Website Design Hard Truths: Evolve Or Die

When is the last time your website was redesigned? Is it too long ago for you to remember? If so, then this week’s post is for you. We’re talking about how critical updating your website design is.

On the surface, updating your website might not seem all that important. Many businesses build their website and then they think adding content once a week is enough—it is right?

Well, we assure you it’s not nearly enough, to be honest. Maybe 10 years ago that could’ve gotten you by. However, in today’s highly saturated internet landscape you have to keep up with rapidly changing times. Technology slows for no one and if you’re not updating your website design to keep up—you could disappear. At least on the screens of your audience that is trying to find you.

Whether your website is three pages or thirty pages—it needs to keep up with current standards in functionality and design. Basically, the important thing about keeping your website design up to date is that it can grow your business or stifle it.

There’s a litany of reasons that support updating your website regularly and we’ll touch on those. Additionally, we’ll cover the components that a website is comprised of— design, content, and tech. One of these components may carry more weight for your business depending on the industry you’re in. However, it is still critical to make sure you keep up to date with all of them—so let’s dive in.

New Internet Technology Needs New Website Design

Internet technology is a constantly changing field that is developing at a rapid pace. When internet tech stacks update—it is solely to benefit websites. It makes them lighter, more secure, stronger, streamlined, and faster.

If you update your design to take full advantage of emerging technology—you’ll stand out by giving your users the best possible experience. That leads to a huge boost in trust, consumer confidence, and of course, profits. Think about it, when you go to a website, don’t you tend to judge the company based on their website? If it loads slow and looks elementary, you’re going to think its a reflection of the company. However, if it is polished, easy to navigate, and gives you information without having to hunt it down—that company earned your trust. All of this—from updating your website design.

Syncing With Your Brand Changes

This point may seem like we’re playing Captain Obvious—but you’d be surprised how many forget about this. If you update your brand even the slightest amount—your website needs to reflect those changes. For example, imagine Bank of America updating their old logo on all their print media but then their website still had the old logo. Wouldn’t that look odd? More importantly, with many visitors—it’s a sign of disorganization and incompetency. If nothing else, making the changes to your website at least garners attention from users who notice the changes. This reason has even more weight when you are changing up your business strategy. Since your website is the face of your brand, it is the first thing consumers will take notice of. Therefore, it must always be in lockstep with your business or it can be damaging.

Keeping Up With Website Design Trends

We get it—there’s a certain soft spot in most people for old-school vibes when it comes to design of any kind. It brings back old memories and takes you back to a simpler time. However, appearing old-school and being just flat out old—are two completely different things. It’s like comparing a Bluetooth turntable and an old turntable from the ’70s. Both give a nod to old school vinyl, but one still looks modern and has modern cues. The other—just looks old and worn out. Don’t let your website be the old, dusty turntable your parents bought at Sears.

Design trends in all things change often, none quite as often and quickly as website design. If you don’t keep a close watch on things, your website can be a turnoff real fast. Design doesn’t just mean color palettes and shapes or abstracts. Sure, preferences change in those regards as well but website design goes much deeper than that.

One example is the downsizing and decluttering movement the COVID-19 pandemic has kind of forced us into. That is also reflective of how businesses are run and how websites are designed—simple, clean, and straightforward. Websites with these style cues are wildly popular right now—but watch, give it six months and that too could change.

Also, keep in mind that when following any current design trend the rule is: moderation. Don’t go overboard on the facelift—keep it subtle but noticeable. When you do this right, it can easily net you some new customers.

The Need For Speed

No, we’re not geeked up about the new Top Gun movie—we’re legit talking about website loading speed. One of the main problems with modern life is there’s not enough time in the day to accomplish all our daily tasks. The adage: “time is money,” is especially true in terms of browsing the internet. No one is going to wait more than a measly five seconds for your website to load—five seconds! Even then we’re being generous with that estimate. Slow speed will have them bouncing before even seeing your content.

Now, a few things can affect how fast your website loads—a major reason is how the site is built. Just because a site may look nice, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a coding train wreck behind the scenes. It’s like a car. Sure, you can drop a 4-cylinder Kia engine into a Porsche—you might even make it work. It’s still going to drive like garbage, while looking sharp—would you really want to buy a Porsche like that? Didn’t think so.

Taking advantage of new plugins, technologies and coding languages can significantly lower your websites load time. Additionally, outdated themes are another huge reason for long load times. Implementing new tech in combination with keeping themes current will give you a huge drop in the bounce rate.

Other factors that can cause slow loading speed are cluttered user interfaces, and a lot of large or poorly optimized image and video files. This is why it is important to learn how to properly optimize images and videos for fast loading.

Your Website Design Needs To Be Secure

Consumers are very anxious about protecting their data on the internet—and they should be, just watch the news. Website servers often contain sensitive information such as customers’ credit card numbers, medical history, and other sensitive personal information. Even website security technology that is barely a year old can be obsolete at the pace hackers move. If your website server is hacked, not only is customer data at stake—so is yours. Additionally, your site could be held hostage for ransom, or it could be used for spam—giving you a bad image. Your content management system needs to be updated frequently and your website security needs to be compliant with current standards.

Adaptability To Mobile

Let’s just be blunt—if your website is not optimized or adaptable for mobile devices, you can just wipe it—it’s pointless. With over 50% of website traffic coming from mobile devices—you’re missing out if yours isn’t adaptable. In fact, because that statistic is climbing steadily we design websites with a mobile-first development strategy.

That means, we develop it first for a mobile device, optimizing it for phones—then we adapt it for the desktop user. Just five years ago the popular approach was the exact opposite—that is the speed that technology evolves. Your website must evolve or die—period.

Does Your Website Design Need A Refresh?

If you’re noticing high bounce rates, less conversion, and more dysfunctionality than success from your website—we’re ready to help. BrandNation has a well-vetted team of graphic designers, backend developers, and UI/UX experts all in house.

We don’t outsource our client’s needs like many agencies—we’re based right here in Houston, TX. All you need to do is schedule a consultation with us and we will give you the website your business needs to succeed.