Introduction
Websites must be revamped from time to time to meet SEO standards. This article talks about the seven signs to keep in mind before redesigning a website.
Is your website generating enough traffic? Are the leads converting into sales? Is the website retaining visitors? Are your visitors coming back regularly?
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Have you asked these questions recently? If yes, it indicates you are reassessing the functionality of your website. Sometimes, reassessing your website design and identifying loopholes in the current design is important.
According to research, as much as 81% of internet users are likely to ignore a business if their website is not updated. 39% are likely to think twice before using a product/service of a business that doesn’t host a fresh, current, or user-friendly website. Ask yourself this today – are you hosting a website that is turning away potential customers because of its poor design and functionality?
As per a recent survey by Orbit Media, the average lifespan of a website is only 2 years and 7 months. Now, look back at your website’s design and find out when you last revamped it. If no significant change was made in the last couple of years, it’s time for a website revamp.
With or without surveys, it can be safely assumed that to navigate today’s digital landscape, your company website must make a good impression at a glance. After all, it is your most powerful marketing tool and invariably the place your prospective customers will come to learn more about your products and services.
A responsive, mobile-friendly, modern design is the key to a successful website. Unless the website packs a punch, no amount of marketing genius will meet your business goals. To succeed in this competitive ecosystem, it is important to maintain the site regularly, re-assess the impact of its design, functionality, and content, and continuously evolve as need be.
Now is the right time to re-assess your website design and decide whether you need a new website for your business or not. This blog will look at seven signs that your business needs a new website.
7 Signs You Need a New Website for Your Business
1 – Not Mobile Friendly
As of mid-2023, over 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. Over 92% of Internet users access the Internet using their mobile phones. For your business, this means that more individuals are likely to view your website using their phones than using their desktop computers and other devices.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, the layout won’t automatically change (horizontally or vertically) based on the device being used, limiting user experience. The standard features a website should have to be mobile-friendly include – an easy zooming feature, no horizontal scrolling, easily readable text, among other things.
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A mobile-friendly website tends to also rank higher on search engines too. Google had in 2015 updated its algorithm to give more preference to mobile-friendly websites. Eight years since then, Google continues to rank mobile-friendly websites higher.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, it automatically limits user experience, thus driving away traffic and conversion.
2 – Navigational Challenges
Another red flag is the navigation within the website. If visitors cannot know where they are, are finding it hard to navigate to an important page, or do not know how to go back to the home page, it puts them off. In such cases, they are unlikely to visit your website again. When there is a disconnect at any level for the user, and if this leads to confusion or frustration, this gets automatically reflected as poorer sales.
Fortunately, getting back on track with proper planning is not difficult. A well-designed website will lay the foundation for excellent navigation thus improving user experience drastically.
3 – Not Enough Traffic or Conversion
Another indication that your business website is failing to impress is when your website is not delivering traffic, conversions, or leads as expected. If you are experiencing a significant drop in traffic and leads, it indicates that your customers are not finding what they are looking for in your website.
There are several reasons why websites tend to experience a dip in traffic and conversion. Several of these reasons are discussed in this blog. Revamping the website, tweaking its design, and upgrading its navigation will likely improve traffic and conversion. However, it is best to conduct proper research before taking any action.
4 – High Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the single-page session on a site. Bounce rates are considered an important metric in website analytics. If a website’s bounce rate is greater than 56%, it indicates that users find your website difficult to navigate or frequently experience technical errors. A high bounce rate also indicates low-quality content. A high bounce rate is usually an indicator that though there are visitors to your website, they leave the site only to go to your competitor’s website.
According to RockeyFuel, the average bounce rate of a website should be within 40-55% – the lesser, the better. You can calculate the bounce rate by dividing the number of single-page sessions by the total sessions on your website, thereby finding the percentage.
Find out the bounce rate today or get in touch with a digital marketing expert to calculate it for you. Calculating the bounce rate will help you redesign your website better.
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5 – Slow Loading Website
Any average visitor expects a website to load almost instantly. According to research, if a site takes longer than three seconds to load, 53% of visitors are likely to abandon it instantly. Another research indicated that a website’s conversion rate could drop by 5% for every additional second it takes to load.
Moreover, slower websites invariably rank lower on search engines. It is common knowledge that Google tests the speed of a website before ranking any website. So, if your website scores poorly, it will have a far-reaching negative impact on your business.
6 – Broken Links
Another sign that your website needs a new design is broken links. Also known as dead links, they have a detrimental effect on the overall user experience. If your visitor encounters the dreaded 404 error page while navigating within your website, it has several undesirable consequences for you. Broken links increase the bounce rate and thus negatively impact your SEO.
You can check if your website has any broken links by visiting brokenlinkcheck.com and entering your website’s URL. This website reveals whether a site has broken links that can negatively impact UX.
7 – Outdated Content
Finally, let us talk about the reason that demands a website revamp today! Yes, we are talking about outdated content. Even with the best designs, user experience, and navigation in place, your website’s reach can hit rock bottom if no new content is posted regularly. From a search engine perspective, fresh content means better ranking, which means more traffic and conversion. All these things are interlinked. Research has revealed that a website that regularly updates its content – that is – has at least 16 new pages of content every month – is likely to attract more traffic.
Even if updating the website with so many content every month seems impossible, start small. But start! Ensure that you upload quality content regularly every month. Over time, you will see that the search engine rankings of your website increase, and there is more traffic and conversion.
Conclusion
Website redesign doesn’t simply mean changing the look and feel of your business website. It means identifying and fixing the structural problems that negatively impact your website’s performance. Once you identify the challenges with your current website, it can become easier to resolve them.
Remembering that a new website doesn’t just mean migrating to a new CMS or consistently updating the content, is necessary. You should adopt a more concerted approach to restore the condition of the website. This means making changes that have a long-term positive impact on your website’s performance. However, it is important to remember that websites must be revamped regularly, and not just once in a while. You should have the proper resources in place that work in the back end.
At this stage, a vital question is – are you equipped to transform your website single-handedly? As is seen in most cases, businesses cannot manage the fate of their website alone. They need the guidance of the experts. This is where Cyrusson Inc. comes into the picture. We are a boutique digital marketing agency helping businesses improve their digital marketing strategy.
We offer various services, including website design, digital advertising, full-service SEO, SEO on demand, social media marketing, reputation marketing, and more. Regarding website design and development, we believe in delivering a polished and well-designed website that ranks highly on search engines. We keep your website updated with the latest SEO and mobile strategies.
Book a meeting today or call us at 415-228-9969 to learn how we can improve your website design. You can also visit our website to learn more about our web design services.