Angela Foglesong — June 11, 2020 
If you have a website that is more than two years old since its last update, it may be time for a website redesign. A vital activity from a marketing perspective is to keep the look of your website fresh and current. Remember, design and what’s considered modern changes often and quickly.
The following are a few of the reasons from a marketing perspective for why a regular website redesign matters.
The primary consideration for site and all your marketing content is consistency. In other words, does the look, feel and messaging remain consistent across all of your marketing? For instance, your brand colors have to be the same on your site, social networking posts, and everything you do. Don’t forget, your website is the primary place people go to learn about you.
When you have consistency across all of your marketing, it remains memorable for people. As a designer, I’ve realized that people pay attention to consistency when they start a business. But, often, they forget about it as time goes on. For instance, I’ve seen the aesthetic of the site appearing different from the rest of the marketing materials and social content. If that’s happening to you, it’s time for a website redesign.
As I mentioned above, lots of times busy business leaders get involved in the day to day running of their company. And, that’s the way it’s supposed to be to make a profit. But you have to remember that your site needs your attention too. The public see thousands of images and messages in a day. And that means they’ve gotten sharp on quickly seeing if they want to remain at a site or not. So, marketing requires always keeping your website design top of mind.
If you think it’s time for a website redesign, you have to ensure that your design team understands your brand. Also, you want to make sure they obtain the most compelling images, understand the use of white space, and that your copy is aligned with what you want to say. That means you need to ensure that your designer and marketing services team understand you.
Further, your site must be SEO optimized, mobile-ready and responsive. All of these elements will help you attract new customers, and look current and professional. The user experience (UX) is a vital element of any website redesign.
Perhaps your business has been around for a long time, which is a great thing. But, if so, the chances are that your audience has changed. It’s inevitable as new customers patronize your business. Again, any business that’s not paying attention to the evolution of its audience, is missing an opportunity. And that means, you have to also pay attention on the site.
Sure, you can use a blog to refine your target audience as your customer segments evolve. However, copy and messaging only go so far. For instance, perhaps the industry make-up of your clients have changed. As a result, you want to make sure that’s evident in any website redesign work that you do.
There’s nothing more frustrating for users than to go to a site that has a link that no longer works or functions properly. When that happen, it’s the worst thing that could happen. And more often than not, people just get off your site and go elsewhere.
So, it’s vital that every single page—including older blog posts—all function properly. Again, this is a user experience issue and it’s vital for any site. Unfortunately, many people don’t take the time, or even know, that they have to keep on top of their links and pages. Nevertheless, it’s essential for search engine optimization to get more traffic to your site.
Therefore, make it a point to audit your site regularly. And, if you see that you have pages that don’t function properly on mobile and desktops, it’s time for a website redesign or update.
Finally, it’s always good to check out what the competition is doing. By doing so, you get to see their look, messaging, and also how their site attracts to people. For instance, does it appeal to you? Does it look fresh and modern? That’s a good signal to you as to how their business is doing. In today’s environment, every business or nonprofit has to keep current—and an eye on competitors.
Don’t forget, you can always ask a third-party and outside marketing company to take a look and audit your site. In doing so, the company will look at your competitors. And, once the report is done you can make strategic decisions about any website redesign. Updating your site doesn’t have to be a challenge, if you have the right team working with you. Invest the necessary resources, and see how it impacts your revenue.
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