Introduction
Do you need to redesign your website? It’s a question that poses an interesting discussion among web developers. In this blog, I’m discussing the pros and cons of possibly revisiting your website’s visual aspect!
Pros of website redesign
First things first, your website might not match your audience. In a previous blog, I mentioned that your website should be appealing to your audience and make sense with what you’re selling or if you run a blog, to what you mainly post about. I can’t emphasize enough that if your website doesn’t match your content, it doesn’t look good. I use lots of examples in my blogs, so I’ll use one now.
Let’s say you’re looking for a good apple pie recipe, and you click on a website link that looks promising. However, when the site loads, it has a shark theme. That would be confusing! You’d probably think you clicked on the wrong website or that the website is simply trying to trick you into spending time on it.
A second reason for a redesign would be if you decided to rebrand. I feel as if this is more of an obvious thing, but I’ll explain anyway. Let’s say your business was focused on cybersecurity and for whatever reason, you switched over to gaming or making a podcast (as people like to do). Once again, people will be confused. Instead of trying to investigate what’s going on, people will probably just click off. You may think “Oh, well I don’t want people who don’t care enough to put in a little effort on my site anyways” but you’d be wrong! When a person immediately clicks off your website, this is terrible for your SEO. This means that basically when someone just clicks off, it’s telling search engines your site isn’t worth looking at and moves it down the search list, essentially hiding your site and lowering your chances of getting organic clicks (the fewer people who know your website, the more irrelevant it is).
Another reason to redesign your website is that trends come and go. A certain style of website may draw the eye better than the way you style yours. It’s also possible that when you first styled your website, though you saw it as the peak of design, it ages like a glass of milk. What I’m saying is that while it might’ve looked good to a little newbie (or experienced, you don’t have to be new to learn new things) you, in reality, it’s just basic. Like me, for example. I liked how my website looked when I first created it, but now I’m a bit on the fence. I like my color scheme but I know it could be better. Don’t be afraid to receive criticism from either yourself or others in the industry. It’s always good to experiment with what you or your audience might like.
Cons of a website redesign
We’ve gone over the pros, but now it’s time for the cons!
Going back to the rebranding reason, have you ever seen a company rebrand its logo and absolutely ruin it? Over the years we’ve seen companies simplify themselves so that they fit in and spend less on making their products and such. While I mentioned trends earlier and how sometimes fitting in is good, blending in is not. If your website doesn’t stand out, how will people remember it? How will you make an impact? Though audiences may enjoy the convenience of everyone using the same layout, then you’ll just be a camouflaged toad hiding under dead leaves.
Another reason is functionality! In the same blog I mentioned earlier, I said it’s important your website actually works. Sometimes simplicity is the way to go. If your website functions well and you change it so it looks nicer but your website breaks, it’s just useless. Pretty, but useless, like those expensive vases moms love to collect, Funko Pops or collectible dolls, or even a wall of discs collecting dust.
