13 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Considering Website Redesign

It is a true fact that every website is the backbone of any business. In order to achieve success in your business, it is very important to have a well-designed website in place. Customers are searching for information online and in this COVID-19 era, they have shifted their search for products/services online. Therefore, it makes sense to have a meaningful, attractive and properly designed website for your business. Your website, content and its overall design have a great impact on your brand identity and perceived credibility.

Website redesign is basically a procedure of revamping your website that includes numerous activities such as updating website content, refreshing layouts and enhancing navigation of your website for better conversions and site performance. Website redesign not only involves changing the look and feel of any website but also includes the way information flows, enhances user experience and optimizes website performance.

Why Redesign is Necessary to Consider?

If you already own your website, then it is vital to consider professional website redesign due to several reasons. For this, you need to analyze your website to identify specific issues that will prompt you to consider website redesign. The reasons can be rebranding your website, high bounce rate, generating more leads, increasing web traffic, implementing responsive design, etc. It is very essential to consider website redesign so as to make your website user-friendly and to do go business online.

It is important to consider website redesign from business perspective as it has a great impact on how your targeted audience perceives your brand. The impression your web design creates on them can either make them stay there for a long period of time or can make them leave your page and turn to competitors. A good web design will keep your customers or prospects stay on your page.

Top 13 Common Website Redesign Mistakes

1. Not Setting a Realistic Launch Date
2. Not Setting Appropriate Budget
3. Not Setting Proper Goals
4. Website is built on Outdated Technology
5. Not Analyzing Existing Website Design
6. Website has no responsive design
7. Prioritizing Aesthetics over Functionality
8. Complicated Navigation
9. Using Unclear Call-To-Action Buttons
10. Lack of Proper Content Strategy
11. Ignoring SEO Factor
12. Providing Insufficient Time to Web Designers
13. Not Compressing Images

1. Not Setting a Realistic Launch Date

It is essential to a realistic launch date for your website after web redesign job is completed. There are numerous factors and variables to be considered before you set a launch date for your website. Setting an unrealistic deadline will make the website suffer in terms of quality or it might happen that you might not get desired results as expected.

Therefore, for this reason it is suggested to start the web redesign task at the earliest and not to mention set a realistic date to launch your website.

2. Not Setting Appropriate Budget

It is very essential to set appropriate budget if you are planning on website redesign. The cost of the website redesign mainly depends on the functionalities and features you want to be integrated into your website. Therefore, do not expect web redesign would be done in the same budget you availed from a company several years ago. So, it is essential to set a realistic budget aside for redesign purpose as your website will represent your brand image on online platforms. Also, it helps you in reaching large number of users and helps them convert into leads thereby leading to increased ROI.

3. Not Setting Proper Goals

It is very important to have a clear idea regarding what you want to achieve from website redesign. Therefore, not knowing what you want from website redesign is one of the common mistakes entrepreneurs often do. Setting a clear achievable goal and process for website redesign is very important for your website’s success. It is very important that you carry out first-point analysis of your website.

From this, you will have a clear idea regarding what you are looking for and how your website will look after the redesign process. If you feel you can find a reference website to show it to the designers and developers so they will get an idea regarding how you want your website to look like.

4. Website is built on Outdated Technology

It might happen that your website is built-in flash which is difficult for search engines to understand or maybe it is running on plugins that have not been updated for a long period of time. Therefore it is very vital to update your website with the latest plugins and technology which will help your website to perform better and be more efficient, thereby offering a better user experience to your visitors.

5. Not Analyzing Existing Website Design

It has been observed that several companies/entrepreneurs decide to get their website revamped without even analyzing their website. It is therefore recommended that you should first analyze the current website in a thorough manner and understand the reason as to why redesign is required and the major problem areas to be resolved, etc.

Find out the opportunities and make a list of things that are working and things that are not working on your website. These points are very crucial to be analyzed and taken into consideration while deciding on website redesign.

