9 Key Reasons to Make Website Design Review Part of Your Routine

With the internet’s population continuing to grow, businesses are flocking to the World Wide Web to get their products in front of the burgeoning digital market.

Getting a site online is easy enough. You find a content management system, input your data, do some graphics work and just like that, you’re up and running. As you may know though, being online isn’t the same thing as succeeding online.

Success online means going above and beyond in your initial website presentation and your willingness to adopt a normal website design review process.

For those of you that are new to the concept of website design review, it encompasses revising your site on a scheduled basis to ensure that it’s still serving you and your customers as thoroughly as possible. Below, we outline nine key reasons to adopt a review process.

1. Updating Your CMS

If you’re like most of the internet, you’re leaning on a consent management system like WordPress to power your site. Content management systems are great because they let novice web builders create stunning sites. They, however, are not without their flaws.

Several bugs exist within content management systems that could expose your website’s critical data to hackers. Platform providers regularly push out system updates that you’ll want to opt into to mitigate this risk to ensure your site is safe.

2. Ensuring Mobile Layouts Are Working

More people than ever are leveraging mobile devices to access content online. The tricky thing about mobile presentations, though, is that your site needs to effectively scale to whatever screen size it’s being viewed on.

If you’re using a reputable content management system and design template, all of this should happen automatically. Still, as part of your website design review process, you’ll want to test your site on a handful of devices to make sure your content is working as it should. If it’s not, consider hiring a website company to help you redefine your site’s “breakpoints”.

3. Keeping Contact Information Current

As time goes on, your business may move to a new location, change its phone number or email. Your website must be updated to reflect any changes you undergo, as the contact information you have on your site will get indexed and presented by Google.

If Google finds that the information it’s serving to searchers is inaccurate, your search engine rankings could be penalized.

4. Rotating Out Promotions

There’s nothing more frustrating to a customer than when they see a deal on your website, try to cash it in and find that it’s no longer valid. Don’t put yourself in a position where it appears as though you’re baiting and switching customers.

Make sure that all of your prices, deals, and promotions are up to date and ready to be honored.

5. Implementing User Feedback

While rare, some visitors to your website might take the time to share their thoughts on your site’s presentation. If they go through your contact form or surveys, you prompt them with, save their suggestions and once your website design review day comes up, implement any good ideas you received.

Remember, customers who are willing to share their thoughts are often ready to engage with your products. Listening to them, you could increase their lifetime monetary value.

6. Re-target Keywords

If you don’t know about search engine optimization, take a moment to learn. Search engines direct most website traffic, and by knowing how to play to them, you can skyrocket your site’s success.

When you’ve learned about SEO, and have targeted keywords relevant to your business, revisit those keywords as part of your review process to ensure they’re still valuable. If you’re finding that other keywords represent better targeting opportunities, pepper them in where appropriate.

7. Subscription Renewals

Whether it’s custom widgets you purchase from your CMS’ app store or your domain name, chances are, you have several monthly/annual subscriptions that are associated with your website’s operation. When reviewing your site’s design, take note of your various subscriptions and inspect them to see if they’re working correctly and if their cost is justified.

Anything that feels like dead weight on your site should be cut or downgraded to a free version.

8. Legal Notices

Every website should have Terms of Use and Privacy Policy pages. These pages tend to specify dates that you’ll want to update alongside any other verbiage that may need to be tweaked to support your business needs.

9. Maintaining Appeal

While there are a lot of functional reasons to conduct a regular website review, there are also purely aesthetic drivers that justify the process. At the end of the day, if your website isn’t visually appealing to today’s consumers, they’re going to be less inclined to engage with your business.

We recommend working with a design professional at least once per year to keep your pages looking fresh! And start with a website design questionnaire so you’re looking at the design process and what really works for your business from a fresh perspective.

Stay Ahead of the Curve by Conducting a Regular Website Design Review

Consumer tastes are always shifting, and technology is constantly updating. Your website needs to stay ahead of those curves if you want it to continue attracting an audience and converting leads.

We hope that what we’ve shared with you has made clear how a website design review can help you achieve your online goals. If you need more context or separate information related to the internet, we welcome you to explore the need available on our blog.