Keys and Strike Plates
As a small business owner, you realize that a quality website is a key to your success. Alright, maybe not the key, maybe more of a strike plate- that little flat piece of metal the latch hits right before closing.
Being just like the rest of us, you’ve probably spent a fair amount of time on the internet, reading posts, scrolling social media, and even doing a little shopping. Maybe you’ve seen some site elements you like that weren’t available when your site was being designed. Maybe these discoveries have you contemplating reasons to redesign your small business website.
Statistically Speaking
Before you phone your friendly neighborhood webmaster, let’s take a moment to examine cost. Current data reflects that a website redesign can carry a price tag of $43,000. For such a hefty sum, someone should be providing a whole gaggle of excellent reasons to redesign your small business website, such as increased performance, satisfaction, sales leads, etc.
Unfortunately, the same research cited above indicates that the majority of redesigns aren’t adequately justified, and tend to lead only to a gaping hole in the budget. Here we will examine five terrible reasons to redesign your small business website.
If it is not Broke…
You know the rest. Sadly, we are a hardheaded lot, so much so that a healthy portion of total website redesigns can be attributed to good old-fashioned boredom. It isn’t broke, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to fix it anyway.
Everyone Else is Doing It
“Keeping up with the Jones'” is rarely an effective investment strategy. So what if your number one competitor launched a completely updated site? So what if you stumbled across the Gitman Bros. site and enjoyed the simple elegance exuded by their contrasting minimalist approach? None of this means you should engage in a costly redesign project that may lead to nothing but a bottom red line.
Style
Spicing up the website with some of the latest and greatest features might sound like a good idea, but it isn’t any different than trying to fix something that isn’t broken. If your conversion rate is in the green, then attempting to update your site with latest graphics, or repair those pesky pixels constitute some of the worst reasons to redesign your small business website.
Adding too much can slow load speeds, which will have a far more negative impact on sales than a slightly boring homepage ever could. Research shows that load speeds more than 3 seconds cause 40% of visitors to navigate away from your page. The moral of the story: while you care how your site looks, your customers care how it works.
Where is Everybody?
On the surface, the rationale here seems legitimate- but it’s a trap. Unless your site is taking more than those precious three seconds to load, the lack of visitors cannot be blamed on what your site is lacking. When was the last time you tried to find, “The Best Designed Sites of the Year”?
The point is, instead of thinking a redesign will bring in customers, consider taking action to improve search engine rankings, or your social media marketing plan, or your ad campaigns. More importantly, analyze what percentage of your current visitors are being converted into sales.
Worst Website Ever!
Here is another seemingly valid reasoning. This one presents more of a challenge to invalidate since small businesses experience growth by building trusting relationships with their customer base. So when one of your customers tells you that your website needs updating, you listen. If something like 50% of your customers are complaining.. you might have a problem.
At the End of the Day
Website redesign is never going to be the silver bullet that slays your demons and leads to dramatic increases in sales. The procedure is costly and often unnecessary. Unless you have exhausted all other avenues for improvement, you are better off not looking for reasons to redesign your small business website.
