This article was updated on October 30, 2024
Have you asked yourself this: Should I redesign my existing website or rebuild it from scratch?
Whether youโre a new business looking to get your first website built, or an established brand looking for a website redesign, building out a new website is an exciting time. And with good reason! After all, your website is one of the most valuable marketing tools at your disposal โ a 24/7 salesperson that is constantly advocating for your business day and night.
Of course, when creating a modern, new website from scratch, the value of good design cannot be overstated enough. Improved design can significantly boost your conversion rates. So letโs talk about 7 benefits and opportunities you can take advantage of when building from the ground up vs. redesigning your website.
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Unlock Your Website’s Potential: Break Free from Technological Constraints with a New Build
When youโre looking for the perfect home, sometimes you need to build a new one to get exactly what you want. The same rule applies to a website.
So, why start fresh? You may think that reworking your existing website would be more efficient, but that might not be the case. Working within the constraints of an existing website’s CMS can have disadvantages for a few reasons.
A huge hurdle can be that the web design agency you hire will need to work within an existing framework, which they may not be familiar with. The market is crowed with different content management systems.
As a result, the redesign process will take longer, and the results will be less than ideal if foreign toolset limits are a factor. A toolset that might require a lot of unnecessary coding to achieve the same results as a CMS builder like WordPress or Joomla that requires little or no coding. A competent coder is not cheap and takes away from your design budget.
CMS builders get better each year and offer professional tools that designers use, similar to what you might see in the Adobe Creative Suite. Using a sophisticated website builder allows designers to do exactly what they do best โ design.
Obviously, it should come as no surprise that an outdated site does nothing good for your brand perception. Having a new website built by a professional development team will give your visitors confidence in your product and lead to higher conversion rates. Building a new website also enhances user engagement, ensuring that visitors have a seamless and interactive experience.
Fortunately, creating a new site means youโre unburdened by previous limitations. Of course, this refers to both technical limitations and/or outdated visual design. Designing a new website allows you to shed the burden of trying to re-mold something that no longer serves your company the way it should and sometimes they are beyond a rebuild financially.
This also gives you the opportunity to develop a new site architecture and link-building strategy with the user in mind. You want to develop an intuitive link-building strategy so visitors can navigate with ease. Consider how people navigate your old site and ask yourself if it feels natural or is unintuitive.
You can begin to focus on the products or services most important to your business and how it affect the journey of your target audience.
Let’s not forget the ever-important cell phone architecture and layout. This, too should be built with the user in mind. A good web designer will mimic the brand experience across every platform. Consistency is key!
1. Google mobile first indexing is how the performance of your site is measured
When crawling and indexing sites, Google now prioritizes mobile versions of websites. The adjustment reflects Google’s recent increased emphasis on mobile consumers. Mobile first design is more important than ever, with over 50% of all web traffic coming from mobile devices. Google will minimize desktop crawling and stop indexing non-mobile websites after July 5th, 2024.
Are you leveraging responsive web design? This approach ensures your site resizes and adjusts seamlessly across all devices, which has become a fundamental standard in website architecture. If your site isnโt mobile-friendly, you may be missing out.
Googleโs focus on user experience means mobile usability and speed are now essential for search rankings. With Mobile First Indexing, Google actively prioritizes sites optimized for mobile, potentially penalizing those that arenโt. A faster, responsive site not only improves user satisfaction but also boosts your chances of higher search rankings and greater organic traffic. Optimizing for mobile not only improves user experience but also boosts conversion rates.
Have you made the tested for mobil yet?
2. Website speed optimization
This is a wonderful opportunity to bring your websiteโs speed up to par. Users expect speed and performance more than ever before, and this directly impacts user engagement. With ample access to high-speed internet and mobile browsing at 5G, users expect websites to load pretty much instantaneously. Optimally, your site should load in two seconds or less for higher conversion rates and to be on the first page of SERPs.
Luckily, it’s now easier than ever to have a lightning-fast website, provided you’re using the latest and greatest technologies and web hosts. Anything less can result in frustration and abandonment.
It’s expected for CMS creators to build their frameworks without bloat and messy code which results in slow page speed. The CMS market is competitive so if their products aren’t performing at an A-game level they won’t be in business long. Don’t get stuck with a low performance CMS.
If speed is a pain point on your current website, that’s a legitimate reason to consider building a new website. Advances in content management systems, caching plugins and content delivery networks (CDNs) have made significant strides in optimizing website performance. And by leveraging these advancements, you can ensure you have a lightning-fast website.
By following best practices, optimizing with caching plugins, and using Rocket as our hosting platform, we have reached a 90 %โ100 % Google Performance score.
