Technology comes and goes, just think about how often you upgrade your smartphone. The same can be said for website design! If you’re the owner of a business, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about how you can make the business more effective, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to ensure that your website is always working with you, rather than against you.
With the world of web design constantly evolving and your customers’ web habits changing so regularly, your website isn’t something that can remain stagnant. If you don’t measure how effective it is, you might start to see returns dwindle. If you’re wondering where to start, here’s 10 quick ways to check if your website might need a redesign.
Your website has a high bounce rate
Google Analytics defines a ‘bounce rate’ as the percentage of visitors that only visit a single page, rather than clicking through and exploring deeper parts of your website. If a visitor only visits a single page it might be that they cannot find what they’re looking for, weren’t interesting in learning more about your business or they were finding your website too slow or difficult to use.
As a rule of thumb, if your website has a bounce rate of 70%-90% then you should definitely be considering a redesign.
Your website is slow to load
This one is pretty important. In the modern age of instant gratification, if a user clicks on a website, they expect it to load pretty much instantaneously. However, quick loading times go beyond a user’s on-site experience, Google will actually penalise your site if your loading times are too low! The slower it takes to low, the more severe the penalty.
If this is something you haven’t considered then it might be worth looking at Google’s Pagespeed Tools.
Your website offers a poor experience to mobile users
This should come as no surprise to you, but mobile internet browsing is HUGE. In fact, mobile vs desktop usage stats in 2020 reveal 50% of B2B inquiries are made on mobile. This is just one of multiple reasons why having a good mobile experience is crucial in 2020.
E-Commerce on mobile has also skyrocketed in recent years, with customers in the UK being the biggest spenders in the world! This shows that people are shopping on the move or when they have a quick break, so capitalise on this with a great mobile site!
Mobile focussed websites also load much faster and as we mentioned before, page load times play a big part in how well your website ranks on Google.
Your website ‘looks outdated’
Web design has changed dramatically in recent years and so have businesses (especially in the Covid-19 era). If your website hasn’t been updated in the last few years, it might look a bit old fashioned which won’t be doing your business any favours. Your website should explain everything your business is about and it should help you build trust & loyalty with new and existing customers.
Even doing a quick google search of ‘worst websites’ will show you everything you should avoid. If your website has any similar traits – it’s time to get rid!
You can’t update your own content
If you have to rely on a web developer every time you want to change some wording, add a blog post or perform otherwise simple tasks, it’s costing you and your company time and money.
Having a good CMS (content management system) such as WordPress, Hubspot, Joomla or Squarespace ensures that making changes to your website is as painless as possible without having to learn any new skills like coding!
If you’re considering a website redesign and you want to speak to our team of experts, get in touch with us, we’d be happy to help you!