When Is It Time For A New Website?
This is the most frequent question we get from small and large businesses.
This is an important question, as your website can be the digital face of your company and one of your best resources for generating leads and sales. Ecstatic Digital looks at many factors to determine if a business requires a website redesign. Below are our seven key indicators!
It’s probably time for a website redesign
There are many indicators that your company might need a website overhaul. Some are more important than others. These are the top factors that our digital marketing strategists consider to be important.
1. It takes forever for your website to load
Page loading speed is crucial. Nobody wants to wait for their website to load for longer than a few seconds. Slow websites can cause buyers to lose interest in your business. They will simply go to the competitor’s site instead. Google also looks at page speed. Google can rank your website in search results very negatively if it is slow.
Google Core Web Vitals will be looking for websites that are able to provide a useful and engaging experience in the 2021 update. Within 2.5 seconds, the largest amount of paint (LCP), is produced and the First Input Delay, (FID), is less than 100 milliseconds. It is possible to create your website online with Google PageSpeed Insights or Pingdom, Check your website’s speed to determine if it is up to the mark. You should redesign your website before the 2021 update.
2. Your website is not accessible
A website that is “accessible” simply means it can be read and used by screen readers. The World Wide Web Consortium’s WCAG 2.1 guidelines provide more information about accessibility guidelines for websites.
A WCAG accessible website can make your website easier to use for people with disabilities. This could also help to prevent you from being sued. A growing number of lawsuits have resulted in businesses being sued under the American’s with Disabilities Act since a 2017 landmark case. This is because their websites don’t meet the strict WCAG accessibility requirements. These lawsuits can be very costly.
You can check if your website has been made accessible by visiting this link.WebAIM is a great place to begin. While it may not be able to address all ADA compliance issues this tool can give you a baseline of your website’s current status. Functional testing must be done with users in order to conduct a thorough ADA review. If you need assistance with the accessibility review of your website, our team of programmers is here to assist!
3. Your website is not mobile-optimized.
Smartphones won’t disappear anytime soon. Many people spend more time online with their smartphones than ever before.
Businesses need a website that is responsive on all devices. We recommend the following solution: Responsive website. Responsive websites are easy to use on smartphones, tablets, desktops and tablets. The site’s content automatically adapts to fit the screen size. Ecstatic Digital is familiar with the process of creating a responsive website.
4. The bounce rate is extremely high
The bounce rate of your website ( which you can find within your Google Analytics reports), is the percentage that visitors land on your site and leave without visiting any other pages.
A bounce rate of 40-50% is considered to be a good bounce rate. This indicates that between 50-60% of people who visit your site are staying on the site and exploring more. There are many factors that can be used to determine a “good” bounce rate. For example, it could be your homepage or a blog post. Our goal when redesigning your site is to decrease the bounce rate.
5. You don’t get enough calls or inquiries
Are your phones ringing less frequently? Do you notice a decline in inquiries, sales, or submissions to your website?
Your website could be experiencing a slow increase in sales or leads, even if it’s getting lots of traffic. Converting visitors into leads, guests, and customers. Our goal in the website redesign is to improve conversions.
Is your website not tracking conversions? This is a problem by itself. Ecstatic Digital websites have conversion tracking built into them so that you can track how many leads you get and where they come from.
6. Your brand has outgrown the existing design
Have you had a company rebrand since the last website redesign? Have you changed your logo or colour palette?
Your website communicates your brand personality and brand identity to potential customers. You must ensure that your brand identity is not being “stolen”, either by bad or simply outdated design.
7. Simple website edits can be too costly
It is long past the time when you needed to have a degree or advanced HTML skills in order to add a page to your website. Content Management Systems make it simpler! Anyone can manage a website. They can also add pages, text, or photos to their website.
Ecstatic Digital builds websites for businesses using WordPress Content Management System. This allows business owners, marketers and other employees to quickly and easily add pages, photos, text, copy and videos to their website.
8. Google searches are not showing you results.
Yikes! This is a huge problem. This is a big one. If your website doesn’t rank near the top of organic (unpaid search results) for key keywords that potential customers type in to find your products and services online, you may be missing traffic, leads, or even sales.
SEO is a complex task. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, even the most basic components of SEO can make a significant difference in how your website ranks in search engines. This will help you bring more people to your site.
9. Your last website redesign was 5+ years ago
We recommend that websites be redesigned every 4 to 6 years for most businesses. While web design trends change, many important, long-lasting changes can be made to your website in just a few short years.
Home page sliders (a.k.a. Slideshows were once very popular. Companies discovered that loading large images on a webpage can slow down website load speeds, which could have a negative effect on user experience.
Contact Us Today!
Is your website showing signs of ageing? Are you looking for something fresh? Then get in touch with Ecstatic Digital, your leading Colchester, Essex based Web Design Agency today for a brand new, lightning-fast and responsive website!