Redesign, upgrade or replatforming?
Sometimes you just can feel the wind of change — it may be a slight breeze or a tornado of success. At these moments, you know your website really needs changes that will make it a far more effective business tool. These changes may vary from website redesign to CMS upgrade, or even complete replatforming (moving to another CMS). Let’s take a closer look at the options.
Replatforming, redesign or upgrade your website
Website Redesign Process
We’ll start with a light breeze that should visit your website every year, or couple of years, bringing fresh trends. You should follow the latest trends while also retaining your individual touch and considering your customers’ preferences. We’ve recently told you an exciting story about how a team at Google A/B tested 41 shades of blue for their navigation bar to discover which one worked better with the audience. Yes, every thing matters when it comes to design!
Redesign is a great chance to work on your website’s usability, as well as improve its navigation. And, of course, do not forget about making your site mobile-friendly, otherwise you are totally sailing against the wind.
Reasons Why Your Website Needs A Redesign
- design trends have changed
- you want to get more traffic
- you want your website to be more user-friendly
- website design is not responsive
- you want to improve website SEO
- you want to increase conversion rate
- your bounce rate is high
- your website is not mobile-friendly
Upgrade an Existing Website
If your website is built with a CMS (or a CMF), an upgrade to its newer version could bring you in line with the latest functional novelties, as well as give your website more security. Besides, the new version may have the features that were missing in the older ones and are crucial for your website. Platforms evolve rapidly, so give them a chance!
Since we specialize in Drupal, we can offer an example of Drupal 8, which amazed the world with its enhancements related to a mobile-first philosophy, multilingual opportunities, improved web accessibility, easy content editing, third-party integration and much more. Website upgrades to Drupal 8 became an extremely popular service. Another great piece of news announced by Drupal’s founding father Dries Buytaert is that, beginning with Drupal 8, further upgrades are going to be as easy as ABC.
Reasons You Should Update Your Website
- to add more security
- to fix bugs and errors
- to revise and refresh the content
- to implement SEO techniques
- to add more usability
- to increase page load speed
- to make navigation more intuitive
Replatforming Website
Sometimes, a redesign or even an upgrade is not enough. Here is when you might consider website replatforming.
Certain CMSs are just better suited to certain types of websites, and will be not beneficial for others, no matter how you try. It may be that your current platform is just unable to offer you the desired functionality.
Imagine that your CMS is perfect for brochure websites, and you decided to have an online store with third-party system integration. It will be either totally impossible, or at least very difficult, to implement ecommerce or integration features. Even when implemented, they will not be powerful enough.
Another possible case is that you have plenty of plans for the future and need the flexibility and scalability to add new features and expand your website. There is a platform that will provide it to you, unlike your current one.
It also may be that your website has grown out of your CMS capabilities, so it cannot handle the increased amount of pages or users.
In addition, your old CMS may also be getting obsolete, or difficult or expensive to update. In this case, another platform may even be cheaper to migrate to.
If your potential new platform is future-oriented, and its roadmap aligns with your business goals — perfect!
In other words, sometimes a platform seems to be your perfect match. Then the decisive step of replatforming your website can pay off significantly! Make a well-weighed decision, consult web development experts, and prepare for the best.
Reasons To Consider Replatforming Your Website
- the current CMS is no longer supported
- the CMS is not scalable enough for your needs
- you are not satisfied with your website performance
- your website lacks functionality
- website management is too difficult for you
- you cannot integrate third-party services to your website
- your current platform is not scalable
What to expect from redesigning, upgrading or replatforming?
It should be noted that the return on investments for such serious steps as website replatforming will not be fast. For the first couple of months, you can expect some initial performance, attendance, or conversion reductions. But it’s just a temporary phenomenon which can be reduced to a minimum with a good team working on your website replatforming. After small losses, great gains will come your way!
It’s important that your audience understands the changes. Make an announcement to them explaining the benefits of the new platform and provide additional instructions for website usage if needed.
Website Replatforming and Redesigns. Which is right for your site?
Yes, it may seem safe and comfortable to always stay in shallow waters, without taking risks and following the winds of change. But think what opportunities you may be missing. Imagine your ship coming instead to fabulous ports and establishing unique business agreements!
And in the end, the risks are minimal when you consult experts who can advise you which decision will be better in your case. In addition, their experience lets them perform your website redesign, upgrade or replatforming safely and reliably, taking into account all the subtle nuances. It’s time for a fresh start, so contact Drudesk!