It is a common-held misconception by many business owners that once their website is up and running it will need minimal updates from then on. However, the truth is there will come a time when every businesses website will need to be totally redesigned. It could be years before that redesign is needed or it could be after only one year but how do you know when that time has come? Well, there are many indications that can signal it is time to redesign your website. Below are fourteen signs that it might be time to take some action.
Website Loads Slowly
Several surveys and analytics confirm that almost 50% of website visitors want a website to load in 2 seconds or less and almost 40% of visitors will leave a website if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds. The lesson here is that if your website loads slowly you are throwing potential new customers away. We are living in a fast paced world and if your website can’t keep up, people will go to your competitor’s site that can.
Not only will a slow loading website cause you to lose customers, it will also affect your website’s rankings in search engines as well. Google even includes load time in its search engine rankings as well.
A great way to check your website’s load time is to open it up on several different devices including desktop computer, laptop, tablet, and smartphones. If you want to see exactly how long it takes for your website to load there are online tools that measure such things. One of those tools is Google’s PageSpeed Insights. It will check your website’s load speed and then offer some ways to improve it. If correcting those insights don’t help then it may be time for a redesign.
Features Or Content No Longer Display Correctly
This one should be a no-brainer but it happens frequently enough that it bears mentioning. If anything on your website no longer functions or displays correctly on any type of media, then your website needs an update.
Technology is evolving rapidly and what worked yesterday may not work today. When this happens it needs to be addressed immediately. It is recommended that you regularly test your website by bringing it up on your computer, laptop, tablet, and smartphone to make sure all content and features are still responding as they should. If they are not working, they need to be fixed.
Having a website with elements that are not working or displaying properly can cause your business to lose clients as well as ruin your reputation. People will indeed judge you and your business on your website. If it doesn’t work they will feel that if you don’t care about your own website, why would you care about them and their needs. Overlooking something like this is a huge mistake.
Not Mobile Friendly
If your website is not mobile friendly you are throwing potential customers away. That’s the cold hard truth. 60% of all internet access is done via mobile devices and it is estimated that in 2018 nearly 2.6 billion people will use smartphones. Currently over 45% of U.S. adults own a tablet computer like an iPad and globally consumers use an average of 5 different devices per person. Over 40% of people will leave a website if it does not display correctly and isn’t responsive on the device they are using.
And last but certainly not least, Google now prioritizes websites that are mobile responsive in its search engine results, which means if your site isn’t mobile friendly your website will not rank well in Google and that means less people will find you and your business.
Not Getting Any Results From The Website
If your website analytics show that people are not staying on your site for long or there is a high bounce rate it is an indication that your website is not giving your visitors the information or content they are looking for. Your website is meant to inform its visitors and get them more interested in what your business has to offer them. If they are not sticking around long enough to get that information then it is obvious that the site is not doing what it should.
Another reason your website might not be getting results is that it may not have been designed properly with your businesses goals in mind. If your website is unclear in its delivery of your goals and mission your visitors will not know what those are either. Everything on your website must be crystal clear and easy for your potential clients to understand and get what they need. If this is not the case then it’s time for a redesign.
Difficult To Read or Navigate
This is another reason for poor website results. If your website uses small text, bad or hard to read fonts, the pages are too hard to find information on, or there’s just too much stuff on each page then it’s definitely time for a redesign.
Many people choose text or fonts that are hard to read because they feel they look cool, and they might indeed look cool, but if people have too difficult of a time reading what’s on the page they are just going to leave. The same goes for pages that are confusing because they are too difficult to navigate or there’s too much stuff on each page. Pages on your website should deliver information to its visitors easily and without them asking for it. It’s okay to want to give them lots of information and be an amazing resource but trying to give all that information at once on one page can be overwhelming and cause visitors to run away.
Keep texts and fonts easy to read and leave enough white space on each page that it gives visitors’ eyes a break from the barrage of information that many websites attack them with. If your site is too busy or hard to navigate you definitely need a website redesign.
No Blog
Many businesses feel they have no need for a blog but this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are many reasons your business should have a blog. One of which is to establish you and your business as experts in your field. The more content and information your website contains, the more your customers and potential customers will view you as an expert in your field. Blogs are the best way to communicate that expertise to them.
Another big reason for having a blog on your website is to increase your SEO results. The more new content that’s added to your website by way of blogs, the better your SEO results. Search engines like Google love when a website continues to add content and consequently your SEO rankings will reflect that.
And lastly, having a blog on your website is an amazingly great way to connect with your customers.
Not Secure
These days the constant emergence of data breaches and hacking activities has most people on high alert and taking extreme cautions with what they do online. If your website does not take security precautions seriously many people will walk away because it’s not a risk they’re willing to take.
