Does your website need a redesign?
In some cases, a website redesign is the right move to breathe new life into a website. In others, you might benefit from a little website refresh that spruces things up.
In this guide, Oscar Lutteroth, Chief Creative Officer, will discuss what a website redesign is all about, the differences between a redesign and a refresh, so you can pick the right option for your site.
What You’ll Learn:
- Understanding Website Redesign and Website Refresh
- Which Should You Do: Redesign vs. Refresh
- Website Redesign Checklist: A Step-by-Step Process
- FAQs
Our Expert’s Opinion on Website Redesign
Every so often, a website needs some updates to keep it functioning optimally. Depending on the site’s specific needs, you can update it in the form of either a website redesign or a website refresh.
Generally, companies tend to redesign their websites every two to three years. Doing so helps keep the website up-to-date with current design trends, a reliable user experience, and viability for search engine optimization.
In between redesigns, you can also refresh a website with minor updates, which could make the process less intensive when it comes time to redesign your whole website. Refreshes can entail optimizing images for faster loading times, changing a few design elements, and updating outdated content, among other smaller actions.
To determine whether your website needs a redesign or a refresh, conduct an audit of your site’s current state and performance, using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Google Analytics, Chrome DevTools.
Understanding Website Redesign and Website Refresh
First, it’s important to know what constitutes a website redesign and a refresh.
What Is a Website Redesign?
A website redesign involves completely altering a website from the ground up, from its architecture and structure to its creative design and core functionality.
You’ll likely want to redesign your website if you need to make significant changes to every area.
For instance, your website might not effectively attract traffic or drive conversions due to its outdated layout, drops in rankings, and low user engagement rates. In this case, you might consider a complete update to boost performance.
However, keep in mind that a redesign can take weeks or months to complete and is potentially very costly. So, if you’re considering a redesign, it’s important to prepare accordingly.
What Is a Website Refresh?
While a redesign calls for a total overhaul, it’s sometimes best to merely refresh a website. Refreshes entail minor updates to a website’s visuals, content, and performance.
You might want to choose a new theme, make some changes to specific content like past blog posts, or alter calls to action. These minor changes won’t likely impact your site’s functionality but can freshen your user experience.
Some signs you may need to refresh your website could include:
- Outdated or unappealing design aesthetics
- Inconsistent branding
- Blog posts with outdated information
- Certain pages that need SEO updates
- A poor user experience
Which Should You Do: Redesign vs. Refresh
Not sure whether you need a website redesign or a refresh? The following signs could indicate when a redesign is worth the effort:
An Overall Outdated Design
If your design, on the whole, appears to be stuck in the past, a few touch-ups might not be enough. Sometimes it’s best to completely revamp your website with a new design, look and feel to keep your site current.
Issues With Mobile Responsiveness
You need to redesign a website if it doesn’t work on all mobile devices. Ensure your site consistently provides a great user experience on smartphones and tablets. Otherwise, you risk losing a large portion of your target audience.
For example, BatteriesPlus’s franchise website has a mobile-responsive design that makes it easy for mobile users to pick up and explore. It also includes a convenient, mobile-friendly CTA form right there on the homepage.
An Overall Poor User Experience
Your website could require a redesign if it suffers from a generally poor user experience (UX) or user interface (UI). Websites must be easy to navigate and browse, with intuitive designs, fast loading speeds, and clear navigation.
One example of a franchise website with a good but simple UX is McDonald’s. This website includes a user-friendly and generally effective layout for ease of navigation.
Minimal Conversions and Low User Engagement Rate
Little dips in conversions and lulls in user engagement rates could warrant a refresh. However, if your website is really struggling, a redesign might be in order.
You may find that many web pages aren’t moving people along the buyer’s journey due to multiple issues. There might also be other bottlenecks keeping people stuck.
Incompatibility With New Technologies
Website redesigns are often necessary if a site doesn’t work with the latest web technologies, including critical plugins and third-party integrations. These and other technologies are essential for keeping your website fully functional and updated.
Website Redesign Checklist: A Step-by-Step Process
Once you’ve determined that a redesign is the next step, you’ll want to learn how to redesign a website.
To make your next redesign a success, follow this complete website redesign checklist:
1. Evaluate Your Current Website
The first step to take with a website redesign is to evaluate your existing website. Conduct an initial audit that assesses different aspects, including performance, content, and design.
Some of these tools include Google PageSpeed Insights, Google Search Console, WebPageTest, and Google Analytics.
In the process, you should also use Analytics and other tools to analyze user behavior. Heatmap tools like Hotjar can help you see where users scroll, click, and navigate on your web pages.
2. Set Clear Goals for Your Redesign
Also, to help determine how to redesign a website, decide on what you want to achieve with it. What are the specific goals you need to reach?
There are many potential goals you might have in mind, such as:
- Generating more leads
- Improved user engagement
- More conversions
These goals should ultimately align with your business objectives.
The goals you set will then guide your website redesign. They’ll also determine which metrics you track after launching your site to measure success.
3. Define Your Target Audience
Think about who you want to attract to your website. For example, if you run a franchise, you’ll want to consider the needs and preferences of potential franchisee candidates. In the process, track their online behavior and find out what appeals to them on a franchise website.
The more you understand your audience, the more effectively you can gauge how to do a website refresh or redesign that resonates. Through analytics tools, surveys, and other feedback, you can get a better feel for your ideal audience.
4. Create a Website Redesign Strategy
To ensure a successful redesign, create an effective strategy.
