Your online presence matters. A survey conducted by Top Firm Designs in 2021 revealed that 50% of consumers believe website design is crucial to a business’s overall brand and 42% of people will leave a website because of poor functionality.
Without the right website design, all of your search engine optimization efforts could be wasted on half your target audience. Your business needs more than just a website. You need a site that will engage your potential customers, build your credibility and drive sales.
So, how do you know when your website is serving your target customer well and how do you determine it’s time to give your website a facelift?
User experience is becoming more and more important. It’s no longer enough just to have a website, you have to have a site the meets the needs of your users. For most of your new leads, your website will be the first place they interact with your business. So making a good first impression online is a must.
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Below are 6 reasons you may need to consider a website redesign project:
1. Your Website is Not Mobile Friendly
On April 21st, 2015 Google rolled out a new algorithm that penalized the ranking of websites that were found to not be mobile-friendly. This came as a result of more people searching on mobile devices than on desktops. While many website owners did make the switch to meet the new requirements, there are still a number of sites that are not mobile-friendly. Having a mobile site not only helps your users but can help your business as well.
As of today, Google reports that “while nearly 75% of users prefer a mobile-friendly site, 96% of consumers say they’ve encountered sites that were clearly not designed for mobile devices.”
If you are not sure if your site is mobile-friendly or not, check out the free mobile-friendly tool from Google here. If you need help, we’d be more than happy to check it out for you.
2. You Have Poor Search Engine Rankings
Your design impacts your ranking. This is one fact many SEOs and site owners overlook. UX is one of the most important factors Google looks at when determining whether or not your site should rank for a particular term. In a 2021 survey by GoodFirms, not having a responsive design is rated as a top reason visitors might leave a website, according to a survey of 200+ web designers and freelancers. Your website is often your first opportunity to connect with a potential client. It’s vital to have a website that’s easy to read on any device.
In addition to responsive design, you must execute SEO best practices throughout your entire website redesign. Adding keywords to headers that contextualize your business services on the home page is just as vital as remembering to include a search bar.
One of the main philosophies of Google has always been providing the best user experience for its searchers. These include things like site performance, usability, and mobile-friendliness which are all part of Google’s algorithm.
A poor user experience could prevent your online business from maximizing its full potential in organic search result pages, which would then reduce your conversions.
A bad user experience can have a long-term impact on your digital reach. Should you decide to acquire users via paid search ads your user experience isn’t great, it might cause Google to lower your quality score, which would increase the cost per click (CPC) for your ads.
3. Your Bounce Rate Is Too High
Not sure what that is? Here is the definition of bounce rate.
If you are using Google Analytics to track your site, and I highly suggest you do, you can see your bounce rate from your site’s “Audience Overview”.
According to SEMRush, and 41% to 55% would be considered an average bounce rate. An optimal bounce rate would be in the 26% to 40% range. Anything above 55% should be evaluated.
Bounce rate is calculated using the following equation.
Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing One Page / Total Number of Visits to that Page
A higher-than-average bounce rate means your users are finding your site boring or non-engaging. This could mean it’s time for a website redesign.
4. Your Site Looks Old
This one is tricky. If you have a mobile-friendly site with good rankings and have a healthy bounce rate don’t mess with your site. Even if your site looks outdated, if it serves its purpose and your users like it, leave it alone. Your website is for your ideal customer first! But if your site isn’t doing well in the first three areas and looks outdated, a website redesign could just be the fix you need.
On the other hand, if you are looking to expand your business and reach new prospective customers you may want to include a custom website design as part of your new marketing goals. In this case, you will want to make sure your redesign strategy and content strategy align.
5. Your Website is Too Slow
A slow website can be a killer. In 2019 Google commissioned a study conducted by 55 and Deloitte. They discovered that decreasing mobile site load times by just one-tenth of a second resulted in significant increases in conversion rates ‚specifically, 8.4% for retail sites and 10.1% for travel sites.
Because of the high-speed connections available across the US, users have become extremely impatient. If your site takes too long to load, they will leave. But by updating your site and building it on a faster platform, you could capture more traffic and increase your business revenue.
6. Your Website is Hard to Update
Are you still having to edit your site the “old fashion” way? Content Management Systems (CMS) have come a long way in the past few years and there is no reason you should have to learn code just so you can put up a new offer on your site. It’s important that your content remains relevant to your users. This means your website needs to be updated as much as your users demand. Having a CMS that is easy to use will help you stay on top of things and relieve some unneeded stress.
Your website is the digital front door to your company. Making sure that your site meets your users’ needs will have an enormous impact on your business. If you feel like your site fits into any or all of these reasons, it may be time to look at investing in a website redesign.
A better website = better user experience = happy customers = more business!
Do you have specific redesign goals for your website? The redesign process can be daunting. Download our 10-point checklist for a website redesign project plan. It will help ensure you cover every important aspect of your next site redesign.
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