3 Alternatives to a Website Redesign Project

by Gregg Crystal Sep 11, 2018

"We need to redesign our website" is one of the first things customers tell me when we begin to engage them in the sales process.

Most of the time, websites are redesigned for the wrong reasons, or worse, the redesign creates the wrong expectations. When you have the wrong expectations, no matter how well the project goes, you'll be disappointed.

A website redesign is usually a laborious process, with lots of time and labor involved.

Depending on your expectations, there may be another course of action that gets you what you need faster.

Here's 3 of the most popular reasons I've seen as to why a company wants to redesign their site, and what they may want to consider instead:

1. We Need More Traffic

A redesign is not going to bring more traffic to your site. Google doesn't rank sites on how well they look (although there is ranking boost for using SSL, and having faster page loading speeds).

Consider This Instead 

Optimize your existing site for Google. Run your site through Screaming Frog, SEMRush, etc., and make sure you've optimized page titles, descriptions, H1 tags, etc.

We still see websites where the home page has a page title of 'Home Page' and there are no H1 tags or page descriptions anywhere in the site. If you're blogging, and your blog doesn't have the blog title in an H1 tag, change that today for a quick SEO boost.

Is your site already optimized? If so, then you'll need to give Google more reasons to rank your site. You'll need to blog more or create more pages that tell your story.

If you need traffic immediately, try a paid campaign.

2. The Current Design Doesn't Reflect Our Brand

'Branding' is a tough concept to grasp, especially if you are a service agency that gets most of its leads from networking.

I have been with my accountant for years, but I've never looked at their site. I could not tell you what their brand is.

Most people talk about Branding as it relates to Google, Facebook, or large consumer brands like Coca-Cola.

Consider This Instead

Instead of saying the word 'brand' replace that with the word 'story'.

If you say, "the current design doesn't reflect our story", then you have a more accurate problem.

Websites need clarity by defining what are you selling and who are you selling it to.

Update the story on your website first. Make sure all the pages have content that you like that clearly explains what you do and who you do it for.

There's an added benefit that if you still need a redesign, you'll find that process to go smoother. Why? If you redesign without the right content in place, you'll develop a nice looking site that still won't reflect your story when you're all done.

Having the right story in place will also help your website design team develop a design that fits your story.

3. We Need More Conversions

If you think the whole point of a website is to create clients, you're right!

But the question is-are they not converting because of the web design?

Or, are they not converting because the right people aren't on their site?

Consider This Instead

Does you current site have a way to convert right now? Is it obvious? 

Can a prospect convert on every page, or do they have to hunt for the contact us page?

Is there only conversion the contact us page (which is essentially asking a sales person to call them).

Consider adding more conversions (call-to-actions, or CTAs) to your site, starting with the home page. 

Put another at the end of every page, out of the way so it doesn't distract from reading the content, but not so far out of the way that people can't see it.

Your goal is to determine if people will convert without changing the design.

By determining if your existing traffic converts, you'll be able to determine if you need more traffic or different traffic from different people. 

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