Back when websites were majorly HTML or Flash based, you used to need the services of an expert in web design if you wanted to make any changes to your website. Now with content management systems ruling the web, changing how your site looks is as easy as a few clicks of your mouse.
Nowadays, many people will change the themes or layouts of their sites as often as once every few months. While changing the way your site looks can give it some much designed freshness, it is important that you settle into a particular design and stick with it.
You may have noticed that most major websites still have the same layout that they’ve always had for a few years. There is a reason for that.
Why you shouldn’t change your website design
Site Ranking
According to a study that was published a few years back, 571 websites are created every minute. Therefore, before search engines such as Google can properly scrutinize your site, index it and create a note of the backlinks- it’s going to take quite a bit of time. In fact, it may take search engines several years before they have a proper profile of your site.
“Remember, organic SEO takes time because it naturally grows, so changing your website without a thought can be damaging.” – Mr Wilde Chief SearCh Marketing Officer - from openhost.co.nz
Additionally, it can take a long time before sites start to link back to your webpages. If the changes you make also change the URLs of your pages, you are likely to lose your ranking on search engines. This loss of page ranking will happen even if you use 301 redirects to ensure that there’s continuity between your old URLs and your new ones.
Repeat Visitors
To visitors who are seeing your website for the first time, it may look really cool and hip but to the visitor who has been coming back over the months or years, the new layout may be confusing or even a major put off. The repeat visitors will have become accustomed to certain aspects of your site. They will probably be used to navigating in a particular way. Changes to the theme or layout may render them unable to find their way to where they want to go. Considering how important repeat visitors are, you have to ensure any changes you make are comfortable to them.
Why you should change your website design
Keeping up with current standards
For several years now, being able to access flash based websites on iOS devices such as iPads and iPhones have been anything but simple. Flash websites will soon be finding it difficult to get visibility on Google’s Chrome browser too. This represents a significant problem for those who developed their websites on the back of this technology. In this case, changing your website’s design is more of a necessity.
Expanding to Mobile Web space
As many website owners have come to find out, making the jump from computers to mobile devices will not be easy. Many websites have had to deal with the problem of their sites not displaying correctly on mobile devices and this is a major concern. If your site doesn’t display well on mobile devices, there is a good chance that visitors will not come back too often.
The challenge is the fact that mobile devices come in many sizes and having to build a different site for each is anything but easy. This is why more people are moving to responsive website design. If your site doesn’t view well on mobile devices, it’s time for a change.
Become more engaging
Site visitors are becoming more demanding nowadays. Many expect to see some new content each time they pass by your site. This means that you may need to start making use of a content management system so you can add content to the site by yourself such as blog posts. In such a case, you may be forced to change the design of your site first.
Making Changes the right way
A change in your site layout, theme or design has major implications on you, your visitors and search engines. As such, you’ll want to do it the right way. For the sake of your repeat visitors, you’ll want to implement changes slowly to give them time to get used to them. In the case of search engines and backlinks, you’ll want to preserve your URLs. If you have to change your URLs, add a redirect so visitors who bookmarked pages will still be able to find them.