In the age of ever-changing consumer tastes, where consumers do not think twice about updating their wardrobes, phones, or even living spaces: growth-oriented businesses must approach their websites with the same zest for change. In today’s dynamic digital landscape, your website is your first impression on potential customers/partners.

It is not just an online presence, but your brand’s main digital identifier. It is also the window through which anyone can chart your brand’s journey and track how it is adapting to the ever-evolving digital landscape. If your website design feels like a relic compared to the current digital landscape, visitors might infer that your brand is equally obsolete and not worth their time.

Plus, when users see websites with out-of-date designs, they immediately think of navigation issues and slow loading times. It only takes 50 milliseconds for visitors to form an opinion about a website. An outdated design will immediately erode their trust and make them wonder if your brand is still active, dependable, or invested in offering high-quality products/services.

Are we catastrophizing? No, and the experts would agree. In a recent survey by GoodFirms, over 38% of website designers claimed that outdated website design is the #1 reason why visitors may leave your website. Most brands know this. The average brand updates its website design every 18 to 30 months. The leading brands do it even more frequently.

Here is a deep dive into all the major factors that compel brands to redesign their websites so regularly.

The Importance of Redesigning a Business Website

The digital world is constantly evolving. If your online presence is still rooted in the past, a website redesign is the perfect opportunity to re-align your brand’s aesthetics: think colors, fonts, and graphics, with the digital design trends of today.

Beyond aesthetics, technology also keeps advancing every year. A redesign can also be your brand’s ticket to ride the waves of recent technological advancements and improve your website’s functionality, SEO strategy, and mobile-friendliness.

Aside from these basic opportunities, a redesign also gives brands the chance to:

Improve the Ability of the Website to Generate Leads

Leads are a critical metric for any business operating in this super-competitive digital landscape. If a business website is not generating leads or achieving desired outcomes (such as sign-ups or online purchases), its design, user experience, and content may need improvement.

If the brand’s competing websites are providing better online experiences and achieving better outcomes, getting a redesign can help the website become up-to-date with the latest technologies and regain its competitive edge online.

Reflect the Evolution of the Company

A business website should be a reflection of its brand’s identity and core offerings. If a brand has evolved, i.e., added new products/services, its website should be updated accordingly. For example, if you are planning to add eCommerce functionalities to your website, you will have to first add new pages and navigation elements to make the site easy to browse for target buyers.

Update Content Management System

Website redesigns and CMS upgrades typically go hand in hand. A Content Management System (CMS) is a software application that helps users create/manage/publish digital content on their websites. Like all software applications, CMS tools are regularly updated with fresh capabilities, expanded functionalities, and performance enhancements.

Sticking with an older CMS version means missing out on these new features. It also means that users on your website are likelier to experience technical issues like broken links or server downtime. In other words, sticking with an older CMS can severely impact the quality of user experience your site delivers, and consequently, your bottom line.

Redesigning your website will help you eliminate all of these risks. Most businesses redesign their websites and update their CMS systems at the same time because the two tasks are interrelated. For example, if a business redesigns its website to be more responsive and mobile-friendly, it will also need to update its CMS to support mobile APIs and devices.

An updated CMS will also help:

• Improve User Experience: An up-to-date CMS will be integrated with mobile devices and social platforms. This updated CMS will provide better user experiences, especially to users who visit websites via their mobile devices. In Q1 of 2023, 58.3% of all website traffic came from mobile devices. If you want to deliver engaging and reliable user experiences to nearly half of your traffic, both your website’s design and CMS must be mobile-friendly.
• Saves Costs: Just like old cars and old homes, outdated CMS tools often become useless money pits. There is no point investing money in an outdated CMS version when you know your site is losing precious revenue via poor user experiences, outages, and downtime. Investing in a newer, faster, and more user-friendly version is a far better decision.
• Eliminate Technical Issues: Revamping your website CMS will instantly eliminate technical issues like phone incompatibility, broken links, server outages, etc. These glitches will be replaced by fresh capabilities that will exceed user expectations.

If you are unsure whether or not you should update your business website’s CMS, we recommend working with professional web designers. They will assess your website and make appropriate CMS recommendations based on your brand and website’s needs and goals.

