The Top Reasons Not to Redesign Your Website
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This old adage applies to web design.
There are some really good reasons to redesign your website, and then are there are reasons not to.
If your website is engaging users and delivering results, there’s no need to redesign it. Otherwise, you risk spending a lot of time and money on a project that may not produce any benefit and may even hurt your business.
But with most companies redesigning their websites every 1.5 to 2.5 years, you may feel like you’re missing out by not refreshing your site as regularly. So does your website really need a do over?
If your decision is motivated by the following reasons and isn’t supported by analytical data and user feedback, you’re considering a website redesign for the wrong reasons.
Table of Contents
8 Wrong Reasons to Redesign Your Website
1. You Feel It’s Time for a New Look
There’s no fixed rule for how often you should revamp your site. Some companies refresh their websites after 6 months to two years while others wait three years. Even then, you should only overhaul your website if it sucks.
If your website is attracting the target audience, keeping them engaged, and making you money, there’s no need to change it. If you go ahead with the redesign, you risk alienating users.
2. The Website Is Not Pixel-Perfect
One of the reasons that website redesigns fail to deliver the expected returns on investment is that they’re focused on how the site looks rather than how it works. Sure, web design shapes the first impression a user has of your brand. But a pretty site doesn’t guarantee good performance.
Just because the new design looks nicer doesn’t mean it will attract more traffic, engage users more, or drive more conversions. Your existing users might actually find the new design off putting and leave to never come back.
3. You’ve Grown Tired of Your Website
Seeing and working with your website every day can cause you to grow tired of it’s look and feel. Maybe you hate a certain feature or grow bored of the site and start craving something brand new and exciting.
Don’t let your personal opinion and preference dictate whether or not you should overhaul your site, though. If your target user base is happy with the website as is, it’s better to leave the site alone. A redesign might break rather than improve your site’s performance.
4. To Tackle An Unknown Issue
Something is wrong with your website but you just can’t pinpoint what the issue is. Redesigning the site to get rid of the unknown issue is a huge gamble that may not pay off.
The best approach is to use analytical tools like Google analytics to analyze user behavior and figure out what the problem is. You can then decide whether a redesign is necessary to fix the issue or identify a simpler solution.
5. To Look Like A Competitor’s Website
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on what your competition is doing but not a good idea to copy everything they do. Seeing a competitor’s new shiny website can put pressure on you to rejuvenate your website as well. But just because your biggest competitor has redesigned their online presence doesn’t mean that you should follow suit.
If you current design is working well, focus your time and resources on creating valuable content and delivering a great user experience. That is the most effective way to ensure your website outperforms theirs. Don’t be driven by trends or competitor actions.
6. When Driven By Egocentric Reasons
One of the web redesign mistakes companies make is redoing a website just because the top management think they should. Whether it’s to look trendy or have something to announce via a press release, these are not sufficient reasons to overhaul a website.
If the executive’s decision isn’t backed by analytical data, it’s not going to yield a solid return on investment. If the data shows that a redesign is indeed necessary, make sure that the new design is focused on your target users. After all, the website isn’t designed to serve the top executives, the marketers, or developers.
7. When You Aren’t Getting Traffic
This may seem like a legit reason to completely overhaul your website but it isn’t always a good reason to redesign a website. Unless a poor user experience or technical issues are responsible for this low traffic, a redesign won’t necessarily translate into more leads and conversions.
On the contrary, a redesign can lead to a loss in domain authority and a drop on organic rankings. You’re better off investing your money and time in content creation, search engine optimization, and marketing. You can also tweak and A/B test the landing pages and call to actions in order to improve conversion.
8. To Add Cool and Flashy Features
Think your existing web design is drab and looking to add flashy elements to give it a cool factor? Think again. The most successful websites are simple and devoid of unnecessary elements. The digital world is always evolving but this doesn’t mean that you should adopt every trend.
Fancy elements like sliders or parallax effects may seem cool to you but there’s a risk that they will detract users from what’s important. And if the flashy elements get in the way of users finding what they need, adding them may end up costing you sales and money.
That’s A Wrap!
When done for the right reasons, a website redesign is a great way to improve the user experience and site performance. When done for the right reasons it is game changing but when done for the wrong reasons though, the results can be disappointing.
Before you completely overhaul your website, think about the motivation behind this move. Who is the change for? What are you looking to achieve with the redesign? Will the redesign improve how the website works?
Are you likely to see a good return on investment? Then it’s worth the time and money you’ll pour into it.
If your decision to redesign is driven by aesthetics and trends and not supported by analytical data and user feedback, then you’re engaging in a vanity project that won’t translate into increased leads and sales.
