If you’re considering a website redesign, this article is for you…
You see, most business leaders are embarrassed by their websites.
- Bad photos don’t show how great your product or service is.
- Old content makes your brand seem irrelevant.
- Your website doesn’t even work like it was supposed to
People typically hire a creative agency to redesign their website for $5,000–$10,000. You think a beautiful new website would ease your fears, make you proud AND increase business, right?
Wrong! 90% of the time, someone redesigns their website—they feel better for a moment until—they realize that sales have stayed the same (or even declined).
Every day they head into their office and refresh, refresh, refresh. Days and weeks go by, and nothing. Nobody knows, and nobody cares.
The Problem with a Website Redesign
The main problem with a website redesign is this: pretty websites don’t necessarily sell things.
Clear communication sells things. A simple offer sells things. A sales funnel sells things.
Friend, if you’re embarrassed by your website or it isn’t working like you hoped it would, it’s probably not only your website that’s the problem. It’s how you’re using it.
What’s better than padding your pride with a beautiful website that doesn’t work is padding your pockets with one that does.
Because, let’s be honest, if your website doubled, tripled, or quadrupled revenue, you wouldn’t care what it looked like.
So, if you’re reading this, I assume you might be about to redesign your website.
I don’t want to stop you if it’s what you need.
I want to save you from wasting your time and money if it’s not. Your website should be your most profitable asset, not your most painful one.
So I want to help you understand some good reasons to redesign your website, followed by a few not-so-good reasons… and what to do instead.
Why and When You Should Redesign Your Website
So, if you walked into my office today and asked me to work on your website, the first question I’d ask is, “Why?” I’d ask, “Why do you need to redesign your website?” If you answered one of the following three reasons, I’d say you should do it!
1. Your website is broken
For example, maybe your website isn’t viewable on mobile devices. This will take some intentionality to fix and would be a great reason to redo the website. It’s also likely that if your website is old enough not to be mobile responsive, some issues on the desktop version make it hard to use.
Believe it or not, I had a client who had this problem last year. Because her website was so antiquated, the best solution was to start over. So we helped her redesign her site, and now she’s quadrupled sales for her business.
2. Your website doesn’t handle your business needs
I had a friend with an e-commerce business, and he was using Squarespace. As his company grew into the millions, he realized that Squarespace, as he was using it, wasn’t built to handle the kind of site he needed to serve his customers. He switched to Shopify because it could handle the traffic and complexity he wanted on his website. He sure didn’t have to redesign, but since he was moving over all his content, it was a no-brainer opportunity to update his design and make some strategic adjustments so his customers would find it easier to buy his product.
3. Your website is visually outdated
This is you if your website it’s 10 or 20 years old and doesn’t reflect the quality of work you do anymore. The branding is old, the colors have changed, and you can’t showcase your product or service as well as your competitors. This is a great reason to redesign your website, as it directly reflects who you are and how you want your customers to see you. They have to be able to trust you, and how your website looks does matter.
We recently redesigned a website for a client who was in this situation. It had been 10-15 years since they updated their website, and it no longer reflected how their customers saw them. Additionally, the framework was having difficulty scaling to serve the current needs of the business. We brought them into the current day, and they loved it.
Why and When You Shouldn’t Redesign Your Website
Here are a few reasons not to redesign or rebuild your website…
1. You feel like your current website isn’t good enough
We do this as humans, solving problems that don’t exist. Or maybe I should rephrase that. We solve the most visible and easy-to-identify problems that exist. Like a website. It’s the most prominent piece of marketing to blame when something doesn’t work.
So, if this is how you feel about your website, let me ask another question in the same line of thinking: “why isn’t your website good enough?” Is it because you saw another website today that made you feel like yours was crap? By the way, I’ve done that. Or because you conducted user testing, and the majority gave feedback that they didn’t buy because your website was a mess and they couldn’t find the buy button?
Just remember this: feelings are fleeting, and facts are stubborn. If it’s a feeling like my website isn’t good enough, you might wake up tomorrow feeling differently. A redesign may be in order if it’s based on facts like people can’t figure out how to buy.
So be honest with yourself regarding your motivation. Getting clear on the actual problems reveals whether you need to redesign your website or your design is acceptable. Still, your offer, messaging, marketing strategy, or sales funnel is the real problem.
2. You want to keep yourself or your employees “busy.” Aka, You don’t know what else to do
Staying busy is never a good reason for anything. If you’re working on your website to kill time or because you don’t know what else to do, there’s a deeper problem—and probably something else you need to do.
I’m guilty of this, and you might be too. Your website is essential, but let’s be strategic, think through a marketing plan and a sales strategy, and figure out where your website fits. Then, decide where working on your website fits in the priority list.
3. You’re not getting the leads or sales you want from your website
If this happens, you may need to redesign your website, but unless your website is a complete disaster, you likely don’t need a total redesign. You probably need to work on your offer, messaging, and marketing.
You’d be surprised at how much difference it makes when you show the right words to the right people. As I mentioned, a pretty website isn’t the key to selling more.
What you need to do next when you’re unsure if you need a website redesign
So if you’re still reading, you may be asking yourself . . . do I or don’t I need a redesign? If I don’t need a redesign, what do I need instead?
Great question. I want to help you figure that out. I’ll share a little secret: most websites don’t work because the people behind them follow old rules for a new game.
To get your website to work, you have to transition from the old way of thinking about your website as a multi-tool that holds a bunch of different information about your business, product, or service and is something people want to click around and explore, to a machete that does one job and it does it well.
In the new way where your website isn’t about you, it’s about your customers, and you use your one-liner to guide them to the one thing you want them to do: buy your product, book an appointment, schedule a call, or work with you in some measurable way.
Watch our free video training on How to Build a Really Attractive, High-Converting Website That Makes You Proud.
I’ll guide you through a simple process that will help turn your website into a sales machine because you remove the obstacles that are stopping people from buying from you and implement automated and sustainable sales systems that could DOUBLE or TRIPLE your revenue.
