Sarah Jacobson 
A website serves as your storefront, the 24/7 medium that allows your audience to preview your products or services to decide if they want to engage. It’s a first impression and the initial communication for new prospects or a consumer on the verge of a purchase, the site will encourage leads to move forward in their journey.
The website is always “open” making it necessary that it also always be efficient and functional, an effective resource for boosting revenue and helping your business to grow. Visit – 10 tips to make your small business website a success – for tips on developing your small business website.
Constantly reviewing the website is integral to keeping it fresh, relevant, and valuable. It should position businesses of every size in the best possible way. If you’re considering a redesign to elevate your business, it’s essential to consider the overall structure and all elements, the front and back ends.
The back end is the technical aspect where you want to optimize and manage content. The front end, on the other hand offers the users a compelling journey with the aesthetic appeal, easy navigation, good layout, elements that lead to purchases.
Where might your website be losing efficiency and is it time for you to consider a web redesign for your New York business? Let’s consider a few points.
Signs A Web Redesign Are Essential
A website can have a range of purposes whether you provide users with an educational hub to become familiar with your brand or offer direct sales. Your company objectives should be defined and prioritized before moving forward to function and then visual appeal.
If your site isn’t designed to accommodate your business goals, the investment returns will be disappointing. Professional New York web design companies want to understand your objectives, what you’re trying to accomplish and how they can help you create a site that aligns with these objectives.
When a site design isn’t driving revenue or elevating it or if the content is not true to your value propositions or current offerings, when it doesn’t rank for the primary search engines, a redesign should be considered. Here are a few signs indicating it’s time for a refresh.
Bounce rates/conversions
A website is designed for the user and should be engaging and immersive for the best experience and high satisfaction. A bounce is when a user leaves the site after viewing only one page. This means they haven’t had the chance to explore what you offer to any degree.
This means they checked the brand out and walked away, likely to not come back.
Conversions are when users take your desired action. It’s the opposite of a bounce, the result you hope to achieve. You’ll understand a client is converting when they take a form to request additional information or a demo. It could also be as simple as registering for newsletters or sharing your details on a social network.
If you have a low conversion rate, this means that users are not engaging effectively; they’re not reaching the point where the desired action is available for them to take.
You can gain insight into how much time a user spends engaging with the site via heatmaps. They show the amount of time spent and where the time was used. Presumptions are unnecessary when you have heatmaps giving vivid details where the audience is losing interest. These offer immediate feedback on your site elements and the overall experience.
Slow site
Among the most frustrating situations for a user is a site that takes longer than a few seconds to load. These visitors won’t wait around to see if the wait is worth it with a good design, positive experience or relevant content. In search engine research, it’s suggested that roughly 50+ percent of users will leave when their wait time goes beyond three seconds.
There can be a number of reasons for slow loading including a poorly developed site or an overstressed infrastructure from too much traffic in the back end. Click here for details on improving your website homepage.
If your site is too slow, it’s a disserve to the other strategic and creative elements you vigilantly implemented. These are areas where much time and effort are concentrated and it can be for naught or less-than-favorable results because the load speed is slow.
The speed is also crucial because it can adversely impact your search engine rankings. SEO is essential for high rankings as this ensures prospects find your business online, you’re visible. This establishes you as an authority in your field and drives organic traffic.
Outdated design
A website can be efficient and functional but still not be visually appealing which does matter. Users associate the aesthetics with the quality of goods and services. This is why a web design should include images, videos and other content aside from mere text.
The first impression is always visual and you want your first impression to be memorable and lead to further engagement with the site.
A professional web design and development company can bring your brand to life in the most effective context. While visual appeal isn’t the primary element to focus on overall, it is integral from a user’s first interaction with the site.
Again, a website serves as an around-the-clock storefront, when it’s outdated, it appears as a brick-and-mortar shop would, shabby and neglected. Visitors don’t stick around in these facilities long nor will they engage with your site for an extended period. They’ll go to a modern, fresh-looking competitor and competition in New York is fierce.
When redesigning your storefront, check out the competition to see how a modern, sleek site operates compared to yours. When you look at their strengths and weaknesses compared to yours, you can develop an effective strategy for the redesign.
The fact is, with competition as it is, the bar for web design is constantly being raised. A user will always gravitate toward a professional, well-structure, and visually appealing site over one that is left over from the early days of the internet.
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