In order to build your clients’ confidence regarding their interactions with your website it is imperative that your site do everything possible to make their transactions and communications secure. This means making sure your site has an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. These certificates ensure that all transactions and communications are encrypted between your visitors and your website. This means user names, passwords, credit card details, and other sensitive information are protected from eavesdroppers and baddies.
Visitors will know if your site has an SSL certificate by looking at the URL. If the URL starts with “http” then it does not have an SSL certificate and transactions are not secure. Your website must have an “https” at the front of it. This indicates that all transactions between your site and the visitor are secure. If your current website does not have this type of security then it is vital that your website be redesigned to have it installed immediately. Visitors will leave your site if it’s not secure and that means you and your business are losing potential new clients.
Your Business Has Changed
If at any time your business has changed in any way, shape, or form then it may be time to redesign or update your website. As a business grows sometimes its mission, products, logo, or brand changes too and not updating your website to reflect those changes can send a message that is inconsistent with who you and your business are, confusing current and potential customers.
Your business website is your calling card and should clearly represent what you and your business is about. Failing to update these extremely important details can communicate to your customers that you are unsure of your businesses purpose and can confuse or frustrate them. After all, people are coming to your website to get answers and more clarity. If your site does not provide that, they will go to your competitors who will provide that clarity.
No Longer Integrates With Software
When your website no longer integrates with the software you use to run your business it is absolutely time to redesign your site. Part of running a business is making sure everything works well together so it can continue to grow. If your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software or Inventory Database no longer integrate and work with your website you risk losing the customers you currently have and stunting your businesses growth by not being able to handle new customers properly.
Anytime your website does not function well with new or updated software it is time to update your business website so it will function perfectly. Technology is evolving quicker every day and part of the responsibility that goes along with that growth is making sure your website keeps up. Not doing so could cause your business to become stagnant or even have declining growth.
No Analytics
Do you know your customers demographics or how long each visitor stays on your website? If you don’t know the answers to these very important questions it’s possible your website is not tracking analytics. If your current website does not have the ability to track analytics then it is definitely time to redesign it..
Some of the important information website analytics provide about your visitors are: Who visits your website, how they got there, what they did once they got to your website, and where they went after they left your website.
Analytics also provide you with valuable insight on how visitors to your website interact with it. This gives you valuable information that lets you to know what they need and want and how to improve your website’s ROI by correcting things that are not working well.
You Just Don’t Like How It Looks
If you find yourself hesitant to give out your businesses website address because you are embarrassed by it or you cringe every time you look at it because it feels and/or looks outdated to you, then it is time for your website to be redesigned.
Your website is a representation of your business and its mission, products, and brand. When it no longer communicates those things to its website visitors it is time to retire that site and rebuild. As with everything in business (and in life) things change and in order to stay relevant and top of mind everything must be updated from time to time. Your website is no different.
Hard To Update Yourself
Even if you have a web design service that updates your website for you, there are certain elements that you should be able to update easily by yourself. These include adding new inventory as well as being able to change your businesses hours, address, or phone number. If you find doing these simple things are difficult or impossible for you to do then it is a good indication that your website needs a redesign.
Every website should have a CMS (Content Management System) integrated into it to make updating content and elements easy to do. If your site does not have CMS integrated it’s time for a redesign.
No Integration Of Social Media
Any website that does not integrate social media in this day and age needs to be redesigned immediately. Period. Social media is vital to the growth of every business and your business is no exception to the rule.
Your website should have links to your businesses social media profiles on every page either in the header, the footer, or in the sidebar. The links should be easily found to allow visitors to connect with your business on all social media sites. This enables them to share your company’s posts and engage with you and your brand.
Including a Twitter feed on your business homepage is ideal and all blogs and landing pages should have sharing buttons on them. The goal is to make it easy for visitors to share your website’s content with everyone they know. If your website does not allow this to happen then you need a website redesign, plain and simple.
Still Uses Flash
In the past, most websites used almost exclusively Flash when they were being created. However, the use of Flash is rapidly declining and rightly so. Websites created using Flash are notoriously slow to load, are bad for your SEO rankings, do not load well on smartphones, can’t be viewed on iPhones or iPads, and using them can be difficult to navigate. When you combine all those with the fact that Adobe, who created Flash, doesn’t even use Flash on their website anymore you can see that it is time to replace your Flash site.
Another huge reason for throwing away Flash websites is that Flash is not very secure. It is a constant target for hackers, which can open your site to potential security breaches and no one wants that. It is your duty to make sure your customers’ data and interactions on your site are secure and ditching Flash is another way to ensure that security.
So there you have it. Fourteen ways to determine if your website needs to be redesigned. However, if you are feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of handling these issues and redesigning your website have no fear. NetSource Technologies can help you achieve all these goals and more. Call us today at (800) 709-3240 or click here to fill out our Contact Us form to get started.