Redesign Your Website – Improve Your Visibility

You wouldn’t leave your home set up exactly the same way for several years without making any updates, would you? So, why do the same thing with your website? The ultimate goal with any website is to increase visibility by attracting the right kind of attention from search engines and actual searchers. If your site is no longer achieving this goal for your brand or business, it’s time to consider a redesign. Still not convinced? Let’s take a look at the benefits of redesigning a website and how this step could improve your visibility.

Increasing Your Mobile Visibility

Google is all about mobile these days since that’s how must people search for things today. But if your website isn’t optimized for smaller screens and mobile viewing, you could be losing out on opportunities to keep your brand front and center online. An effective way to achieve this goal is with a responsive website design. This is a process that creates a site that’s viewable on any size screen.

Once you get your site mobile ready, accelerated mobile pages (AMP) can play a role in upping your mobile visibility. The AMP plugin is essentially a stripped-down form of HTML designed to increase page load time. This is important since 40 percent of online searchers will abandon a site if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. A website that’s redesigned with mobile visitors in mind could also contribute to:

• More visits to your physical store/business location
• An increase in purchases from your website
• More calls to your business – especially if you make your phone number a tapable link!

Taking Advantage of the Latest Coding Solutions

A website doesn’t just become outdated because of what can be seen by the average visitor. There’s a lot of code that goes into the design of a website. But if your website’s code hasn’t been updated in several years, you may find yourself dealing with slower page load times and other performance issues.

A website redesign is also a great opportunity to explore your options with new code that could make your website run even smoothly and efficiently than it did when it was first designed. Using the latest code also makes your website more appealing to Google and other leading search engines. Updating your website’s code is also a good way to get rid of redundant code that may have been added over the years during previous updates.

Attracting ‘Better’ Website Traffic

Past audience behavior isn’t an indication of current and future behaviors. In order words, if your website was previously producing quality leads and generating conversions on a regular basis, it may no longer be producing the same results if there are design flaws.

With a website redesign, your site can be better-tailored to your current needs and the expectations of your preferred searchers. Case studies suggest a successfully redesigned website has the potential to boost organic traffic by as much as 99 percent!

Encouraging More User Engagement

A redesigned website is also one that’s designed to encourage user engagement. This could translate to reduced bounce rates, increased social interaction via any social sites linked to your website, and even improved SEO results. Redesigning your website with engagement in mind involves several steps. Some of the most common ones include:

• Updating or improving the calls-to-action on your site
• Improving the readability of text with shorter paragraphs and bullet lists (where appropriate)
• Using your footer and other under-utilized locations on your website to encourage engagement with prompts for email signups and/or social media buttons

Fine-Tuning Your Optimization Techniques

Website visitors today have certain expectations with content. They absolutely love personalized content and content that’s accurate and meaningful. A website redesign isn’t limited to the technical aspects of your site or its general layout.

A thorough website update also focuses on your content since a big part of online visibility has to do with how well your website is optimized for search engines. This means removing older or outdated content that may no longer be accurate and making sure what you are presenting is relevant and useful in some way for your intended visitors. The SEO updates with content that may boost your online visibility include:

• Using keywords that are more relevant for your searchers, business, and content
• Optimizing title tags so they are in line with each page’s content
• Making your website’s URL SEO-friendly – e.g., http://www.example.org/pizza/Italian-style-Miami
• Implementing local SEO techniques to increase visibility in certain geographic areas
• Using alt text for images

Making Visual Improvements

A website’s click-through-rate (CRT) is nearly 50 percent higher if images are included. Video content can be just as impactful when it’s properly integrated into a redesigned website.

During the website redesign process, existing images you may have on your site can be reviewed to determine if they are still relevant and in line with search engine standards. Images that are too large can also be properly sized to allow for better viewing on mobile devices. Visual improvements made to your website when it’s redesigned can also include:

• Updating your site’s color scheme
• Making various text elements more visible
• Adjusting font style and size

Avoiding Rank-Related Penalties

Visibility is largely influenced by how well your site ranks on search engines. Google and other leading search engines are always making adjustments with what they prioritize when it comes to ranking. When you have your website redesigned, it can be updated in a way that meets known ranking priorities for websites. In general, websites more likely to rank well on search engines today are ones that include:

• Added security for visitors with HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
• Backlinks from relevant, reputable sources
• Fresh, high-quality content
• An optimized page-load time
• Easy-to-use navigation features
• Appropriate Schema code
• Strong social signals
• An understanding of search intent

Are you seeing a noticeable decline in revenue generated by your website? Are you noticing a spike in bounce rates – meaning people come to your site and bail before taking the desired action – or cart abandonments? Are visitors spending less time on your site? Is your site no longer showing on up on the first page of search results? If your answer is “yes” to any or all of these questions, then it’s time to consider a website redesign. Contact us today to learn more about your options.