You can begin with a sitemap and wireframe that establishes a clear page hierarchy and layout.
The sitemap is like a roadmap, and the wireframe is like a skeleton for your website. Together, they give you a fuller picture of the overall layout and navigation. The most helpful content that drives conversions will be the most important and should be priority.
5. Focus on User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI)
Your website could be functionally sound, but it won’t get anywhere if it has an atrocious UX or UI. As soon as people land on your website, it should encourage them to continue scrolling and clicking well beyond that first page.
There are several elements to consider as you determine how to redesign a website’s UX and UI:
- Mobile responsiveness: Take a mobile-first approach to web design, as a big chunk of your audience will use mobile devices to access your site.
- Efficient navigation and CTAs: Your homepage and the rest of your site must have simple, intuitive navigation. Additionally, add highly visible and easy-to-complete CTAs. These items will help boost conversions.
- Page load speed: Your web pages must also load quickly to keep users engaged. Ideally, your pages should take no longer than two to three seconds to load. Reducing large files, compressing images, and using techniques like lazy loading can make load speed faster.
- Technical errors: Address broken images and links, layout issues, 404s, and other errors that might otherwise compromise your site’s integrity.
6. SEO Optimization During Redesign
When learning how to refresh a website or redesign it, search engine optimization, or SEO, is another key consideration.
You’ll want your site to rank well for targeted keywords in search engine results pages. To do so, you should:
- Optimize pages for specific target keywords, using unique ones for each page. This will prevent cannibalization. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Semrush can assist with keyword research. They indicate metrics like search volume and competition to identify the best opportunities.
- Keep or improve existing rankings by using 301 redirects from old pages to their new counterparts. This step is particularly crucial when completing a website migration from one domain to another.
7. Update Content and Visuals
Content is king, and don’t forget it in your website redesign checklist.
Update your site’s content and visuals to effectively connect with your target audiences. You can do so in the following ways:
- Refresh outdated pages with new text and other content. Also, add new resources, including blog posts, information pages, ebooks, white papers, and more.
- Modernize brand visuals and messaging, using clean, crisp visuals and resonant messaging.
- Integrate FAQs, success stories, and dedicated blog sections into your content.
- Refresh all images, fonts, and color schemes to imbue a more contemporary look.
- Update your homepage hero sections which include the subheadings people see at the top of your pages. This section can also include a concise CTA to hook new visitors in from the start.
- Include compelling lead capture forms where appropriate, along with testimonials and videos. These resources will go a long way in convincing new prospects to convert as they come to trust your brand.
8. Test and Launch
Right before you launch your website, test it to confirm its functionality and usability.
For example, you should test your website’s overall performance, including page load speed and the integrity of all of your pages. One effective tool to help gauge SEO and overall performance is Screaming Frog, which can crawl your entire site and detect various issues.
Additionally, you’ll want to check your website’s accessibility, including the use of alt text, color contrast for visually impaired users, font size, captions, and more.
Finally, create a launch plan to minimize potential downtime. Assign members of your team to specific tasks and have a system in place to keep the launch consistently smooth.
In the end, you should benefit from a stable website redesign that gets real long-term results.
FAQs
1. What is the difference between a website redesign and a website refresh?
A website redesign is a complete update to a website and its content, while a website refresh entails minor changes to more subtly update a site. Website redesigns require a lot more time, effort, and money than website refreshes, but they can be worth it to drive better performance.
2. How often should you redesign or refresh a franchise development website?
It’s typically in your best interest to redesign your website if it’s not getting the results you want, but in most cases, companies redesign their sites once every two or three years, with refreshes in between to make smaller updates.
3. What is included in a website redesign checklist?
Many items can contribute to your checklist, including:
- Evaluating your existing website
- Setting actionable goals for your redesign
- Defining your audience
- Creating a redesign strategy
- Optimizing your site’s UX and UI
- Improving SEO
- Updating content and visuals
- Testing and launching
4. How much does it cost to redesign a franchise development website?
The average cost for website redesign is around $100 to $3,000 on your own. Meanwhile, agencies can cost about $15,000 to $30,000 or more.
Many factors will impact the average cost for website redesign, such as the size and scope of your site, the resources needed to help complete the redesign, and the experience of the agency you hire.
In most cases, it’s often best to hire an experienced agency that can help you get the most from your redesign. Otherwise, lackluster DIY projects might hurt rather than help your franchise website.
5. How can I ensure my website redesign doesn’t hurt my SEO rankings?
Conduct an SEO audit of your website before initiating a redesign. Based on what’s working and what isn’t, you can decide which elements to change for the new website. If you can, migrate high-performing content and SEO elements to your new site fully intact.
Meanwhile, conduct keyword research and optimize technical and on-page SEO elements to improve low-performing pages.
Get Help With Your Next Website Redesign from Ignite Visibility
To get the best results with a website redesign, it’s best to work with an agency that understands the needs of franchise websites. Ignite Visibility has plenty of expertise and resources to help your next redesign succeed. In addition, we provide a wide range of franchise marketing services that fuel meaningful growth.
Not sure you need us? Here are just some of the ways you can benefit from our solutions:
- Determine whether your site needs a redesign or refresh
- Learn the ins and outs of your target audience to inform your strategies
- Optimize existing and new pages for SEO to dominate rankings
- Create high-quality and modern visuals and content for every page
- Maximize page speed and other aspects of performance to drive conversions
- Develop a new website from scratch if needed
- And more!
Get in touch with our experts today and get everything you need to drive franchise success.
