5 min read…

Is your website starting to look outdated? Or is your competition’s brand-new redesigned website starting to cause you problems? Well stick around and we’ll either confirm or erase your worries.

A well-designed website is crucial for achieving marketing and KPI goals, as it serves as a foundation for your digital business activities. Without a solid foundation, users and potential customers may quickly lose interest and not engage further with your business or, worse yet, damage your business reputation and weaken your brand awareness.

In recent years, the internet has undergone significant changes, requiring websites to be frequently updated to meet customers’ expectations. 

The high standards for web design have made a website’s appearance a crucial aspect for most businesses. Therefore integrating great design in your digital storefront should be a major priority in your marketing efforts. 

Signs that a website may need an update or overhaul include poor functionality, insufficient support for mobile devices, and outdated design. We’ll get into more detail in this article. 

Blue Fountain Media UX Trends Survey Finds 81% Think Less of a Brand if a Website is Not Up to Date

Larger businesses and corporate conglomerates have enormous teams keeping up with their vision and brand appearance. It’s important for small businesses to keep up with these tech giants in any way possible.

Show them that your team can hang with the top-tier, top-ranked, and top converters just as well as they can. 

Right! Let’s Get Into It! 

What Are The Top Signs You Need A New Website?

These signs we’re outlining here are just the beginning when it comes to identifying outdated information and algorithms. 

It’s important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. As a general guideline, it is recommended to redesign your website every two to three years. Keep in mind that in the digital world, three to five years can be a lifetime.

Software often requires monthly if not weekly updates due to constant changes, and there are whole organizations out there focused on understanding google’s SEO ranking and algorithms. So it’s important your business can keep up with the digital age! 

So remember, old means outdated!

Your Website is Not Safe (According to Google)

In 2022, building a strong SEO strategy will require a heavy focus on security. 

As changes are made to domains and algorithms, it is essential to ensure that your website has an SSL certificate, which is an important indicator of safety standards. 

Payment issues on e-commerce sites can be avoided by ensuring that your website is secure. Reliability and trust are important factors for customers, and an unreliable website can be vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

A quick tip: if you notice unwanted links or random pop-ups when users try to browse your website, it’s time for a redesign. 

Make sure all third-party scripts and plugins are up-to-date and ensure that all pages have an SSL certificate installed. This confirms that data is encrypted during transmission. 

Implementing these measures will make for a more secure website with fewer spammy links ranking higher than yours.

Your Website Looks Old and Outdated

They say never judge a book by its cover…. Let’s make an exception for websites.

A website needs to appear fresh and current, especially if you want to compete with other businesses and larger brands. 

The main goal of a website is to function smoothly and without interruption. Along with proper function, it should also have a modern appearance.

Imagine visiting a website for information or to buy a product or service, but the site looks outdated. Would you trust the information provided? Would you trust the service provider even? 

Users need to know that the information they are seeking is not only accurate but also visually acceptable. Not everyone checks the date of a blog post or when a product was released but visual trust is just as crucial as accurate data.

This ties into company branding. If your branding has been updated in the past five years, then changes should be made to your website as well. Whether big or small, a website is a direct reflection of a company’s care for its brand, and it creates a domino effect.

Here’s a checklist of things to consider updating:

• New contact details
• Update your project portfolio and add any news
• New services or products
• New team members
• New photos of your office, location, international expansion, etc.
• New awards and certifications

A website That is Not Visually Compatible With Mobile or Tablet Devices 

Mobile searches account for over half of website traffic. As you can see in the Statista chart, worldwide audiences are browsing more on their phone than on a desktop. 

Having a responsive mobile design is essential, but it can be challenging if the desktop design was the primary focus. In this case, it may be necessary to consider a complete website redesign with a mobile-first approach.

It is important to note that there is a big difference between having a mobile-friendly design and a high-quality design. Users have high expectations when it comes to mobile browsing and Google is now taking this into account. Rankings will continue to be influenced by user expectations and preferences for quality.

Imagine encountering a company that provides valuable and verified information but fails to present it effectively. If the presentation of the information appears amateurish, the audience may question the credibility of the source.

Designs should be well-organized, trendy, and exude confidence.

You Have Low Conversions and a High Bounce Rate

If your website receives a high amount of traffic but has no conversions, there is a problem. Similarly, if your website receives minimal traffic, then there is an even bigger problem. 

If there is a high volume of traffic, your SEO strategy is effective as it is making it easy for people to find your website, but if this volume is accompanied by a high bounce rate, then the website is not meeting user expectations.

To identify the problem, analyze where in the conversion process it is breaking down, whether it’s the landing page, lack of information, difficult-to-understand value, misinformation, confusing CTA, or a slow-loading page.

Website speed plays a crucial role in determining whether users will stay or leave a page. An outdated website is likely to cause slow page loading. If a customer is not engaged within 3 seconds of arriving on the page, the likelihood of them leaving is very high.

Engagement is key! Check the loading speed of images and graphics on every page to investigate the problem.

These can be one of many factors affecting your conversion rates and should be taken seriously, especially if you spend thousands in advertising or marketing budgets to get those visitors to your website in the first place. 

Small Changes are Difficult to Make / Competitors Have New Websites.

With outdated websites, making even minor changes can significantly affect website performance and user acceptance. 

As teams expand, more employees will contribute to website assets. If not everyone can easily make changes to the website without impacting its performance, such as adding a blog post, it can cause issues and stagnance.

Half (50%) of respondents say user content, like reviews and photos, help them most while shopping.

Regularly adding reviews to your website can attract users to make purchases or inquire about services. If your team has to go through a third party to make even small updates, it can slow down the buying process.

For 2022, consider taking more ownership of changes to your website. Choose a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to control when and where changes are made. From blog posts to product descriptions, these small changes can have a significant impact on your audience.

If your website requires a third-party team to make updates, it may be time for a new website. At WVQ Media, we believe that a secure and high-quality CMS is the key to a flexible website that can grow with your company. 

Our years of experience enable us to select and implement the CMS platform that best meets your needs so you can edit and modify your site without the help of a web team. 

Our rapid development framework is quick to install, and the code is freely available for you to host, modify, and build on as you see fit.

If you want to learn more about CMS platforms, feel free to contact our team today.