Identifying The Itch
Where is the problem exactly. What is lacking in your site? Are you not getting what you expected? If your are not getting enough business out of your site, then maybe the reason has not much to do with the site’s design, but site marketing.
Again you need to know what you want from the site- sales- leads- comments from visitors- links from other sites? What is your desired position, and once you know the answer, you can figure out whether the problem can be eradicated with a marketing idea or a content management strategy. Redesigning may not be essentially required then!
You can achieve much more by effective landing page optimization or even working on your site’s navigation too. Overhauling and redesigning can be avoided as they are costly and can create further issues.
Redesigning Has Initial Hiccups
If one fine Monday morning you unveil your new site expect that things will go better now, you are mistaken. It may be severely down the hill for a while. Why? We have discussed below:
Brand Identity– You have built a name for your self, and people identify you with it. So suddenly changing the patterns and colors associated with your brand equity seems pointless. This example is for a bigger corporation, but imagine the shock you may experience, if Coca Cola turns to a Purple color from the red it has endorsed for decades?
The colors you use become your brand’s personality and are associated with your brand. People know you with these colors and patterns, that is why drastically changing them has a negative impact- you lose the brand equity. Modification is recommended not overhauling.
Confusing The Customers- This is in continuation with the the brand identification concept. If people find you changed overnight, they will not relate to you, trust you or even understand you. Their familiar site is now new- like a stranger, its unknown. They may even not like the new site, and hit the close button!
What If All Fails– This is a scary thought, but may be true. Even after you redesigned your site, there is no change in user behavior. You are back to square one. You still are clueless about what could be wrong now. So, do not overhaul everything at the same time. Keep introducing little changes, so that you know what change had an effect and which one did not. This will tell you what works for you, and what was wrong.
Enter Rethinking
Rethinking is an essential stage that comes into play right before the redesign process. You need to think the primary purpose of revamping your site. You need to work keeping in focus the primary goal of the website. You must think- whether you need to revise your company’s goal, or if the site is apt for your goal. Or are you connecting with the audience as per required by the goal. Rethinking gives you a better insight to what is happening and what needs to be done.
When Redesigning Is Inevitable-
There are certain situations in which you can’t do much except overhaul the site. Some of these situations are:
- If your company’s mission, logo, name, etc have changed.
- Your business areas as in products/services and offers have changed. You need a different approach for them (from a food seller, you add on juices too).
- You have found definite consumer feedback about your website.
- Your research shows site navigation problems.
- Content Duplication has been detected and you can forsee that causing problems.
There can be more reasons for changing the site, even if it is to just make it look modern. But the thing to remember is to change slowly and gradually.
Little Changes Mean A Lot
It is important for you to understand that a full website overhaul is time taking. That is why, start with little changes- that are really crucial to your goal- like ‘ sign up’, ‘buy’ or ‘hire us’ portions. Again, working on effective landing page strategy is quite helpful.
Other changes may include- just changing the headers graphics on all the pages. Or maybe adding social media widgets. You can also widen the site. Or create a new page with all the elements that you want. Maybe, if you can get away by just changing your logo (if that has been changed).
The Parting Shot
Well, there is nothing much to say, but this-
Pause. Think before you act.
