14 signs that show you really need a new website

To remain relevant in the market today, it’s imperative for your website to stay in line with current web design trends and users’ habits. 

But how do you know your website needs a new design?

Think for a moment about your website. You want a visually appealing website that brings sales and engages and converts users. If your website is not bringing you these benefits – it’s time for a website redesign. However, the need for website redesign is not always visible to the bare eye. You’ll have to look over your data and conversion stats. To see how your content is performing. To discover the fields your competitors excel at.

If you are not satisfied with the results, or, if you have outdated design and visual content, there’s a reason to consider redesigning your website. Moreover, if your site has a slow loading time or bad UX and user journey, that is another one.

As you can see, there are many factors to consider before you decide to revamp your website. So, not knowing whether your website needs a new design is perfectly fine. To help you with your decision, we have listed the most common reasons that indicate a website needs a new design.

Your website is not visually attractive and feels outdated

If any part of your website is outdated, it’s time for a redesign. The digital world is an ever-changing world and demands your full attention. Web standards and trends shift each year, dictating new tools and technologies for building attractive, user-focused sites.

The same is happening with users’ tastes and habits. The way your site looks and works, impacts your brand identity and affects the visitors the most, so applying current demands are imperative.

You are not a rival to your competitors

If you are not visible to search engines and do not have an interactive social media marketing strategy that brings results unlike your competition, it’s time for a redesign. If your competitors reap all the benefits, while you keep asking yourself what you did or are doing wrong, your business is not competitive.

It’s crucial for you to continually monitor the competition and understand how competitive intelligence brings your benefits. Check out the list of the most shared content in your industry, if you are not on them, and your competition is, there are gaps you need to fill.

Your brand message is not clear and transparent

Most of your potential buyers are first gathering information before buying your service or products. And they are coming to your website from different sources and landing on different pages. Whatever the landing page is, you need to amaze them with clear, transparent and effective content about your company and services.

How do you know your content is not informative and user-friendly? Answer the following questions:

• Have you noticed a huge bounce rate?
• Do you have low conversion rates?
• Are you implementing an effective content marketing strategy?
• Is your blog content unattractive?
• Are your competitors successfully performing against your target keywords?

Your visitors are not converting to customers  

If you lack modern features or your checkouts are long and include outdated billing tools, that is another reason to consider building a new website. A website which is not built for conversion, will not only draw away your potential buyers but make your business look unprofessional to first-time visitors. Your brand will seem out of touch with modern buyers, and users will not convert into customers.

In the end, a poor conversion rate is one of the clearest signs your website needs a refresh.

Your website is not helping you with your business goals

Your website is a close ally to your business in several ways. The way your website looks, feels and works, enormously affects your marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. For example, your marketing strategy has to work towards the goal to attract and engage more users. Also, to generate more leads and better support the company brand or raise awareness.

An outdated website can’t keep up with such demands. Your website has to be able to generate enough qualified leads for which you have to provide remarkable website performance as well.

Your visitors cannot easily navigate the site when on mobile or tablets

Having a device friendly website is no longer exclusive, it’s a standard. If you still haven’t optimised your website, a new design is a must. A quick website checkup can show you whether you need a new website in terms of investing in new technology, but you will have to dig deeper to find out more about your content performance on mobile devices. You have to make your content optimised for each device for several crucial reasons.

Your website is not fast enough for your visitors

The current trend is a loading time under 2 seconds. If your website is slower than this, that is a moment for a new website and improvements. There is a number of reasons that could slow websites’ loading speed. You might have heavy unoptimised images, underpowered hosting, and even an old, poorly performing website theme.

This is another reason why it’s good to have a dev team by your side. They could detect the reasons that slow the website and solve them on time.

Your website is not secured and protected

If you are still using the web technology that had its last update years ago, it’s time you take your business website seriously. Older websites are even more in danger as they rely on technology’s security updates. That’s why you always need to have the newest version and updates of the technology you use. This is crucial for complex online platforms and e-commerce websites which store sensitive data such as billing or personal information of customers.

Remember that the truth is that any site can be hacked. So make sure that the important data which can expose and endanger your users, as well as your business, are properly secured.

You are not communicating the right message with your content

If you are not getting inquiries from the type of clients you want to work with, you are not communicating the message correctly. This problem might be the result of badly positioned or outdated images or content which probably draw away your perfect user.

Another possible scenario is that your current website doesn’t reflect your message anymore in a way that is preferable for the users.

Your branding has changed

If your business has new branding, your website needs to reflect those changes to the core. In other words, your website also has to be redesigned. Otherwise, users won’t be able to recognise your brand and you will lose a significant number of them.

Remember, your site promotes your brand 24/7 in the online world. You have to be sure that your website reflects your brand to both old and new clients, especially if you have changed your branding.

Your business has outgrown your online presentation  

When/If you can’t handle a large scale of users anymore, it is another reason to redevelop your site. That means that your website requires a stronger and more reliable platform that will not slow down the website. Fortunately, there are several technologies able to optimise and maintain such changes, such as Vue js or Angular combined with powerful backend frameworks.

Your website is not aligned with your marketing strategy

To be able to keep with modern marketing demands your website have to be geared up for any marketing change and opportunities. 

If not, that is a perfect moment for a new, marketing-oriented business site. Needless to say how important this is for e-commerce businesses.

If your numbers are flat and your new or edited content are ineffective, the problem might be in your current website. You should be able to add or remove sections, add plugins or any other functions.

You’re not using AI

Different AI features are nowadays available to implement on the website. From AI chatbots to sales and marketing tools that you can use to make your website work better – AI is all about catering to your users and their needs. 

So if you are not using any AI tools, it is definitely a reason to start thinking about a redesign.

You are thinking about website redesign all the time

You probably think this for a reason. Some things can’t go unnoticed. If you are still not sure, look again at your numbers.

Don’t hesitate to change the current web design. 

To sum up

There are many reasons and signs that can help you decide that it’s time for a new one. However, before leaping into the redesign and development process, do your research, analyse your data and plan the redesign carefully.

If you are still not sure where to start with designing your new website, get in touch with us and we will gladly help you.