Website Redesign

Why Redesign a Website?

All web redesign projects should start with a strong ‘reason why’. This usually falls into one of two main categories:

• outdated or broken website
• wanting to generate more leads / sales

These are good reasons to redesign your website. They are clear and measurable goals.

Outdated or Broken

A website could be outdated because you’ve rebranded, changed your logo or even the main focus of your business may have changed. These things should all trigger a refresh of the design and don’t require a complete rebuild.

Website design trends have also changed significantly over time. What was modern 10 years ago can now look very tired, and make your business look neglected and out of date. Which can have your website visitors rapidly hitting the back button and going elsewhere.

Similarly if your site is out of date in terms of the technology it was built with. It may not work properly on mobile devices (~60% of most websites traffic). It may not even function correctly anymore. Or even worse, be displaying technical error messages to your visitors.

Websites built on platforms such as WordPress require regular maintenance to keep things updated and functioning correctly. Typically this doesn’t require any redesign work at all as everything is gradually updated. Our Website Care Plans provide this service (although sites that have been neglected for a long time may require our one-off old WordPress update service).

Generate More Leads / Sales

Generating more leads for your business is always a strong reason to redesign or rebuild a site. It’s one of the key website redesign benefits.

But improving conversion rates is a skill most web designers lack. Because it’s a marketing skill, not a design skill. We have over 20 years experience in both areas, so know how to balance the two.

When redesigning to improve leads we start by looking at what is working now. And what isn’t. It’s critical to understand a site well before making changes. Improvements are often visual, but can also be to existing wording to better explain what you offer. It may also mean improving ‘calls to action’ (CTA’s – get a quote, contact us, book an appointment) or adding more of them in the right places. It can also be adding more pages to properly cover everything you do, and help more potential customers find you. From whatever stage of the buying process they are currently in.

Web Redesign Cost

Obviously the costs for any redesign will depend on what’s needed. But as long as it’s being done for the right reasons (as we talked about above) – then typically this will pay for itself within weeks to a few months (depending on your business model).

But let’s put a ballpark figure on it. For a typical service business website expect to pay around $2,000 – $6,000 for a redesign. For most service type businesses this is a no-brainer as even a minor increase in leads will quickly pay this back.

Typically this will cost less than a fresh web design from scratch, as elements can often be reused (branding, logo, photos, product/service descriptions etc).

Website Redesign Case Study

As an example, we recently took a neglected manufacturing service business website and dramatically improved two key measurable results.

71% Increase in Search Traffic

Our initial analysis quickly determined the old website was lacking in content. The company hand makes quality products on-site in New Zealand. The site didn’t explain well what they did. And certainly didn’t show off the quality of their manufacturing.

To fix this we created additional pages and wrote more content to show the breadth of services they provided. We also greatly improved imagery to show off their awesome work. Google recognised these changes and rewarded the company with better rankings and more rankings for a wider range of terms. The result (so far!) shows a 71% increase in clicks from Google.

480% Increase in Leads

The old site had poor navigation. It was slow to load. And it failed to quickly sell the benefits of the companies services.

We redesigned the site with a much better flow. It now loads at lightning speed. It clearly states what the company offer and guides those website visitors directly into the companies sales process. Calls to action are clear and everywhere they should be. The site provides multiple clear ways for customers to become a lead, in or out of working hours.

The results speak for themselves with a 480% increase in the number of leads now flowing in to the company. Just from their website. This project paid for itself very quickly – the owners now kicking themselves for not doing it sooner. 🙂

And once they had a website that converted well, the redesign also opened the door to effective paid advertising. Which has also proven to be a successful source of leads.

TIP: Fix website conversion first, before you spend money on advertising.

Website Redesign Process

We have a clear web design process we follow for all redesign/rebuild projects.

• Fact Finding – the first thing we do is discuss what you want to achieve with the site and how quickly. Then we’ll evaluate your website. We’ll look at the content, the design, the technology stack and dig deep into the Google data. We’ll figure out what’s working, what isn’t working and where any quick wins can be made.
• Project Scope – we’ll agree with you what changes to make, and draw up some priorities and timescales. Sometimes it’s an all-in-one rebuild. Sometimes it’s a phased approach.
• Implementation – then we’ll get started on making the changes. Milestones and deadlines will be met. And you’ll be kept updated and in the loop throughout the process.
• Project Review – once complete we’ll review with you what’s been done and evaluate how effective the changes have been. Sometimes that’s all that’s needed. Sometimes this will reveal even bigger wins that can be had.

Website Redesign and SEO

There are some key SEO mistakes often made when rebuilding or redesigning a site. It’s why we spend a good chunk of time on our Fact Finding phase. We want to improve what’s working, not throw it away! Too many web designers will just throw away the original site and start fresh. With no idea of what was working and no idea of what wasn’t. You can end up with a prettier website that still doesn’t work well.

If your website has some good content, we want to keep that. Maybe improve it but definitely keep it. If the website structure (heirarchy of pages, URLs used, navigation and linking, taxonimies) is good then we don’t want to change all that.

Knowing what to keep is just as important as knowing what to change.

SEO is a big part of what we do when building websites (our SEO services are not suited to every business). Yes, it is possible to build websites and just completely ignore SEO, but it’s such a wasted opportunity.

Website Redesign Quote

If your plan to redesign your website is for the right reasons, then the next step is to get in touch for a quote. Tell us what your website is and what you want to achieve.

Web Design With Results

We don’t just build pretty websites – we build sites to get you results.

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