Relaunching a website is usually a very exciting job, but is the effort really worth it? Also, a lot of customers have requested certain changes. Although these changes are meant to be good for your business or the clients you work for, this can be a real double-edged sword for your PPC (pay-per-click) program.
What can go wrong with website redesigns?
Everything…
While many believe that relaunching a website or just redesigning it is good news for their business, at least its PPC aspect, experience shows that this is not entirely true. Truth is, relaunching can actually sabotage your PPC program…
Or at least temporarily.
The most common case is to miss an important element or function (that is critical for PPC advertising)
- Phone Numbers
- Trust Signals
- Tracking Codes
- Forms
If you are a webmaster using a platform such as WordPress, Wix, etc., it is extremely important to check all your pages if there are missing elements. The most common cases are missing phone numbers. Sometimes the phone number is still present but its font size is too small, which makes it hard to spot.
Other cases are missing testimonial pages, certification badges, and discount stickers. These elements play a huge role in paid search, and you should not give them up for a new design!
Let’s talk about tracking codes.
These return data allow us to know exactly what is going on with a certain account. Without this data, we are basically running accounts blindfolded. See the list of the most important codes you should really pay close attention to.
- Google Analytics
- Remarketing
- Website call metrics
- AdWords conversion
The impact of losing even one of these is very real
If you do not have a marketing team that looks at these data, you may not realize that something is off, which leads to our next topic, do you really need this data?
If you are running a serious PPC campaign, then yes, you should care about this data. And if you are able to run it by yourself or with a small team, this is good for you. If not, you should really consider expanding your business or just giving it up.
Yes, if you are only using your website as an online catalog or just advertising your product, feel free to change the design whenever you feel like it. Just pay close attention to whether the phone number and all the forms are where they are supposed to be. However, if your main income depends on the PPC campaign you are running, you should be really careful with all the elements mentioned above.
