only that, but it can also help boost your Search Engine rankings.

4. Does your site provide what your visitors are looking for?

If your visitors can't find what they're looking for, fast, the chances are that they'll do what most of us do… go back to Google and find a website that does.

If you're not sure what information to include, try asking your existing customers what else they would like to see on there, which parts of your site they currently use and/or like and those that they don't. Try increasing your response rate by offering them something useful in return.

5. Is your content well organised?

It's all well and good having the right info on your site, but it's of no use if users can't find it quickly because they'll get bored and leave. Navigation and site structure are essential, as are the clear labelling of links and having a consistent layout.

If you're not sure how well your content is organised, ask someone who's never been on your site to carry out some basic tasks (eg find specific info, send you an email). We would recommend standing over their shoulder and watching like a hawk! See whether they find it as easy as you think they should, and consider making amendments based on the feedback you receive.

6. Does your content focus on the benefits of what you offer?

Whilst people are interested in the features of what you offer, their decision of whether or not to buy will actually be based on the perceived benefits of them buying that product or service. For this reason, it's essential that all your marketing copy (from your website, to your flyers, brochures, adverts and any other written material that your customer sees) clearly states the benefits of what you're offering.

So what's the difference between the two? Features are characteristics of your product/service. Benefits are what the customer stands to gain by using that product/service.

e.g. Crystal Clear websites are hand coded to W3C Web Standards [these are features and won't encourage too many purchases on their own], which means quicker page loading times and greatest user accessibility, as well as user and search engine friendliness [these are benefits and are more likely to positively influence the buying decision].

In the marketing world, they often refer to 'Radio WII-FM' because it's what customers tune into… 'What's In It For Me'? Enhance the results of your website by ensuring you write with your users in mind and clearly state all the benefits of choosing your company, your products and your services - giving special mention to your Unique Selling Point (USP).

Ensure you show your products and services in their best light and focus on those benefits! If you'd like us to take a look at your copy, contact us.

Want to know more? Take a look at The Difference between Features and Benefits from Articlesbase

7. Is your content easy to scan?

How do we read web pages? The answer is that we don't. Generally we scan them for the information we want. This is very different to traditional forms of print marketing, where word counts can soar much higher and still afford the luxury of getting read.

Online is a different story; too many options, too little time and our attention spans seem to have adjusted accordingly. Web usability studies continually show that users make a first impression within a few seconds of landing on a site and usually leave within 30 seconds unless something grabs their attention hard enough for them to stay a little longer - a theory strongly supported by Jakob Nielsen of useit.com, who is often referred to as the 'guru of web usability' (despite the fact that we reckon his website could do with some kind of design).

So many sites could be improved by working with this trend, rather than just ignoring it. If your site's pages are a duplicate of some printed materials you once put together, then maybe it's time for a re-think.

There's nothing less appealing online than paragraphs of text that don't need to be there and it's pretty simple to fix; incorporate more headings, bullet points and separate areas of information so that users can scan the different sections, see instantly what they're looking for, and ultimately take the action you want them to.

8. Are your pages loading quickly enough?

Those short online attention spans come out to play once more! Us surfers are pretty impatient - just a few seconds waiting, we're bored, oh, and we've hit the back key - again!

There are many reasons sites load slower than possible; poor site structure, excess code (created by many 'web wizard tools'), coding that doesn't adhere to W3C Web Standards and images and graphics that haven't been optimised for the web.

If it's just the images and graphics causing problems, they can be fixed without any need to adjust the rest of your site. The others, however, would usually mean a site re-design.

9. Is your website an investment or an expense?

Unless your visitors are taking the action you want them to, then what positive contribution is your website currently making to your business? Your website should be an investment, not an expense… which bracket is yours currently falling into?

If you'd like to have a chat about your site, get in touch. It's free, and no obligation.