Firstly, website refresh.
As noted by Forge & Smith (2018) a website refresh is not resource heavy: “a website refresh is like trying a new hairstyle or buying different bedding and pillows for a room in your home. It’s usually simple, quick”[1].
On the surface, website refresh has many positive aspects. It allows for small changes to your website in order to keep up to date with the newest technology, customer needs, products or styles without a large upfront expense. However, websites that use refresh require consistent monitoring of increasing bounce rates. That is to say, close monitoring to make sure you’re optimising your websites potential and ‘rolling with the times’. Thus, as noted by WebFX (2014): “these websites are never really finished, they’re always being tested, updated, and analysed additional weaknesses or opportunities to improve”[2].
Key drivers for considering a refresh are the following:
- Improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Updating company logos, typeface, colour palette or graphics.
- Outdated content which requires new copy or updated promotions.
- Improving UX, filters, drop-down menus or highlighting new content recommendations.
Conversely, redesign scraps the entire website. It works from the ground up through a development process to build out new content, greatly improved UX and a new content management system (CMS). Naturally, this is resource-heavy. So, why invest in a redesign rather than a quick refresh?