The redesign of a Web site goes beyond just updating its look, adding new content, or fixing broken elements. A thorough redesign can unlock more benefits than meet the eye. In fact, a complete overhaul of a Web site can tap into the deeper, often overlooked aspects of user experience, leading to significantly better business outcomes.
7 Hidden Advantages of Revamping a Web-Site Design
Now, let’s consider seven specific advantages of redesigning a Web site.
1. A Better Customer Experience and Increased User Engagement
A Web-site redesign provides an opportunity to refine your existing Web site’s aesthetics, navigation, responsiveness, and features. It lets you remedy users’ painpoints, fix broken elements on the Web site, identify and improve weaknesses, and place greater focus on customers’ preferences. Thus, a redesign can lead to an improved customer experience (CX), encouraging users to spend more time on a Web site where they feel comfortable and that they enjoy using.
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A site redesign can also help address a key challenge: users’ short attention span. When users have a broad array of options at their fingertips, grabbing their attention becomes increasingly difficult. A visually appealing Web site also helps keep users’ attention.
Clutch reports that 83% of users consider a beautiful, visually appealing Web site to be useful, leading to better user engagement rates, as depicted in Figure 1. A redesign that improves the visual elements of a Web site makes it more interesting and easier to use. For example, adding a chatbot to a Web site can enhance interactivity and engagement, offering instant responses and a personalized experience to users. This not only keeps users engaged but can also guide them through their user journey more efficiently.
Figure 1—Improving the customer experience and engagement
2. Improved Conversion Rates
Despite people’s becoming increasingly habituated to spending more time online, you must give them a compelling reason to convert. A redesign can be a great way of catching users’ attention as they search online or browse casually, improving the likelihood of their spending time on your Web site and, if they like what they see, converting.
A redesign can also help optimize your Web site, helping it to rank higher on popular search engines and offer better search-engine optimization (SEO) performance and visibility. This can significantly improve conversion rates. According to an article on Hostinger, an improved user experience can boost conversion rates by as much as 400%, as Figure 2 suggests.
Figure 2—Improving conversion rates
Considering a Web site’s user experience, you might focus on doing the following:
creating easily clickable, clear user-interface (UI) elements
ensuring that call-to-action (CTA) buttons work well
These well-designed features can guide users smoothly through actions such as exploring pages, searching through products, signing up for newsletters, or making purchases.
For an ecommerce site, you must ensure a seamless, easy-to-use checkout process that naturally guides the user toward completing a purchase. Baymard Institute reports that a well-designed checkout flow can increase an ecommerce site’s conversion rate by up to 35.26%.
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3. Saves Money in the Long Run and Delivers a Higher ROI
For a business with limited funds, a Web-site redesign might initially seem to be overly expensive. However, a redesign can offer a higher return on a company’s investment, as Figure 3 shows, and provide the following benefits:
saving significant costs over time
helping generate more traffic
increasing future Web-site revenues
Figure 3—Delivering a higher ROI
A redesigned site reduces the need for constant bug fixes and frequent updates, enabling the organization to spend less on quality-assurance (QA) activities. Moreover, a redesign can contribute to a higher ROI from investments in the following:
technical features that reduce Web-site errors, lower Web-site training costs, and decrease the need for user support
increased user productivity
increased sales
A report by McKinsey states that factoring in Web-site design as a core component of business strategy can deliver 32% higher revenues and lead to a 56% greater return to shareholders in comparison to industry peers. Understand that the cost of a Web-site redesign is a strategic investment that can lead to exceptional growth.
4. Higher Maintainability
A Web-site redesign also gives you a chance to replace parts of the Web site that are redundant, less maintainable, or faulty. This can ensure that your Web site is easy to use going forward. Plus, you can include the latest technologies, implement better security features, and ensure industry and standards compliance. Thus, users will spend less time troubleshooting issues or dealing with software that is hard to work with—and more time focusing on what matters most to them. This also ensures a fresh site on which you can add new features and content without much hassle. As represented in Figure 4, improving maintainability enables you to do the following:
Reduce downtime.
Update features much faster.
Fix issues without investing too much money.
Handle unexpected situations with fewer headaches.
Figure 4—Ensuring greater maintainability
5. Easy-to-Use Navigation
The importance of good navigation on a Web-site cannot be overstated. According to a survey by Storyblok, which polled 6,000 customers and 500 business leaders about the most important factors of an online experience, 65% of customers cited ease of navigation as their top priority.
A Web-site redesign gives you an opportunity to improve the site’s navigation system, making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. Create clear paths and logical navigation structures that work well for users, enabling them to move through the various sections of the site without becoming lost or confused, as Figure 5 depicts. This can significantly reduce visitors’ frustration levels, preventing their abandoning their search altogether.
Figure 5—Designing easy-to-use navigation
6. Better Accessibility and Usability
According to WHO reports, one in six customers worldwide has some form of disability. That’s a staggering 1.6 billion people or 16% of the global population. Even more concerning are the following facts:
90% of Web sites are not accessible to users who rely on assistive technologies.
A thoughtful redesign that offers better accessibility can help your business reach a broader audience while showing your commitment to inclusivity. For example, during a redesign, you can include support for assistive technologies such as the following:
screen readers
artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots
graphic organizers
reading assistants
voice recognition
switch devices
During the process of redesigning a Web site, you can also make changes that align with WCAG 2.0 standards, improving the site’s accessibility, as Figure 6 depicts. Plus, a redesign allows you to clarify design elements, simplify interactions, and reduce users’ cognitive load. Better usability means more people are likely to enjoy using the Web site, potentially expanding its customer base and translating into increased user traffic over time.
Figure 6—Improving accessibility and usability
7. Improved Brand Perception and Loyalty and Reduced Customer Churn
An up-to-date, polished, user-friendly Web site reflects positively on your brand, showing your commitment to providing the best possible experience for your users. Redesigning a Web site to be more user friendly and engaging accomplishes the following goals:
Helps customers feel more confident and comfortable using the Web site.
Reduces the likelihood of users seeking alternatives elsewhere.
Lowers customer churn rates.
According to a recent Slideshare report, 67% of customers churn because of bad Web-site experiences.
Improved brand perception can lead to increased logo recognition, customer trust, and loyalty, as represented in Figure 7. Happy customers often become repeat buyers and loyal advocates, promoting your brand among their peers and driving more traffic and sales over time.
Figure 7—Improving brand perception and loyalty and reducing churn
Moreover, a polished redesign is crucial for building users’ trust in the reliability and quality of your Web site and fostering long-term relationships with them by sending the message that you’re committed to meeting their expectations and satisfying their preferences.
Going Forward
While a Web-site redesign might seem like just a visual upgrade, it can pack a punch by providing a lot more benefits. It can not only improve user engagement and conversion rates but also assure customers that their experience matters just as much to you as your business outcomes.
Investing in a solid Web-site redesign strategy can help your brand stand out in a crowded marketplace. Making such an invaluable upgrade to your business sends the clear message that you’re putting your users’ needs first. Moreover, it can unlock hidden benefits that can take your brand to the next level.
Agnes is an SEO outreach specialist and content writer with more than three years of experience. Her strategic mindset lets her help business-to-business (B2B), technology, and ecommerce brands to ensure their content achieves a higher purpose. She loves reading science-fiction novels at night and watching thrillers on weekends. Read More