6. Website has no responsive design

Responsiveness is an essential feature to be considered if you have a website. With this feature, you can scale up or down as per the screen on which your website is being rendered. Majority of web traffic comes from mobile devices, therefore for this reason it is important to scale down everything so that your mobile users will have a smooth and hassle-free website experience. Therefore, if you are considering website redesign then it is very important to make your website responsive across all devices.

7. Prioritizing Aesthetics over Functionality

We do agree that looks do matter a lot in a website. It enhances user experience, improves navigation, plays a vital role in attracting a new audience and helps in rebranding your business. However, you should give importance to functionality part rather than investing plenty of time in aesthetics.

Even though, a really attractive website might attract users, but it will fail to retain them if the functionality is not up to the mark. You should consider smart layouts and easy navigations to enhance your website. Your website should be user-friendly and users should be able to find information easily on your website.

8. Complicated Navigation

It is a true fact that if your website has complicated navigation then it makes difficult for Google and your targeted audience to find information. In case of complicated navigation, it makes it difficult for search engines to browse and consume your website content.

Making your website navigation menu hard to find is one terrible mistake of website redesign. Therefore it will not rank on search engines. Therefore, make sure that your website has easy navigation so that your users and search engines can easily find required information on your website.

9. Using Unclear Call-To-Action Buttons

A Call-to-Action button helps in guiding or redirecting users to a specific place where they can convert on your website. It is very essential to have an effective call-to-action strategy so that your potential customers can have an idea regarding what next step to be taken.

Effective CTA buttons are large, bold and have clear text. It is very important to take care that not to style important links which makes them blend into the web page content. Also never give multiple link options to users who are trying to get them to follow a CTA.

A properly formed CTA button should lead users to a landing page that lets them perform the desired action and puts them one step closer to their desired step like registering for an event, scheduling an appointment, etc.

10. Lack of Proper Content Strategy

Having a lack of proper content strategy is one of the common mistakes entrepreneurs do while considering web redesign. Therefore, content has also great significance similar to design and functionality. Therefore it helps in creating an effective SEO strategy.

Also, when you are considering website redesign it is very crucial to focus on developing fresh content while considering all the required keywords and other essential metrics. Try to better your content compared to what it was in the past at the time of redesigning your website. Therefore consider writing valuable, relevant and informative content while keeping in mind your product/services and requirements of your target audience.

11. Ignoring SEO Factor

If you are considering website redesign then it is very important to consider Search Engine Optimization as well. Missing this part will not help your website to rank well in search engines. With the help of a SEO strategy, you can make your website SEO-friendly and make it available on search engines. So, it is suggested to never ignore SEO factor and do consider all the best practices of SEO to help achieve a good ranking for your website.

12. Providing Insufficient Time to Web Designers

Revamping your website require pretty much amount of time, therefore it is very essential to have some patience to give sufficient time to web designers for web redesign purpose. Web design is a process which involves many complexities that need to be carefully addressed too. There are several people who approach for website redesign agency to avail website redesign service but don’t give sufficient time for the whole process. It is good to set deadlines for the redesign job, but the deadline should be realistic.

13. Not Compressing Images

Majority of users nowadays use mobile devices to search for information/product or to shop online. Therefore images don’t have to be huge in size when most of your audience is available on a mobile device. Having a large image size will cause your website to load slowly which is usually a bigger issue for mobile users. Users will leave website page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Therefore it is recommended to keep your images to minimum of 100KB or even smaller than it if possible to avoid SEO errors.

Over to You

Since a website represents your brand in the market, therefore it is very essential to have it leveled up with the existing market trends. Although redesigning your website makes sense, but making the above mentioned mistakes will not serve the purpose. So avoid mentioned website redesign mistakes while taking the decision of revamping your website. You can approach a reliable and trustworthy website design agency that offers a guaranteed website redesign service that serves the purpose to make sure that everything falls in place.