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How to Know When It's Time to Redesign Your Website
We live in a constantly changing and rapidly growing online-focused world, and whether we like it or not some days, technology is isn't an option anymore— it's a necessity. And that means the way we do business not only needs to involve some kind of online presence and strategy, but also being able to adjust and change that strategy over time as needed.
There are constantly new competitors coming on the scene, and if you don't stay ahead of the game, one of your competitors will, and guess who your audience is going to likely see first, see more often, and book with? You guessed it— your competitor. So, all this to say... you probably know by now the importance of having a website for your business, and if not, you can totally hire me to help you do that (I offer a few different package options for different budgets and business stages!), and if you do have a website, and you aren't sure if it's time for some updates, or an overhaul, this blog post is for you. Let's dive in!
Your Website Doesn't Reflect Your Brand Anymore
The tell-tale sign, and most obvious one that can help you decide if you need to redesign your website, is that you don't feel like it reflects your brand anymore. If your online presence doesn't reflect who your business or brand is, then how can you expect to relay the message of you are and what you do properly to your audience? You just can't.
Our businesses should be growing and changing and evolving over time. That can look different for everyone, and every business depending on the stage of business you're in, your industry, market trends, consumer habits, etc. But essentially, a healthy and successful business is always looking toward the future, and how they can adapt to these different changes to A) stay relevant with their audience and B) to stay profitable.
So, if your website has an old logo, a non-strategic, non-accessibility-friendly design and color palette, photos that don't match your brand or super outdated brand photos, or the worst of all— outdated and old information, whether that's about your products or services, or your blog content, it's most definitely time to redesign your website!
Your Site Isn't Mobile-Friendly
Not having a mobile-friendly website is absolutely killing your business. Or at least your online presence— which again, these days with everything being online, it might as well be killing your entire business. Over 60% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices, and if your site only looks good on desktop, and isn't very accessible or user-friendly on mobile, people who visit your site are just gonna bounce right off and not return, which will increase your bounce rate, hurt your site's reputation on Google, and will basically ensure that your site isn't getting pushed out to as many people as possible by Google.
Depending on what site builder you've designed your site on, different builders offer different options for optimizing the mobile layout of your site. Sites like Wix and Showit offer you full control over your site's mobile layout, and Squarespace also offers some extensive customization options as well now, but not as good as Squarespace and Showit though. Other site builders like WordPress also offer you the capabilities to make your site as mobile friendly as possible.
One of the number one mistakes I see with business owners who DIY their websites is forgetting to update their mobile layout of their site after making updates to the desktop version. It should be an automatic rule that every time you update your site on desktop, you should be checking your mobile layout as well! If your site isn't mobile friendly at all, and you're having trouble making it that way given the current design of your site, it's more than likely time to redesign your website.
Your Website Is Super Slow
In the world of web design— speed absolutely matters. Think about it, how many times have you landed on a super slow website, just to immediately get frustrated and hop right back off and go to a different site? Exactly. If your site's slow, that's exactly what your visitors are doing. Which again, hurts and increases your bounce rate, causing red flags for Google, and that signals to them that your site isn't easy to use, fast enough, and therefore, they aren't gonna recommend it to people searching for what you do.
If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, it's time to investigate that underlying cause and optimize your site! You can use Google's free speed tested called PageSpeed Insights to run a test on your site's current load times and see what issues you might be having. Here are some best practices to help make sure your site speed is as good as possible:
Compress all of your website images before uploading them to your site. This saves storage space, which also helps the efficiency of your sites load times. My two go-to sites for compressing images for my clients' websites are tinyjpg.com and imagecompressor.com. Tinyjpg only lets you upload photos that are 5MB each, so if you have really high quality images from your brand photographer that are a lot larger file size wise, you might want to use imagecompressor.com instead.
Clean up the custom code used on your site. By doing this, you can dramatically increase your page speed. Also, you should try to reduce the amount of unnecessary CSS you're using on your site. Critical CSS refers to the CSS needed to render the "above-the-fold" content on your site. Essentially, cleaning up your code helps to improve load times by helping keep the browser from having to load and parse all of your CSS upfront.
Optimize your fonts. If you're using custom fonts on your site (fonts that aren't in your site builder's preloaded library), you want to be sure you're using file formats like WOFF2 as much as you can. You also need to limit the number of fonts you use on your site. This can sometimes depend on your branding, like if you have 3 brand fonts that you use. Or, you might have two brand fonts, or even one brand font that uses different weights. Whatever that looks like for you, it's a good rule of thumb to not use any more than three fonts on your site. Essentially this could look something like one font for your main headings (your H1s and H2s, a different font for your H3s - H6s, and one font for your body and button fonts.
Your Website Is Very Difficult to Navigate
Your website should be intuitive for visitors. If visitors can't easily find what they're looking for within just a few clicks, they're very likely to leave. Simplifying your site's navigation and structure and making sure it's organized in a user-friendly, natural, way can significantly improve your website experience for visitors, and could help increase conversions and leads.
Think of making your website as easy to navigate as your regular visits to your favorite local coffee shop... You know the layout of the shop, you can clearly read the menu, you know how to order, and it's a great, seamless experience every time. To make your website experience similar to this, start by decluttering your menu options— don't overwhelm visitors with way too many options. Keep the main pages you want them to navigate to in your header navigation, and anything that isn't as pertinent, but is still important, you can add that to your footer navigation.
