If you’re considering a website redesign, this article is for you…
You see, most business leaders are embarrassed by their website. Bad photos don’t show how great your product or service really is. Old content makes your brand seem irrelevant. And, to be honest your website doesn’t really even work or bring in leads or sales like it was supposed to.
What people typically do next is hire a creative agency to redesign their website for 5, maybe $10,000 dollars. You’d think a beautiful new website like that 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, weeks go by and nothing. Nobody knows, nobody cares.
Here’s why . . . 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 also 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 watching this, I assume you might be about to redesign your website. And I don’t want to stop you, if it’s what you really need.
I just 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.
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 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 you is, “Why?” I’d ask, “Why do you need to redesign your website?” If you answered with 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 is going to 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 to not be mobile responsive, there are some issues on the desktop version too that are making it really hard to use.
Believe it or not, just last year I had a client who had this problem. Because her website was so antiquated, the best solution was literally 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 made the switch to Shopify because it could handle the traffic and complexity he wanted in 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, 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’s a direct reflection of 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 you shouldn’t redesign your website
Now, a few reasons not to redesign or rebuild your website…
1. You feel like your current website isn’t good enough
We do this thing as humans, in business or life, where we solve problems that don’t exist. Or, maybe I should rephrase that. We solve for the most visible and easy-to-identify problems that exist. Like a website. It’s the most obvious 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 totally 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, facts are stubborn. If it’s a feeling, like my website isn’t good enough, you might wake up tomorrow feeling differently. If it’s based on facts, like people can’t figure out how to buy, a redesign may be in order.
So just be honest with yourself regarding your motivation. Getting clear on the true problems typically reveal if you really need to redesign your website—or if your website design is fine, but it’s your offer, your messaging, your marketing strategy, or your sales funnel that’s 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 important, but let’s be strategic, think through a marketing plan, a sales strategy, and figure out where your website fits in that plan. 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 is happening, you may need to redesign your website but, unless your website is a complete disaster, you likely don’t need a full redesign. You probably need to work on your offer, your messaging, and your marketing.
You’d be surprised at how much of a difference it makes when you show the right words to the right people. As I mentioned before, a pretty website isn’t the key to selling more.
What you need to do next
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: the reason most websites don’t work is that the people behind them are following old rules to a new game.
In order 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 5 Reasons Why Most Websites Fail to Deliver Leads & Sales, and I’ll guide you through a simple process that will help you make that transition.
Visit https://wearestructure.com/webinar/ and you’ll be able to sign up for the free training.
