By Jennifer Boeder
“Re-design website” is a task that’s on almost everyone’s to-do list.
Maintaining a website can feel like fixing an old building—there’s always something that needs to be fixed or updated. Neglecting home repairs can be expensive if they lead to worse problems (leaky pipes can lead to mold, faulty wiring can lead to fires). While a neglected website won’t set your house aflame, it can be extremely expensive in the long run.
Your website is actually your brand’s first impression, and should be your best salesperson. It not only needs to look good, in this day and age it needs to work well—loading swiftly and offering the user a simple path to find what they need.
Do you need a website redesign? Here are the questions our designers and developers use to help our clients decide whether or not it’s time for a refresh:
1. Are you proud of your website?
If you are disappointed, frustrated or making mental lists of what typos and images you need to fix when you look at it? It needs a makeover.
Your website is a digital representation of your brand, so you should take pride in how it looks. If you aren’t pleased when you look at it, it’s doubtful prospective clients or leads are either.
2. Does your website load quickly and consistently?
A slow website is a big problem. Today’s users have extremely high expectations for load time speed—which means you should get out a stopwatch and time how fast your site loads. Ideally, it should load in 1 to 4 seconds, as data shows every second a site takes to load results in a steep drop in conversions. Google research showed that a whopping 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take more than three seconds to load.
“If you can make the site a second faster, you can drive engagement by five percent,” says Cait O’Riordan of The Financial Times. There are many potential causes for a slow loading site, from unoptimized images to bad code and poor hosting services. Get a professional to evaluate the problem and fix it.
3. Can a stranger visit your site and know what your business is and does—in under 15 seconds?
Websites in the first decade of the 2000s were all about dazzling the user with a dynamic audio-visual experience—interactive menus, splash pages, and decorative animations were added to wow the viewer and make an impression.
Now? The trend is towards simplicity. People are short on time and shorter on patience—they just want to know if you can help them with their problem. If your site confuses them, they’ll leave and find one that’s helpful. We advise our clients to give users fewer menus, fewer choices, and to include a clear statement on the home page that says who you are and what you do in one short sentence.
It’s frankly shocking how many websites offer their visitors no way to determine what the brand is or does. Show someone who Isn’t familiar with your business your website. After 15 seconds, ask them what you do and what problems you solve. If they don’t have an answer? Your site needs a makeover.
4. Is your website more than three years old?
It probably feels like you just revised your website last week—but honestly, if it’s been more than three years, it’s time for a refresh. Three years is a blink of an eye when technology is advancing so rapidly. An old site that uses old technology makes it hard to keep up with all the new requirements by search engines, and can impact your SEO ranking.
5. Is your website optimized for mobile?
This one is a no-brainer. By the end of 2021, mobile devices made up 63 percent of organic search engine visits! Check your site on mobile, and again—ask a friend who’s unfamiliar with your business to browse your site on their phone to make sure the UX is smooth, simple and clear.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, users get a clear impression of your business when your website is slow, glitchy, outdated, hard to navigate or full of typos—and it’s a rare business that can afford to make a bad impression.
A clean, well-organized, fast-loading, easy-to-navigate website tells visitors you’ve got your act together. It’s far beyond cosmetic: an outstanding website should be part of your successful business strategy.
Does your website need a refresh? We can help with that, let’s talk!
COMMENTS