In 2021 your website is as important as your shop, show room or office – yes it needs to be eye catching and appealing but also has to be easy to navigate, work well, and bring in sales.
An outdated website, inefficient website can do serious harm to your business - it might be that a new website has been on your top do list for a couple of years now but there’s also a chance you may not be able to tell if your site needs to be revamped just by looking at it.
Here are 10 not so obvious signs your business desperately needs a new website.
1. IT’S NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY
Over 80% of internet users own a smartphone so it’s no surprise that mobile web browsing and search now outweighs laptop. This means your website should be easy to view and navigate on both desktop and mobile.
The easiest way to do that is with a responsive website. This kind of site adjusts content to fit on a variety of screen sizes.
2. IT SIMPLY DOESN’T LOOK GOOD
Your potential customers will likely browse a number of different sites in their search for the right supplier and they won’t stay for long on a site they find outdated. When asked what they think the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business is, 48% cited the website’s design.
An unattractive site can make your business look unprofessional and out of touch with modern buyers, and may cause a searcher to abandon your page.
3. THE SITE SPEED IS SLOW
When a customer visits your site, they’re not only looking to find quality information, but to find that information quickly. 47 percent of consumers expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40 percent of users will leave a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load. To attract customers to your site and keep them there, you’ll need an updated site that with a fast site speed.
A website redesign can eliminate these issues and improve your site’s speed and performance.
4. YOU’RE NOT RANKING WELL
Though it’s great if your site looks polished and modern, an attractive appearance means nothing if it’s not showing up in search results. If your site isn’t ranking well, it’s not doing one of its most important jobs.
Though there are a number of things that go into ranking at the top of Google, your website’s usability plays a big role in what Google constitutes as a helpful, reliable site.
5. YOUR CONVERSION RATE IS LOW
What’s even more important than leads? Conversions. If your site is ranking well and bringing in lots of leads, that’s great—but only if those leads are converting.
If you’re seeing a higher bounce rate, a lower number of average pages per visits, or simply fewer conversions, users likely don’t find your site helpful.
A website redesign project with potential customers’ goals in mind could be beneficial to your site.
6. YOUR BRANDING HAS CHANGED
If your company has gone through rebranding since the creation of your current website, you need to have your website re-designed, simple as that. Strong branding is important for any business, promoting customer recognition that can put you at the top of their mind when they’re in need of a service you offer.
Your site sends a clear message about your brand identity, and an outdated web design that doesn’t match your brand can be doing you a disservice.
7. YOUR WEBSITE IS DIFFICULT TO UPDATE CONTENT
It’s hard enough running a business without creating additional work for yourself. You should be able to easily update the content on your site to keep it fresh and relevant, if updating pages on your site has become a lengthy, complicated process, you’re valuable wasting time. Redesigning your website with an easy to use content management system in place can make a world of difference.
8. YOUR WEBSITE ISN’T CONSISTENT
If you’ve had a few different web developers work on your site over the past few years your website might appear confusing and disorganized, putting potential customers off before you even speak to them. Some things to look out for include inconsistent fonts and colours, out of date logos and images and different page formatting.
Starting fresh with a brand-new website design can eliminate these issues and create consistency throughout your site’s pages.
9. YOU’VE OUTGROWN YOUR OLD SITE
Your business has grown over the years and if you haven’t updated your site chances are you’ve out grown it. Your navigation may be too long now because you’ve added new products and services and your potential customers may have trouble finding the page they’re looking for.
A website redesign can better reflect your growth and can continue to grow with you.
10. YOUR INDUSTRY HAS EVOLVED
Your customers need to be confident you are at the forefront of your sectors with your website including industry and product developments that are relevant to them. New techniques and products constantly emerge and though sometimes you can make small tweaks to your website to reflect your changing industry, there are some occasions where your old site just won’t cut it. If you haven’t had your site revamped in over five years, there’s a good chance there’s plenty of updates that need to be made.
11. YOUR WEBSITE ISN’T HTTPS
Not being HTTPS means your website is not secure, simple as that and 84% of users say they would abandon a purchase if data is being sent over a non secure connection. Even if your site doesn’t include ecommerce an SSL certificate protects your customers from a “man-in-the-middle” attacks.
In the past, only sites with sensitive information have been HTTPS, but as this has become easier to implement, this is becoming the standard.
With all the recent hacks, users expect secure sites and are weary of trusting sites that aren’t labeled as secure.