How Often Should a Brand Update Its Website Design

The fact that you ended up here reading this blog shows that you are thinking about your existing website and perhaps whether it can satisfy your needs. Even though redesigning the site is not what most companies would be happy to do, usually, it is a necessity for them. Whether your website is getting up in years or just not performing the way you want it to, it might be the time to proceed with its redesigning.

But now this leaves us with the main question – how often should a brand update its website design? And the answer is that it depends on numerous factors.

Time Is Money – Here’s a Quick Answer

Although a number of factors together determine how frequently you need to go for a website redesign, for readers looking for an immediate answer, we can give you a rough estimate. Generally, it is believed that a standard website has an estimated ‘service life’ during which it is regarded as new, useful, and suitable for the visitors/users. And for a typical business, this time period is about 1.5-2.5 years, so a good rule of thumb is to update your website design between this timespan.

However, keep in mind that this is just an approximate figure; it is not a definite and rigid rule. While some sites might not require a redesign during this whole period, some might need to be updated more often as the consumer demand, market trends, or business goals change.

And well, not to forget, age is just a number, right? So it applies to your website too. In this blog, we will discuss how you can determine how often you should redesign your website and for people who want a quick answer, it is a good idea to update your site just as often as most people buy a brand new smartphone.

Website Redesign to Solve a Problem

Outside of that bigger picture, one of the primary reasons that encourage the brands to opt for a website redesign is to tackle a problem they are currently facing. While for some companies that might be a downturn in their business or a sharp decline in their site visibility on the SERPs, some might be stuck in a more dramatic situation like a website hack or a competitor plagiarizing their content. No matter what your individual problem is, moving ahead with a smart site revamp might help.

However, be sure to convey the issues you want to resolve with the team you have appointed to upgrade your website when you sit to plan out your new site’s structure and design.

For example, if your goal is to bring in more leads via your renewed site, the team must add a flow of web pages that lead visitors to a form submission or request information page. Similarly, if you want to increase your online sales, you should add pages that can identify the needs of your prospects quickly and offer them the ideal product or service in the most convenient possible manner. On the other hand, if your aim is to boost your site visibility and traffic, then incorporating pages and content that you can optimize for SEO will help you build a strong digital foothold and, thus, achieve your goals.

It’s Look and Feel

One of the main reasons among others to go for a website redesign is more superficial and beautifying; it may be just that your current website has got an old look and feel. Consider your brand’s website as your house. Now, you know that the first impression is the key, and as soon as a visitor lands on your site, they get your brand’s first-ever curb appeal.

Now you need to decide whether it tells them that your brand is modern, engaged, and efficient to provide them the products or services they want or need? Or instead, it is shabby and worn out, featuring old-fashioned web design elements such as a hit counter, flashing banners, or too many widgets and stinking of something obsolete? If you think the second one describes your case better, then perhaps a website redesign is indeed what you need.

Investing in revamping your website’s look and feel is just like refurbishing your house for sale. Just the way your kitchen and bathroom will scare the buyers away if they have not seen new paint and installations for decades, a website that looks like it belongs to the initial days of the web will most probably make the prospects run away.

However, just like not every home renovation project will make the customer buy it right away, you do not need to update every single element on your existing website in order to see a pay-off. At times, giving your site’s homepage and main category pages a little TLC (tender loving care) and a makeover to your existing content might be exactly what you need in a fraction of time and cost.

Poor Performance

If you are not completely satisfied with your website’s performance or feel that it isn’t working up to the mark, then that’s another good reason to get it redesigned. However, this is a pretty subjective idea that can take multiple shapes and manifest in many unique ways. For instance, if your website has high-quality, original, and engaging content that is buried, five clicks or pages deep will probably be of no use, and this isn’t effective website design. Similarly, if your website contains too many dead links leading to nowhere or error or 404 pages, whether onsite or offsite – or if your pages take too much time to load or your website isn’t mobile-friendly (which is a grave sin today), it’s time to give it that much-needed upgrade.

 Moreover, it is always a good idea to consider whether or not the site works well for you and your visitors. Ask yourself:

• Is my website serving as a reliable source of information for the visitors?
• Are visitors easily able to find what they want or need?
• Can you make changes to product info, inventory items, or service features easily by yourself?

If you get a “no” as an answer to any of these questions, then you know it’s time to say “yes” to a website redesign.

The Seven S’s of Website Design

No matter what drove you towards moving forward with a website redesign, you must make sure that your renewed site is future-focused to help you get the best out of your investment. And this is best done by considering the seven S’s of website design – SEO, Structure, Simple, Sales, Speed, Scalable, and Social.

• SEO – Is your updated site prepared and capable of being optimized for SEO?
• Structure – Has its design and flow of pages built in a way that makes it easy for the users to access related information, product pages, and contact page?
• Simple – Is the new website simple enough for you and your team to access, update, and manage it easily?
• Sales – If you are an online seller, is your new website able to process orders, shipping, and other important information?
• Speed – The loading speed of a site heavily influences the user experience, so has your new website been built to load quickly even on mobiles?
• Scalable – Different users use different devices to access your website, so does your new site responsively adapt to different screen sizes?
• Social – Does your new website incorporate your social media, whether the links to your social media channel or a feed of posts from any social media platform?

Conclusion – It’s Time to Change

Remember, it is absolutely alright to come to the conclusion that it’s time to lay off your old ways and adapt. The world of the internet is continuously evolving and changing, and if you do not adapt to it, you will be left far behind. You need to invest in redesigning your website not because you feel like doing it, but because you have to stay relevant and offer the best experience as well as services to your customers. However, keep in mind to approach a smart redesign that will enable you to update your site easily and adapt to the latest changes of the web. Last but not least, you should know that redesigning and launching an updated website is just a ‘launch,’ you also need to adjust and improve your ways along with it to bring the true change. Your website represents your brand and tells its story; it’s you who needs to make sure it conveys the right one.