Strengthen Your Site: Making a Case for a Website Redesign

In today’s digital world, your website is the very first impression that potential customers will have of your business. 48% of people said that web design was the number 1 way they determine the credibility of a business. It is a powerful marketing tool and the most important mechanism to educate your audience on your products and services, drive their interest, and increase their chances of doing business with you. 

But our digital world changes fast and often rapidly. The general rule of thumb is that you should redesign your website every 2-3 years. What was once hot in 2020 (think park dates and Clubhouse rooms) isn’t as relevant anymore. Similarly, what was attractive, aesthetically pleasing, and functionally viable just a couple of years ago may be different now. 

Let’s dive deeper into specific reasons why you should consider refreshing or entirely redesigning your site. 

Six Reasons Your Website is Outdated And Why It’s Costing You

It looks outdated 

No one wants a visually unappealing website. First impressions of a website are 94% design-related. If your website appears outdated or lacks useful content, it will be difficult to attract and retain visitors. This can be due to old images, questionable fonts, or minimal content on your site. In order to successfully engage visitors, it is important that your website is visually appealing and offers valuable information.

As times change, design standards and practices change as well. You want to stay current.

Our website in 2013. Perfectly fine then but drastically outdated these days. 

You cannot update the content 

Good content can set you apart from your competition and deliver the right message to your users. This might be done through articles, videos, tutorials, or other forms of thought leadership. Content marketing often plays a large role in the success of your business and the ability to update and add new content through a content management system is necessary. 

Having outdated content, or none at all, can lead to a loss in credibility, damage to your SEO rankings, security risks, and a poor user experience that causes potential sales to look elsewhere. 

Hard to find on Google 

You can have a beautiful site with great messaging and content but it won’t matter if people can’t find it. SEO is a crucial tool to improve your search rankings and drive website traffic.

If your website uses SEO tactics that are several years old, you are likely not generating the results or leads you’re after. Whether it’s creating a robust backlink profile to boost your site’s authority, using modern code, creating content with targeted keywords, or employing a savvy internal linking strategy, you’ll want a tailored approach that meets your needs.  

Not mobile-friendly or responsive

More than half of all online traffic currently comes from mobile devices. By ensuring that your website is easy to read on mobile/tablets, you open avenues for a wider group of users to access your content. More importantly, Google will actively rank your website higher than other websites that aren’t mobile-friendly. 

To better communicate your brand values

Has the ethos of your company evolved since you last updated your website? After taking the time to do some corporate soul searching, ensuring that elements like mission and vision statements are reflective of your values is crucial. 

Misaligned messaging makes it hard to create a clear brand identity. How can you build understanding and differentiate your brand if your potential customers don’t know who you are? 

Your strategic goals have changed 

In life and in business, our goals are never static. As your business strategy evolves, so should your website. Perhaps the features and functionality you need are different now that your goals have changed. 

If your business now has a heavier focus on customer self-service, perhaps integrating a chatbot might be an effective tactic. If one of your business goals is to improve security in this era of data breaches, integrating two-factor authentication to access valuable resources and data may be a new feature to consider. 

The possibilities are vast and varied but your requirements should adapt to match your evolving needs.

Making Your Case to Leadership

So you’ve taken inventory of your site and you know that your organization’s site needs a facelift but how do you convince your organization?

Many executives only see dollar signs when presented with the idea of a website redesign. Oftentimes the mentality can be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But if your website is an unproductive team member that fails to capture leads, it’s time to make your case. Here’s how:

Our site is costing us money

It’s imperative to anticipate pushback and flip the conversation around to the reality that your website can actually be costing your organization business. A bad website still costs money to maintain. The investment in a site is an investment in the profitability of your future business. The more appealing, credible, valuable, and intuitive your site is, the more profitable. It will be important to defend your case with data to gain organizational buy-in, which brings us to our next point.

Performance is lacking

If the site isn’t helping your company meet its goals, depict that in a report. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) that leadership can easily understand. This will show how the website is not meeting its intended purpose. Leadership will then be able to see the specific areas where improvements are needed. Some KPIs to consider include conversion rate, repeat visits, time spent per visit, pageviews, bounce rate, domain ranking, and more.

Of course, this will vary depending on your site’s strategic goals. But knowing what’s going on “under the hood” will help you adapt and drive much more ROI. 

One of our clients at Lakeside Book Company, Senior Manager, Melissa Marthol, recalls her lobby to leadership for a website redesign:

“It’s less about selling but rather having a strong and convincing point of view that’s rooted in data and the objectives of leadership. Having the patience and continuing to drive how this adds value for all stakeholders is the way to win.” 

You’re behind your competitors 

This may be the most stark and obvious factor for some decision-makers. No one wants a site or service that’s behind their competitors.

By revamping your website, your company can introduce innovative features, integrate new technologies, and offer unique functionalities that surpass or match those of competitors. This not only enhances the overall user experience but also establishes your company as a forward-thinking and competitive player in the market. 

Finding The Right Partner

Once you have leadership buy-in, finding the right agency fit will be key to helping you achieve your desired results. You’ll want a team who can understand you, truly partner up, and embrace the unique opportunities and constraints of your roles to do the most impactful work possible.

At Clique, we use design and technology to help organizations reach more inspiring futures. Across industries, from SMB to enterprise, we make our work a place where we can enhance our creativity instead of limiting it.

But, find out for yourself! If you have website needs, let’s explore them and evaluate how we can help.