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10 Mistakes Business Owners Make When Redesigning Their Company’s Website

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Published: June 15, 2015

A highly functional website has become the most important tool available to help business owners market their goods and maintain profitability in what has become a highly competitive business environment regardless of industry. One of the biggest challenges for business owners is trying to keep pace with rapid changes in technology in order to keep one’s website on the cutting edge. For many of the older more established business owners, website redesign has become a very important consideration.

The Importance of Keeping Your Website Fresh

E-commerce has change the way companies of all sizes run and market their businesses. Considering that much of the competition also has websites, it’s important to stay up with recent trends in order to remain competitive. While the prospects of redesigning a website will cause some business owners to cringe when considering the costs, the reality is that not keeping one’s site fresh and inviting will probably cost more in lost revenues than the cost of the redo. As customers get used to and start expecting new levels of functionality from websites, it’s incumbent on the business owner to meet those expectations or risk losing disappointed customers.

10 Mistakes Business Owners Make When Redesigning Their Company’s Website

When you invest the time and money into redesigning your old website, it is important you end up with the best possible finished product. This demands careful attention to detail. Before you get started redesigning, you should scout around for ideas from the sites of competitors who have recently undergone the same process. As you get started, you need to be aware there are 10 mistakes that business owners typically make when redesigning their website.

1. Ignoring the Target Market While Redesigning the Site – It’s possible to get so wrapped up in functionality and appearance that you forget to design the site for the benefit of your target market. You should consider you customer demographics and build a site that addresses the needs of the majority.

2. Ignoring Mobile Device Accessibility – The population of consumers who transact business using their cellphones and tablets is on the rise. Failure to consider formatting/configuring your website for mobile device operating systems could eliminate business prospects from a large class of young consumers.

3. Too Much Flash – While flashy websites still draw viewers, it’s highly functional, easy to navigate websites that keep them around long enough to become paying customers. It worth noting that flashy graphics and video features are often lost on mobile devices with a limited viewing area.

4. Failing to Update SEO – Many of your potential customers will try to find your business through search engines using keywords. If you are investing the time to redesign your site, you want to update your SEO based on current trends in searching.

5. Too Much Detail – Visitors are coming to your site for the purpose of buying your product. Today’s consumer doesn’t have time to get bogged down with detailed advertising campaigns or complicated forms. You need to keep things simple and to the point.

6. Failure to Support a Call to Action – If the end goal of your new website is for the viewer to contact you or place an order, your redesigned links should always lead the customer to where you want them to go. In the site’s verbiage, it’s okay to remind them why they came to your site.

7. Using Old Content – Redesigning your website gives you the opportunity to offer something different. You should update your content and make it fresh and contemporary. If it reads like yesterday’s news, potential customers will get bored and head elsewhere.

8. Insufficient Testing – Before you send your redesigned site out live, you need to thoroughly check site functionality and compatibility with popular web-browsers and mobile device operating systems. Technical failures have led more than a few companies into insolvency because of missed revenue.

9. Trying to Redesign the Site in House Without the Proper Skill Set – It’s difficult to be proficient at everything. Given the importance of your website to the business, allow an expert to make the changes. You will recoup the costs through increased revenues generated by having a professionally redesigned website.

10. Lack of Extras – If your former site was sans pages like a blog or email capabilities, you should invest the time and money to add the necessary features that address growing trends in online marketing. As indicated above, you want your site to target specific needs and expectations.

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