Another way to make your site easy to navigate is by adding a search bar to your site. Site builders like Wix and Squarespace make this super easy for you to do. Visitors can type exactly what they're looking for, and bring up any results your site has pertaining to that topic. If after making these changes and adjustments, you still feel like your site isn't easy to navigate, it would be worth your time to reach out to a professional designer for help. It might be time to redesign your website, and restructure things maximize conversions.
Your Conversion Rates Are Super Low
If your website isn't converting visitors into leads or paying customers, it might be time to redesign your website- plain and simple. Design might not always be the core cause of low conversion rates, but it definitely can be a HUGE determining factor. It might just be time to upgrade your site from your DIY site, to a custom built conversion machine.
Your site design should reflect your current branding (which should reflect your business in the best way possible) which should in turn, resonate with your audience, helping with conversions and building that credibility with your audience and site visitors. Some common ways that design can affect conversion are things like outdated branding, unclear calls to action, messy navigation, lack of information, lack of imagery, and more.
Really taking a good look at your site's analytics and user behavior can help you in determining the root cause of lack of conversions on your website. I always recommend checking your analytics on a monthly basis— add it to your calendar! Data is king, and your website analytics literally tells you a story about how people are interacting with your website and it's content. You can see where your visitors are coming from, what pages and buttons they're clicking and visiting most often, what products they're purchasing the most of, what pages they're spending the most time on, and so much more.
Added bonus? Regularly reviewing your site's analytics can not only help you in making your website better, but this data can also help you determine how and where to spend your marketing budget, what products you should make more of or eliminate, what content to continue making, and so much more. Trying to figure out the design aspect of your site and trying to increase conversions when you aren't a professional designer can be overwhelming and might feel a little hopeless. If you need help, you should reach out to a designer for help!
It Just Looks Really Outdated
Maybe you did have your site professionally designed 5 to 10 years ago or more and it worked for you for a while, but here's the thing... What worked 5 and 10+ years ago isn't necessarily what's working now. These days, the digital landscape is growing, changing, and evolving rapidly, and if you aren't keeping up with the times, and what your audience is looking for, you could be missing the mark.
Your site should be as up to date as possible— whether that's with content, design, images, your offerings, etc. If your site is super outdated looking, and reflects designs and trends from 5 to 10 years ago that are no longer relevant, you most definitely should consider redesigning your website. If your audience senses that your site is outdated, a lot of assumptions may come to mind...
They could think maybe you're out of business now. They could assume your packages and rates are not current. They could think you're unprofessional, or not dedicated enough to your own business, so why would you be dedicated to serving them? Especially the younger generations like millennials and younger— we grew up with technology and have seen the trends and platforms change and evolve over the years. We kind of have a keen eye for details. So if your site is out of date, and your target audience isn't older people, more than likely your visitors will take note of that and it could diminish their perception of your business, and even their trust in your business! You might need to redesign your website if this sounds like your business!
You Have the Need to Integrate More Advanced Solutions
This one is a big one. Your website shouldn't just be some boring, static, landing page with some information on it. Your website, when designed and utilized properly, can be a freaking dynamic powerhouse for helping you not just market your business, but streamline your operations and systems. This is especially one of the reasons why I love Wix.
Let's say you're wanting to launch an online course, start selling physical or digital products online, start a blog, schedule appointments and have clients book your services, sell event tickets for online or in-person events, take restaurant reservations, provide online ordering capabilities for your business, create a membership, sell pricing plans, sell video content, create a loyalty or rewards program (or both), sell your music, take hotel or BNB reservations— Wix offers native business solutions specifically for all these different things.
It's 2024— you shouldn't be manually doing EVERYTHING in your business anymore. Your website should be helping you do the heavy lifting. And another common no-no I see all to often is businesses not utilizing their websites properly, and instead of keeping everything housed within their site to increase conversions and help their site's SEO, they're using their site as a landing page, and sending their visitors to so many third party sites, platforms and places. It doesn't look professional, it's confusing for your audience, it's a pain, and most importantly— you could be saving money by not having to invest in so many different platforms, software, and third-party integrations.
That's why I'm so passionate about Wix, and why it's my go-to site builder of choice. I know what the platform is capable of, and I know just how impactful it can be to business owners who are looking to scale, streamline, and maximize efficiency in their growing businesses. Yes, I'm talking about YOU, my friend. If your business has big goals, big plans, and you want to make them happen, it might be more than worth it to redesign your website.
If you'd like to know more about what Wix might be able to offer your business specifically, and learn more about the different integrations and tools they offer, please feel free to book a super casual, free, no-obligation, 30-minute discovery call with me. I'd be happy to help answer any questions you might have, and if you're interested in working together, I'd love to see if we're a good fit!
Some Final Thoughts
Redesigning your website is a super important, and significant investment in your business's online presence, and essentially your business's future growth. It can have a profound impact on how your business is perceived by your audience and your visitors. If you resonate with any of the things we've talked about in this post, it would be well worth your time to reach out and see if you could benefit from a redesign.
Remember— a website design isn't just about making your site look pretty, it's about making sure everything looks and runs smoothly, efficiently, and seamlessly to help you reach your business's overarching goals, needs, and dreams. If you're considering a website redesign, focus on improving your site's functionality, user experience, and aligning your site with your brand— who it is now, and where you want it to go.