“When to redesign a website” is perhaps one of the most difficult questions for website owners to answer.

We have to accept that everything has a beginning and an end. And in the digital world this “end” can be very relative.

Let's think about fashion, one of the most changing fields in existence: in the 90s there were standards that indicated what you looked good in: colors, textures, cuts, and combinations; if today we look at the fashion of those years we will surely say "What were they thinking?"

The same thing happens with websites: what worked a few years ago doesn't work today.

And it is what no longer works that you need to work on so that your website continues to do its job. That is: Your website should be your best salesperson and get you clients.

You must keep in mind that websites are not static. On the contrary, they are dynamic, and details that are found along the way must be constantly adjusted in order to obtain the best results.

So rather than talking about “when”, we should talk about “why” a website should be redesigned and that is what we are here for.

Below we will explain some factors that must be taken into account when deciding whether or not it is necessary to do the professional redesign of your website.

Antique

If your website is already a few years old, it is a good idea to consider a redesign. When talking about redesign, you should not only think about the visual part, but also about the procedural part.

New proposals are constantly being generated and others are being abandoned in both design and programming. In design, new shapes, colors, textures, combinations and layouts are proposed that indicate that they may be more attractive to clients. In the programming area, new codes and plugins are generated that seek to make the website more efficient.

It is important to implement these advances (not all of them, just those that are necessary for the website) to achieve a current, user-friendly appearance and experience that helps the website generate conversions and profits.

Change of corporate identity

If a change has been decided to be made to the company's corporate identity, this change must be reflected on the website as well. The website must reflect the essence and purpose of the company on the Internet, so any change made to the identity must be implemented on the website.

If the corporate identity is changed, but the website continues to use the old elements, a disconnection is created between what is seen on the website and the new brand design proposal. This will generate distrust in the users who have entered the website, and sooner rather than later they will leave, never to return.

Content

We cannot stress enough that content is king on the internet. You should carefully look at the content of your website: text, images, videos, icons, illustrations, gifs, etc. which content works and can be left, and which doesn't so you can improve or change it.

Simplify your texts, use a more emotional tone and communicate the benefits of obtaining the product or service rather than explaining how it works. Ideally, you should use a moderate amount of text spread across various parts of the page. As a final tip, if you don't have a blog, or if you do, it's not constantly updated, it's time to start writing articles on topics that interest your sector. This is good for positioning your website in the top search engines.

For images, it is about using those that represent the ideal of the company, the service or product it offers. They must be of good quality and the appropriate size according to the design and layout.

Elements such as illustrations, videos or gifs are good for engaging visitors and making them stay longer on the website and have a higher probability of conversion. However, be careful with the weight of these elements, as they influence the loading time of the website.

Responsive design

Since 2016, making a website design mobile-friendly has stopped being a whim and has become a necessity. Nowadays, most of the visits a website receives come from mobile devices, such as cell phones and tablets, so if a website is not designed to be viewed from these devices, it is losing many sales opportunities.

It is not about thinking of a design for computers and another design for mobile devices, it is about having the same design adapt to the dimensions of the different devices, in this way the unity of the website is not lost and the different visitors will feel comfortable browsing the website.

User Experience

In web design, we always talk about user experience, that is, designing the website in such a way that the person who visits the website interacts and finds what they are looking for in a simple way.

The path that users take on the website, how they interact, which pages they visit and on which they leave the website must be taken into account. In this way, it can be considered whether the conversion scheme that was outlined in the website design works or if there are irregularities that need to be corrected. A good website with a design that takes into account the user experience is more likely to convert.

Bonus: accept online payments

It is very important for any company to facilitate the payment process for its sales. This is why some companies seek to implement a payment gateway on their website (or create a virtual store directly), so that your customers can pay with as little friction as possible.

If you are thinking of converting a website into an online store (or a transactional website), you need to carefully analyze your target audience.

Before making the decision, ask yourself: are your customers willing and knowledgeable enough to pay you digitally? Would this make the process easier for them? If the answers are yes, then this is the right path to take.

If your company does not make the leap to digitizing the payment process (which is inevitable, by the way), you risk being left behind by the competition.

Conclusion

In short, when we talk about redesigning a website, it's more about thinking about why we're doing it. A redesign may not be necessary at the moment, and with a few simple tweaks you can achieve considerable improvements, but if the time comes for a complete redesign, take a closer look (or a closer look) at the website. Gulupa Digital) your website to find out what is failing and correct it in the redesign to obtain improvements in website conversion.