7 Reasons Your Website May Require a Redesign

The last time you launched your website, you got some great feedback. People loved the design, the usability, and the overall aesthetic. However, like anything else, technology and user trends change, and websites need to change with them. The website you launched years ago may not be holding up now as well as it did when it first launched. In this post, we’ll talk about common issues that might call for a website redesign.

Your last redesign was several years ago.

Technology and user trends change rapidly, and in any business, you need to be ahead of the curve. If it’s been several years since your last redesign, you need to take a hard look at your site’s layout and usability. Information architecture, typography, color scheme, and styling are all important factors that you should investigate. The best way to gauge your site design is to just be brutally honest: does your website look good and function as intended? If the answer to either of these is no, you need to upgrade. You may even want to consider scheduling a discovery phase to get to the root of the problem(s).

Your last content audit was also several years ago.

Content and design go hand-in-hand, and one can only succeed with the other. A content audit involves looking at the images, text, and structure, but there’s a lot more to content than what’s on the page. Is your copy optimized for SEO? Are your site structure and internal linking strategy sound? Do images have appropriate titles and alt tags? A lot of it is behind-the-scenes technical work, but it goes a long way towards increasing your search visibility.

Your target landing pages have low traffic.

What are the key actions you want users to take when they visit your website? If those actions lie on pages with low traffic, you obviously have a big problem. You need to guide users toward those pages and provide them with a positive experience once they get there. Key landing pages vary depending on the nature of your business or organization – they could feature services, academic programs, portfolio work, and more. These pages house critical information and play a large role in shaping the user’s journey, so low traffic is a good indicator of a design or content strategy flaw.

Your website is not mobile friendly.

The primary source of website traffic is slowly shifting away from desktops and towards mobile devices. It’s easy to see why – we’re on our phones all the time. With that being said, it’s crucial that your website has a completely responsive design that can adapt to varying screen sizes. If images are cut off or text is too hard to read, you are going to lose visitors, plain and simple. A website without a dedicated mobile design is at a huge disadvantage. Here are some stats if you aren’t convinced:

Your conversion rates need a boost.

If your website isn’t reaching target conversion rates or other KPI’s, chances are you need to rethink your strategy. Low conversion rates could be a result of a multitude of factors, including loading times, information accessibility, user experience, or even the content itself. Make sure your key pages feature call-to-action buttons that direct users to the next step in their website journey. Lack of call-to-action buttons is one of the biggest culprits of poor conversion rates.

Your pages have slow loading times.

Slow loading times are another classic example of your website showing its age. Is your hosting provider up to par? Do you have proper caching mechanisms and/or a content delivery network (CDN) in place? Are your images optimized? These all play a part in loading times, and you need your pages to load in about three seconds. This is particularly important in today’s age with more people browsing from their phones, where they might only have a 3G connection as opposed to a strong WiFi connection. Fast loading times also make for a positive user experience and lower bounce rates, which will help your SEO efforts.

Your website isn’t compliant with accessibility standards.

Accessibility concerns have become increasingly apparent in the last few years. You absolutely need to make sure that your site is 508 compliant, which means that anyone with a disability can access your content. People with disabilities use assistive technology like screen readers to access content, so you need to test (both automated and manual) if your website is compliant. Failure to do so not only limits your potential traffic but could put you at risk for a lawsuit.

A lot to keep up with.

There’s a lot that goes into building a successful website. With technology advancing so rapidly, businesses need to constantly evaluate their website to keep up. If your last redesign was several years ago, chances are your website is behind on content, design, or technical standards. Take an honest look at your site and ask yourself if you’re short on any of these fronts.