In this episode, we’ll talk about what to do when you don’t like your website anymore, including:
- what to do before any website redesign
- how to identify what should be addressed in a website redesign
- how to proceed with a website redesign project
Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 5 of the Beyond Your Science podcast. It’s finally summer here in Madison, which means that campus is a lot quieter now now that all the undergrads have left for summer, and as a graduate student, many of you might be familiar with this feeling. It finally feels like there’s so much more space and things feel a lot more calm in our minds.
But of course, that doesn’t mean that research stops. Instead, it’s the opposite, right? We believe that summers is like magical time where we will accomplish all of our summer goals while still trying to have a lot of fun. For me, in addition to research, I’m hoping to dedicate a little bit more energy to this podcast this summer. I’m also doing a STEM entrepreneurship bootcamp, which I’m super excited to share more about in the coming weeks.
Other than that, I plan to have a lot of fun this summer, whether it’s reading, swimming, also working out. And this is like a huge surprise, because I’ve never been super into health and fitness. I used to be really intimidated and reluctant to workout in the gym. But since March, I’ve been slowly overcoming this fear, and I now feel a lot more comfortable. And I actually enjoy it.
Nowadays, I actually wake up in the mornings to go to the gym, and which is really weird, but it’s really fun, and I feel a lot healthier. Anyways, I hope that to everyone who’s listening to this episode that you’ll accomplish most, if not all of your research goals this summer, while having fun and still living your best life. Grad school can be hard. But it can also be fun. And that’s all up to you and how you really shape your experience.
Moving onto today’s episode, I want to talk about what to do when you don’t like your website anymore. We’re going to talk about what to do before any type of website redesign how to identify what should be addressed in recite a website redesign and how to proceed with a website redesign project. In addition to designing websites for my clients, and helping people through website workshops, I also offer consultations for those who already have their own websites but don’t need a whole redesign project. In a consultation session, I can provide my suggestion to your specific questions about your website strategy or design, or help you resolve specific issues on your website, so you don’t have to deal with it anymore. And if you’d like more info about these consultations, please send me an email at hello@brittanytrinh.com.
If you clicked on this episode, most likely, you’ve already have a website, but you are starting to feel really unsatisfied with it for some reason, and you just have this like desire to overhaul it, start over, or basically just like just burn it all down and start from scratch.
Reflect on your current thoughts about your website.
Before you start panicking about what you should do with your website, I encourage you to definitely not to delete everything to start over. Instead, we should take a moment to pause and reflect on the current thoughts about your website. First, what was the event that led you to thinking that you don’t like your website anymore? Did you look at someone else’s website and start comparing it to your own? Is it time to renew your website hosting or subscription? Or do you think that switching to another platform will resolve the current problems on your website? Let’s walk through these situations one by one.
Did you look at someone else’s website and start comparing it to your own?
At first you were browsing to see what other people in your field did for their websites. But then you started noticing the differences and wording or placement of images or links from yours and you start thinking like, maybe I should make my changes to be like theirs too, because they’re successful in my field and I want to be like them. While it is understandable to look for inspiration from other people’s websites, you actually can only see the surface, most likely they have a different website strategy than you. What works for them may not work for you even if you are in the same field.
Is it time to renew your website hosting or subscription?
As in has the price increase since you signed up. Sometimes when you sign up for a new hosting service or website builder, there are promotions at lower prices that only lasts for a certain time period. After many months or years, the price will increase. While it is understandable to be frustrated with paying more for the same service, it may not be the best idea to always use costs as a primary decision making factor. This is how I would determine if a website is too expensive to keep up.
First, does my website currently help me make extra money through paid opportunities such as writing speaking or consulting or other specialized services? Yes or no? And if yes, how much money am I making in one year? And how much does the website cost in relation to the at, and what percentage or number of that expense to like your income is acceptable to you. For example, for me, my website recently cost me about $400 for the next three years, but I’m more than confident that within three years, I can 10x that value. So my number is about 10%. Everyone has a different limit on how much they want to spend on their website. But at the end of the day, it is part of doing business, it’s a cost. Don’t fall into the trap of pinching pennies, and losing dollars.
Do you think switching to another platform will resolve the current problems on your website?
For example, two common complaints that I hear are that their website feels too clunky with too much stuff. And so they want to start over on a new platform, or they don’t like how their website looks, and they just really want more customization options. In these situations, switching platforms may not always be the best solution, because the root of the problem is not actually the platform. But instead it is your website strategy and design.
Because you have not been very clear about your website goals, and you don’t know how to leverage your current website content into an effects effective website strategy. And this strategy translates to the design as well. Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding a different theme or template when you see a different color palette or imagery.
I’ve experienced this too. At one point, I also thought about switching to Squarespace because I just liked how simple it was compared to WordPress. And I also wanted to completely overhaul my website on a whim. But as I thought about it, I realized that if I switched to Squarespace, not only would it take a lot of time and effort to do, but it was also giving a lot of functionality and customization on WordPress that I wanted. And I could not get on Squarespace. Although Squarespace is great for most of my clients, it’s not what I wanted or needed.
The platform itself is just a tool, and you have to decide which tool will be best to help you.
In the end, what I really needed to do was to clarify my website’s strategy, which meant hiding a lot of old content that I didn’t want people to see anymore and featuring the stuff that I wanted to, I wanted people to see instead, after that with a little tweaking of my color palette, I felt a lot more satisfied with my website. However, there are cases in which switching platforms might be a good idea.
