Tweak Your Biz » Marketing » How Do I Know When To Redesign My Website?

How Do I Know When To Redesign My Website?

by Josh Davis on January 28th, 2011
10 Comments



As I embark on the task of helping advise my company on their current website redesign project (which is WAY overdue!), I thought it would be an excellent article topic to explore/share the question…“How do I know when to redesign my website?”

If you are a business owner/manager/marketer and you are curious about whether you need to redesign your website, the real answer should be provided by feedback you receive from others.  What does that mean?  Here’s a quick exercise…

Ask your 3-5 most trusted employees to critique your website.  Next, ask your newest employee (or least knowledgeable about your company) to do the same.  And finally, ask a few people outside of the company who you believe would be similar to your target audience to critique your website.  The results should tell you the answer to this question.

Here are the questions/topics you should ask in order to get the right feedback:

  • Do you feel the current website  promotes a favorable user experience?
  • Can web visitors easily navigate to the most crucial information within 3 clicks?
  • Is the website engaging and interactive, or is it more like a brochure or billboard?
  • How well does the website aesthetic project the company image & personality?
  • How strong is the company logo and branding, and how well is it incorporated into the website?
  • What business objectives and/or end results does the business want to accomplish with web visitors, and how effective is the website in accomplishing this? (online sales, leads generation, customer service, etc)
  • Would you return to this website often?  For what reasons?
  • What shortcomings exist and what would you change?

The answers to these questions should give you a pretty clear picture of whether it’s time to redesign or not.

The last consideration should be whether or not your site is equipped to participate in the social internet (web 2.0).  Billboard/brochure style websites of years past vs. current web 2.0 sites would be comparable in today’s world to a movie rental store vs. Netflix, a paperback book vs. Kindle, a landline telephone vs. a 3G smartphone, or a Walkman vs. an iPad.  I’m alluding to an entity with very basic limited capabilities compared to something that is dynamic, expandable, and interactive.  If you are OK with sitting back and hoping potential customers find your website and are able to sift through enough of the static information that they decide to take action and go out of their way to contact you without first being persuaded away by a distraction or more enticing alternative, then you don’t need to worry about adapting to new technology and a changing business environment.  If, on the other hand, you are interested in exploring the world of a website that is optimized to engage in the social internet, your business will reap these rewards:

  • Keep visitors coming back again and again with consistently new, fresh, and updated content on your website.
  • Educate, entertain, and stay engaged with your web visitors with blog articles, pictures, and newsletters.
  • Increase your search engine rankings (SEO) by building a wealth of relevant content associated with your industry.
  • Encourage purchases or inbound requests by providing clear “next step” calls-to-action from each page of your site.
  • Establish yourself as an industry leader by adopting new technology and providing relevant content to your audience.
  • Enable your sales and marketing team to be more successful with a powerful online resource to back them up.

The bottom line is this… your website should be something you are proud of.  Think of it as your online “storefront” that will either persuade or dissuade potential and existing customers to or from engaging in a relationship with your business.  If your website is like that questionable relative that you’re embarrassed to introduce your friends to, it’s time for a change.  Your website can potentially win more curious shoppers than your actual place of business can.  It can communicate to more people, more quickly, and in a way that is completely up to you.  And this is really the infancy of the internet, e-commerce, and social networking… who knows where it will be in 5 years.  What we do know is that the adoption rate of technology among the consuming public is astounding, and it is gaining steam not slowing down.

So you go through this process and find that it’s time for a redesign. Where do you start?  Find some local professionals in your network who you think have a spectacular website and ask them to refer you to their design firm.  Google it. My thought is that the firms that come up at the top of the search results probably have something figured out when it comes to SEO and website design.  Check out directories for local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce or a local technology organization.  The companies that take the time to get involved in the local business community probably offer good customer service and can deliver a product they can stand behind.  Don’t choose a design firm until you’ve interviewed multiple candidates. Choose based on how well they “get” your business and how well you “click” with them.

My advice is to constantly be a part of the change in business and society and not to wait for what you think may be a “safe” time.  It’s much, much harder to catch up to a wave when you’re swept under the ocean, than to get on your board and enjoy the ride. What do you think?



