The whole purpose of your website is so that customers can find you, learn about you, contact you and hopefully buy from you. However, they’re only going to buy from you if your website delivers everything it needs to for your customers, not just from a functional perspective.
We’re talking about: the type of content you are serving up; the user interface (UI); the user experience (UX); how fast your website is; how easy it is to navigate; and if it is mobile responsive or not. The list of things your website needs to be in order to dazzle customers and convert clicks to sales is increasing all the time. Trust me when I say, this isn’t to be taken lightly.
In this article, we’re going to look at 8 signs you need to update and redesign your website. Think about how your site currently stacks up and if it could be working harder for you.
1) Your site isn’t mobile-friendly
The current figures according to Statista show that 54.8% of global web traffic is now on mobile devices, and has overtaken desktop. In addition, 83% of mobile users expect a flawless experience whenever they visit a website on a mobile device.
Your website should always function smoothly regardless of whether customers visit your site on a mobile, tablet or desktop device. Mobile-friendly websites need to be standard these days. If your site doesn’t look 10 out of 10 across all devices, it’s time to update the website. The chances are that you’re losing customers, and potential sales by not considering your mobile users.
2) Your website doesn’t show up on Google
Is your current site flying high when it comes to search engine rankings? Does your business show on Google for your primary business keywords? If not, that’s a big red flag and a sign that your website needs a refresh.
Research shows that around 93%t of online experiences begin with a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or Bing. SEO is synonymous with your website’s visibility – the two go hand in hand. This means SEO could be the best investment you can make for your business to boost online traffic and sales.
Note: If you don’t know where to begin with optimising your website or how to find out if your current site is ranking, contact our team of SEO experts to get you started in the right direction with a FREE website SEO audit.
3) Your site isn’t converting traffic to leads and sales
There could be a number of factors affecting the conversion rates on your website. These could include the UX across the website, if you have a site search or not to help users quickly find what they are looking for, clear CTAs (Call to actions) and more. If it has been a long time since you last looked at the overall flow of your website and what it is you are actually offering, then now is time to do so.
Even good levels of traffic coming to the website are useless unless it converts into business for you.
4) Bounce rates are sky high
I’m talking about an analytics metric called ‘bounce rate’ which is essentially how many people leave your site quickly after landing on it. This is closely linked to the last two points but worth mentioning on its own.
High bounce rates indicate that users are not impressed or not finding what they were hoping for when they enter your website, so they quickly leave it. This is bad for both SEO rankings and return traffic. A modern website needs to guide potential customers straight to where they want to go, with the minimum friction possible. This ties in with the overall content of the website, the design and clear CTAs to tell users what to do and where to go. If you are fighting high bounce rates, or worse, don’t know what your bounce rates are, let us help.
5) Your current website is slow to load
Fast page speeds are imperative to keeping hold of customers – these days 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. If customers are left waiting for your site to load they will ‘bounce’ off your website and go straight to a competitor instead. It’s worth knowing that Google pays close attention to page speeds as part of its overall ranking formula, so if your website is slow, you will rank lower than competitors with fast sites.
6) Outdated design
Believe it or not, it is not all about the content you post online that matters. Users are becoming ever more fussy over the design and aesthetics of a website or app than ever before. But good design isn’t also just about the colours you use, or the typeface you go for, it is about creating a UI/UX which has considered how the user will interact with your website. A website that looks like it has been poorly thought through and put together is more likely to turn users away than turn them into customers.
7) Maintaining your website is too difficult
Your website is a living part of your business and should be looked after and maintained regularly, just like any other company asset. Updating content, images, adding new blog posts, and keeping the website up-to-date and secure are all part and parcel of having an online presence. Our websites are built with you in mind so that you can continue to grow the website with your business and keep it updated regularly. This is why we use WordPress as the CMS (Content Management System) of choice for all of our web builds.
If updating your website is a task you currently dread, then it might be time to refresh your site.
8) Your competitors’ websites are superior
Sometimes it may just be that your competitors’ websites are more advanced, more modern and more appealing to customers than yours. If that’s the case then it is definitely time to fight back and give your website the love it deserves. Keeping on top of what your competitors are doing is crucial to winning the battle for customers online.
Do any of the points above ring true for you and your website?
If you don’t know where to start then why not take advantage of our FREE website audit today and let our team of experts give you an honest assessment of where your site is currently at. If necessary our in-house web development team can redesign and rebuild a website fit for your business with everything you might need, taken care of, hassle free. It may seem daunting, acknowledging that you need to redo your website, but once it’s done and working hard for you, you’ll be glad you did.
