Knowing when your website is due for an update can be tricky. On the one hand, you don’t want to change the web design too often because that will negatively impact brand recognition; on the other hand, you don’t want your website to look outdated as that can affect customer impressions as well! For this reason, it’s crucial to know when the time is ripe for a website design update.
This is easier said than done. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to a web design revamp, and everything should be evaluated on a case-to-case basis. Here are three tips that you can follow when it comes to refreshing your web design:
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Use your initial design as a testing point
Every business decision, including your business web design, should be data-driven. However, if it’s the first version of your website, you probably have nothing to go on in terms of data that can guide your decisions.
This doesn’t mean that you go in blind; it merely means that you’ll have to make more assumptions using available data, such as your customer profiles and sales demographics. Sometimes, this also means looking at what your competition is doing and copying what you think works.
Usually, this is a solid strategy. However, the biggest mistake that a business owner can do is settle on this initial design indefinitely. Remember that the first design is never the final one, even if it was something that you worked on for months at an end.
You want your first web design to serve as a litmus test for how well you know your audience. Launch the website, keep it running for at least a few months, and run a bunch of campaigns. The length of this initial testing phase depends on you, but an excellent place to start is four to six months. This is a reasonable amount of time to gather enough data in your analytics to see if there is anything that should be changed.
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Look at your analytics
There are many third-party analytics software that you can use out there, but if you’re just starting, go with Google Analytics. It’s free, powerful, and more than capable for most tasks. Google Analytics serves information about your audiences, such as age, gender, interests, devices, and location.
While these demographics may seem basic, they provide you with a lot of insight regarding what needs to be changed with your web design. Google Analytics can also measure how well your campaigns are performing.
If you are not hitting your desired goals, look for anything that might indicate the reason for the dips and do some sleuthing. If you think it’s the web design, then you nave have cause to investigate and see if making incremental updates to your web design is the key to improving campaign performance.
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Make frequent incremental changes
In most situations, making frequent but incremental web design changes are better than a complete overhaul. This gives your audience time to get used to your branding but also helps you enrich the user experience. Comprehensive rebranding efforts may be necessary every couple of years—but this should be backed up by even more rigorous data to ensure that this is necessary to do.
Conclusion
Just like everything in digital marketing, web design is a continuous process. The best way to know when to update your website is to look at the data. If customer behaviour seems to indicate that something needs to be changing, do it right away and see your sales numbers start to pick up where you left them!
Are you looking for a professional web designer to help you improve your website’s design? Lethal provides top-notch web design services in Perth. Our talented team of digital marketers also offers services in logo design and graphic design with a particular focus on e-commerce and fitness business websites. Contact us today to get a free quote!
