Web Design: How to refresh your website quickly

With the digital landscape rapidly and forever changing, it’s easy for website designs to become outdated and sadly left in the dust. Often, you only need to refresh your website design, rather than a complete re-design or overhaul, to keep it well optimised and in line with popular design trends.

It’s never a bad idea to follow trends whilst they are popular as it may help increase your own popularity, whilst ensuring your website looks fresh.

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – but in the case of websites, first impressions count (quite a bit actually). Worry not, for we have put together some ways to keep your website up to date.

What is a website refresh?

Not to be confused with a redesign which requires a lot more work, a refresh on the other hand can be used to make small visual adjustments to your site.

Over time, it’s only natural for a brand to evolve to keep up with its market, competitors or even it’s target audience. With changes to your overall brand you need to consider how this would affect your website.

The foundation or structure of your website won’t change, just updates to visuals like imagery, colours and fonts to stay in line with your brand like a well-oiled machine. Small changes over time on certain areas of your site can help with the site optimisation and overall performance.

Recognising signs you need a website design refresh

But my site looks great, it’s exactly what I wanted! Sound familiar? That’s called denial.

It’s not always an easy task to know exactly when your site is due a makeover. But there are some telltale signs that can help point you in the right direction, hopefully guiding you towards considering a website refresh.

There are a few reasons you may want to consider a refresh. As hard as it may be to accept, your website might no longer have the appeal it did when it first started up.

If the look is outdated then this will have a knock on effect on the performance of your site. This is something you definitely want to avoid as it can be a domino effect of issue after issue, after issue, after issue… you get the picture.
For example, a website with low levels of appeal will likely not convert sales very well AND will likely have a high bounce rate. Low conversion rates can be a major red flag to keep an eye out for, especially if you have an ecommerce site.

Content Audits

To help alleviate some of the possible issues with your site, a content audit is a good place to start. A content audit will give you an indication of where your website’s strengths and weaknesses lie.

It’s important to remember that not all that is wrong with the site is necessarily visual, often a deep dive into the data will reveal where some extra time and love is needed.

Audits can help you identify specific metrics on your site that could be leading to poor performance.

For example, your content audit might reveal that a specific page has a higher bounce rate than you’d expect. Further assessment on the page is needed to identify whether it is a visual, content, functional, or deeper issue.

Small changes, big impact

Whilst the changes you make might not be huge, the potential impact can be. There are small changes you can make that will have a significant impact on your overall performance.

These are some of design elements we suggest revisiting:

Typography

Selecting the right font for your site can help to update the look to feel more modern and appealing to your users. It’s also important to consider how you present text on your site as it needs to be easily digestible for your audience.

Imagery

Updating the imagery used on your website is important as outdated imagery may no longer be relevant. Investing in high quality, modern imagery can help convey a high quality message to your site and brand.

Colour

Your colour scheme can really help determine the overall look and feel of your site. We suggest that you stick to one or two primary colours that compliment one another. Any more than that risks having the adverse effect – it can be rather jarring and unappealing to users.

Tone of voice

Tone of voice is the distinct style a brand uses to communicate with its audience. It’s usually a mix of brand personality, conveying emotion, and the use of specific words. It’s a big part of your brand.

Therefore, conveying a consistent tone of voice throughout your website helps create a sense of familiarity for the user. If your tone of voice is all over the place, it makes for a confusing experience.

Conclusion

Website refreshes are a cost effective, time efficient way to make improvements to your website without having to go through a full and sometimes unnecessary redesign.

It’s important to take time to analyse your site so that you can highlight areas that need improvement.

A website design refresh allows you to ensure the design stays up to date and appealing to your users, meaning you can stand out from competitors.