So you think you need your website redesigned? How do you know? We're going to provide you with the top 10 signs that your website is in desperate need of a redesign or rebuild. If you check off YES on more than 2 of these, you might be at the rebuilding phase of your website journey.
Sign #1 - You aren't getting any leads from your website
If it’s been 2, 3, 6, or 12 months since you’ve gotten any leads off your website, you might need a redesign. Sometimes this can be caused by SEO issues or lack of lead generation efforts, but many times, it’s partially if not entirely the fault of the website itself.
Many design-oriented problems can contribute to loss of leads or lack of leads on your website. SEO structure and design have changed a LOT in the last two years even, so if you’re just not getting any activity on your website, it’s a good idea to look at a website redesign. Our expert Nashville SEO team can help boost the number of leads coming to your website.
See our SEO services for more information about how to drive leads into your website!
Sign #2 - It's Not Responsive or Mobile-Friendly
If you look at your website and it looks like the phone to the right you might need a rebuild.
What’s wrong with it?
All of its content is squished onto a small screen which means it’s hard to read and any buttons are hard to interact with.
Currently, Google checks and determines a good portion of its ranking based on your mobile usability. They do not want to serve websites to users that do not comply with modern, responsive web design. Not only will Google hurt you, but when you do get traffic to your site on a mobile device (usually 50% of all traffic or close to it), you risk losing business to this problem. When we see this, it’s an automatic rebuild – no matter what!
Sign #3 - You can't update content or images on your site
If you don’t know how to log into your website admin, don’t have a website admin, or don’t know what a website admin is, it’s likely time you looked at rebuilding your website. 😉 Updating images and content on your site are crucial functions that you 100% need to be able to do to run your website. If you can’t make changes at the drop of a hat, you need to look at rebuilding your site. Don’t get caught where you need an update and can’t get it done!
Sign #4 - Branding Does Not Match
Sometimes people will go through the exercise of updating their company’s branding, but in the process, forget to update that brand across their website. Rebranding is a HUGE reason to look at redoing your website. Brands and websites are SO closely related and tied together, and it often makes sense to handle them both at the same time. That way, we can execute your brand on your website and use your website to support your brand.
Sign #5 - Low Traffic / High Bounce Rate
If you’ve got your Google Analytics hooked up (as you should), you’ll be able to tell quickly if your website needs a kick in the ass. One good way to know is to look at your top-performing pages. If the bounce rate is more than 80% and/or you have a traffic count of fewer than 100 visits per month hitting your main pages, you’re likely in need of some help. SEO alone can sometimes fix this, but if this is combined with any of these other issues, you need to start by rebuilding your website to help SEO produce a real impact!
Sign #6 - Slow Load Time
If you’ve ever been to a website that takes 10 seconds or more to load, you’ve likely left before it completed. There is nothing worse than a slow loading website. (See here for why website speed matters). A slow load time kills conversion, SEO, and User Experience.
Sometimes this is fixable with caching, hosting, CDN’s and website improvements. Sometimes you have to know when to cut your losses and start over again. Don’t let a slow load time of more than 4 seconds contribute to your business development loss. It’s a problem we can easily solve for you!
Sign #7 - Broken Links / Bad Structure
If you’ve redone things inside your website more than once, the chances are good that you suffer from broken links or a lousy SEO structure on your website. This happens when you end up with pages five levels deep in your structure or pages that link to nowhere, causing 404 errors on your website. Sometimes this can be fixed, but again, couple this problem with any one of the issues listed on this page, it’s better to start over.
Furthermore, on this topic, a bad website structure kills SEO efforts, while an excellent website structure will boost your SEO efforts. In the competitive online world we live in, I’d rather be on the boosted side of this equation!
Sign #8 - Business Direction Change
If you’ve added products, or services, or changed the direction or focus of your business, it’s most likely that your messaging on your website is off or isn’t communicating to your target audience. If the messaging is not matching the images and layout of your website isn’t helping. At this point, it’s usually best to start again. It might be that you need to rebrand, but maybe it’s just that proper messaging and website flow can help you get back on top of your game. Whenever you pivot your business heavily, like most owners are doing during COVID, you really should be looking at your website.
James K Polk’s Old Site – Check out their New Site 🙂
Sign #9 - Design is out of date
This one is a little more “person to person” depending on what types of designs you like. However, think about your audience. If your audience is someone that would buy a BMW, but your website is messy and old looking, are they likely to do business with you? If you’re selling new mufflers, but your website is very corporate looking, will people trust that you know what you’re doing with their cars? Design isn’t always about what YOU like, but about what your audience NEEDS to ensure that they do business with you.
Some quick signs your design is struggling…
- You’ve used images to display text on a page because you couldn’t style the text
- You’re not responsive or mobile-friendly
- You’ve got the old HTML blinking effect going on
- Your website is contained in a very narrow container with tons of white-space on either side of it
- It just “feels” like it’s been around for a long time. (Sort of like wood panel walls in a basement)
Our Tennessee web design services can fix you right up 🙂
Sign #10 - It'll cost more to fix it than flush it
If you’re looking at a bill of \$3-5k (or more) to fix all of your website’s problems, it’s likely WAY more beneficial for you to rebuild (sometimes even cheaper). If you’ve got 8 out of 10 of these things wrong – or even 3 out of 10 – it can be honestly less expensive to start over and build an SEO effective website that follows your company’s brand.
If you’re reading this and you’re unsure if you need a new website, we’re happy to put on our website audit hats and give you a hand.
We offer complimentary audits, as well as paid audits that dig deep into your web presence. For more information, check out our website audit page to start with a FREE website audit.
Muletown Digital offer Web Design services to businesses throughout Tennessee, including Columbia, Nashville, Spring Hill, Brentwood and Franklin.
