Website Redesign, the very mention of this term is swallowed with lots of question marks. Do we really need to get our website redesigned? Will a website design project offer tangible results in terms of growth and revenue? How do I know it is time for a website redesign? Is it merely a trick where web design companies are looking for recurring income in the name of getting a perfectly working website redesigned?
Before we delve further into these questions it is important to start with a fact. All of us are emotionally connected to our website. Your website may have fueled your business’ growth in the digital landscape. After all, you may have spent countless hours working closely with the designer years back to decide on the structure, layout, color scheme, graphics, typography, etc. The very thought of going through this process again might sound best avoidable and hence deciding a time for a website redesign is never easy for any business, individual, or institution.
To say the truth, a website redesign is unavoidable. There are more than 1.7 billion live websites and yours needs to be a good one to grab the attention of the audience. Your website needs to face competition from those that have implemented the latest design and technology. Irrespective of how much you spent on it getting it designed years ago, your website starts to become dated in this fast-changing technology landscape. In the worst case, it might even act as a roadblock in the digital growth of your brand.
Like most other things in the tech world, websites have to be fluid where they constantly evolve with the times. Its UX and UI should engage the audience and trigger intended action. Old and poorly designed websites start to show signs of being an obstacle to growth. You can’t ignore these signs and need to take them seriously. Here are some telltale signs that indicate it is time for a website redesign.
1. Your website doesn’t justify your company’s goals
Businesses change and so do their goals, target audience, and business model. For instance, you may have started as a corporate training agency that conducted physical training sessions but over time you have transitioned into an e-learning platform for the corporate world. The website that you currently have may have been designed to meet your past goals and doesn’t reflect the current mission of your business.
A new visitor to your website should always be able to interpret your business model. in the first few seconds of their visit. Your website, its design, and content shouldn’t create a dilemma in their minds. Cosmetic enhancement to an existing website doesn’t always reflect the changing mission and marketing goals of your brand. Your website might act as a limiting factor and redesigning it will let you make a strong statement in front of your audience.
2. Your website appears boring
You visit dozens of websites every week. If you constantly feel that most websites appear and function better than yours, you should have no hesitation in taking up a website redesign project. Trends in web design are rapidly changing and you have to swim with these trends to be successful. An old website can start to feel boring with time. Dated designs are an eyesore and they can turn away potential business.
The first impression is crucial in the digital world and most of your visitors are likely to form an impression about your brand or institution based on the appearance of the website. If it looks dated, it’s a sign of unprofessionalism. To put this into context, you aren’t likely to get into business with a brand that has a shabby office or a retailer that doesn’t invest in its storefront. Hence, if you feel your site looks boring it is time for a website redesign.
3. Your website isn’t mobile-friendly
The latest data from Statista suggests that close to 55% of traffic to websites comes from mobile devices. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you are losing out more than half of your potential users. This is in stark contrast to just about 10% of the users who accessed the Internet using mobile devices in 2012. The percentage of mobile traffic is expected to rise further in the coming years with smartphone penetration and Internet coverage increasing in low and middle-income countries.
Google has used mobile-friendliness as an important ranking factor since they introduced the Mobilegeddon algorithm update in 2015. Hence, websites that aren’t mobile-friendly also get poor SEO scores and rank lower on the search engine results pages. If your website doesn’t have a mobile-responsive interface and dynamic layouts that adjust with the screen size and resolution, it’s time to go to the drawing board and get your website redesigned.
4. Your website can’t be optimized
It is estimated that more than 95% of traffic to websites comes from the search engines with Google accounting for 63,000 searches every second! All businesses have to invest in SEO and other digital marketing strategies to improve their footprint. However, old websites that have low-quality codes, dead links, flash animations, or lack quality content can’t be optimized easily.
When your website isn’t optimizable it is time for a website redesign. A well-designed website populated with quality content is the minimum digital marketers need to put it on the top of search results. If you talk to a professional digital marketing company, they are likely to raise this red flag during the site audit.
5. Your traffic doesn’t translate to conversions
Imagine customers coming to a store and leaving without buying the products. This can be a nightmare for any business. Depending on the nature of your business you may measure conversion in terms of downloads, sales, or trade inquiries. Though conversion rate can vary depending on the type of your business or the way you are using the website, every business desires a high conversion.