By starting from scratch, you can implement the latest performance optimization techniques and technologies, ensuring that your new website not only looks good but is also blazingly fast. From streamlined code and optimized images to efficient server configurations and caching strategies, you can design your new site with speed in mind from the ground up!
3. Having a dedicated CMS (Content Management System) Platforms that evolves along with your brand
If your site is on a DIY platform like Wix or Squarespace, consider rebuilding. While these platforms work for basic, budget-friendly sites, they limit customization and rely on templates, making it hard to stand out and risking brand confusion.
We love building on WordPress, our CMS of choice. As experts in website design and development, we know what works, and thereโs a reason 43.1% of the web runs on WordPress! This platform lets us create stable, fast sites built to grow with your business. Our design systems are flexible, allowing your site to adapt as your company evolves.
Updating WordPress is simple. Visual editors make content changes and major updates efficient, saving time and costs, with many skilled developers available for this platform. Plus, the site is yours to host anywhere or work with any agency you want. WordPressโs open architecture means new technology is easy to integrate, keeping your site up-to-date with the latest website design trends.
SEO is a breeze with WordPress. Plugins make it accessible for everyone, letting you track traffic from the backend or with Google Analytics.
Starting with a WordPress template is a great way to familiarize yourself with the CMS, but we suggest moving to a builder like Divi or Elementor when youโre ready to create something unique.
4. Extend brand awareness with a new website
While consistency is key for branding, no brand should become visually stagnant. So, if your companyโs branding guidelines have already been established, developing a strategy for a website redesign is an excellent opportunity to explore and enhance them even further.
By incorporating newer visual elements and styles, you’ll keep your image fresh while staying consistent with your established brand identity. Or, if your company hasnโt had the chance to develop a brand strategy, a new website redesign project is a great way to begin conceptualizing your brandโs visual identity.
Creating a new website can also communicate to your audience that you are relevant and keep up with the times. Plus, you might need a fresh coat of paint.
As we mentioned before, having a Design System for your new website will allow you to expand on it continuously. By building a library of strong visual assets and styles, it becomes easier to add new pages and iterate on existing designs.
Having this robust foundation can save you time and money in the long run, which translates into being able to explore different design and marketing needs as your business grows.
5. Your chance to add high-quality assets to your new website to make a splash
Gathering high-quality assets when youโre getting ready to build a new site is one of the best things you can do for your business. Investing in professional video, photography, or even motion graphics will take the overall design to the next level. This is especially great because your investment also pays off in kind over the long run!
Itโs all about making an emotional connection with your audience and converting browsers into customers, which can significantly improve your conversion rates.
Since quality assets have a long lifespan, they can be used across your entire brand and give your business a boost. So, while these assets are leveraged with the intention to make your site stand out, their scope of use extends further.
For example, at Mighty Fine, we always include fully custom-made iconography and illustrations for our client’s websites. After your new website is created, the designed assets can be repurposed for use in marketing materials, branded videos, phone apps, and so on.
We’ve produced single projects for campaigns that clients could leverage across all digital channels. The possibilities are endless! Now, what if we told you this is true for any high-quality assets you invest in for your new website?
Now is also a great time to think about refreshing the copywriting on your website with eye-catching headers. After all, good copy is always the springboard for creating compelling content. This is another excellent opportunity to create your brand voice if you don’t already have that system in place.
Professionally produced assets give your brand a truly unique edge and show customers you care about your image and their experience. For example, how does landing on an amateurish website make you feel? Does it give you confidence in the product or make you feel like the business cares about your experience?
6. Building a better user experience
Weโve said it before, and weโll say it againโฆ UX (User Experience) is king on the web. One of the key advantages of improved UX is that your new website will be created with the usersโ needs in mind. However, it would be too extensive for this post to describe all of the benefits.
Your creative agency can elevate the user experience on your site by strategically crafting intuitive and engaging navigation. This approach not only guides visitors smoothly to their desired destinations but also enhances their overall interaction with your website, ensuring a seamless and satisfying journey.
The designers will also create design systems that align with the navigation. It’s all about crafting an excellent user experience through excellent design, clever copywriting and intuitive navigation.
To create an excellent user journey, we focus on designing a navigation system, and internal linking strategy for SEO, and powerful CTAs (Call-To-Actions)โto name a few! These best practices will keep your customers on-site longer. The longer they are on-site, the more likely they will convert and reach out to your business.
7. For immersive user experiences, website animation is key
In 2024 and beyond, just having the typical website experience doesnโt cut it. People are now looking for a more immersive user experience, and one of the best ways to provide that is with engaging animations that boost user engagement. Now, Iโm not talking about the nauseating, over-the-top animations from the old days โ you still want to use them in moderation and only where appropriate. Static websites still have a place, but if you want to take the user experience to the next level, adding animation is simply a no-brainer.
