So you have a website and things are going well. It’s been a few years since you released it and your competitors are keeping up with you with updated sites and new, fresh content. Is it time to redesign? It is true that sites can get “stale” and after some time, they can be due for a refresh. But when to pull the trigger has a lot to do with your market and your goals.
Here are some tips on when it’s time to update your site.
- Your content is old and your images feel outdated – If your images look like they are from the 80s, it’s time to change things up. Websites get old and stale and you need to keep content and imagery fresh. Compare your site to your competition and see if it’s time for some new blood.
- Your website isn’t responsive – We’ve talked a lot about this. If your site isn’t responsive you need to redesign now. 40-60% of your traffic is coming from a mobile device of some kind and you are potentially losing business with an unfriendly site. Google now takes mobile friendliness into account when determining search rankings for users in mobile browsers.
- Your site is slow – If your site takes a long time to load, not only is this a bad experience for users but Google also recognizes this and will rank you accordingly. Newer technology gives way to faster loading times and if you are behind the pack, it’s time to deal with it.
- You’ve seen a decline in site interaction – If you have a downward trend in key interaction statistics such as pages per visit and % exit rate, it could be time to redesign. Approximately 75% of visitors say they make judgments about a company’s credibility based on their website design, and on average it takes them just half a second to form an opinion. If you are seeing ongoing drops, don’t wait another second to make this decision.
- Search engines ignore you – If your search rankings are nonexistent and you have been practicing good SEO for a while now, it might be time for an update. It could be that the architecture behind your site build is what is causing the problem and addressing this will get you one step closer to the rankings you want. It could also be a content issue if your site was written with yesterday’s search engine in mind. Flash is also a no-no, so dump it for newer technology.
- Making updates has become a nightmare – Does it take an army of engineers just to replace a sentence on your website? With new and very easy to use content management systems like WordPress, even the web-illiterate can make changes on the fly. Simply put, making updates to your site should not be a painful experience.
- You’re embarrassed to tell people your URL – If your site is so bad that you think twice before giving out your URL, the items above don’t even matter. Your site has to embody your brand and absolutely has to be something you are proud to showcase. If it’s not a good resource for you and what you sell, make it one.
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7 Signs It's Time for a Site Redesign
Description
Is it time to redesign your website? Here are 7 indicators from Sector 45 that your site is out of date — and you could be losing business because of it.
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Sector 45
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Sector 45
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