Low conversions are a sign of poor design where your users aren’t finding what they are looking for. Inability to find what they are looking for can frustrate the users and in the long run, this can earn poor ratings for your website. This can be resolved with a fresh design that uses CTA (call to action) elements wisely.
6. You are experiencing high bounce rates
Bounce rate is one of the best indicators for user experience on your website. It is defined as the percentage of users who exit the website after viewing only a single page. A 55% bounce rate would mean that 55% of users coming to your website don’t care to look beyond the page they have landed. A higher bounce rate implies poor user experience which in most cases stems from poor design and navigation on your website.
A high bounce rate leads to loss of opportunity as you are not showcasing your products and services to people arriving on your site. Though the definition of a good bounce rate varies based on the nature of the website and business, you should target to keep it below 40% with anything below 30% considered excellent. Google Analytics and other similar tools can reveal data on your bounce rate and if it is more than 40% it is a good time to rework your website’s design and navigation.
7. Your website’s navigation has hit rough waters
We have already touched upon the importance of navigation for bounce rate. However, the importance of navigation extends beyond that and affects the user experience. Every user coming to your website has a specific purpose. They are looking for certain information or wish to carry out a transaction. It is your responsibility to guide them to their target page. It can also create issues for search engine crawlers to index your site.
If navigation is cumbersome, it results in a poor user experience. Though internal linking and the use of navigation links at the bottom of the page might offer respite in some cases, it isn’t a remedy for poor link structure and hierarchy. As a thumb rule, all pages on the website should be within three mouse clicks. Redesigning is the only solution when navigating your website becomes a nightmare.
8. Your website isn’t secure
Have you recently encountered an attack on your website? Old websites that have poor security protocols are vulnerable and face disproportionate attacks from the bad guys. Since these are low-hanging fruits for the hackers they take advantage of the vulnerability and attack such websites. Get your website’s security audited and if too many vulnerabilities are identified you must get it redesigned.
It is equally important to respect the growing awareness among users about online privacy. More users are cautious about the websites they visit these days to protect themselves from online scammers. If your website isn’t secured with HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) protocol, you are losing traffic and a fresh design can resolve the issue and make the site safer for your target users.
9. Your website is loading slowly
Does your website load within 3 seconds? If not, you are likely to lose traffic. Web performance is a crucial factor in deciding the fate of the website and it is also used as a ranking factor. Studies have shown that 25% of the visitors abandon a website if it takes more than 4 seconds to load! If that doesn’t sound bad enough close to 50% of users do not revisit a website that loads slowly. A one-second delay in page load time can bring down customer satisfaction by 16%.
Poorly coded websites and those that have undergone unplanned feature updates with tons of coding tend to be slow. Heavy images, improper caching techniques, poor CSS, etc. also contribute to poor performance. It can be impossible to fix these issues and a website redesign is a cheaper and easier alternative.
10. You are losing traffic, or your traffic isn’t growing
In an ideal world, the traffic to your website should keep growing. Your brand gets more eyeballs daily and this should translate into more traffic. Apart from this Internet usage has been increasing over the years and you must also be a direct beneficiary. If that isn’t the case, there are fundamental issues with your website’s design and architecture that require an overhaul. Even the best SEO campaigns can’t lead to top rankings when you are living with poor design.
In worst cases, you may start witnessing a fall in traffic to your website. This is often the most worrying sign and one that every business takes note of. Google and other search engines regularly update their algorithms to improve user experience. Bad coding, stuffing keywords, and poor site architecture can invite penalties. When you engage a professional website designer for the project, they would design your website as per the latest trends and search engine algorithms which result in an uptick in traffic.
Time to Hit the Drawing Board
That’s a wrap on the signs that indicate it is time for a website redesign. If you are facing any of these issues, it’s time to get back to the drawing board and come out with a new avatar for your website. You may retain the design elements and other functionalities that you are closely connected to, but you need to put your baby through a bit of grooming as this would help you grow your business.
At Cyrusson Inc., we are a Boutique digital agency offering bespoke website redesign services. We carry out a detailed audit of websites to identify its weakness, areas of growth, and scope of improvement in UX and UI. We have been improving one website at a time and creating an inspirational digital footprint for our clients. We complement our design services with astute digital marketing solutions. Pick up your phone and give us a call to schedule a free consultation about your website redesign and turn it into an engine of growth for your brand.