A website re-skin, also known as a website redesign or makeover, involves updating the visual elements and user interface of a website while keeping its underlying structure and functionality intact. There are several potential benefits to undergoing a website re-skin:
1. Improved User Experience (UX)
A re-skin can enhance the overall user experience by updating the design to be more modern, user-friendly, and visually appealing. This can lead to increased user engagement, longer visit durations, and lower bounce rates.
2. Enhanced Brand Identity
A re-skin provides an opportunity to align your website's design with your brand's current identity, values, and messaging. Consistency in branding across all platforms helps establish a strong and recognisable brand image.
3. Mobile Responsiveness
If your current website is not mobile-responsive, a re-skin can be an opportunity to make your site mobile-friendly. This is crucial in today's mobile-centric world, as it ensures that your site looks and functions well on various devices. It's also important to note that Google (or Bing for that matter) rank mobile-friendly sites higher than non-mobile friendly sites.
4. Keep Up with Design Trends
Web design trends evolve over time. A re-skin allows you to incorporate the latest design trends and technologies, making your website look fresh and current.
5. Better Conversion Rates
A well-designed website can lead to improved conversion rates. By optimising the layout, typography, and calls-to-action, you can guide users toward the desired actions, such as signing up for newsletters, making purchases, or filling out contact forms.
6. Improved SEO
While a re-skin doesn't directly impact your website's content, it can provide an opportunity to implement best practices for on-page SEO, such as optimising images, improving site speed, and ensuring proper HTML structure. These factors can positively influence your search engine rankings.
7. Competitive Advantage
If your competitors have updated and modern websites, a re-skin can help you stay competitive in your industry. A visually appealing and user-friendly website can attract and retain customers.
8. Maintenance and Updates
Over time, websites can accumulate clutter, outdated features, and inefficient code. A re-skin allows you to clean up your website's content and structure, making it easier to maintain and update in the future. Security standards are always evolving too, so this is a good time to ensure that there are no underlying causes of concern.
9. Keep the Good Bits
You can continue to use your existing admin and backend systems without major changes. Staff will not require any induction or additional training as they will already be familiar with the layout, functions and processes.
10. Save on Costs
When planned correctly, a re-skin can be a lot cheaper than a full site redesign and build. In many cases, the extent of the cost savings depends on factors such as the complexity of your current website, the depth of design changes, the extent of testing required, and the specific goals of the re-skin.
It's important to note that a re-skin should be approached thoughtfully and strategically. Before initiating a re-skin, conduct a thorough analysis of your current website's strengths and weaknesses, identify your goals, and create a clear plan for the redesign. Involving stakeholders, team members, designers and developers can help to ensure a successful makeover that aligns with your objectives and user needs.
A re-skin can range from a simple rebrand to more involved changes, therefore development budgets can vary widely, our approach is to work within your budget to deliver the most value. Talk to us if you're considering a website re-skin.