Ever had pure, whole-hearted website envy? You know, when you enter a website and you ooh and ahh over the slick graphics, ease of use and impressive layout…
It’s immediate jealousy. You begin looking long and hard at your own website and making comparisons. Suddenly, your website might feel a bit tired.
Here are three signs that now is the time for a new website.
1: Speed… Or Lack Of It
If you know you’ve got time to make a cuppa while your homepage is loading, you can be sure of two things:
- Both current and potential customers won’t hang around and wait for it, meaning you won’t win their business…
- And if that’s not bad enough, Google will be penalising you for its snail’s pace, too.
A slow website is a big problem, and several factors can affect the speed. Some are technical things filled with jargony-sounding words like CND network and caching, while others are easier, like making sure your images are compressed.
Take a guess at how fast your website should load… What do you reckon?
It might surprise you to know that 2 to 5 seconds is average, and closer to 2 is ideal. Basically, the quicker, the better. After just 2 seconds, your potential audience loses their patience, and your bounce rate starts skyrocketing.
Time is of the essence, people. We’re used to getting things fast these days, and we won’t settle for anything less. So check your website loading time here.
Discover where your website is holding you back with a free, personalized audit report. Uncover what's keeping your site from reaching its full potential and start taking action today!
2: It Is As Responsive As A Dodo
When we talk about responsiveness, we mean how efficient your website is at adjusting to the screen size it is being viewed on. Smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC, potential customers are viewing your website using a range of different devices, and your website needs to be able to flex to meet the different requirements of each.
Lack of responsivity can cause a lot of problems for your website and in turn, your brand’s reputation. After all, if your site looks rubbish or simply does not work properly for a customer using a smartphone or tablet, what does that say? A best, it tells the customer you’re not up to the job, and at worst, it means they can’t – or won’t – place an order or make an enquiry.
Your website should fill any and every screen your visitors can view it on. Borders are limiting, and are a thing of the past; you want to make the most of the digital space you’ve got. Optimising images to respond to different screen sizes is crucial too.
If your website isn’t responsive, it might be time to take the leap and enhance your user experience. A responsive website increases the amount of time visitors spend on your site AND Google prefers it, meaning your search engine rankings will improve.
3: You Can’t Update It
Here we are. The final sign that a new website should be on the cards is that you couldn’t update your current site, even if you wanted to.
We hear loads of reasons for this at Melt. From people’s web designers going bust, to forgotten logins – not being able to access your website’s backend is the nail in the coffin.
A website that isn’t fit for purpose and that you can’t improve is damaging your brand and preventing you from bringing in the leads you should be.
Your website needs to work properly if it’s going to win you business. If things aren’t working as they should on your site – think anything from design issues to malware – you will irritate your site visitors. Functionality issues kill website traffic.
If you can’t update your website, it’s time to start again. End of.
There Are Some Other Indicators…
Here are a few other situations which might encourage you to take up the project of a new site.
Your Google Ranking Is 10000000
Ok, so that might be an exaggeration. But if you simply aren’t ranking despite efforts with your SEO and AdWords, then it could be your website’s infrastructure that’s holding it back.
The bottom line is that your current and potential customers need to be able to find your website. And from lack of quality content to unresponsiveness, there are a lot of reasons why your website might not be ranking.
A new website designed by an agency with a knack for SEO will be a good move – one that will have you climbing the search engine ladder…
You Can’t Remember When You Last Updated Your Website
Technology moves fast.
If it has been more than a couple of years since you last revamped your site, it’s likely to be hideously outdated by this point. It doesn’t matter if you still like the design – chances are, it’s going to have some aspects that could be improved. You could do a huge update to solve the problem, but why not take this opportunity (with not much more effort) to have a shiny new website that will reinvigorate your marketing and sales strategy?
You Just Want One
Sometimes, it’s just time for something different.
Change in branding? It’s not just business cards that need updating. Inconsistent branding can limit the trust you can build with current and potential customers, not to mention looking pretty unprofessional.
What about a shift in tone and style? Is your web copy and design cohesive with other platforms you use?
Or maybe you just like to keep things fresh. If you fancy a new website just because, well, that’s a good enough reason!
What Does Your Web Data Say?
Take a good hard look at your website, as well as the data you can pull from it, and be honest. Are you experiencing any of the issues we’ve mentioned above?
If so, it may be time to consider redesigning your website. How exciting!
A new website looks fantastic and can help you improve your online presence, attract new customers, and grow your business.
We can help you create a website that you, your customers and the search engines will love. Get in touch to find out more.
