08/22/2022

Why Its Important To Keep Your Website Up To Date

Insights

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Is your website feeling stale? Perhaps it is time to redesign your website. You can reap the benefits of a redesign by changing your website’s look and user experience.

List of reasons to redesign your website

  1. Mobile Optimization
  2. Broken Links
  3. High-Quality Content
  4. Speed Interruptions
  5. Customer Insight
  6. User Interface
  7. Lower the risk of being hacked
  8. Website Redesign Case Studies

Your storefront wouldn’t stay the same for many years without making changes to its design. The same principle applies to your website. We will be discussing the main benefits of regularly checking your website for any potential redesign.

1. Mobile Optimization

Google recently made mobile optimization a requirement for the top position. This changed the way websites rank in search engines. Now is the best time to optimize your website for mobile devices. Mobile screens change in size constantly, so different devices will display your content differently. Responsive Miami website design agency lets you adjust the screen size based on the device that is viewed on the site. Regularly updating your website will ensure you always have the most current dimensions. The good news: most cms platforms support responsive mobile design. Unfortunately, you may still need to hire an SEO expert to complete the SEO technicalities. To test how your site looks on different mobile devices, you might be able to use a free tool such as Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

Broken links can frustrate your readers. Your readers will be frustrated if a link in your post is broken or moved to another site. Instead of showing valuable content, the link takes readers to an error page. This can only be checked by performing a manual audit. You can either change dead links or find a different source. To keep your visitors navigating around your site, you can add backlinks that link to older content.

3. High-Quality Content

There are two types of content: evergreen and time-sensitive. While time-sensitive content is still relevant at the time it was written, it becomes obsolete, changes, or becomes irrelevant as soon as it expires. Websites with irrelevant content do not indicate a trustworthy source. Your visitors will assume that you don’t understand what you are talking about and will look elsewhere for the latest information.

These pieces are evergreen and provide value for your readers every time they see them. These articles are timeless and never expire. Your visitors will be more likely to return to your site if you have time-sensitive posts and a solid base of evergreen posts. This will increase your bounce rate.

4. Speed Interruptions

As your content grows, your website performance can diminish. Google has just released a speed upgrade that moves the slowest websites to page one of search results. Flash is a good example. Flash-based websites can cause problems for some devices and a slower user experience. Flash code can be slow and cause problems for certain devices. In this case, you should replace Flash code with more modern code. After waiting for 3 seconds, half the US population will bounce off your website. You have very little time to grab a user’s attention in a world that is all about speed.

5. Customer Insight

Your website will be more successful if you have a relationship with your customers. Ask them to give their opinions on your redesign plans. You can use their feedback to improve your design. Amazon and Apple are not known for giving their sites a complete makeover. They instead add features that are requested by their customers to enhance the user experience.

Heat-mapping tools can be used to track where your visitors are clicking on your website. Tools like CrazyEgg or MoockingFish can monitor and analyze the clicking and scrolling patterns of your site visitors. It is important to understand your customers to better serve them. They will be grateful that you took the time to learn about their preferences and goals.

6. Interface for the User

Customers want to control their experience. Users feel more confident about their experience if there is less user error and clear information. It is why buttons on forms remain translucent until the user has completed all fields. Change things if your users have trouble with certain parts of your website. You can make it more user-friendly by adding an undo/redo option or a back button. This safety net will make it easier for users to navigate and increase their confidence in completing CTA tasks.

Visitors will be encouraged to continue by visual cues like loading graphics, progress reports, and visual workflow. Users will be encouraged to take further action if they receive immediate feedback. You don’t have to assume that every user of your website is an expert. Instructions for beginners and tutorials will help users navigate your website with ease. Users will expect to find interface elements close to the action they want to perform or the information they wish to modify.

7. Reduce your risk of being hacked

Your customers’ data is safe with security updates As the website owner, you are responsible for protecting your customers’ personal information. Your audience will return to your site if they trust you and are secure. However, once it is lost, it will be difficult to recover. Hackers can wipe out this feeling of security by simply looking through your database. Make sure you are up-to-date with security updates before it is too late.

8. Website Redesign Case Studies

1. Facebook website redesign case study       

Facebook, the king of social media often changes the site design to make it more user-friendly. Small changes can make a big difference, as visitors visit the site and mobile app often multiple times per day. In 2006, the News Feed was added to the site. The Timeline in 2011 created a ripple effect. Although it took some time for users to adjust to the new features they were eventually able to see the purpose of Facebook – the expansion of its social network. The standard like button was updated with more reactions in February 2016 to allow users to express more emotion about a post. This simple change gave commenting on friends’ posts a new dimension. It proves that even small changes can make a big difference.

2. Reddit case study: Website redesign

Reddit just underwent its first website redesign in more than a decade. Reddit users are split on whether the redesign is helpful or confusing. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the page through the new design, which decreases the bounce rate. Reddit’s growth is largely due to word-of-mouth. Reddit’s growth is largely due to the word-of-mouth referrals of readers. For increased engagement, the traditional navigation bar looks more like a menu. It is difficult to please all users with millions of users. Reddit recognizes this and has added an option that allows users to return to the old version.

3. HubSpot case study: Website redesign

HubSpot recently had its website redesigned after the company transformed from a private business to a global community. They immediately began to analyze heat map data and the analytics provided by their users. To find out what customers wanted in their content, they conducted market research and surveys. These trends revealed some interesting patterns in how visitors navigated their pages.

  • Most viewers went straight to the pricing page from the homepage, without stopping to learn about the benefits.
  • Viewers also made a direct move from the homepage to FAQ and told the design team that the homepage didn’t answer their questions.
  • Many viewers clicked immediately on the search page to find the information they wanted.

These key points resulted in a completely new homepage design. Customers were integral to the design process and helped test drive new versions of the site before it went live. Their new design saw an increase in user engagement using navigation buttons, and CTAs and received more trial subscriptions. The HubSpot product team also felt less stressed by the data and metrics they collected.

4. Case study: Fitbit redesigned their website

One Fitbit user had difficulty using the mobile app. To find out if others were having the same issues, he decided to go on the road. The app’s data and marketing personnel helped him target the right client. Developers were able to identify scenarios based on the situations users might encounter while using their app. Next, the team went out on the streets to gather real user feedback.

The design team visited the Westfield San Francisco Center to ask people to perform a series of tasks related to the new design. One of the team members recorded users’ experiences with the app and compiled the data to identify the main pain points. The user-friendly design of key buttons was improved and the number of exercises for tracking increased. After creating new versions of the app, the design team asked users to test the design again. The app was easier to use, and there was less confusion about buttons and exercises. This case study shows how little details can make a big difference to user experience.

Your audience should keep coming back for more. Auditing your website can significantly improve the user experience, build trust, and support security current. A website redesign can make a big difference in the future and it is an effective tool to transform your site.

About the author

Kobe Digital is a unified team of performance marketing, design, and video production experts. Our mastery of these disciplines is what makes us effective. Our ability to integrate them seamlessly is what makes us unique.