In today’s digital age, it’s hard to make money in your business without a website and even harder to make money with a poorly designed or underperforming website….because then customers will automatically assume that you are not doing business with. So let’s jump right into the top 8 signs it's time for you to redesign or build a new website.
1. Your Website looks old like it was built in the 1990s
81% of shoppers will research a business online before purchasing. That means, your website is your first impression on new customers. It’s your first chance to build trust with new customers and convince them that they should choose to do business with you.
Users will bounce (yes, that’s a technical term) if your site looks outdated. Today, our attention spans are shorter, and our expectations of online content is higher. People are less inclined to spend time on a site that they feel is not credible.
How often have you gone to a site that looked old and outdated, and quickly hit that back button? Just the appearance of the site probably creeped you out and made you feel like it was not trustworthy. And what did you do right after that? You kept searching online for other businesses to spend your money with.
Here are some real-life examples of outdated websites:
See how important the look of your website is? You don’t have to be the best, but you should look it!
2. Slow load time
Google and search engines penalize sites that have slow load time. This means, as a result, that your site will not be seen by as many people on Google and consequently receive fewer clicks.
Websites with a slow load time have more difficulty showing up in the top of the page results on Google and other search engines. The list that shows up when you search for something on Google is called the “organic listings.”
Here is what an organic listing is: *Image: listings
People don’t wait for anything anymore, what makes you think they’ll wait for your website to load. If you owed them money, then perhaps they’d practice a little more patience, but you are hoping to get into their pockets, so they will not hesitate to bounce (technical term again) if you are not providing a fast experience.
Website visitors will not wait.
79% of online shoppers say they won’t go back to a website if they’ve had trouble with load speed. .
40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load
A 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions
If you’re panicking, thinking, “ Oh no, what if my site is too slow and causing me to lose business”....stop. Check the speed of your website first to see how your site’s load speed is performing.
If you get a failing score, then you should panic.
3. Complaints from customers - Difficult to use
It’s bad enough to have a poorly designed website. It’s worse when customers begin to voice their frustration to you or others about your website
Even if customers are not voicing their opinions, you should seek their feedback. Survey customers to find out their opinion about their experience on your website.
Here is a free tool that you can add to your website for feedback from users.
This is the most important thing to remember… your website must be designed for ‘ease-of-use’ for customers
If users find it to be a pleasant experience full of useful information, they spend more time, then Google notices and rewards your site with more traffic. And the cycle continues.
4. Doesn’t compete with competitors
View your site next to your competitor’ and be honest... if you were a customer which would you choose to do business with? If your answer is not YOU, then it’s time to redesign your site
Your website has to be visually appealing, especially when you are competing with other businesses. Overall experience on your website should be preferred over the experience users have on your competitors’ websites.
5. Hard to find relevant information
There are 2 primary purposes a person visits your website:
To find information
To assess the credibility of your business.
This is why it’s important to have well planned sitemaps. A sitemap is essentially the road map for your website, that lays out the most efficient path for a user getting from point A to point B, then to point C. It’s like sketching a map of a new highway. First, plan on paper how a person gets from point A to point B as quickly and conveniently as possible. Then you build it the highway
A website should be planned in the same way. Users should be able to easily get from your home page (or any page) to the information they are searching for within your website.
6. Non-responsive
Responsiveness is huge! It refers to the ability for your website to be displayed properly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. More people, 50 percent to be exact, are surfing the web on their mobile devices. That’s why your website must to be easily viewable on a mobile device.
In July 2019, Google launched mobile-first indexing. With mobile-first indexing, Google’s algorithm assesses the mobile version of your site to determine what it's ranking should be. If your business's website is not mobile-friendly, you will be penalized (not financially, it just means you will not receive much organic search traffic).
7. Low organic traffic (being penalized by Google)
Low organic traffic is basically a consequence of the aforementioned issues.
Remember, Google rewards websites that provide the best user experience, simply because they are in the business of pleasing users. Google’s goal is to provide users with the info they are looking for as quickly and conveniently as possible
When we build a website, like Google, we sustain a user-first mindset. Consequently, our clients receive a healthy sum of organic search traffic each month.
8. Low conversions (lead forms/calls)
It’s a no-brainer, if you aren’t getting much traffic on your website (often due to low organic traffic) you are less likely to receive any conversions. You need people to visit your site in order to convert them.
For the people that do make it to your site. They are less likely to convert if they have a bad experience. If your site is not visually appealing, it’s hard to find information, not mobile responsive, or any of the other signs listed above, your conversion rates could be dramatically reduced.
Conclusion
So, if you want to continue to see growth or recover the growth you once had, then it's time to redesign your website. You don’t have to go at it alone, reach out to us for a free audit of your website. No need to wait any longer, it’s time for a professional, appealing website that brings you more business!