Website Redesign Guide For Successful Business Growth
Most business owners seem to think that website redesign is such a daunting task. Especially if you have other business goals or challenges that take precedence. From finding new customers or lead generation to hitting your revenue target or reaching your conversion goals. But stop and think for a minute. What if a website redesign can sort out some or most of these problems?
Apart from changing how potential customers perceive your business, having a website redesign will also enhance your digital marketing efforts.
The reasons for considering redesigning your website may vary from one business to another. Also, depending on your specific marketing objectives. The common reasons are rebranding, increasing website traffic, lead generation, sales/conversions and user experience.
In this guide we are going to discuss these reasons, and exactly how a website redesign can help grow your business.
WHY A WEBSITE REDESIGN?
Rebranding Your Website
One advantage of being a business owner is being able to pivot anytime and focus your business on newer ventures that work for the business for the foreseeable future. If your business has changed direction a few times and your website doesn’t currently represent what your business actually does, it can be confusing to your potential customers. Unless, of course, you don’t depend on your website for new business (making it pointless to have a website in the first place). It is important that the messaging on your website represents what your business is doing today.
Finders Keepers
Always think about your ideal customers and try to help ease their sales journey as they search for your business and services when they need them the most. It’s like the ‘finders keepers’ theory, you can’t keep what you can’t find. When done correctly, rebranding can help with customer retention. Your customers will surely love your brand for life.
Another instance you’d need to rebrand a website is when it’s out of date. Unfortunately, this is usually first noticed by your customers. They will in some cases let you know about their experience with your website being slow and clunky. Sometimes the irrelevant information on the website will make them feel confused. At this point they won’t bother telling you and would rather go somewhere else. This is probably the first touchpoint with the customer who will then leave your website to seek a better user experience.
Here are some hard hitting facts about customers’ user experience to paint a clearer picture. Did you know that –
- 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a website after a poor user experience.
- 90% of users have stopped using an app due to poor performance.
- 96% of all dissatisfied customers simply just leave without voicing a complaint. And 91% of those customers will never come back.
Increase Website Traffic
You can have the most sophisticated website in your industry, but without any website traffic there’s no point having a business website. You want to show your potential customers what you’ve got to offer through your website. If you can’t get in front of your ideal customers, then chances are they are going to your competitors websites instead. The more your customers go to your competitors, the more likely you are to be out of business. Unless of course you have other options that are offline. However, you are still losing out as most consumers start their search online as part of their research in finding the right products or services. As this article on WebdevStudios points out, “More traffic = More Customers = More Sales = More $$$“.
Optimise for Customers First
You need to optimise your website for your ideal audience first, and then for search engines. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) needs to be implemented on your website to enable customers to search for your services. In order for customers to search for your services, you will need This can be achieved by keyword research. Which helps you identify the words and search phrases used to search for your services online. When identified, include them in different parts of your content like in the page titles, headers, body text, meta descriptions, and URLs.
If your current website isn’t SEO friendly, please make sure your new website redesign implements SEO as a priority. When done correctly your website will start to appear in more search results. This will give you more visibility and a better chance to reach your target audience.
Generate More Leads
You may be getting a decent amount of traffic, but still struggling with turning website visitors into leads. It’s possible that your website has a few missing elements that make it difficult for your users to become leads. One way of checking if your current users stay long enough on the website is to track the bounce rate of your website. You can track this by using a tool like Google Analytics. A high bounce rate indicates your website users are not staying long enough on your website. Ask yourself a few honest questions – Is your content engaging enough for your audience? Are you clear about your messaging and Call To Actions (CTAs)? Do your users find what they are looking for on the website? Does your website load fast enough? Answering these questions before your website redesign will help you figure out why you’re having a lead generation problem.
Is your content engaging for your target audience?
You need to understand your target audience in order for you to give them content they’ll resonate with and find engaging. Imagine if you visited a website where you didn’t find anything useful or interesting. Chances are you would leave the site shortly after as it has hardly anything of value to offer you.
Are you clear about your messaging and Call To Actions (CTAs) ?
Have clear call to action buttons or links to help guide your website visitors on what to do next as they engage with your content. Call to action simply means the next step that you want your website users to take. This can be actions like ordering a product or service, filling out a contact form or phoning you. Make sure you have clear CTAs to help turn your website visitors into leads.
Do your users find what they are looking for on the website?
The main reason for a high bounce rate is your users not finding what they are looking for on the website. You have to help your customers find your products or services easily, or risk them leaving for easier alternatives. When your target audience easily find what led them to your website, then they will stick around.
Sales Conversions and Website Redesign
If your website sales have drastically reduced over time, it may be time to take a deeper look at your conversion rates. Sales Conversion is the rate at which you turn your website leads into customers. Your business website should be your best salesperson, and if not we need to try to understand why. It could be that your target audience has changed the way they interact with your website. Sometimes it might just be that your website is not up-to-date with the current web standards. This would cause a poor user experience for your potential customers. In most cases your website may not be conversion rate optimised.
Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action – like making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to one or more of your services.
CRO is a vital part of any successful website redesign process. Your website and landing pages have to be optimised in such a way that your potential customers perform the intended action. This will ultimately bring sales to your business. Here are some conversion rate optimisation tactics to get you started.
3 Website Redesign Conversion Rate Tactics to Get You Started
- Heat Maps – help you view how your website visitors interact with your website. Analyse what areas can be improved for a better user experience, and sales journey. You can use a tool like HotJar who offer a free plan that will give you a good start. HotJar records videos of your users as they interact with your website. This allows you to view mouse movements, key presses, scrolls and clicks on your website.
- Analytics – make use of analytics tools like Googe Analytics or Microsoft Clarity to measure your users. These tools will help you with insights like website usage, statistics, referrer information, visitor duration and the bounce rate.
- A/B Testing – this is when you offer your website visitors two or more versions of your website. And then you compare to analyse which one converts better. There are tools that make the process easier for you. Tools like Crazy Egg, VWO or HubSpot’s A/B Testing Kit can help you get started.
Bonus Point
- Exit Popups – one of the most underrated ways to increase your conversion rate. These are popups that are displayed when a site visitor tries to leave a web page. Their main purpose is convincing them not to leave. Give your audience a good reason to stay on the page like a special offer or free download. There are loads of tools available that you can use. You can use Hubspot Forms, Convertflow or Popupsmart to name a few. Or if your website is built on WordPress you can use Popup Maker or other similar plugins.
Conclusion
Website redesign can help grow your business with increased sales and conversions. Have a clear idea of where your website currently stands by having your website audited. Then using analytics, you can decide where you want to be and set clear goals. Remember, you’re doing this for your customers in the first place. Have your new website work for your customers and your business.
