Just to let you know – as a web designer, today’s client is far too smart to buy the line, “That’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” Clients are savvy enough to know that it takes customers an average of just 0.05 seconds to figure out whether they like the website or they prefer to move on.

Though most business owners tend to leave web design to experts and professionals, it’s a fact that in the end, they know their target customer best. They can gauge attitudes, preferences, budget and behavior based on years of experience.

Designers have probably spent time, money and effort on designing a great website. It reflects the brand, the company’s personality, services, status in the market and values – but that was some years ago.

Are there moments today when clients feel that there’s something lacking? That the competition seems to have a more zingy, contemporary, attractive website – and theirs seems stodgy, boring or plodding in comparison?

Perhaps it’s time for a change.

Why Does A Website Need Redesigning?

When an existing website seems to under-perform, not give the expected results or seems to be getting negative feedback from users, it’s time for a design makeover.

– Speed: Do clients complain that the site takes ages to download? Perhaps there are certain parts of it that need to be optimized for advanced browsers, or there are links that no longer work.

– Not Optimized For Mobiles: More than 80% of today’s customers want a smooth UX across different devices. Omni channel marketing is the name of the game. If the website doesn’t behave consistently across different devices, customers are going to flock elsewhere in droves.

– Outdated stuff: The website may be stuck with outdated branding, logo, colors, content, third-party tools etc. You may need to install new e-Commerce plugins, social media compatible scripts, popups for exit-intents, etc. Another aspect you may want to look at is converting more leads by reviewing your landing pages and calls to action, in case these are not doing their job.

7 Dumb Mistakes To Avoid While Redesigning

Once clients have figured out that redesigning their website is the only way forward, this time round, make sure that they get the maximum mileage out of the experience.

Think long-term and plan ahead for the health, survival and growth of the business. Retaining loyal customers while exploring new pools is the key to ensuring website performance and reliability.
Statistics show that attention spans are shrinking year on year and customers prefer not to stick for too long with a website that looks boring/unattractive and content-poor.

Website designers need to stay away from some of the common, silly and avoidable design errors that can wreck the entire project. No matter how brilliant and creative the design, a tiny glitch or mistake can destroy months of effort and time.

Here are some of the dumbest things that web designers need to steer clear of in the course of a design project:

– 1. Using poor quality content: Today, the most important feature of your website is content. Unique, original, key-word rich, engaging and useful content can set your website apart from the thousands that are jostling for attention. Design, visuals, etc. are only a support to what your website “says” to the customer. Poor quality, copy-pasted, outdated, unreliable, badly structured content, or a design that makes core content difficult to access are a sure-fire way to destroy a design makeover.

– 2. Not focusing on Primary Elements: Failing to gauge exactly why a visitor/customer has landed on your website is certainly dumb designing. Don’t forget basic stuff such as taglines, slogans, and clear CTAs. Forgetting to place the search box in a prominent position, failing to organize content in a logical fashion, difficult navigation and a plethora of unnecessary/distracting images and autoplay animations, pop-ups etc. can be annoying. Avoid too much clutter and provide more white-space. Too many ads can turn off customers/visitors just as walking in an over-crowded market does. These elements seriously affect your loading speed too.

– 3. Forgetting about Responsive Design: Take a look at some of the most popular and influential websites – they are compatible with almost the entire range of devices. Customers/visitors can access them from laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile phones, smart watches, smart TVs etc. Check with Google Analytics for monitor resolution and ensure that your website doesn’t get bogged down by outdated features such as horizontal scrolling etc. Avoid too many CTAs – they put excessive pressure on the customer, reminiscent of over-zealous counter-salespersons.

– 4. Not Sustaining a Dynamic Environment: Keeping the website updated and relevant keeps it lean, competitive and at peak performance. Themes, plug-ins, or even the licensing, real-time protection, CAPTCHA options, the latest security options, etc. are some of the aspects that evolve with time and give visitors the assurance that they’re safe and their information is well protected. If you haven’t incorporated these elements, your website could rapidly sink into obsolescence.

– 5. Social media widget overload: Obviously, social media plays a crucial role in your business’s success and reputation. But excessive, in-your-face social media presence on your website is not just annoying to the customer, it also slows your website down. You could end up with traffic rapidly exiting your website to follow other potentially exciting stuff on social media. Keep the social media links on the footer or a sidebar, so that while they’re easy to find, they’re not the first thing a customer spots on your website.

– 6. Losing Sight of Security: When you use WordPress website redesign there are great effective security features already built-in, but because of the popularity of this platform, it’s more likely to attract the bad boys too. Ensure that you review the security systems, add more login restrictions, cutting down on plug-ins while updating the core, plug-ins and themes regularly.

– 7. Using Cliched Stock Pics: Visitors/Customers are far too clever these days to appreciate stock photos that they’ve seen elsewhere. Obviously, exclusive photo shoots are expensive, but try and get a good mix of stock pics and unique images. The problem with stock is that it is also associated with “not real” or “not mine” so it could set off a niggling doubt in the customer’s mind about trust and reliability about the rest of your content.