To maintain a quality online presence, you need to ensure that your website adheres to modern web design standards. The qualities of a well-designed, accessible website just 10 years ago are starkly different to that of a website today, and it’s critical for any business owner to make sure their own websites are with the times, and don’t appear outdated to potential new customers.
You may be unsure as to whether or not your website needs updating, or even a full rebuild – and that’s a fair (and very common) thing for business owners to wonder. Here is a starter checklist to help you decide.
Pages are loading too slowly
Web users today are how how they’ve always been… impatient. They’re not going to wait around for your crazy, cool and flashy graphics to load. Especially when competitor sites will load their full content within just a couple of seconds.
Test every single one of your pages on both desktop and mobile – if you find they are taking longer than a few seconds to load completely, then you need to think about getting a new website. Not only will this drive users away from your website towards competitors, but your site will lose footing in Google’s rankings, which now take into account loading speed when determining how high up your website is placed on its search engine.
Outdated aesthetics
It may go without saying, but your website needs to look modern. No matter how well your user journey flows or how fast your pages load, customers will instantly be put off by typography, graphics and bright, obnoxious color schemes.
Some examples of dated web design are:
This rule also applies to your website’s content – if your homepage content hasn’t been updated to include current events and recent work, visitors are likely to turn away from your business as it looks old and unmaintained. The same standard applies to your business’ social media and content updates – if you have a blog set up on the site, make sure new content is published regularly so that customers can see the website is active.
Your site is unresponsive
In the past decade we have seen a huge shift towards mobile, as smartphones have become more and more powerful & versatile. Mobile traffic now makes up the majority of all web traffic globally – business owners can no longer get away with a website that works well on desktop, but not on mobile and tablet devices.
There are several factors to ensure a good mobile experience, such as:
Your website no longer works with present-day branding
All successful businesses must adapt with the times – we’ve seen several major global brands adjust their brand identity over the years. As the years pass, it’s important to know if your business’ current branding is still suitable for your target demographic.
If your business has recently undergone a change in branding, check your website to make sure it still falls in line with your new brand direction. If new customers notice that your website branding differs from your general brand, they’ll be confused as to what message your business is trying to send to them.
Not getting traffic from Google
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to adjusting your website so that it can score higher within Google’s page-ranking algorithm. The more your website is optimized, the higher up it will display when someone searches keywords relevant to your business. There are two types:
If your website isn’t ranking very high on search engines, it may be time for a bit of a redesign, alongside a well-planned SEO strategy. It’s always best to take SEO into account early, as it means you will have to make less changes throughout the rest of the design process.
Are you able to make your own website updates?
Most websites today implement some form of ‘content management’. A content management system allows the site owner to easily publish and modify content such as webpage text, images and blog posts, without needing to contact the web developer to make such changes.
Using an outdated system may not allow you to update your website as frequently as you wish, and you could find yourself spending lots of time and money trying to contact your web design agency. Google’s search algorithm rewards sites that update their content frequently, so if your content management process is too time-consuming it may be the right time to consider a redesign.
High bounce rate
A website’s ‘bounce rate’ is defined as the proportion of your website visitors who only view the homepage before moving on. You will want your bounce rate to be as low as possible, as a low rate indicates that new users are navigating to your other pages and hence are more likely to be interested in your services.
A high bounce rate (around 70-90% of your website traffic) indicates that the sheer majority of your website visitors are leaving your site upon arriving at the homepage. This may be down to outdated web design, slow loading times or they have found a competitor’s website to be more useful. This is a cause for concern, and a new website may be the strongest solution to ensure you engage more customers in the future.
