How to Tell if Your Website Needs a Re-design

If you’re like me, you probably get lots of e-mails or calls proposing to give you a website or a website re-design. If you’re like most business owners who might not be technologically savvy when it comes to these matters. Your first instinct is to think “Great another web designer trying to take my money” or “I already have a website and I don’t need their services”. The thing is you might very well be right but you could also be wrong. So, below is a checklist of things to look out for to know if you indeed do need a re-design or even a website if you haven’t got one already.

Mobile Responsiveness
Mobile responsiveness is really the ability for your website to be accessible on various devices. The importance of this is that in today’s fast paced world is that both you and your clients are doing business on the go; therefore, information should be easily accessible to both parties and shouldn’t be restricted by your device. Overall, this improves the efficiency of doing business, which is a win-win for you and your clients. If you look at the attached screenshot examples below from www.suzannecollinsbooks.com and CFR and Associates from your mobile device, you will see that both sites aren’t mobile accessible. In other words, besides the other features listed below you literally, have to pinch and expand your screen to view and read the information on those sites. www.cstreethairsalon.com designed by Uzo Design is a site that is mobile optimized. Which is more accessible from your hand-held device?

Suzanne Collins Books

C Street Hair Salon

Dial from phone features
When people are on their mobile device and visit a website for a service. They want to be able to tap and be able to dial the phone # that’s displayed directly from the site because they may not always have a pen handy or memorize it after they’ve clicked off their screen to dial. It makes it easier for a potential client to reach you. If you visit the site current website of CFR and Associates (as of 11/28/2015) through your cell phone. You’ll see that when you click on the provided contact phone #s that nothing happens. Consider the screenshot images from www.nicbrijendanconsulting.com when you click on the green Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons, it pops up with a few options. If you click the phone number, it would actually dial.

Nicbrijendan Consulting showing dial buttons

Nicbrijendan Consulting dial screen

Access to analytics
Analytics are the back-end stats of your website that shows you where your site’s visitors are coming from. The importance of analytics is that it provides you with data that allows you to make informed marketing decisions about your business. For example, if most of your visitors are coming from Google, you might want to invest in advertising on Google etc. Even if you aren’t good with analyzing data yourself, your marketing team could find it useful.

Uzo Design analytics screen

SEO Meta Tags Description
Chances are you’re not a web design specialist. So, we don’t expect you to know where to locate your meta tags in the back-end of your website. However, if you go to Google and did a search for your site it should produce a similar result to that of Uzo Design in the diagram below. As you can see there’s a description of each page below the links. When people do a search for your business, they are able to get a quick overview of your site. If you have a business page on Google, Bing, Yext etc. all that information should pop up as well when people do a search for your business.

Uzo Design Meta tags description online

Social Media Integration
Are your social media pages connected to your sites or do people need to guess what they are? They might even think you don’t have one if your social media aren’t linked to your website.

Eye-Catching Visual Design
I would like to assume that you provide excellent service or close to it. Shouldn’t that be reflected in the design of your site? When people get to your site are they impressed by what they see? Better yet is the message of your site clear? Is your site clean, with the relevant information and easy to navigate? Do your users know how to interact with it? Are the images crisp high-resolution images that load quickly or are they blurry or really large images that take the time to load?  Do the image choices and color options reflect your brand/identity? Do your site’s content and the way it is displayed engage them? If you can’t honestly answer yes to this, then it may be time for a re-design.

Navigation
Is there a good flow between your website’s pages? The common rule is that your visitors should be able to easily get back to end page on your site from their present page without resorting to clicking “back, back, back” multiple times. A good way to know if your site meets this rule is to see if your navigation menus are the top where they can be clearly seen and at the footer (very end of your pages).

Call to Actions Buttons
Does your site have the right CTAs strategically placed on various pages and sections to further direct and encourage your users to take action?

Functionality or lack of it
A good design isn’t all about looking pretty and cool. Above all else does it function in a way that helps you achieve your goals? For example, if you’re a hairstylist does your website have the right tools to help your clients use your service? A hairstylist would do well to have a booking app installed on their site that clients can use to sign up for their service at any time of the day and from anywhere on their mobile or home device. Does your site need the pop-up chat tool that lets visitors ask questions in real time or does it have a squeeze page to collect info etc?
There’s probably more that could go on this list. However, it’s safe to say that if your website meets many of these criteria you know you are good to go and can confidently say “No, thanks. I don’t need your services”. On the other hand, if you have a website that’s crying out for help or you simply don’t even have one do give Uzo Design a call to get you the help you need 

Also check out this cool info-graphic on 50 things every website must have.

Are you in the creative field or in an organization that needs to see how its projects visually come together? Milanote might just be the perfect way to manage you and your team's project. Click on the image below to see how you and your team engage better to be more productive.

---