Websites are constantly updating and growing to match the user needs and interests, and in order to capture your customers attention from the competition, effective web design is essential. From the start, websites need to be practical, engaging, and easy to navigate. It is easy to lose a potential customer without these elements. When upgrading with a website redesign, these factors should be developing to provide an even better browser experience. For the inexperienced web designer, there are several common mistakes that can happen in a redesign process.
Avoid those mistakes and build a better experience for potential consumers! Becoming informed now helps eliminate issues later on in the process.
1. No Goals, More Worries
The first mistake is entering a website redesign process without knowing the end goal. Starting a new project can be exciting, but the result might not be worth the effort without a clear plan. There are many questions to consider before entering a redesign process. Ask yourself these:
- What issues are we currently having? How can we redesign the site to address this?
- What is the next area of growth to focus on for the site/business/service/etc.? What elements do we need to make that happen?
- What was the original goal of the site? Does the current site help with that goal? How can a website redesign achieve those goals or take it to the next level?
- Do we need new web design goals? What are they?
These are just a few examples and certainly needs to be tailored to individual needs. The overall idea here is to know what needs to be fixed, changed, or strengthened before starting that new design plan.
2. Numbers Talk
Honestly, do not start a redesign process without looking at data first. Existing analytics and SEO performance can help pinpoint areas of growth for the site. It can tell you the length of visitor stay, page popularity, number of site users, and where your site measures up in the search engine results.
These numbers are critical – not only to show what needs to be fixed. Data analytics also show what is working well right now, which prevents you from potentially changing something users actually like right now. Knowing what isn’t working helps you identify areas to relinquish in order to take the site to the next level.
Once the web design is completed, revisit later on to run analytics again and see if improvements occurred.
3. Avoiding Content Updates
Certain staple sections, like About and Contact Us, might stay the same, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a second look. A site description from the early days of creation might not fit what is happening now. A contact form might be clunky and not user-friendly in comparison to new features available for us.
The point is, even if the content largely stays the same, look at it. The content should always be adapted to fit the redesign. If the rest of the site become minimalist with emphasis on images, other landing pages should mirror this as well
4. Design Only
We love a great looking website, but a redesign shouldn’t be entirely about the aesthetics. A pretty or sleek web design isn’t the key to reviving a business. A website redesign also occurs for other reasons, such as:
- Update to utilise new technology
- New brand or services offered that needs to be reflected in the site
- Current site negatively affects business
Remember the best websites are those that work and perform for you business, and help you acheive goals and objectives is. It has to be functional as well as visually appealing. Focus on both.
5. Checking Redirects
If your site utilizes links to redirect users to other pages or resources, those links need to work. After a while, some URLs may no longer connect users where it is intended for them to go. A YouTube video might have been deleted and the video no longer plays after being embedded on the site.
Before starting on your web design, check for broken links using a tool like this – https://www.deadlinkchecker.com/
A broken URL is a sign of an old website. Check these factors as well during a redesign.
6. Slow Page Load
So, after creating a site, it needs to work. A site that loads slowly or performs poorly will not be as successful. There are several tools to check website speed.
In the redesign, also consider how elements will translate to mobile devices. Mobile users will have a short attention span so a slow loading site is likely to be clicked out of when the next Snapchat comes through.
7. Not Knowing Limits
The final mistake in website redesign is not knowing when experts need to come in. Not everyone is a whiz at web design, and that’s okay!
That’s why creative brand, design, and marketing agencies exist.
For Brisbane web design, a key player in professional web design and redesign is just a click away. Soak is a leading agency in Brisbane and well versed in how to optimize web redesign for maximum results. We’d love to hear from you!
