The first month of 2017 is officially over! As we embark on the shortest month of the year, it is time to check in with your business goals for the new year to ensure you are staying on track. If you find yourself falling short of you resolutions as you review your business, it may be time to invest in a website facelift.

Why does my website need a facelift?

There are a variety of reasons to invest in a website facelift or redesign.

It is important to keep in mind that a website redesign doesn’t necessarily mean a total overhaul of your existing site. The aim of a redesign is to improve your website to better serve your goals and can be as simple as a few functional modifications.

There are four common reasons SMBs like yours approach us for a website refresh, which we will discuss in this post.

1. The focus or purpose of your business has changed

Few things stay the same in life, and this is especially true of small businesses, that must shift and change based on customer needs and market demands. Each time you adjust your company focus or launch a new marketing campaign you should sit down and make sure your website is still aligned with these goals.

A new business focus or marketing strategy may require small changes, such as an update to your CTAs, adding links to new social media accounts, or implementing new applications.

2. You are not seeing the results you want

According to Hubspot, the purpose of your company website should be to attract and convert leads. If your website is not generating leads or giving you a positive ROI, it is time to sit down with your design team and discuss a serious redesign. Hubspot suggests looking at your conversion rates of visitors to leads as well as leads to customers to identify what you need to change.

Some of the important elements to examine in this process include your CTAs, your landing pages, and the “voice” of your website. As you go over these aspects of your website, ask yourself if they are clearly communicating the mission of your company, and providing tangible actions for leads to take in order to move forward in their buyer’s journey.

3. Your website technology is out of date

A recent blog post on website redesign in the Huffington Post states, “one human year equals at least four Internet years,” and this exactly is why it is so important to regularly check in on your website and make sure that it is using the most current and up-to-date technology available. These technology upgrades could be for a wide range of reasons including protecting your site from security threats and hacks, improving your site functionality, or making your website easier to modify and update.

Since the main purpose of your website is to attract customers to your business, your website needs to protect customer information with the latest security technology, and be easy to navigate and use. If it isn’t your potential customers will go knocking on your competitor’s door.

4. Your website design is not responsive

As we have previously discussed, responsive web design is an important—if not the most important—aspect of your website. The modern customer expects to access your website quickly and easily on whatever device they are using—whether it is a tablet, computer, or smartphone. Without a responsive web design, users will experience frustration and turn to competing businesses with better-designed websites.

In addition to causing you to lose potential customers, an unresponsive web design will also hurt your SEO rankings as Google and other search engines give preference to websites that are customer friendly and able to function effectively across multiple device platforms.

Do any of these reasons ring true as you review your goals for the year? Have you seen positive results from a website redesign in the past? Let us know how website redesign has influenced your business in the comments below!

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