Can you remember the last time you updated your business website? Do all of your competitors have nicer-looking sites than yours? Maybe it’s time for a redesign. You could argue that you don’t see anything wrong with it, but let’s try to take a step back and be objective for a moment. Here are 6 signs it’s time to redesign your website. You can play a game and see how many of them you recognize in the design elements of your site.
Most users will look up and research any business or service online before making a decision. Your website represents your company, and therefore should adequately represent your brand and its values. An outdated and broken mess of a website is no way to impress potential customers. Maybe it’s time to reconsider if your website is doing you justice. Okay, but how are you supposed to tell if you should do an update? Instead of doing subjective assessments, we will offer you something that’s a bit more black-and-white.
It’s essential to make your website optimized in order for it to show up in search engine results.
You don’t need to be an expert designer to test this. Think about what services your business offers and do a Google search using those keywords. How well does your site rank? Climbing higher on Google’s list of results is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and there are SEO techniques experienced designers use to get better results. What good is having an excellent service or product if potential customers have a hard time finding out you exist? SEO is vital for every website, and you should consider a redesign if you have trouble reaching your customers.
You don’t want visitors to have a bad user experience when they find you. To avoid losing visitors, you should get familiar with the most common reasons people would leave a website. Check to see if your site has low user conversion and a high bounce rate. These are sure signs it’s time to redesign your website. Thankfully, if there is a problem with visitors leaving the site, it’s something you (or a moderator) can track and fix with an update.
Most web searches are done through smartphones
Nowadays, people are almost living on their phones. While most users still associate websites with computers and think phones only use apps, the stats say otherwise. Every year we see mobile usage account for a more significant portion of online traffic. If your website doesn’t have a mobile-friendly design, you could end up alienating a large number of users. Search engines can punish your site and rank it lower if you don’t have a mobile version available. Avoid the issue entirely by hiring a competent developer to design a mobile-responsive website.
Offering visitors just the product you’re selling is a relic of the past. Start thinking about your website as another service you are offering. Make sure your website has additional information and guides available to your visitors. With the smart use of internal linking, you can let visitors know about your other products and services. When deciding whether or not your site should have a blog, consider the following: blog posts can be a great way to post updates on your site. Guest blog posts also boost your site’s SEO, which is always welcome.
Smart use of colors in an important aspect of modern design.
Even on the internet, where information can live forever, specific trends come into or fall out of fashion. Your old website that was state-of-the-art just five years ago might not hold up that well by today’s standards. Text-heavy websites are an immediate red flag, but so is something that is plain ugly. Update your website with a modern, sleek design and smart use of colors that will immediately draw attention. Older website designs can also have compatibility issues, such as relying on technology that has been retired (like Adobe Flash).
Perhaps some of the pages are not correctly linked, or the outgoing links you are using are broken. Don’t expect visitors to go through a hellish maze just because you refuse to redesign your site. Even if the links aren’t broken, there are other ways the website can be hard to navigate. You might know where everything is on the site, but are first-time visitors going to know where clicking a link will take them? Then there are issues of lazy design that is trying to masquerade as a website. For example, using a pdf instead of a web page is a sin against web design philosophy, even for restaurant menus. Many elegant and modern solutions make websites easy to navigate.
Once you have chosen to pull the trigger and go for a website redesign, you should consider a few other things. Has your website address changed, and what is on your business card? Perhaps you could print out new business cards that match the design style of your website. You can then include the new website address on any printed material or even include a QR code. By adding QR codes to printed material, you can make your website more accessible. Go a step further and customize codes that lead to different landing pages for the various services you offer.
Since online communication has become the norm, you need to push your website everywhere. Have accounts on multiple social networks and draw people from all over the web to your site. It’s easier than ever to integrate a website into a coordinated marketing campaign. Use the redesign of the website as a re-launch for your company. People love success stories and seeing old brands reinvent themselves.
Even without someone pointing out the obvious signs that it’s time to redesign your website, you should consider having an update done every few years. It will keep your website looking fresh and up to date with all the current trends.
Meta description: If you are not sure if your website is outdated and in need for an update – here are 6 signs it’s time to redesign your website!
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