Last Updated on: 11th October 2023, 11:58 am
What to choose for website update – revamp or redesign?
This article will be useful to those who already know that their site or service needs changes. And they also understand that these changes will lead to increased growth and increased conversions.
Deciding to upgrade, you are faced with the question of which change plan to choose for your site or service. The decision to completely redesign your company’s website can be difficult. Sometimes multiple decision-makers vie for their word, maybe your web designers are pushing for a redesign. Or perhaps you just know it’s a little outdated but not sure if it’s old enough to warrant a new design.
We wrote a previous post describing why you should redesign your website and not go into details this time.
We want to talk about the difference between a redesign and an update. While both approaches give your website a fresh look, they accomplish two different goals – each has its own pros and cons.
What should you choose to revamp or redesign, which will be more rational in your particular case? We will try to answer this question for you in our article.
Design vector created by stories – www.freepik.com
Permanent or temporary?
First, when we talk about a website redesign, we mean a complete website redesign. Evaluating its navigation, its design, and its call-to-action is really all that could be overestimated to provide a more effective user experience.
After the revamp, your website’s structure may remain the same, or perhaps some new pages, corporate colors, etc., may be added. It’s about giving your website a more modern look and tweaking a few things to make it work better or served a specific purpose. For example, in the winter, we are revamping some of our e-commerce websites with a Christmas theme to keep customers in a festive mood. This is a temporary update and will be back to normal in the spring.
Website Revamp
Revamp is suitable for those sites where the structure, functionality, and appearance are in order and do not require intervention. But the content and (flow replace) requires changes and does not correspond to the current requirements.
In fact, revamp is an interface update that will make your site fresh and provide the user with relevant information about your services. As a result, you can change your site’s look to make it look fresh, new, branded, and more attractive to your users.
These changes include uploading new logos, updating the color scheme, and replacing all existing photos with fresh stock images. You can also edit your website’s content and add up to 1000 words to the additional content page if needed.
The website update will improve your online presence overall value and design, keeping most of the structure in place and making significant cosmetic improvements. And so, if the UI / UX-design of your site does not need changes, and you want to achieve an increase in conversion and improvement in SEO rankings. In this case, you should consider the revamp service.
Benefits of revamp
- Fees (Cost): The price for a site revamp will be significantly lower than for a redesign. / renovation can be cheaper, especially in the short term (for example, if you want to update the colors of a replaced logo). The average cost of an update in our company is $ 1400, depending on the site’s complexity.
- Lead-time: It will take less time since only content and web elements will be updated. The structure of the website remains unchanged. / Generally, it takes much less time to update a website than a complete update. In our company, you can update your website within three weeks on average.
- Content Structure: The content structure does not change. In most cases, the CMS and all navigation menus, header, and footer will remain the same as before the revamp procedure.
- Familiarity: Website revamp is excellent for keeping your site structure consistent so that regular users of your site know where to go to get the information they need.
Effectiveness: If your website really works for you in terms of visitors and conversions, then why fix it rather than refresh its “feel”?
Disadvantages of revamp
Revamp is not appropriate in all situations – two main reasons:
- Since this approach is time-dependent, developers may need additional time to complete the project.
- This approach is purely cosmetic and will be limited to the existing site structure.
When do we recommend a website revamp?
Website revamp works well when the existing site has a good user flow structure. This way, we can give the site a completely fresh look while leaving most of the structure as it is. Website revamp is also an affordable solution for customers who need to update their website but don’t have the budget for bulk changes.
Website Redesign
Think of a complete redesign as building a new building from scratch. We start from scratch to create a custom website that better suits your day-to-day needs and completely reimagines your original website’s functionality and design.
The redesign is suitable for small businesses for small-scale changes and for large players who want to find and fix all the negative elements in their web projects.
For small sites, redesign suggests changing the user interface, following modern UI / UX trends and rules. As well as bringing the site to technical norms and standards. SEO optimization is also being carried out.
A large-scale project redesign offers the most extensive research from software product tests (hot cards, etc.) to an individual audit of a company to identify a specific problem, reasons for a decrease in conversion, or an obstacle to its growth.
Benefits of redesign
- Start Over: With a website redesign, you have complete freedom to start over and create a stunning new website without having to stick with previous layouts etc.
- Instead of wasting time troubleshooting problems, we design your website correctly from the start.
- The redesign requires additional research and design to create a more personalized end product.
- The design will be completely different from your current site.
- Cost: Sometimes, a major overhaul is a long-term money-saving. This can allow you to start over with modern technology instead of going back to the web designer repeatedly for further updates. For example, you can redesign your site using a CMS and hand over the maintenance of your site to your own hands.
In FastRedesign, a complete website redesign costs starting from $ 3,000. The final price depends on the number of pages, useful content, quality of graphics, and the need to create additional digital elements. - Standards: Imagine your website was made a few years ago. Most likely, it will be in tables and may not be the most accessible of the sites. A website redesign can mean redesigning a CSS, validating the site to professional web standards, and making it accessible to everyone at a basic level.
- Effectiveness: Are you tracking visits and conversions to your website? Do you know the site is working for you? If not, then this is an excellent opportunity to evaluate the site, see what works and what doesn’t, and redesign the new website based on your findings. After all, if that doesn’t work for you, why stick with a bad design or layout?
Disadvantages of redesign
Reasons to hold back – a complete redesign isn’t for everyone.
- It is more expensive than renovation.
- The process takes longer.
- If the customer wants to add pages or features not included in the original contract, the contractor will have to provide additional bids.
We recommend completely redesigning the site in the following cases:
- The brand has changed significantly.
- The existing site structure is poorly designed or constructed.
- The time it takes to update a website exceeds the cost of a complete redesign. Redesigning large e-commerce websites is often more expensive than a complete redesign.
- The client prefers to build from scratch.
So, what to choose – revamp or redesign?
When you think of a new website, think about these points to decide if you need to redesign your site or be just as effective with this update.
- What do you like or dislike about your website right now?
- Is there something wrong with the design, or are you just tired of branding?
- What are you hoping to achieve, and what do you think visitors will get from visiting your website?
- Is your current site working and converting for you?
- What are your future goals for the site?
- Is your branding changing and therefore forcing it to redesign?
- Does it meet all the standards you need (is it available)?
Conclusion
Whether you opt for a website refresh or a complete website overhaul, you will be out of the process with an updated website that you will be proud of.
If you have further questions about the FastRedesign web design process, we would like to talk more detail. Together we will create something beautiful. Get started today by contacting us!