Time for a Do-Over: The Top Signs You Need a Website Redesign

Customers form their first impression of your website and, by extension, your business in just 50 milliseconds. If you’re website design and functionality isn’t up to par, they’ll likely move on to your competitor’s site.

That’s means you could be losing out on a lot of potential business! Even if you don’t sell things online, customers who form a bad impression from your website may not be interested in visiting your brick and mortar store or calling to inquire about your services.

Luckily, a website redesign can make a huge difference. But when funds are tight, you may not have the extra money to splurge on a redesign if you don’t really need it.

Do you need help deciding if it’s time to redesign your website? Keep reading to discover the top signs that your website could use a makeover.

It’s natural for your address, phone number, prices, and services to change over time. You may have moved to a bigger location or added new services to boost your sales.

But your website needs to reflect these changes. Otherwise, those who get their information from your website may call the wrong number or have trouble finding your physical location—and nobody wants that!

The same goes for your website’s blogs. If there’s been a change in your specific services or the industry as a whole, you want to edit or remove any blog posts that say otherwise. This ensures that you are still being viewed as an expert in your field and your potential customers will only get correct information when they visit your site.

Take a quick look at your website. Is it crammed with pictures, text, and other design elements?

Once upon a time, this was seen as a way to create a fun and modern website. However, we now know that this can actually detract from your site. It makes the page harder for visitors to digest and important information becomes overshadowed by all the other design elements.

If you don’t know where to look first when you go on your website, a redesign may be in order. Ideally, you’d want a nice, clean website with plenty of white space. Your important information can then be emphasised by using a different text or colour.

The key to any great website design is its ease of use. You want your customers to find important information without having to search too hard for it.

Many websites utilise a navigation bar across the top of the screen. If your website is doing this, you’re on the right track!

The next step is to ensure each section is clearly labelled. At the very least, you should have separate “About Us”, “Our Products/Services”, and “Contact Us” pages.

If one page, in particular, has a lot of information, you may want to create a drop-down menu that lists the different options for that page. For example, if you sell jewellery, you may want your “Our Products” page to be further broken down into separate pages for rings, necklaces, and bracelets.

With so many active websites on the internet today, you need to do everything possible to get your site seen. That’s where SEO comes into play.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of designing your website in such a way that search engines, like Google, recognise it as reputable and helpful. Once this happens, Google will push your website further up the search results, so more people will see it.

One of the easiest ways to utilise SEO is to create keywords. These are terms that your potential customers may be using when searching for a business like your, such as “dentist in Sydney” or “clothes for girls.” Once you’ve created keywords, you’ll want to sprinkle them throughout your website, blog posts, meta tags, and URLs.

47% of all internet users expect a website to load within 2 seconds. That means you’re losing out on half of your potential customers if your website is too slow.

Slow website loading speed can also hurt your SEO. This will cause your website to appear lower on a search results page, so fewer customers will see it.

When was the last time you checked out the competition? Go ahead and log on to their websites. Do they look newer, faster, or easier to use than yours?

If so, you may need to redesign your site. While you shouldn’t copy their design, you can use it as inspiration to see what is working for other businesses in your industry.

The goal is to maintain your competitive edge in every aspect of your business. When customers are choosing your competitors over you because they have a newer website, you’ll want to ensure that you give your website a makeover to put yourself back on the map.

There are currently 20 million mobile phone users in Australia. So, it should come as no surprise that many of your potential customers are likely trying to reach your site through their smartphone.

The problem is that websites only designed for desktop use don’t work as well on mobile phones. It may be harder to use the navigation, take longer to load or be harder to see. This means, your potential customers will probably head over to your competitor’s site.

Much like loading speed, mobile friendliness also affects your SEO. Those websites not designed to be used on a mobile phone will appear lower on relevant Google searches. So, if you haven’t updated your website since smartphones became popular, it’s probably time for a redesign.

The fact that technology is always advancing is often seen as a good thing. But as a business owner, it also means that it can be hard to keep up with the latest features and trends in website design.

Although there is no specific rule for determining how often you need a redesign, you should take a look at your website every 5 years. During this time, there were likely a lot more advancements that you can utilise on your site, like advanced chatbots, interactive maps, and clickable phone numbers, which will make your site more modern and easier to use.

Your website is the first impression many customers will have of your brand. Not only do you want it to give off a good impression, but you want it to accurately showcase your brand.

If you want to look fun and hip, you don’t want to settle for a boring and traditional website. Doing this may make it harder to attract your target audience.

Take a good look at your website and determine if it’s sending the right message to visitors. This will be especially important if you recently rebranded your business or switched up your logo.

You want your customers to feel safe using your site. Let’s face it, nobody is going to return if they found out hackers stole their contact information or credit card number the last time they bought something from you online.

If your website has fallen victim to a security threat in the past, or if customers are inputting sensitive information on your site, you may want to consider an update.

Almost everything you do as a business owner comes down to one important thing: your bottom line. If products aren’t making money, you either get rid of them or upgrade them to better meet your customer’s needs.

The same thing goes for your website.

If people are clicking off your site right away, that means your website isn’t helping your sales. This is also the case if you notice visitors aren’t purchasing things on your website or if they’re abandoning their shopping carts.

There’s likely a good reason this is happening. Maybe your website is too slow or confusing to use. Or maybe it has cheesy stock photos and isn’t designed with your target audience in mind.

If any of this sounds familiar, a website makeover is should probably be in your future.

A great website is a vital part of your business’ success. When done correctly, it can give customers a good first impression, help them find the information they’re looking for quickly, and make them feel safe using their credit cards to purchase things through your website.

Just follow the above tips to determine if your business needs to undergo a website redesign this year. From ensuring the listed information is correct to fixing any security issues, there are plenty of ways you can tell if your website needs a makeover.

Do you need help creating the website your business deserves? Then contact us today to set up a free consultation with our team of website design experts.