Every website could do with a bit of sprucing up now and then. In some cases, it might be experiencing some problems that can only be addressed by changing the design. Or, you might want to add an important feature or remove a useless one. And you can always get bored with how your website looks and feels.
You should know what you want before you go into a website redesign. But there’s always the chance that you’ll miss something important while you focus on the things that bug you, and your website the most. So here are a couple of things you should consider when redesigning your website.
Is It Mobile-Friendly?
There’s only one piece of information you need in order to determine how important mobile-friendly design is, especially for an e-commerce website. It’s simple — there are more smartphone users in the world than desktop users.
There are, of course, many other reasons why mobile-friendliness is important, but that one should suffice. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly already than making it mobile-friendly should be the first priority of your website redesign. You’ll have a couple of choices how to handle it, but mobile-responsive design usually comes up on the top for its cost-effectiveness.
Are You Happy with the Appearance?
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to change how your website looks. Every website should evolve with time, and if you want your website to perform well, you should embrace the current design trends.
But there could be other reasons to change your website’s appearance. One of the things that usually ushers change in the visuals department is rebranding. If your whole business is changing its identity, visual identity included, your website should follow.
There are plenty of things you can change. You can try to insert more video. You can change the way the menus look. You should definitely think about the color scheme because there are some great things that can be done by changing the color scheme alone.
Can People Find What They Need?
Nothing can ruin a website like bad navigation. Unless you have a concept of providing your website visitors with the unique experience of being stuck in a digital maze, the navigation should be among your top concerns.
People who visit your website probably have a reason to do it. They’re probably looking for something. And if you want them to be happy and come back to your website, you want them to be able to easily find what they need. So, try to include an advanced search bar. Website search developed by Instant Search, for example, will not only make it easier for the visitors to find what they need, but it will also give you great insight into what people are searching for on the website. And you shouldn’t forget navigation menus, either.
Are Your Sales Dwindling?
If you have an e-commerce website, its sole purpose is to facilitate sales. That’s it. So anything that prevents it from doing that is a problem that should be addressed.
There are multiple steps you can take to improve your website’s optimization. You can shed some elements to make the website load faster. You can improve the copy on the website to make it more effective. You can change the placement of calls to action. You can adjust the number of fields in the form. Many other things you find in the articles can help with sales, as well. Just make sure the changes you implement to address specific issues actually work.
Is It About You or the Visitor?
You probably understand by now that most of the improvement you can make to your website during a redesign will end up benefiting you. But here’s the thing — the way the improvements benefit you the most is by benefiting the visitors.
Adopting a customer-centric approach is one of the best things you can do to improve your website. Making sure that every part of the website, every feature, every design element, work to improve the experience the website offers to its visitors is key to making the website customer-centric.
A website redesign is a perfect opportunity to take stock of the things that work on your website, and the things that don’t. It’s also a good time to change direction, focus on a different visitor profile, or implement new features that will help the website achieve its goals. So make sure you think about every single thing your website needs before you start redesigning.