Maintain Your Brand’s Competitive Advantage

While your website is stuck in time, other sites are getting upgraded and adopting new trends. Directly and indirectly, these sites are creating a perception of what is cool and exciting in web design and what is not. The last thing your brand website wants to do is be perceived as uncool.

The moment that happens, your website will lose its authority and its ability to impress users. And your business will lose its competitive edge in the market. Small updates here and there may help keep your site fresh. But, these minor adjustments can never substitute for a full redesign.

Benefits of a Website Redesign: Does it Make Financial Sense?

Unlike short-term, band-aid solutions, a 360-degree redesign will allow your business to get everything right from the start. That is because professional web designers have clear-cut strategies on how to revamp old, unsuccessful websites.

Every step in these strategies is optimized to help the website attract more visitors, generate more leads/sales, and improve its customer experience. Here is a chart briefly explaining the different phases of a website redesign process:

Such a comprehensive revamp of your website where no detail is sparred will directly increase conversions and revenue. It will also improve the search engine rankings of your website, reduce your bounce rate, and reduce your long-term maintenance costs.

In the long run, redesigning your website makes total financial sense because your brand will swiftly earn back all the money spent on the redesign. Beyond finances, there are several other more significant benefits of getting your business website redesigned.

Elevate Your Brand Status

If your brand has grown significantly in the past few years, redesigning its website is the perfect way to reflect its growth. Plus, having a website that looks and feels brand-new is very important. Even small differences, like personalizing your site’s landing page to suit your visitors’ aesthetic preferences, can make a huge difference.

Mozom, an Israeli creative studio is the perfect example of this. In the past, the site’s single-page layout was perfectly suited for 90s kids. The magazine-style design, decorated with exquisite typography was ideal for people who were in their early 20s in the 2010s.

Now, we are in the 2020s and Mozom’s target audience is millennials. So, the brand redesigned its website to appear even more youth-centric. The revamped Mozom website now offers sleeker navigation and seamless mobile browsing experiences. Its design is totally aligned with the latest website design trends of bold typography, dark palettes, and minimalism.

This strategic website redesign by creative agency Mozom helped them elevate their brand’s image and gain newfound appeal with younger audiences.

Drive More Traffic

A well-redesigned website is essential for delivering positive user experiences. But, the redesign won’t be of any use unless your website can be discovered by potential visitors. You can address this concern by optimizing your website for search during the redesign.

A great way to do that is by adding new content to the revamped website. According to some estimates, websites that offer high-quality content (blogs, articles, case studies, etc.) have a 434% higher chance of earning top rankings on search engines.

Refresh your website’s content strategy. Ensure that it matches the type of content your target users appreciate and are searching for. If you are having trouble developing a new content strategy, here’s a simple plan of action to help you get started:

By implementing a detailed content upgrade strategy during your website’s redesign, you can create content that engages, informs, and sells.

Add New Functionalities to the Site

Your revamped website will attract a lot of traffic. It will also require ongoing maintenance from your backend team. Consider adding new functionalities to your site to address both of these requirements. For example, can add live chat to your site to foster community engagement and produce user-generated content. Here are some other suggestions:

• Add social login options and social media sharing buttons to urge visitors to share your content.
• Add newsletter signup forms to gather email addresses of users. Then, create an email marketing system to drive traffic back to your site.
• Integrate e-commerce functionalities (shopping carts, payment gateways, etc.) to enable online sales.
• Implement user session recording and heatmaps for thorough user experience analysis. Then, tailor content recommendations based on user behavior.
• Deploy chatbots to deliver instant support to customers.
• Create user accounts and give registered users access to personalized dashboards.
• Interactive elements, such as polls, pop quizzes, etc., can also be added to engage visitors.

Web designers and UX designers can also “gamify” certain aspects of the site to engage visitors. For example, they can create special leaderboards and challenges for registered users.

Time to Redesign

Redesigning a website is an intimidating, challenging, and ultimately extremely rewarding process for businesses. If your website is running slow, looking old, and lacking mission-critical functionality, use this guide to kickstart the redesign process. Or, contact Design Studio’s web design experts for personalized assistance!

Originally posted on design-studio.io.

Why Website Redesign is Important? was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.