You’ve spent months pouring your heart and soul into creating a website for your business. You designed it, wrote content for it, edited the photos you found to make them look perfect. But then one day you wake up and suddenly realize that maybe something is just not quite right with how things are looking on the screen.
The layout feels outdated or there’s too much text-on-text going on. Or maybe your logo doesn’t stand out anymore because it blends in with all of the other logos at the top of each page? It might be time to consider a redesign! Here are some signs that this could be true:
1. Mobile users are not spending time on your website
One of the things you probably had in mind when building your website was how it would perform on mobile devices. You know, that small screen that everybody has in their pocket that they check every minute or so while they’re walking around the streets, sitting down for lunch, commuting to work…
But if more than half of your traffic comes from mobile and your visitors aren’t spending much time on the website, that’s a sign that either your layout is not optimized for mobile or your content isn’t very engaging.
Test your website on a variety of devices and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. There are no methods around this – you should be considering a website redesign if you can’t see the text or get access to the information adequately from your phone.
2. No one is sharing your content
You know that awareness and visibility are key in getting new customers, so you made sure to promote your website on all of the social media platforms, right? But maybe you’re not seeing much activity there either. This could be a sign that your site content isn’t interesting enough or that it doesn’t apply to a wide enough audience.
Try posting some articles and blog posts around topics that you know your customers would be interested in and encourage sharing them with their networks. None of this will matter if nobody wants to click on the link… What’s more, people sometimes share content without visiting it first so there might be a problem with access as well.
3. Your website hasn’t been updated in a long time
It doesn’t matter how clean and fresh your site was when you first created it – things change, trends come and go, business needs evolve. What worked well for you back then might not work well for you today, or what used to be “out of your budget” now falls within your budget.
In any case, if you haven’t been updating your site for a long time now, it’s probably starting to feel stale and old. Websites that look outdated tend to have less traffic and they’re not as effective at gaining new customers either. Your business might be missing out on a lot of opportunities.
So, if you feel like it’s time for your website to get an upgrade, don’t hesitate. Reach out to a web designer near you and discuss the possibilities available in the current industry standards. You might be surprised by how many affordable solutions are available these days!
4. Your customers are complaining about your site
Customer feedback is something that every business should track. You never know what people are thinking or how they feel about your products, services and overall experience… until you ask them.
You could have a discussion with your customers but it’s not always easy to find time for that – which is why surveys could be an effective option. Or maybe even consider turning to social media networks to ask your customers’ opinions.
You can discover a lot just by listening – and this might come in handy if you notice that the feedback you receive is saying the same thing over and over again: “your website doesn’t work”. You might want to consider having this conversation with your team…
If they think your website design is doing a great job, perhaps you should think about investing in a website redesign effort. Or maybe it’s something else that is causing the problems and you need to check other sources as well before coming to any conclusions.
5. Google Analytics isn’t showing the traffic you expected
Google Analytics can be one of your best friends if you know how to use it and if you’re willing to track all the necessary information. The website traffic data that you get from this tool could be a great indicator of whether or not your site needs a redesign.
If you ever thought about ecommerce, for example, but didn’t see enough people going through the checkout process… Well, maybe your checkout page isn’t as user-friendly as it could be. Or maybe people just prefer to use cash, but you don’t know that because they’re not giving any feedback!
You can do so much with Google Analytics data – you just have to take the time to learn how to read it and act upon the information provided.
6. Your site is super slow
First impressions matter! If people have a hard time loading your website, chances are they’ll experience an immediate turn-off and keep browsing. The last thing you want is for them to close the page right away so it’s important to make sure that your site loads as quickly as possible.
If you ever googled “website speed” chances are you’ll find plenty of articles and infographics on the subject. People are more impatient than ever, especially when it comes to browsing online. If your site takes too long to load, expect them to leave right away (before they even get the chance to see your content).
7. Your website is blocking ad-blockers
If you’re using an outdated version of Adobe Flash, for example, you might be in trouble. You see, ad-blockers are becoming increasingly popular these days – much to the delight of web surfers everywhere. People don’t want to go through all this online “clutter” so they’d rather block it altogether.
Adobe Flash content is one of the things that can be blocked when using an ad-blocker (and if you’re not surprised by this fact, chances are you’re guilty). If you don’t know how to handle it and fix the problem quickly, work with a web design agency in Woodbridge, NJ.
8. SEO has become an afterthought
SEO is still a thing, as much as some people want to deny it. If you were planning on creating new blog posts and sharing them on social networks… Well, those things won’t do you any good if you have no SEO strategy in place.
And that’s just one example! You could be using other SEO strategies and optimizing your site in a well-thought-out way to increase your chances of ranking higher. If you don’t want people to find you, nobody will – and it goes both ways!
Website redesigning is an important thing – and if you need to make sure people find your site, consider hiring a web design agency in New Jersey.