Category: customer, market research, Marketing Strategy, online marketing, Social media Marketing

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The Author:

Sales, marketing, and management professional with 10 years of combined B2B and B2C experience in both corporate and small business. Visionary marketer with a passion for keeping in touch with the latest trends in consumer behavior and new technology. I enjoy environments that reward excellence, relish the opportunity to serve as a mentor, and I believe people and relationships are the driving force behind successful and ethical business practices. Specialized skills in Sales and Marketing include Personal Selling, Web 2.0 Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Web Content Management, and Creative Blogging. Specialized skills in Retail Management include HR Compliance, Recruiting/Training/Placement of all levels of store management, Loss Prevention, Store Systems/Efficiency, and Teamwork/Motivation. http://www.srctechnology.com

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  • http://twitter.com/fredchannel Fred

    Brilliant post Josh. Welcome to Bloggertone!nThose are good points.nAnother, basic way to know if you need to redesign your site is if your current website is not in line with your business goals (and product mix). Example: If 80% of your income is “Product X”, it makes no sense not to have a clear call to action that will contribute to convert more of those sales.

  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    Hi Josh, Welcome to Bloggertone and great first article. I talked to some of the people behind http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/ and one of my big takeaways was how seriously important good design is. Unfortunately it’s also one of the first places small business try to cut corners. “Can web visitors easily navigate to the most crucial information within 3 clicks?” That’s such a great question, people fail to realise just how important the user experience is and why information needs to be presented in an easy to find and engaging way. As you point out, your website can be a hugely effective means of communicating with customers provided that you spend a little time and resource ensuring that it delivers for them. Thanks for sharing, Niall

  • Anonymous

    Great post Josh. It’s surprising how many websites need to be redesigned, specifically to make them Social Media friendly. I finally was able to wear my sister down and convince her to update her website, this time working with a good designer. As Niall says people try to cut corners, and either do it themselves or go with the cheapest designer.nnBest of luck with your future posts.

  • http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

    Well hello there Josh and welcome to the wonderful world of Bloggertone.nnWhat an excellent start and a blog that packs a punch! nBeing in the business myself, I’m with you alllllll the way. The user experience is key. People these days like to interact with a site, they want instant results and they’re more savvy than ever before. Websites can easily become staid and boring. A website should ideally be freshened up or redesigned every two years to pull it in-line with new techlogies and trends. A website in itself isn’t enough. It needs to support the industry, the brand and the user. nnI love the fact you mentioned ‘relevancy’. Its my theme this month and a dear one, because targeted content drives results….we’ve buried mass marketing and are cozying up with dynamic and targeted content.nnI would like to add one little thing – monitoring. Evaluation will provide all the insights you need to establish your position and performance online. Its one of the best about online, you can tract your activity.

  • Anonymous

    Great article! i know working with small e-commerce businesses here at Dydacomp many don’t realize when its time to redesign or recognize that there is even a need to ever do it. It is really important for sites to be updated with new content regularly as well as add on new features that have been proven to improve user experiences. Another thing to note is that with a number of great analytic tools out there it is important for sites to track and monitor the traffic on their site. This is a great way for them to find out ways to enhance the user experiences and improve the quality of their sites.

  • Anonymous

    I used http://www.clueapp.com/ It allows you to ask a lot of ppl what they think of your website. If you dont like the answers they give, fix it! simple as that. nnSide note-instead of spending a ton of money on a static WEBSITE, try a wordpress site WITH a static home page. nnGood luck every one!

  • http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

    Hi Josh. Welcome to Bloggertone. The Web 2.0 uplift is a really great opportunity for business to create a much more exciting and relevant web presence for their business. nnBlogging is the way to create that dynamic within a carefully constructed site but the content has to be meaningful and rich to ensure “stickiness”.nnI would also suggest that 3 clicks is almost too many now for people to get to the “relevant” material – i.e. how you engage them to make the sale. Less is more in this instance for sure and if you could aim for 1 click without it being gratuitously in-your-face selling then that would be better? What do you think?nnThanks for sharing and such an engaged first post.

  • Anonymous

    Paul,nnYou are not alone with goal setting! Start with “why”. What is the purpose of your blog? Then the goals make more sense. Granted, accomplishing the goal is the best reward, you can create milestones to show progress and reward yourself as you reach these milestones. This develops a track record of success. As you know, success begets success!

  • Anonymous

    Fred,nnI like point 7 too! I’m not sure where we got the idea that achieving our goals should be equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest (and even the climbers celebrate reaching each stage of the climb). For most business goals, we need to see our incremental progress and acknowledge it. The best part is that the rewards can be any size from candy to time off from work.

  • http://twitter.com/demandMCG Market Creation Grp

    I love the post. I agree that an important consideration is whether or not people will return to your site. With infinite companies out there selling or doing the same thing, you need to have something that separates yourself from the herd. Whether it’s giving away an ebook, a video, or some other form of collateral, you need to give people a reason to check out your site. nnA good stat to make sure you’re doing this is the bounce rate. If your bounce rate is high, it means that people aren’t taking the time to poke around your site. Change that by giving them a reason to

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