Do you think of creating a new website for your company?
Then it may be worth taking an extra mindset.
There are a number of things to keep in mind when launching a new website.
In many cases, it is better to optimize your current website, rather than building a brand new one.
And if you don’t do your research, a new website can cost you dearly.
Ask the British department store chain Marks & Spencer who spent more than 1.5 billion (!!) on a brand new website, just to see sales be 8% lower compared to the old website.
The risk of creating a brand new website
Launching a brand new website in the hope that it will perform better than the current one is risky.
The more visitors and sales your website has, the more is at stake.
➡️ You do not know why your current website is not converting. So how can you know what to do differently with the new one?
➡️ Creating a brand new website is expensive. Most often, the final sum will be significantly higher than initially estimated.
➡️ A new website very rarely leads to higher conversion.
The problem with creating a brand new website is simply that it is usually done on the wrong grounds.
Instead of finding out why the website is not performing well enough, one immediately jumps to the conclusion that a new website will solve all problems.
Then you assign the assignment to either an in-house team or an SEO agency. At best, vague instructions are given on how you want the new website to look (based on personal preferences).
The In house team or agency designers then create a new, more modern website, again based on personal preferences.
Do you see the problem with this process?
There is no real data to back up what the new website should look like – everything is based on gut feeling.
Unfortunately, this is usually what it looks like when a company launches a new website, both large and small.
Optimise your current website instead
Instead of spending large sums of money designing a brand new website, it is usually better to optimize your current one.
By step by step testing and optimising different parts of your website you can gradually increase the conversion rate – instead of creating a completely new design on a pure chance.
See what Facebook looked like in 2010 compared to 2019. Although there are differences, the very foundation is still the same. You are constantly making small changes to improve the site.
Continuously improving and optimising your current website is both safer and usually yields significantly better results than creating a completely new design. In addition, through the optimisation work, you will gain a better understanding of what works and does not work on your website.
When to build a brand new website
Of course, there are times when it is actually better to create a brand new website than to optimize the current one.
The main reason for getting a new website is if you have tried to improve and optimize your current website (properly) but get no results. You have done user tests, A / B tests and worked for a long time to optimize your website, but nothing happens.
Other reasons for creating a brand new website;
- Your current website is extremely outdated and it is difficult to do A / B testing on it
- Your current website looks very amateurish and gives a direct bad impression to the visitors
Things to keep in mind when launching a new website
After all, if you decide to buy a new website, there are several things you need to keep in mind:
First Do your research first
This is absolutely step 1. As I mentioned before: if you do not know why your current site is not performing then you have nothing to base on.
By doing research on your current site you will gain insights on which elements you should keep and which you should change.
Maybe your product pages are really good. Then there is no need to change the design on them.
On the other hand, let’s say that far too many customers drop by at the moment of payment. You then need to find out why they drip off. Maybe your forms are too hard to fill out. Or customers do not understand how freight and delivery work.
Find out how visitors use your website, what makes them frustrated, what works well and what doesn’t work well. Then the design of your new website can be based on real data instead of gut feelings and personal preferences.
? Make sure the move is SEO friendly so you keep all traffic
SEO optimising your new website is extremely important. Otherwise, you will lose your visitors coming from the Google results. Below is an example of a site move that caused the website to lose all of its Google positions for several months.
we help companies make an SEO-friendly website move so that the website retains its positions in Google’s search results. We make sure that redirects, subpages are found, on-page is moved over, that the tracking is up and checking so that the new website can be indexed.
? Review the tracking in Google Analytics (even if you think everything is set up correctly)
In order to measure how your new website is performing and how visitors are using it, you need to set up tracking properly in Google Analytics.
Even if you think your Analytics account is 100% set up, I highly recommend doing a Google Analytics Health Check.
A Google Analytics Health Check answers the following questions:
1: Do I collect the data needed?
2: Can I trust the data I collect?
3: Is there anything that doesn’t work with the collection?
Most likely, there is something in the account that is not set up correctly.
? What people need to be involved?
Do you have the knowledge yourself in the company to build a brand new website? Or you need to bring in copywriter, graphic designer, web developer and UX designer.
Remember, the more external consultants you bring in, the faster the price will run away.
An alternative is to hire an agency that rejuvenates a comprehensive package. However, remember that the price tag is often high if you want to use a good agency that knows both UX, web development and graphic design.
❌ New website cost – skip a cheap website
How much does a new website cost?
It all depends on how high you want to set the bar, what features you want and how many sub-pages your new website will contain.
The price for a new website can range from one thousand dollars to several million AUD.
However, I can give you a warning already; if you want a cheap website then the results will be then.
Summation
Creating a brand new website is risky and something that in most cases should be avoided. Usually, it is much better to gradually optimize your current site instead.
Should you still choose to create a brand new website – be sure to do your research first. Find out what works and doesn’t work on your current site.
And more importantly; Find out why things work or not.
