What you need to know about creating a website

The conversation about redesigning a company website usually begins when someone points out that traffic is down, conversions are weak, or just that the design looks outdated. You aren’t attracting customers, prospects, students, donors, or whichever constituencies you need to be successful, and your team agrees it’s time for a change.

Because redesigns can be so expensive, complex, and time-consuming, building a case and getting a budget is often challenging. They also involve much more than just design work; there’s SEO, navigation, and content creation.

Adding to the difficulty, design seems so subjective and personal, that sometimes a high level stakeholder liking or not liking the website is reason enough to start or nix a project. What’s worse, after the new website is live and the bill has been paid, it’s not always clear whether the project was a success by any metric other than “we like the new one better.”

Fortunately, there are plenty of good reasons to start the website redesign process, and identifying them early will help you build a bulletproof case for a serious overhaul. If any of these seven are true for your website, it’s time to get started.

1. Your website is not responsive

Your website should look great on every device. It’s not that all your prospective customers are on the go, but with mobile Internet usage overtaking PC traffic for the first time in 2014, their online habits have changed. Having no mobile-specific web presence, or building a mobile-only site, is an outdated approach that leaves you with two sites to manage at best, and zero mobile customers at worst.

2. Your website doesn’t showcase your content

Just putting up a website is not enough. It’s not a static brochure that can stay the same for all time. To keep your site ranking well in search, you have to continue creating fresh content to keep Google crawling back. If your website was designed using Flash, or works best as a series of content light tableaus, it’s time for a change.

3. You look exactly like your competition

Prevailing trends in web design, and sometimes within a specific industry, lend themselves to websites that look so similar that none of them are memorable. As your primary digital outpost, your website needs to communicate your brand in a strong, distinct way. If your website looks too much like competitor websites, it’s not helping you stand out, and might even inadvertently repeat some of their worst practices. Break away from the pack and offer potential customers a website experience that feels like a breath of fresh air.

4. Visitors can’t tell what you do, sell, or where you are

Even savvy marketers and web designers occasionally go for “shiny” instead of “useful.” Above all, your website should make it absolutely clear what your company or organization does, what you offer, and where and how customers can get it.

5. Your staff don’t use your website because they can’t find any information

If your team isn’t impressed with your website, how do you expect to win over someone who doesn’t have a relationship with you? Someone who works in your company at least knows to walk over to the accounting office to ask a question, but what will a brand new visitor with zero information do if unable to find critical information? Leave.

6. You’re sending people to your Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel, email newsletter, Pinterest Board—anywhere but your website

If you’re embarrassed to send people to your website, that’s a red flag. Your social channels are critical to amplifying your signal past your website, but your website is the core of your content marketing and digital business strategy. It’s where potential customers can request more information or complete a transaction. If it doesn’t hold up to your other online channels, it’s time to upgrade. There’s different ways to communicate to your audience using social media. We explain social media channels and how-to use these platforms to speak to your audience.

7. You can’t connect website activity to business outcomes

This is indicative of a bigger problem than just your website design, but site effectiveness is a major contributing factor to your overall marketing success. If you don’t have the ability to measure the impact your website has on driving leads or closing sales, you will need to establish the right KPIs and measure accordingly. If you do have metrics in place and they show zero net effect from your web efforts, that’s a good indicator the breakdown is happening in your web presence, and it’s time to redesign your website.

Hire ThePixel to build your next website!

Since our founding in 2008, we’ve created and launched many types of business websites. Over the last decade and we’ve learned a thing or two! That’s why we’re masters of our craft, let us help you build the website of your dreams – one that generates traffic, leads and conversions.