3 Metrics that Should Tell You When It’s Time for a Website Redesign
Like many other things in life, your website can age. Father Time is no stranger to online properties. Your website, at one time, may have been a high-performing powerhouse that churned qualified leads through your door. If you’ve upheld the same design for several years, and you may have noticed a dip in that performance, or if your online sales have inexplicably stagnated, then it may be time for a radical change. There are several reasons why your website may be outdated: Poor navigation, a played-out 90’s look, and user experience, or pesky technical issues may be the cause. Some of the problems may be fairly obvious– if you’re still using flash, for example, then you needed a redesign yesterday. If your site looks like it belongs as a relic of years past then, yes, the time may be ripe for a switch.
Whatever the case may be, it may be hard to know when you need to make the change.
We’re going to look at some metrics that will help paint the picture on the performance of your website and will help you to decide if it’s the right time to make the change. If you redesign your site, we recommend implementing a responsive, sleek and user-friendly design. That will solve most of the problems that you may be having with your current site design. You may want to also fix any other holes or problems in your site, like poor content, for example.
High Bounce Rate
If you’re experiencing a high bounce rate, with your visitors spending little time on the site, it’s very likely that some element is off with your site. A high bounce rate says that your visitors do not find your site relevant to their problem or need. It can say that they don’t find your site authoritative or trustworthy. A good, smooth design is indicative of professionalism, and it’s just plain common sense. Will you spend more time on a site that has a terrible appearance, clumsy user experience, and filler content, or will you spend your time (and money) on a site that has everything aligned perfectly?
A logical person will spend their time on the site with a better design. If your site design leaves a lot to be desired, then you are passively relinquishing the opportunity to be at the top of your competition. Install an analytics tracking code on your site, and look at the time that the average visitor spends on your site. If it’s lower than what it should be, then you should review the quality of your design.
The Amount of Time That it Takes the Site to Load
Conduct a test and see how fast your website loads. If it takes longer than 2 seconds, then you’re slower than what your site visitors naturally expect you to be. Slow loading times will contribute to your bounce rate, and it will also be a good signal for you to make a design switch.
Loading times have become even more important in the age of mobile devices. People are impatient. For example, if they access your site on a mobile device, and it takes 10 seconds for them to be redirected to a separate mobile site, then you’re vulnerable to losing that visitor. A modern responsive website that takes a few short seconds to load will find more favor in your market. You really have a short window to convince someone to stay on your site.
A site can take a long time to load for various reasons. There’s the mobile site redirect reason that was already mentioned. There could be too many elements on one page. There can be something in the backend that can be corrupting the overall performance of the site. Or maybe the website is just an old geezer. Take a long look at all of the possibilities, and take the necessary steps to fix these problems.
Weak Traffic and Low Search Engine Rankings
If you have anemic traffic numbers, then your website is almost useless. You don’t build a website to have an online business card, you build it to create a high-functioning marketing machine that feeds leads to your business. You cannot reach that point without strong traffic. Search engine traffic is undeniably important, and you may need to revamp not only the look and functionality of your site, but also your content and SEO strategy if you want better rankings. If you’re lower than where you’d like to be in the search engines, analyze your site to see what you could be doing wrong. For many businesses, it can be limp content or nonexistent on-page optimization. A good redesign shouldn’t be confined to fixing the appearance of the site, it should transform your web presence holistically. This means that you may need to revamp your traffic strategy.
When it comes to web design, a book will get judged by its cover. Understand this, and start putting an effort into improving the look and functionality of your site.
Are you ready to discuss your next website re-design project with the leader in website design? If so, contact Zen Agency today! We are a group of experts!
