Being in the business today means you must have a clear understanding of the importance of your company website. Unless it stands up to the industry standards, it gets really difficult to fulfill the business goals. This often calls for website redesigning.
If you are one such individual who is aware of the importance of optimized user experience, wishes to improve your lead nurturing process and boost conversions, you must have considered revamping your website.
But before you jump into it, there are multiple things you need to consider. Given that you are not building from scratch but rejuvenating something that already exists, you need to be careful and precise in your proceedings. Let's look at some common risks you are looking at if your website designing goes wrong:
Thus, it is clear that you can not risk a website redesigning process gone wrong. Here are some common mistakes that you must avoid while revamping a website.
8 Mistakes to avoid while revamping a Website
Let's begin!
You haven't Analyzed your Current Web Design
As I mentioned before, it is rather natural to revamp your website from time to time, but it is not quite a gut feeling you should go with or a peer thing that you should follow. While making the decision, you need to be aware of the nitty-gritty of your present website.
Doing so, you need to ask yourself the most crucial question: Why do you need to redesign your website? The answer should be good enough to prepare for a mammoth of a project that is web redesigning.
Analyze and recognize the pain points of your website from a visitor's perspective and yours, check the website for outdated features and content, identify the discrepancies that might have arisen over time.
Make a list of opportunities you are missing out on, the features of your website that you would want to carry forward, and the most significant problems you want to address first.
You haven't Set any Scalable Goals
Another common mistake that business owners or entrepreneurs make is not setting scalable goals. It is imperative to know what you want to attain through this process. For your website revamping to be successful, defining a set of goals and a process is paramount.
However, you can only achieve this once you have completed the first step. Once you have analyzed your current website, you will automatically identify the loopholes and have a clear idea about the set of goals you need to achieve with the new design. At this point, you will also recognize the key areas that need your immediate attention.
If you are hiring a web designing company, they will most likely provide you with a demo or a rough plan to show how your website will look like. However, it is advisable to give a reference for what you want.
You are Prioritizing Aesthetics Over Functionality
Presently everyone wanted everything to be visually appealing. Aesthetically pleasing and responsive web design is always a plus. However, this must not lead to poor functionality. When it comes to your website, you must always prioritize its functionality over its visual appeal.
Undoubtedly the purpose of web redesigning is to make the website look better than the previous one, but you should also make sure that it works better than the last one. Innovative layout and easy navigation are the two factors that you should consider first.
Make sure your visitors find what they are looking for without having to navigate through multiple unnecessary pages.
You aren't Realistic about Web Redesigning Budget
If you have dedicated web designers, UX experts, developers, and other resources at your disposal, then budget might not be a factor for you. However, in most cases, such is not the case. The alternative is hiring a website designing company. This is where budget comes into play.
The most common mistake that entrepreneurs make in this context is not doing thorough market research to realize the current market price for a thorough web designing service. They usually lack enough budget or expect it to be done at an unrealistically lower rate.
You must remember that the cost for web designing or redesigning depends on the feature and functionality that you want to integrate into your website. Thus, your budget should be in accordance with your expectations. Given that your website is the face of your business, you should prioritize the quality of the work over saving money.
You aren't Realistic about the Time Expectancy of the Project
This is not a process that thrives on tight deadlines. There are several challenges that designers and developers face as they start working on the project. As a result, the initial deadline is most likely to get postponed multiple times. It would be best if you did not lose patience.
This certainly doesn't mean you have to wait for years for the new website. But rushing the process by setting unrealistic deadlines will only backfire on you. Try to gauge the possible challenges and the timeline needed to get them resolved one by one.
You are Missing Out on SEO and Content
What's the point of a beautifully designed and feature-rich website if it is not visible to your target audience? SEO makes sure your website ranks well on search engines, and no matter what people might say, SEO is never dead.
You must stay on top of the SEO trends and regulations of search engines and incorporate the necessary features in your website to ace the SEO game.
Connected to SEO is content strategy. A big part of SEO, your content strategy should get as much attention as your design and functionality. While redesigning your website, you must create fresh content keeping all the relevant keywords and metrics in mind.
You aren't Focusing on Mobile-Friendliness
If you have been following the statistics, you should know that more and more people are accessing websites using their mobile phones. Thus, it must be your priority to make your website responsive and mobile-friendly.
While you get a layout for your website, make sure the content, images, and videos are as appealing and user-friendly on a cell phone as it is on a laptop, if not more.
You don't have a Plan of Action Post Website Launch
Last but not least, you must have a plan of action to promote and create awareness about your newly redesigned website once you have launched it. If you ask me, I would suggest you start dropping hints beforehand. This way, your customers will be in the loop and develop an interest in your new website.
Apart from promotion, you should also get the website tested by a professional tester. A professional website tester will be able to identify the loopholes that you might have missed.
To Conclude
All of these mistakes may be common but are nevertheless serious. Missing out on any of the factors mentioned above will stop your website from delivering the optimum outcome.
Since you are already spending so much of your time and energy making your website better, it only makes sense to take care of all these factors and turn the website into a revenue-generating machine.
With a smart strategy and a good website design team, you can surely achieve your goals in no time. So, look out for these blunders and revamp your website successfully.
If you need any help with website redesigning, feel free to Contact Us!
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