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A digital presence has never been more important. Websites have become companies’ most powerful marketing and communication tools, so you will want to prioritize keeping your website design up-to-date.
Outdated websites that are hard to use or difficult to navigate are off putting and can drastically hurt your brand by deterring users from shopping with you or using your services. So, how do you know if your website is ready for a redesign?
Well-designed and user-friendly sites keep users engaged, promote conversions and improve your brand image.
Responsive web design ensures your web pages render well on all types of devices. Users expect to be able to view your website on any device — mobile, tablet or desktop. Your website needs to be responsive to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation, particularly for mobile.
Users live on their phones. The average person checks his/her phone over 46 times a day. If a site is not mobile-friendly, it makes it very difficult for users to navigate and use your website when viewing it on mobile devices which can cause you to lose out on over 50% of your user base.
You are ready for a new website design if you have low conversion rates. A site redesign can help resolve the tensions a user may be experiencing in order to drive them to convert.
A poor user experience will reflect in your conversion rates whether you are an eCommerce site or you have set goals, like tracking user sign-ups for exclusive content. Users are either not finding what they are looking for, or the site is too difficult to navigate.
If your website is difficult for your users to navigate quickly and efficiently to find the information they came to your website for, it may be time for a website redesign. All pages on your site should be easily accessible, but there are certain key pages that are crucial for users to be able to find easily and quickly.
If these pages, in particular, are hard to get to, it’s a red flag your website is in need of a redesign and restructure.
Difficult navigation is hard for Google to crawl, causing problems with how pages interact which decreases a website’s ranking. If users cannot find the information they are looking for, this will likely result in a bounce.
A bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave your site in a short period of time. If you have a high bounce rate, it means your users are not finding what they are looking for. You can find your bounce rate by reviewing your website on Google Analytics, which provides additional insights on how your website is performing.
If you have a high bounce rate, revising the site structure (UX), look and feel (UI) and content can help provide users with a better experience and ability to find the content they are looking for.
If all aspects of your website are not user-friendly, it’s time for a new website design to really optimize on advancing technology and all of the tools that are available and adaptable.
When was the last time you redesigned your website? Does your site’s first impression look like it’s from 2000? Then, your web design is not giving your users or customers the best first impression. An outdated site is another quick way to a high bounce rate. Users are more likely to trust companies that have a modern and updated site.
From a look, feel and content perspective, an up-to-date web design ensures users that their needs are cared for because the information is more reliable and relatable to what is going on now, not 20 years ago.
If your site is cumbersome and hard to use from an administrative perspective, it could be time to reinvest in an upgraded platform that can support your needs. Today’s technologies and CMS platforms, such as WordPress, make it a breeze to make updates to a website.
Frequently updated content is key to ensuring your website is fresh which helps with SEO rankings, but it also is important to keep up with continual changes to the industry. Being able to make these types of changes quickly on your site can help you be more successful.
Keeping your site regularly updated with fresh, useful content that users are actively looking for can help your rankings. If your site does not rank towards the top and on the first page users will most likely never find you because typical users will not look beyond the first page of search engine results.
Google is the number one used search engine. If your site contains outdated information or is not mobile-friendly, then a redesign is necessary to improve your SEO ranking to drive more traffic to your site. These are essential parts of Google’s SEO algorithms these days. Another important aspect for a well performing website is site speed.
Users are impatient (especially on mobile) and do not want to wait more than a few seconds for a website to load. Slow site loading speed is a huge red flag that you are ready for a new web design.
It is frustrating to the user and it will turn your user away. Using up-to-date technology can provide your users with a website design that is more engaging and faster to use.
As your company grows, your website should too. Your site should clearly define what your business does and how you can help them. It is your business’s digital presence or storefront.
Users should be able to easily understand what type of business it is and what you stand for or offer as soon as they land on one of your pages. Each web page should impact the user and exemplify your visual brand.
If you’re on the edge of not knowing whether you want to commit to a website redesign, keep in mind that when competitors redesign their site, they have the opportunity to look more attractive, function better and share more relatable information. In doing so, they divert traffic away from your site.
If any of these points apply to your website design, it’s time to reach out to our St. Louis web design team. Integrity can design an optimized user experience for your industry. Our experts rely upon data-driven designs to make your website easy to manage and update for better results.
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If you’re still not sure it’s time for a website redesign, contact us with any further questions.
