It can be a hard decision to decide to completely redesign your company website. Sometimes there are several decision makers all vying for their say, maybe your web designers are pushing for a redesign or maybe you just know it’s a little outdated but are unsure whether it’s outdated enough to warrant a new design.

We’ve written a previous post on how to evaluate whether your site needs a faceliftand so we won’t go into that again so soon. What we do want to talk about is the difference between a redesign and a revamp, the positives and negatives of each option and a few points to think about to help you evaluate the best option for you (to give you food for thought before your website consultation).

Redesigning V’s Revamping

Firstly, when talking about a website redesign we are referring to a complete overhaul of the site. Assessing it’s navigation, it’s design, it’s call to actions – really everything that could be re-assessed with a view to giving a more effective user experience.

With a revamp, your website structure could remain the same or maybe some new pages, corporate colours etc could be incorporated. It’s about giving your site a more up-to-date look and tweaking bits here and there to make it perform better or serve a purpose. For example, in winter we revamp several of our e-commerce website with a Christmas theme to put customers in a Festive mood, this is a temporary revamp and will see the site returned to normal in Spring.

Website Redesign

• Start afresh : With a website redesign you have free reign to start again and create a spanking new website without having to hold on to previous layouts designs etc.
• Cost : Sometimes a complete overhaul is money saving in the long run. It can let you start afresh with up-to-date technology rather than making you go back again and again to a web designer for further updates. You could redesign the site with a CMS for example and put the maintenance of your website in your own hands.
• Standards : Imagine your website was built several years ago, chances are it will be in tables and might not be the most accessible of sites. At a basic level, to redesign the site could mean rebuilding the site in CSS, validating it to professional web standards and making it accesible for all.
• Effectiveness : Are you monitoring your website visits and conversions? Do you know the site is working for you? If not then it is a good opportunity to evaluate the site, see what is and isn’t working and redevelop a new website based on your findings. After all, if it isn’t working for you then why stick with a failing design or layout

Website Revamp

• Familiarity : A website revamp is great for keeping the structure of your site consistent to let regular users of your site know where to go to get the information they want.
• Cost : A revamp can be cheaper (particularly in the short term) for example, if you want updated colours of a replaced logo.
• Time : Generally a website revamp will take far less time to carry out than a complete overhaul.
• Effectiveness : If your website is really working for you in terms of visitors and conversions then why fix it other than to update it’s ‘feel’?

Which is for you?

When you’re thinking of a new website consider these points to help you decide whether you need your site redesigned or whether you could be as effective with a revamp.

1. What do you currently like or dislike about your website?
2. Is there something fundamentally wrong with the design or are you just tired of the branding?
3. What do you hope to achieve and what do you hope visitors gain from visiting your website?
4. Is your current site working and converting for you?
5. What are your future goals for the website?
6. Is your branding changing and therfore forcing a redesign?
7. Does it meet all the standards you need it too (is it accessible)?