Losing on Sales? May be it’s time to redesign your website!

So, did you ever reach a point where you dropped your heads thinking;

“Why are the sales going down in spite of doing everything and doing it just right?”

Well in my initial days of learning SEO basics I surely did. This is where I hit the jackpot of knowing the answer to this mind-boggling puzzle.

This can be because of your Website Design.

Weird?

But that’s true.

Wondering what’s a website’s design and development got to do with its SEO. Well my friend they both are associated when it comes to raising the search engine rankings.

As per industry experts;

“Healthy duration of any website is usually 3-4 years and in case you go beyond this your website will succumb.”

Technology keeps updating and to keep your website on a technology which was a hit 3 years back may not be a good idea in some cases. Similarly, the design which looked appealing and was made as per the trends might not fit in 3 years later.

Therefore, it is always a good practice to keep pace with the latest trends of design and technology when it comes to website designing.

But the big question here is;

What are the signs your website needs a redesign?

Except for the obvious one (i.e. the design looks outdated) there are three main concerns which lead the signals for website redesigning.

#1 Your website’s analytics is showing a downfall in conversions every-time you log in.

#2 The SEO score and overall performance of your site has dropped.

#3 The User Interface is not very impressive

Does any of the above ring a bell to you? If the answer is yes, then your website surely needs a facelift. For more details on signs of website redesigning read this article about 6 Reasons Why It Is Time for Website Redesign.

Example of Website Redesign

Before Redesigning

The old look is good too, but again there is no harm in improving for better.

After Redesigning

The new website of this web design company in India is more trend-friendly, user-friendly and of course SEO friendly. The use of colors in this new website is catchy and trendy.

Key points to consider when you redesign your website

While redesigning has got a lot to do with the way your website looks. But that’s not all about it. There are various factors to keep in mind while redesigning your website.

#1. Your Old Website Is Not A Junk

Redesigning does not mean to remove all the elements of your old website completely. Rather you can carefully choose to keep some of the elements from your old website like color scheme, fonts, URLs and more.

In fact use your data from your Google Analytics account to analyze which pages need a makeover in particular.

For example if people are coming to your services page but exiting from their then obviously the bounce rate of service page will increase. In this case your new website should make efforts to create interesting content, call-to-actions, e-books and other measures to keep your users hooked. And intrigue them to take the next expected step; i.e. to contact you.

#2. Sit With Your SEO Guy And Discuss The Goals

Analyze your SEO goals by logging into your Analytics for better insights.

Email address collection, encouraging downloads, buying etc. all come under goals.

It is always recommended to work on a project with a plan ahead.

Therefore it is a good idea to first know what you want from your new website in terms of sales and conversions and then go ahead with the design.

#3. Understand Your Demographics

It is very important to understand and know your audience. Target audiences change over time. This can be because of the changes you make to the products or services offered to them.

You will get this information from Google Analytics and you can then redesign your website accordingly.

For instance, if earlier your website had majority of younger audience but now it has a majority of middle age audience too. Then in this case you will have to redesign your website’s content and also the overall look and feel to suit both the audiences.

#4. Create A List Of Your To-Dos For Your Website

This is very important. Make a list of everything you have in mind to change or update in your existing website.

This can be about logo, the themes, the tools used, URL structure, navigation structure or even a new landing page. Just jot it down before you forget anything.

As an example, you might want to change your URL structure if it looks like this;

https://examplewebsite.com/p-001 or https://examplewebsite.com/8/27/2018/website-redesign

to a more SEO friendly URL i.e.

https://examplewebsite.com/website-resign

These small things matter a lot while working on the overall performance and SEO of a website.

#5. Use Colors Smartly

Who doesn’t like bright colors, right? But don’t overdo it. It’d never advised to make your website a rainbow just to be different.

Rather choose vibrant contrast colors to grab the attention of your visitors on special content like on the Call To Action (CTA) buttons to encourage users to take some action.

Here is an example:

In the above website the navigation and the Call To Action buttons are highlighted from the rest of the website.

#6. Make Sure Your Website is Responsive

This is crucial.

Not everyone hooks on to a desktop for browsing. In fact mostly users surf for products and services in their free time and on their mobile phones.

This make it essential for the website owners to double check that their website is looking and functioning great on a smartphone or any other device. Answer these 6 questions when optimizing your website for mobiles.

#7. Check for Broken Links

It is very important to check your new website for any broken links. For this you can use free tools like Xenu’s Link Sleuth to check the internal broken links and fix them.

As otherwise they will increase the 404 error in your website and can adversely affect the SEO rankings of your website.

#8. Optimize Your New Website For SEO

Last but in no means the least, do not forget the SEO of your website. We are making all these efforts to increase your sales and conversions.

Therefore;

check your keyword density,
use right keywords,
make sure all the images have alt tags and description
all pages have proper meta content
place CTAs at the right place, and
include a Blog page

If you have all these in place and still your rankings or traffic came down you can read this article about Why did SEO Traffic Drop after Website Redesign?

Conclusion

Redesigning your website is essential if no changes have been made on your website for more than 3 years. If done in the right manner it will surely increase the traffic and boost your sales and conversions.

Analyze and use the important elements from your old website, find and implement a goal and a strategy, keep the SEO reports with you while redesigning your website.

While the ultimate goal of website redesigning stays to be an increase in sales and conversions. But refining the user experience is definitely an added advantage for the users and the owners.