Website Redesign
Website redesign is a process of redesigning your website. But the truth is, not all website redesigns are the same. Sometimes, you literally are just slightly updating the design. For example, you might have a WordPress website that is a couple of years old, and you might want to adjust the fonts, colors, and imagery of the site. In this example, you might keep the exact same WordPress theme and just be updating the CSS and images within the same theme.
In other cases, you might be transferring from one entire CMS to another. For example, you might have an old Joomla website and want to switch over to a new WordPress website. In that case, the entire website will probably be new. Including not only the design but the very URL structure of all the pages on the site.
Typically, the main elements of a website redesign are, an existing website on a given domain name and a ‘new’ website replacing the old one on the same domain name URL.
Why is Redesigning a Website Important?
Well, your website is really your business on the web. It is your virtual salesman to the greater world.
As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And your website is the first meeting point for many of your potential customers.
At the end of the day, the purpose of your website is to make money.
The flip side of that is that your old or ugly website might be costing you money. That’s the bottom line. As the rapper DJ Quick so wisely said: “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.”
So, to answer the question of “why is redesigning your website important?” To make money. That’s why.
Common Challenges That Require Website Redesign
I find that most redesign projects are driven by new people in the company who have fresh eyes to better recognize the issues and limitations with the current website. These issues can include technical limitations, such as a lack of mobile responsive design. Or aesthetic issues such as the current site is plain old ugly and was never designed properly, to begin with. Or the business has grown and the site from 7 years ago that was designed by your neighbor’s son in college is no longer suitable for the business. The most common challenge I hear from potential clients is “I hate my current website. It’s so ugly!”.
How Often Should You Redesign a Website?
A good rule of thumb is that you’ll want to revamp your website every 2-3 years. There is some flexibility depending on the industry. I find that particularly in the technology or SaaS industry the time is much shorter, in the 1-2 year range. While other more conservative industries such as construction or financial services tend to stretch their redesigns to the 3-5 year mark.
But let’s talk about that word “should” for a moment. If the question is how often should you get a website, the answer is always the same.
As soon as it is profitable to do so.
If you recently redesigned your website but it’s still not that great, then it really isn’t an issue of time. The question simply is, would your business be better served right now with a better website. If the answer is yes, then it’s time for a new website.
As you’ve probably noticed, website pricing can be all over the map. With that being said, it’s useful to have a specific dollar range in mind of what you’re willing to pay for a new website. That will greatly inform your strategy for the rest of the project. The truth is there is a website solution available for any budget you have you just need to get clear on what your budget is first.
A lot of times I will have people ask me to give them a quote for their project without giving me enough information to give them one. Here are the main things I need to know before I can give a quote to a prospect.
That might seem like a pretty straight forward question, but it’s not. Most people don’t have a clear sense of the number of pages they might need for the site. They might say they need only 5-6 pages but I will do a Google site search on their website and it returns 200+ pages on their site.
The way to do a Google site search is to go to Google and input “site:” and “yourdomain.com” without any spaces in between.
Then it will return the number of pages indexed, which is technically the number of pages on your website.
You might want to remove any PDF’s from the results. To do this add “-pdf” as shown below.
The way I describe a page is any time you click on something and go to another URL on the site, that’s a page. Just have a clear idea of the number of pages.
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What approach should your company take?
It really depends on your current KPIs, goals, growth strategy and budget. Suppose you run a WooCommerce website. It’s one thing to customize its outdated flat design theme; it’s another to add a product recommendation engine to it. Even the smallest changes to your website’s functionality may bring up tons of changes to the UI, and vice versa.
Obviously, more coding means higher website redesign costs. How much does it cost to revamp a business website, then? (These estimates are based on a median developer hourly rate of $75 to $150; your cost may vary.)
- The customization of a WordPress theme usually takes six weeks and costs between $3,000 and $6,000.
- The development of a custom design theme involves sketching, wireframing and requirements elicitation, so be prepared to wait for four to five weeks and spend up to $7,000.
- Migrating to a new CMS equals building a website from scratch. Its cost depends on several factors, including your choice of CMS, complexity of your website’s business logic and data transfer. If you opt for WordPress, an average business website will cost you $8,000 to $12,500.
- Integration with third-party modules and extensions usually takes two days and adds $300 to $400 per module.
As a forward thinker, you should be able to imagine your company five years down the line and provide the basis for future changes. Let’s take WordPress, the CMS that powers 29.4 percent of all websites and offers over 40,000 plugins and design themes. If you choose to swap your dated Adobe Catalyst site for a stylish WordPress store, you can add 1,000 pages to your catalog and never worry about the website’s scalability and performance.