However, it’s essential to strike the right balance. While animations can enhance the user experience, overdoing it can have the opposite effect, leading to distractions and frustration. The key is to use animations judiciously and purposefully, ensuring they complement the content and enhance usability rather than detract from it.
Website animations can also be used to capture people’s attention for a targeted goal subtly.
Added Perks to Building a New Website
Enhancing Site Security and Adapting to Evolving Threats
In todayโs digital landscape, enhancing site security is more crucial than ever. As cyber threats continue to evolve, ensuring your website is fortified against potential breaches is a non-negotiable aspect of the website redesign process. When you build a new website from scratch, you have the perfect opportunity to implement the latest security measures. This includes integrating SSL and ensuring your website is using HTTPs protocol.
If you plan ion using your current CMS you should ensure that it has not been abandoned by its developer. This may prevent your website from receiving updates necessary to maintain robust security or eventually not working at all. This also applies to plug-ins. If you notice that a plugin has not been updated in a long time, it is time to uninstall it and replace it with one that has. We believe that paid premium plugins are the best secure, feature-rich, and dependable options on the market.
By prioritizing site security during your website redesign, you not only protect your business but also build trust with your visitors. A secure website reassures users that their data is safe, which is essential for maintaining a trustworthy online presence. So, as you embark on your redesign journey, make sure to stay ahead of evolving threats and safeguard your digital presence to improve conversion rates.
Optimizing for Search Engines: Ensuring Your New Site Ranks Well
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a cornerstone of any website redesign. By incorporating the latest SEO best practices into your redesign, you can significantly improve your siteโs visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic. This involves conducting thorough keyword research, optimizing page titles and meta descriptions, and ensuring your site is mobile-friendly with fast page load speeds.
As we mentioned multiple times, website speed is paramount, and starting with an optimized CMS is a huge upgrade for SEO and User Experience. Most CMS developers make performance a priority but there are plenty of content managements systems that are bloated, slow performers.
Prioritizing SEO during the redesign process not only helps your new site rank well but also drives more potential customers to your business. By focusing on these SEO strategies, you can enhance your siteโs performance, improve conversion rates, and ensure it stands out in the competitive digital landscape.
Aligning Your New Website with Business Goals and Maximizing ROI
A website redesign should be more than just a visual upgrade; it should be strategically aligned with your business goals and objectives. Understanding your target audience, their needs, and pain points is crucial in creating a website that effectively communicates your brand messaging and drives conversions. To maximize return on investment (ROI), set clear goals and metrics for your website, such as increasing lead generation, improving site performance, and enhancing user experience.
By tracking and analyzing these metrics, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your website and improve its overall performance. Aligning your new website with your business goals ensures that it not only looks great but also delivers tangible results for your business by enhancing user engagement.
Budgeting for a New Website Build: Planning and Resource Allocation
Budgeting for a new website build requires careful planning and resource allocation. Itโs essential to consider the costs of website design, development, content creation, and ongoing maintenance. By prioritizing your budget and allocating resources effectively, you can ensure that your website redesign project stays on track and meets your business goals, ultimately improving conversion rates.
This includes accounting for the costs of website hosting, software updates, and security measures, as well as the time and resources required for content creation and marketing efforts.
You will spend more with a design agency but you will be getting a team that guided by a creative director to ensure every aspect of the design is on brand. Quality assets and design systems can be used for the intial build but can also be leveraged for other marketing endeavors. For instance, professionally produced video and photography can be used across all your digital channels.
By planning carefully and allocating resources wisely, you can create a successful website that drives business growth and revenue.
Relaunching a new website and making a splash with your audience
Building a new website is a cause for celebration โ so why not let the rest of the world know about it, too? This a great opportunity to generate renewed interest in your brand. Whether implementing a complete rebrand or redesigning your old website, it’s a great way to generate some buzz.
It’s also an excellent opportunity to broadcast to clients that you are still around and moving forward. Plus, there’s nothing better than having people share your story on social media if they are inclined to.
Wrapping Up
Now more than ever, web users expect good UX and design from companies. Your online presence is not something you can just ignore โ especially with the endless options in a simple Google search. Having a website thatโs either outdated or limited in capability may be causing you to lose potential customers. This will also lead to a bad SEO strategy in the long run.
This is why we always recommend creating a new site from the ground up. So, if youโre on the fence about whether you need a new website, chances are that itโs probably time to upgrade. If youโre ready to take things to the next level, drop us a line! Weโd be happy to discuss your next steps and answer any questions you may have.