For example, if your website doesn’t have the functionality that you need that is within your budget, or maybe it has too much customization, and that is making it overwhelming for you to use, then those would be situations where I would recommend switching, for example of I have clients who use WordPress before, and they were totally overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that they could customize. When they switched to Squarespace, it was a lot simpler, and they felt more in control. The key takeaway is don’t switch platforms without resolving the deeper issues. If these issues aren’t resolved, it will pop up again, even when you switch or start over.
Identify what is working and what isn’t working anymore.
After you settled your thoughts about your website, it’s time to analyze what is working and what is not working for your website. And how do we know what is working, what’s not working. And that’s when we have to go back to the website strategy. As I mentioned in episode one part of your website strategy is having website goals and knowing how to measure your results. And when I talk about results, I don’t necessarily mean like website analytics like site visits or page views. And it can be whatever quantitative or qualitative parameters that you decided were important for your goals. When you look at your website goals, and you look at your website results now how do they compare.
For example, two quantitative results that I care about are time spent on my website and yearly revenue. I care about the time spent on my website, because I want my audience to be viewing my services or reading my podcast transcripts, not just visiting the main page, and then leaving immediately. And yearly revenue is a little trickier. Because it’s not directly related to my website, a potential client might come from a referral or social media, not because they found me on Google. But my website is still instrumental in gaining that client because it informs them about my services and what’s included, and it builds my credibility through my podcasts and other resources that are there.
Next, is how do we identify what’s not working? Think about what your users are asking you often and how you can address that more easily through your website. For example, I’ve had a handful of clients always ask me, Can I see your previous work? And as a website designer, I really should have a portfolio or case studies of some kind. And for the longest time I didn’t because I always had a steady stream of clients and so it was always lower on my to do list. But now that I haven’t been as active and I might be open to more new clients right now I want to make it easier for them to see my work and understand how I can help them as a website designer.
I finally added in feature some case studies on my website featuring types of clients I would want to work with again, for example, STEM entrepreneurs, STEM professors, researchers, and STEM organizations. It’s still a work in progress. But this will definitely help me streamline my process because clients can see the work before they contact me. And so by the time we chat, they may already be more likely to work with me. Another way to identify what’s not working is what doesn’t interest you anymore.
For example, when I started grad school, I wanted to write about my PhD journey, I was really excited to write blogs. The blog was the focus of my website. And over the past few years, I’ve grown increasingly less consistent and less interested in writing blog posts. I decided to close my blog, so I’m just hiding it or making it less accessible. And I’m featuring my podcast instead.
As you can see, in order to identify what’s working or what’s not working for you, you have to really understand your website strategy, which means your purpose your users and your goals. And if it’s changed, that’s okay. Just clarify it and update it as needed. When you let your website strategy guide you, it becomes more clear or clear what actions would be the most effective in a redesign.
Determine how to proceed with a website redesign.
Now, we finally get to the fun part, which is actually doing the website redesign. After the last step, you probably have a better idea of what you need and to do in a redesign project. In a perfect world with all the time and resources possible, you could do everything in your list. However, you’re probably pretty busy with other responsibilities. Minimizing time on your website would be great. Here are three things to consider before proceeding with a website redesign.
- How will you get it done? Will you do it yourself? Will you hire someone to do it for you?
- If you do it yourself, what are the top three changes that would be the most effective?
- If you want to hire someone to do it for you? What are your criteria for hiring somebody? And what is your budget for doing so?
First, how will you get it done? Doing a website takes time, effort and or money. If you choose to DIY, you’ll definitely save money, but it might take a long time and more effort. DIY is best for small tweaks like changing links or swapping out a few photos. It’s also good if you’re pretty familiar with the technical parts of your website or you feel competent that you can troubleshoot and figure it out on your own.
Now if you do not know why it’s important to focus on a few changes, probably the top three, that would be the most effective. In my previous example, the smallest action which yielded the biggest result was making the case studies. When would it be better to hire someone to do it for you?
You should do that when you’re not willing to put in the time or the effort or you have an upcoming deadline and you really need to delegate this work. When you hire someone to do it for you make sure that you clearly communicate what changes you want and that they understand what you need as well.
Most website designers, including myself have some type of discovery or initial meeting call. Different designers have different wordings for it, but most designers have something like this. This type of call is different from a consultation call because in this call, we discuss your current situation and assess how we can help you and if we can help you.
In a consultation call, we would discuss your current situation and provide solutions that either you could implement or we could implement for you. A consultation call is different from a website redesign project because a redesign project would be like overhauling an entire website, whereas a consultation call might just focus on one page or a few technical issues. It’s important to clarify what you’re looking for when you’re working with a website designer.
Final Thoughts
I hope that this episode provided some guidance on what to do next time you feel the urge to overhaul your website. It will inevitably happen as you progress in your career and your goals change. Like I mentioned, I overhauled my website multiple times since 2019. It seems like I overhauled it but it was probably just a few clicks and suddenly I felt a lot better about it.
If you’re looking for someone to help you figure out the top three things that you could do to improve your website, you can send me an email to hello@brittanytrinh.com asking about a consultation session. If you’re still thinking about creating your website, then it’s actually time to make it with the Website Setup Workshop, which you can find more info at brittanytrinh.com/wsw.