Let me ask you something… if Apple or Amazon had a website that was ugly, hard to use, slow, and not mobile-friendly, do you think they’d be the raving success they are today? Probably not, right?
As far as digital strategies go, a website is no doubt the most important element within that strategy. Not only does having a stellar website help you bring in qualified leads, it helps you convince those leads to stay a while, take a hypothetical website stroll, and -- of course -- buy from you.
On the other hand, a bad website design could be killing your conversions, scaring off website visitors, and ultimately hurting your overall marketing efforts. Doesn’t sound too great, eh?
Sure, you could do all the right things as far as supplement marketing and business efforts go, such as successfully sending tons of traffic to your site with paid advertisements, social media marketing, and direct marketing, but if your website design isn’t meeting consumer expectations, your success will inevitably take a nasty tumble.
But, as someone who doesn’t have an outsider’s eye, how does one really know if they’re website needs a redesign?
With these 5 major signs it’s time for a website overhaul in mind, you can come in with a fresh perspective and make the decision of whether or not it’s time to wave goodbye to your current website design.
5 Major Signs it’s Time for a Website Redesign
1. Your Site is Living in the Stone Age
Although it pains me to tell you this... looks do matter! Especially when it comes to having a exceptional website.
You’ll probably agree -- nothing kills a great first impression than an outdated website. If you’re site is living in the Stone Age with an ancient, dated-looking design, your website visitors are going to click away faster than you can say “comic sans.” (Hint: if you’re using the Comic Sans font anywhere on your site, this is your big flashing sign to hit that contact me button now!)
Not to mention, an outdated website looks untrustworthy. Who wants to buy a product or put their faith in a business who doesn’t want to invest in a decent website, right? Even worse, if your website looks dated, the customer might be under the impression other aspects of your brand are, too, such as your product or service.
Although, having an outdated website design doesn’t just mean how it looks… it can also mean your website design is outdated because it no longer fits with your overall branding message. For example, you don’t want a prospective customer landing on your website, only to find the the language, content, logo, etc. doesn’t sound like it came from your own brand.
2. Mobile-Friendliness is Nowhere to Be Seen
Unless you live under a rock, you’ll likely have noticed the massive shift towards mobile in recent years... and it doesn’t look as though it’s slowing down anytime soon.
Thus, it’s a no-brainer that your brand’s website needs to be mobile responsive. In fact, according to a study released by Salesforce, “83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important.” In other words, if you’re website isn’t delivering an effortless mobile experience, most mobile users won’t even bother stopping by.
In this day in age, where users want information at the touch of a button (or shall we say the touch of a finger?), if you’re site can’t deliver up-to-date info with ease, they’re going to look elsewhere.
3. It Doesn’t Deliver an Exceptional User Experience
Have you ever landed on a website, only to find yourself frustrated because it was difficult to get around or hard to find what you were looking for?
Making sure your website is easy to navigate is essential. Think about it: if you have a brick and mortar store that’s cluttered, unorganized, and in a jumble, customers aren’t going to want to spend much time there, right? The same thing goes for your website. In fact, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.
With the ever-shortening attention spans consumers have nowadays, it’s imperative to showcase a website design that doesn’t require someone to go on a massive hunt for a relevant page.
Here are a few tips to keep your website’s user experience exceptional:
Every page should be accessible in one or two clicks; three clicks max.
Improve your website’s speed (more on that below).
Keep in clean; refrain from using too many links, buttons, or distracting elements.
If you sell a product or have an ecommerce site, the buying process should be as seamless as possible.
Fix broken links; no user wants to click a link, only to have it lead to the wrong and/or a non-existent page.
4. Your Site Speed is Turtle-Slow
As mentioned earlier, consumers these days typically have the attention span of a goldfish… thus, if you’re website is loading at turtle-slow speed, they’re not even going to stick around to have a genuine user experience.
As a matter of fact, according to surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com, nearly half of shoppers expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and they tend to abandon a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds.
With that in mind, if you have a ecommerce site that’s taking any longer than 4 seconds, you’re likely losing out on over half of the web traffic you potentially could have. That’s a lot of missed opportunities!
While sometimes a slow site is on the users’ end, most of the time it’s due to your own site’s setup. Here are a few tips to help tackle slow site speed:
Optimize images.
Make your components cacheable.
Minimize redirects.
Improve server response time.
Speed up download times by compressing pages.
5. Your Target Market or Industry Has Changed
As with many aspects of life, things are ever-changing -- which might include your target market and/or industry.
For example, if your target market has shifted from soon-to-be college students to soon-to-be parents, your website should reflect that change, as they’re probably not going to be attracted to the same design.
Whether you’re creating fresh content, revamping the user journey to cater to your new buyer persona, switching up your design to fit industry standards, or finally giving your website a mobile-friendly renovation, a website redesign is in the books.
Even better, with a new redesign that effectively targets to your desired audience, your conversion, bounce, engagement, and returning visitor rates will likely increase!
In conclusion, having a modern, fresh, intuitive website that’s aesthetically pleasing, easy to get around, and targets the right audience is essential for being successful in business. With these 5 big signs you need a website redesign, you can make an informed decision to do what needs to be done for your brand’s site.
Schedule a free consultation with the Wix My Website team today by clicking here.