Website Redesign: It’s no secret that first impressions are important. But when it comes to your website, that first impression can decide whether a potential customer decides to stay and learn more about your business or move on to the next site. After all, good user experience (UX) is often the key to conversion in sales. This is why keeping your website up-to-date and looking its best is essential. The best advice would be to use web design and maintenance services to guarantee a higher conversion rate.
But how can you tell when your UX design requires some work? Here are 14 signs that it might be time for a change.
Table of Contents
1. Your Website Looks Dated
Websites go through trends like anything else; what might have looked modern a few years ago can look dated today.
Signs of a dated website can include the following:
Outdated Design Elements
If your website uses popular design features from a few years ago (such as rotating banners or videos that autoplay), it’s time to update. These design features are usually no longer considered modern or user-friendly.
Low Quality Images
If the images on your website are low resolution or have been stretched to fit the space, it’s time to update them. Low quality images make your site look unprofessional and can turn potential customers away, especially if they don’t include descriptive alt text.
Dated Color Combinations
Color combinations that were once popular can start to look dated after a few years. That’s because styles change, and what might have looked stylish a few years ago might not be today, like a few years ago when everything was “Millennial pink.” If you’re unsure whether your color combinations are outdated, look at some of the most popular websites to see if they use your colors or stick to complementary colors.
Other outdated color combinations include:
- Muted browns
- Mustard yellows and avocado green
- Burnt orange and cobalt
- Red and black
2. Your Website Takes Too Long To Load
If your website takes more than a few seconds to load, you’re likely losing visitors. In today’s fast-paced world, people expect websites to load quickly. If yours doesn’t, they’ll move on to the next one. To speed up your website load time, be sure to reduce image sizes and ensure that you’re using proper coding techniques.
3. Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly
Your website must be accessible on all devices to successfully convert in the current landscape. You can’t afford to lose potential customers because your site isn’t viewable on a phone, tablet, or laptop.
A good web designer can create a responsive website that will look great on all devices. A responsive design will also make it easy for people to view your site on mobile devices, which is essential in today’s fast-paced world.
4. Your Website Isn’t Optimized for Search
Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for any business that wants to have a presence online. This means that you need to design your website to make it easy for search engines to find and index your content.
Unfortunately, if you haven’t optimized your site for search, you’re likely missing out on many potential customers. That’s because users won’t be able to find your site when they search for businesses like yours on, say, Google. With a website enhanced for search engines, you can attract website visitors organically without having to spend money on advertising.
5. Your Website has Broken Elements
If your website has broken links, missing images, or error messages, it’s time to focus on improving your design. These broken elements make your site look unprofessional, and can also frustrate users and cause them to leave your site.
In addition, broken elements can make it harder for search engines to find and index your site and impact your SEO ranking. So not only will you lose potential customers, but your site will also be less visible in search results (leading to fewer visitors and less revenue).
6. Your Website is Hard to Use
This criterion can be a bit vague. But if you frequently have to explain how to use your website, it’s probably not user-friendly. A good website should be easy to use and traverse without needing an explanation. In other words, it uses intuitive design. A website with an optimized UX design will be easy to navigate and use, making it more possible that users will stay on your site and convert into customers.
7. Your Website Doesn’t Convert
If your website isn’t converting visitors into customers, it’s not doing its job. Therefore, your website should be designed with conversion in mind.
This means that it should have clear calls to action and be easy for users to contact you or purchase your products. It should also be designed with your goal audience in mind, to appeal to the people who are most possible to buy from you. The goal of your website is to make money. If it isn’t doing that, it’s time to fix it.
8. You Don’t Have a Blog
If you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out on an excellent opportunity to connect with your customers and generate more traffic to your site. A blog is a great way to share updates and information about your business, products, and services.
In addition, a blog can help you improve your SEO by providing fresh, keyword-rich content. If you don’t have a blog, now is the time to add one. It’s an essential element of a successful website.
9. You Haven’t Connected Your Site with Your Social Media Profiles
Social media integration is vital for any business that wants to succeed online. If you haven’t integrated your website with your other social media profiles, you are leaving money on the table. You should design your website to make it easy for users to follow you on social media, subscribe to your updates, and share your content. In addition, your website should have social media buttons so users can easily share your content on those channels.
If you haven’t integrated your website with social media, it’s time for a redesign. Social media amalgamation will help you reach more people, generate more leads, and make more sales.
10. You Have no Email List Strategy
Without an email list for your newsletter, you’re missing out on an excellent opportunity to connect with your customers and generate more sales. An email list permits you to stay in touch with your customers and prospects and gives you a way to promote your products and services.
Add an email list sign-up form to your website and start building your list. You’re missing out on a valued marketing tool without it.
11. The Goals of Your Business and Website are not Compatible
Businesses change. As your business grows and changes, so too should your website. You should always align your website with the goals of your business.
If you find that your website is no longer compatible with the goals of your business, you’ll need to make changes to your site so that both are working together. A website redesign is often the best way to fix this issue.
For sample, if your business started out as B2B, you would have designed your website around that. However, if you switched to B2C, you’d need to update your website accordingly.
12. Your Website is not Secure
Web security is a must for your website. Without it, you could risk losing customers and sales— even worse, impacting their privacy. In the age of online security threats, it’s more important than ever to ensure your website is secure.
Your website should have an SSL certificate to protect users’ information. In addition, you should design your website to make it difficult for hackers to access user information by having different access levels and restricting permission to certain areas of your site, complex passwords at those various passwords, and updated security subscriptions.. If your website is not secure, you could be risking your business. It’s important to make security a priority.
13. Your Website is Difficult to Update
If you find that you need to hire a developer every time you want to make a change to your site, you’re wasting money and time. Instead, you should design your website to make it easy for you to make changes yourself. One way to do so is to use an easy to navigate content management system (CMS), such as WordPress. A new website will be easier to update and will save you money in the long run, since you won’t have to pay a developer to make changes for you.
14. Navigation Difficulties
If users can’t find what they’re looking for on your website, they’ll leave. Therefore, it’s indispensable to ensure your website is easy to navigate so that users can find what they’re looking for.
Your website should have a straightforward navigation menu and easy-to-find links to your pages. If users can’t find what they’re looking for, they may leave your site and go to a competitor’s site that they can use much more easily.
Final Thoughts
If you notice any of these features on your website, it’s time for a redesign. A new website will help you reach your goals, help your customers connect with you through intuitive UX design, and help you generate more sales. Investing in a website redesign is an investment in your business. So don’t wait to make the change—your business will thank you for it.
