Keeping your website well-developed and designed is one of the pillars of staying competitive in the online space. Well-designed and technically powerful websites are always more value-driving, compared to those with outdated design solutions and lame backend. What’s more, website owners should also keep track of competition and look for ways to deliver a better user experience. A website redesign can be a way out so let’s find out the ways to do it right. 

What is a Website Redesign?

As the name suggests, the website redesign stands for updating and improving the website’s frontend (those part of the site the users interact with) to make it more appealing visually, clearly branded, and deliver a better user experience. Those companies that don’t have in-house design specialists, usually apply for professional support to get the highest-end solution and follow up-to-date design practices. 

Why Should You Do It? 

According to Web design: A key factor for website success research, “users are more predisposed to visit and/or purchase in well-designed websites, but there are different combinations which could lead to the creation of an optimal design. Investment in designing is needed for establishing perceptions of trust in users’ minds so that it generates more online purchase intentions”

• More innovative design solutions. Depending on the industry, there are different design trends that change frequently in response to the new technologies development. The business owners get started with it with the goal of making their website more modern and trendier. Outdated design, in turn, is the reason to leave the website for 38% of users, according to HubSpot. 
• Better engagement. The clearer the design and UI, the better UX and user engagement. The users are more likely to stay on the website longer when they get a positive first impression, clear navigation, and a seamless journey. 

• Higher conversion and sales. Better engagement, in turn, drives better conversion and more sales. That’s why upgrading your website is an investment for the long run that will be paid off. 
• Better SEO performance. Poorly-designed websites usually have a high bounce rate which is a crucial behavioral factor for SEO. The website design also affects the users’ dwelling time, plus a well-thought-out design gives an opportunity to make your website content easier accessible. 

The Cases When Your Website Needs Redesign 

• Your design is already outdated. The first impression your website makes is always visual. What’s more, most users think that a website design can be a positive or negative sign of the business’s credibility. 
• Your website isn’t mobile-first. 74% of mobile users are likely to get back to a website after seamless mobile interaction with it. That’s why 68% of companies achieved a significant sales boost after making their websites mobile-first. 
• Your website has a lot of SEO-related issues. A lot of SEO issues your website can face are directly related to the design. Bounce rate and user dwelling time are the most important ones. An annoying color scheme, lack of white space, unclear navigation, weird branded elements, and slow loading are design-related issues that also affect SEO directly. 
• Your competitors have redesigned their websites. Copying the design solution of your competitors has never been a good strategy. However, you can take a look at their redesigned websites to develop more winning ideas on how to update your own. 
• Your business had a rebranding. In this case, you should embed your new brand elements into the design of your website to let users develop a new impression and build associations with your brand. 

How the Final Price Is Formed? 

The matter is that there is no one-fit-all answer since the website update cost is always individual and it depends on several factors. 

• The specifics of your website. For example, redesigning an eCommerce landing page will always be cheaper compared to redesigning custom healthcare software since the latter will be more complex technically. 
• The redesign strategy you have chosen. For example, you can switch to another CMS paying up to $100, depending on the chosen CMS. Fixing some design flaws will logically be less expensive compared to creating a completely new prototype. The price for developing your online presence from scratch is usually the highest and is also project-dependent. 
• The location of your designers and developers. The cost to hire a design and development team is location-dependent and tailored to the hourly rate of the designers, developers, and UI/UX specialists. For example, this rate is $30-40 per hour in Easter Europe but $100-150 in the US. The cost to hire freelancers on Upwork or Fiverr also depends on the freelancer’s location and experience. 

Let’s Run The Process

• Audit the website and find the crucial pitfalls. Sometimes, there is no need to redesign the website completely. If there are no crucial pitfalls, fixing minor design issues will be enough to improve the website design and performance. 
• Revise the users’ journey and find a better design solution. When redesigning your website, keep the user’s journey in mind. It should be simple yet effective, plus perfectly aligned with the UI. 
• Create several design prototypes and test them with the users. Before investing in a complete redesign, create several prototypes and find the most winning one with the help of the users. Such a tactic is pretty cheap, however, it saves you from costly design mistakes. 
• Always keep SEO in mind. When redesigning your website, don’t ignore the modern SEO requirements. Making your website design mobile-first, fast-loading, and visually attractive are the best practices for SEO. 
• Keep your design branded. Also, don’t forget to embed branded elements so that your users can develop an association with your brand and get used to the experience your website provides. 

Conclusion

The cost to redesign your website is always project-dependent. However, if your business has the necessity of redesign, investing in it makes sense in the long run. The high-end design is one of the factors that directly affect your conversion rate, brand reputation, and customer loyalty. 

FAQ

• What’s the cost to reboot a website’s performance?

The cost to update a website depends on the complexity of the website, the location of your design team, and the specifics of the design solutions you would like to embed. 

• How much time do I need to redesign my eCommerce website completely?

The time to redesign a website also depends on the project’s complexity. For example, migrating a heavy website to a new CMS may take up to 6 months, while the time necessary to redesign a simple landing page is usually up to one week. 

• What’s the perfect website redesign frequency?

You should redesign your website depending on the design-related problems you face. That’s why you should always get started by defining the root problem and then, choose your redesign strategy. But if your website works well, it is better to leave everything untouched. 

• What are the reasons for making changes to my website design?

The main reasons for a website redesign are poor user experience and unclear interface, outdated design solutions, and SEO issues like high bounce rate.