7 Glaring Signs You’re Due for a Website Redesign

Your website can say a lot about your business. For your users, it’s not merely a place of information and engagement but also a reflection of your values and philosophy. If you think revamping your site is only necessary to make it “pretty,” you’re definitely mistaken. Business websites can gain a lot more from a well-designed website with a good user experience. With the right strategy, your business website can capture audiences on every level of the marketing funnel.

Now, redesigning your company website is a huge but necessary undertaking. How do you know when you should embark on revamping your site? Here are seven glaring signs you’re definitely due for a redesign.

1. Your Website Has an Outdated Look

Website design trends and innovations change every so often. From narrow panels to wider ones, 2D to 3D to flat, and so on and so forth. It’s basically like the fashion industry—your site could have been wearing the trendiest outfit 5 years ago but looks out of place and dated now.

While it’s important for businesses of all kinds to keep up with the times in terms of product innovation, brand perception is just as (if not more) important. It only takes a few seconds for new prospects looking around for the type of service you offer to consider whether or not you’re a formidable and quality brand worthy of their business.

Seth Godin puts it best, brand perception is ultimately owned by your clients. Regardless of your message, product, or service, your brand is whatever your clients think, say and feel about you. Least to say, if you have an outdated shabby looking website representing your brand, your clients may perceive you to be the complete opposite of innovative and definitely not the leading business in your industry.

2. You Have Recently Revamped Your Brand

If you’ve recently refreshed the look or messaging of your brand, you should definitely take a look at revamping your website. The most important aspect of branding is cohesiveness. The message of your brand packs a punch when all of your brand assets (especially your website in this day and age) conveys a uniform look and feel and reflects your value proposition. This enables you to attract your target audience to a tee.

3. Your SERP Rankings Are On the Down Trend

If you find that your search engine ranking is dropping, it’s time to redesign your site. Search engine algorithms change constantly not only to provide better results for searchers in terms of content but also for better user experience.

In fact, according to Search Engine Journal, 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. If you’re ranking poorly on search engine results, you’re definitely missing out BIG TIME on potential clients.

When your search rankings drop, it’s time to reassess the content structure and usability of your site. Can searchers easily get to what they need? Is the information clear and is it visually organized with user experience in mind?

4. Your Website Sucks on Mobile

One of the biggest factors in search engine results these days is mobile responsiveness. With the ubiquity of mobile data devices everywhere around the globe, your site has to be able to cater to users on the go with no snags. If your site isn’t mobile responsive yet, then you’re definitely overdue for a redesign.

Redesign your website to accommodate users using smaller mobile devices. Are your CTAs clickable and easily seen on a phone or a tablet? Is the text on your site well-segmented, concise, and readable? Are image banners sized right so that they are intuitive to space and don’t require a lot of real estate? There are plenty of other considerations to make to ensure you site can be just as effective on mobile devices as it is on desktop. If you ignore mobile responsiveness, you might as well hand your clients over directly to your competitors.

5. Your Analytics Are Dipping

How are your visits and conversions looking? If you think redesigning a B2B website is all about the looks, you are heavily mistaken. Redesigning a poorly performing website is good practice. Half the time it’s about user experience, the other half SEO structure. Maybe your landing page could be more effective, or your home page does not convey your value proposition at a glance, maybe your navigation is unorganized, or maybe your site is just too shabby to look trustworthy. Whatever the reason may be, when your visits dip, take a look at what’s going on in the pages of your site. Apps like HotJar will help you determine where visitors tend to drop off on your site to determine how and what needs revamping. Once you have a wireframe and design, it’s best to A/B test to find out which design, framework, and wording variations are most effective for your site.

6. Your Website Is Still Using Flash

Ah yes, this one is pretty straightforward. If your site is using flash, stop reading this and redesign your website NOW. Flash is practically unreadable for search engines and has been declining in usefulness for some time. As if that’s not bad enough, here’s the kicker — Google Chrome has completely blocked flash entirely because it’s problematic and considered an outdated technology.

7. Your Website Loads Slooooooooooowly

How’s your page speed on mobile and desktop? You can go to Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool to check how long it takes for your site to load and both platforms and if your score is generally good or bad… Or really really bad. Page speed is one of the factors that affect SERP algorithm. If your site loads like a turtle and even the most patient driving users away, you’re going to tank on search results. Redesign your site to improve its speed. Maybe you should replace your existing media assets with compressed ones, for maybe certain scripts should be reformatted. A thoughtful redesign can fix this problem easily.

Well, now for the obvious. If you want to be the best, you simply HAVE to be the best. Human beings are impressionable by nature. If your competitor has a sleeker, more intuitive, better put together site than you, you’re toast. Even your most loyal clients can change their mind about you if someone else simply looks better. So stop procrastinating and up your game by redesigning your site to set a whole new standard for your industry.