Undergoing a website redesign can be a big commitment; however, having an updated website is essential for enabling you to remain competitive in any industry. If you haven’t updated your website in the past few years, you may actually be hindering your business and your online presence with an outdated site. Here are four telltale signs that you need a redesign.
1. Your Website Doesn’t Work on Mobile Devices
Redesigning a website is about more that just updating the look and feel; it’s also about updating the functionality. Your site should be compatible and easy to use on all devices. If it’s not, you could be losing customers. If your user is unable to access your site from the device of their choosing, they just might move on to a competitor that offers a better mobile experience. According to a study by Google, 61 percent of people will leave a website if it fails to display properly on their phone.
Google actually penalizes those who are not mobile-friendly by lowering their ranking in search results. Since more than 20 percent of Google searches are performed on mobile devices along with more than half of local searches, this could significantly reduce your traffic.
2. Your Search Engine Rankings Are Low
Search engine algorithms are constantly changing and marketers have seen quite a few major changes to SEO take place over the last few years. It used to be that packing content and meta tags with endless keywords could considerably improve SEO, but now that kind of blackhat SEO behavior could seriously hurt search results.
A website redesign will allow you the chance to update your website with fresh, high-quality, original content written with current SEO practices in mind.
3. You Aren’t Using a Content Management System (CMS)
There is nothing worse than wanting to add something to your website and having to jump through hoops to do it. If you’re still relying on your IT department to add or remove things from your site then it’s time to consider a content management system (CMS).
A CMS allows you to easily update information on your website including current content, new pages, and blog posts to keep everything relevant and up to date. And all this can be done without the help trained web developer to edit code. Best of all, you gain full control over your website while saving time and money.
4. Your Website Doesn’t Add Value for Your Customer
Even if you are receiving a reasonable number of visitors to your website, you may still require a website redesign. A potential customer might visit once, but if they do not find anything of value, they are unlikely to return. That means your website needs to feature a large amount of interesting, useful, and helpful information that is updated regularly. Updating your website to be current, discoverable, and filled with great content will benefit your business and keep your customers happy (and coming back for more!).
If your website is missing any of these 4 important elements, it’s probably time to get started on a redesign. Although a website redesign may seem complicated, expensive, and scary, it can be a fun process that gets you back in touch with your organization’s mission and values. On top of that it’s a necessary step to ensure you retain your current customers, gain new clients, and present the best possible view of your company.
Ready to redesign your businesses website? Let’s go!
Article by Jacey Gulden
