If you are in charge of a website, you will probably eventually wonder when you should update the website design. The task can seem daunting; lots of people put it off in hopes of avoiding it altogether.
But leaving a site to succumb to outdated content and layouts is terrible for business. Here is a list of signs it’s time for a site redesign. These signs could be the difference between turning a profit and losing an audience.
Five Signs It's Time for a New Website Design
Loading Times Are Slow
Pages that take more than two seconds to load usually send users away from a website. Plus, if a site isn’t optimized to load correctly, it won’t rank well in mobile searches either. Slow loading times generally translate to out-of-date content. It’s essential to address this factor during a new website design.
Mobile Use Is a Chore
All the search optimization in the world won’t help if a site is unusable on a mobile device. Mobile devices overtook computers as the primary search tool quite some time ago. Businesses who do not cater to mobile searches miss out on a broad segment of their potential audience.
Some tips for bare-bones mobile optimization include:
- Ensuring text is legible
- Making sure that images appear correctly
- Setting up the site in a way that’s easy to navigate on a small screen
The Competition's New Website Design
Everyone was told not the follow the crowd as a kid, but the concept has an exception. Brands should look into a new website design if their competition is creating shiny new setups.
A business shouldn’t just copy another brand’s site, but every competitor offers a chance to learn. It’s vital to remain competitive– and one of the best ways to do it is to hang with the competition stride for stride.
The Site Is Text-Heavy
Text is a great way to communicate the information that someone feels is important to share– but it doesn’t help most audience members learn. Lots of people are visual learners– walls of text won’t help them or inspire them to make a purchase.
Try to work pictures, videos, graphics, and other formatting into a site to ease down on text blocks. Some segments of text can likely be summarized in short videos or condensed into helpful infographics.
It's Hard To Update Content
One of the keys to success in the digital sphere is continuously updated content. The more a brand puts out high-quality content, the more likely searchers are to come across it; it establishes a brand as an authority, helps grow their overall content base, and creates new avenues to attract potential customers. It is time to do perform a new website design, the second it gets too difficult to update content. A brand’s digital marketing strategy won’t last if nobody wants to create or edit content.
Effective Website Designs Are Vital To Doing Business
It is 2020. If a website feels outdated or doesn’t perform to standard, it’s going to cost a brand business. The good news is that there are plenty of easy steps site owners can take to improve how users experience their content. Simple tricks like optimizing for mobile and switching out text for images could help more than most people anticipate.