10 signs it’s time to redesign your website.

Nothing lasts forever. Including your web design. Website trends and the needs of your business evolve. So any business website has to grow and change too. Here we look at the benefits of a redesign – and the tell-tale signs it’s time to redesign your website.

What is a web redesign?

A web redesign involves changing and updating the visual appearance, functionality, code, content and structure of an existing website. The aim? To provide a better experience for your website visitors.

What benefits do you get when you redesign a website?

If your website has seen better days then a site redesign offers a lot of benefit for your business. A redesigned website delivers:

• A more trustworthy and professional brand image
• A better user experience (UX)
• Lower bounce rates and higher conversion rates
• Better website SEO
• Increased website traffic
• Increased business revenue

Pretty good, right? But how can you tell if your website needs a redesign? If you’re still unsure whether your site can continue as is, or whether it requires an overhaul, assess your site for the following issues.

10 signs it’s time to redesign your website

Here are ten problems that should raise a red flag and get you considering a website redesign.

1. Your website isn’t mobile responsive

Did you know that nearly 60% of all online searches now take place on mobile devices? And that Google gives preferential treatment to mobile responsive websites?

If your website doesn’t look its best across all smartphone and tablet screens, you’re missing out on potential customers. That’s because you’re providing a sub-par user experience. And because a non-responsive site will appear lower down in search results.

When you redesign a website to make it mobile responsive, you ensure that each and every page responds to the screen it’s viewed on.

Check out the averages for your type of website here.

If you have an above average bounce rate, then your website is failing to engage users. People are visiting your site. But they don’t venture beyond that first page.

This could be down to any number of reasons. Perhaps your landing page looks unappealing. Maybe your site took too long to load. Or maybe a page is visually confusing and a user doesn’t know where to click next.

Whatever the issue, web redesign can help you to resolve it.

2. Your site has a high bounce rate

Take a look at your website analytics software and check your bounce rate. The average bounce rate ranges from 26% to 70% depending upon your industry and the type of page customers are landing on.

Check out the averages for your type of website here.

If you have an above average bounce rate, then your website is failing to engage users. People are visiting your site. But they don’t venture beyond that first page.

This could be down to any number of reasons. Perhaps your landing page looks unappealing. Maybe your site took too long to load. Or maybe a page is visually confusing and a user doesn’t know where to click next.

Whatever the issue, web redesign can help you to resolve it.

3. Your site is slow

Every page of your website should load quickly – within 1-2 seconds. That’s because 40% of people abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

Internet users hate slow sites. And so does Google. You’re unlikely to feature in the SERP top spots if your site takes an age to appear on screen.

A couple of usual suspects when it comes to slow loads times?

A poorly developed website, with lots of clunky code and plugins.

An increase in traffic could also be to blame. Perhaps you’re now getting lots more website visitors and that is overloading the back end infrastructure of your site.

When you redesign a website, you get a site that loads quickly across all devices.

4. You’re rebranding your business

If you’re rebranding your business then this is a 100%, sure fire sign that it’s time for a website redesign.

Your website has to reflect your mission, your offering, and your brand personality. And you have to maintain on-brand design, colours, fonts and imagery across every customer touchpoint.

This encourages customers and clients to trust your brand. And it helps them to recognise your company amongst a sea of competitors too.

Redesigning a website according to new brand guidelines makes your brand personality shine.

5. Your design has outdated visuals

Your site may function beautifully. But if its visual elements are looking a little past their use by date, that’s another sign it’s time to redesign your website.

First impressions count. And users associate the look of your website with the value of your service and/or products.

You’re relying on your website to convey your trustworthiness, reliability and quality. So only an elegant, professional website will do the trick.

6. Your site has a poor conversion rate

A conversion can be many different things. It depends upon your business and your website.

An ecommerce conversion rate is usually based upon the number of sales you make in comparison to the number of website visitors you get.

But you can use conversion rates to assess any action you want a website user to take. Signing up to your mailing list, downloading an ebook and completing a contact form are all customer conversion examples.

Good websites are built to encourage conversions. They do this by looking professional. Offering good UX. And making it clear where a user should navigate to next.

So if you’ve noticed a drop off in conversions – or you’ve simply never reached the conversion rates you’d hoped for – a site redesign can improve your metrics.

7. You’ve fallen behind the competition

Customers will be comparing you with your competitors.

They’ll look at reviews. They may check out your social media presence. But your website is an incredibly important tool in convincing users to choose you over another company.

So keep an eye on your main competitors.

If they’ve recently invested in web redesign, then your website may be looking a little shabby alongside theirs. And this is another key sign that it’s time for a design update.

8. Your site is hard to navigate

When users find it hard to navigate around your website, they’re likely to give up and try a competitor site.

That’s why every site should offer exceptional UX.

Sites with good user experience design are easy to navigate. Users can find the information they need and know where they should click next. They don’t feel frustrated or confused. Because there are no points of friction.

To achieve good UX, your website should have a straightforward menu structure. It should have clear calls to action and perfectly placed buttons. And it should take users on a streamlined website journey.

9. It’s difficult to update your content

Once designers and developers have done their thing, it’s up to you to update content on your website. It keeps your site fresh. And allows you to share only the most up-to-date company info with customers.

But some business owners struggle with content maintenance. That’s because they’re left working with a techy or clunky content management system. Or no CMS at all. So they find it incredibly difficult to add pages, posts and images to their existing site.

Sounds familiar? Instead of wasting time using a complicated system, outsourcing tasks to a developer or simply skipping content updates, opt for a redesign of your existing website.

A user-friendly CMS allows you to update content on an easy, ongoing basis. Which means:

• you provide valuable insight for your customers
• you rank for more keywords
• you show Google that your site remains relevant

10. Your site has poor search engine ranking

Struggling to get seen in Google search results? If your website is stuck on page 2 or beyond, then you’re missing out on a lot of traffic.

Getting backlinks and regularly updating your site with quality content helps you to rank higher. But if these tactics aren’t paying off despite time and effort on your part, it could be your website design that is causing problems.

As we mentioned earlier, slow site speeds, high bounce rates and poor mobile responsiveness affect your Google ranking. Any website structure or security issues could also prevent you from nabbing that first page spot.

If you want to give your website SEO a boost, it’s definitely worth considering a website redesign.

What should you consider when you redesign a website?

Spotted a couple of signs it’s time to redesign your website? Then here are a few questions you need to consider before making any website changes.

What’s working and what isn’t?

You don’t need to completely reinvent the wheel. Before redesigning a website, take the time to figure out what aspects of your existing website work well – and which need to be changed.

What are your website redesign goals?

What do you want a web redesign to achieve? What functionality do you want to add? Perhaps you want to increase website traffic or conversions. Put figures on these goals so you’ll find it easier to measure your success when a redesigned site is up and running.

How will a redesigned website make life easier for your customers?

Customer research is another important task to cross off your list before embarking on a website redesign. Don’t forget competitor research too. Your new site should deliver a better user experience than the competition.

How will you protect your SEO during the redesign?

Think about how a redesign stands to affect your SEO before you start making changes. That way, you protect all of the hard work you put in getting your site to rank highly.

Should we use a professional website redesign company?

A pro website redesign company will be able to advise you on all of the above. They can help you to identify problems with your current site. And they can walk you through all of the steps of website redesign to ensure you get a finished product that performs.

Ready to redesign your website? Then get in touch with the team at Radical Web Design. We’ll work with you to create a site that looks great – and supports all of your business goals.