11 Signs it’s Time to Redesign Your Website

First impressions are powerful, and when you have a website, you have about .2 seconds to make a good first impression. You need your website to look up to speed with your competition — or better yet, be ahead of the industry.

11 Signs it’s Time to Redesign Your Website

1. Your site is outdated and looks… ugly.

Redesigning a website is a big commitment. Maybe you feel like it’s this looming thing that you know you need to do, but you’ve put off for forever. That is understandable, but at some point you’ve got to let go of the outdatedness. It’s really only holding you back.

A new design can freshen up original content and give your company a sleek new look. It shows your customers and clients that your company is relevant and ready to compete with any competitors.

2. Your company is rebranding itself.

If everything else in your company is being updated, it’s time to update your website as well. Keeping your branding consistent helps visitors understand what your company’s image is. It also gets burned into their minds more, so that they begin to build associations between colors and designs, and your company.

3. You’ve got outdated/inaccurate content.

Have you ever tried to order food for delivery and you’re looking through the website for the dishes that you want and when you get on the phone to order, the worker on the other end says, “Sorry we don’t serve that item anymore.”? But, you are already in the mood for that specific item so you have to find a new restaurant to order from…? Yes, this is a textbook example of a first world problem, but think of the premise of it.

If you have outdated information on your website, you are misleading the people you are trying to connect with. The entire purpose of having a website is to have a means to connect with your target audience. If part of your target audience is “customers who love breadsticks” and you don’t actually sell breadsticks, you’ve got a problem on your hands. Redesigning your website is a great way to dig up that outdated information and purge it all at once.

4. Your homepage has too much information.

Take a long, hard, objective look at your website’s home right now and ask yourself, “Is there too much information on this page?”. Do you have long paragraphs of dense content? Is your navigation bar difficult to find or housing too many items? Is your site poorly organized? These are common problems that websites have. You may have an easy time navigating to where you want to go if you are familiar with your site, but think about a first time visitor and the kind of experience that s/he would have on your site. That is who you are marketing your site for. That person.

5. Your navigation stinks.

How searchable is your website? Like, if I were to come onto your site and look for a specific page, would I be able to find it with minimal difficulty? User-friendly navigation is key when it comes to a website. Your site should intrinsically lead users through your site. It should be seamless.

If you aren’t sure how good your navigation system is, make a list of pages on your site that you want your site visitors to see. Give that list to a friend that isn’t familiar with your site’s set-up. Then, ask that friend to find all the items on your list. If s/he can’t easily find them, you know you have a problem.

6. Your lead generation tactics are lacking.

If you are trying to lead site visitors through your site, what are you trying to lead them toward? That is your big ticket question. And, that is where lead generation (and inbound marketing) comes in. See, you could have 15,000,000 site visitors a day, but it wouldn’t matter if none of those visitors did business with you. Remember, you are looking for qualified leads. So, you want to lead your visitors toward something that helps build your company. That “something” is different for each company. It may be a newsletter subscribe button, a free printable guide or a consultation request. Whatever it is, you want to guide your site visitors toward it.

More on Lead Generation: Lead Generation 101, Basics of Running a Lead Generation Campaign

7. You have a high bounce rate.

Your site’s analytics can tell you a lot about what is happening on your website. There won’t always be a perfect diagnosis, but you can at least get a hint of what is going on with site visitors by looking at these numbers. If your visitors are jumping off your site in a matter of seconds, that could tell you that something is wrong with the design of your site.

8. The site takes 5 years to load.

Often outdated websites run into the problem of being slow loaders. This can negatively impact your bounce rate as well. With the Internet, we have a plethora of knowledge at the touch of our finger, and we really don’t have to wait for it at all. So, when a web page loads like a snail, we often will just jump off a page and find a new one. If this is happening to you, you are missing a big opportunity to reach out to new visitors.

9. Your website isn’t mobile-friendly.

Your website absolutely has to be mobile-friendly. You aren’t above the curve if your site is. Your site isn’t special. You aren’t a pioneer of the mobile-friendly website club. Now-a-days, if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, your site is outdated and in need of some major TLC.

10. Your target audience is changing or has changed.

Your site is the central hub for your site visitors, potential customers/clients and the people you already do business with. If your site isn’t connecting with them, you are completely missing the entire point of your website in the first place. If you need a place to start, look into the demographics of your site visitors to see if you are reaching your target audience.

11. Your SEO game is just not good.

SEO is powerful and extremely important when it comes to building your organization’s empire. Over 90% of people searching for something online don’t click to the second page of the search engine to find more options. Now, you aren’t going to be able to build your SEO up enough to be on that first page in just a day, but keywords and content truly do matter. They help your website become more visible which can lead to you finding more qualified leads.

More on SEO: Beginner’s Guide to SEO, 5 Quick Keys to SEO,

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