When did you last get a website revamp? You should consider it more often than you think. Google’s algorithms change all the time and user behavior updates too.
If you don’t keep up, your website will become an outdated fossil on the Internet with no visitors and definitely no profits.
How can you tell if it’s time to revamp the site? What are the telltale signs that it’s time to change things up? While there are many, here are the seven biggest reasons for you to consider a revamp.
1. Pages Take Forever to Load
55% of mobile Internet users abandon a page if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds. Not many sites hit that golden standard. The average mobile webpage loads in 19 seconds on 3G connections when the ideal goal is 5 seconds.
Pages that do load quickly compared to those that take 19 seconds see a 35% decrease in bounce rates. They also earn twice the total mobile ad revenues than pages that take 19 seconds to load.
Your website might take too long because of unnecessary content like:
- Auto-loading videos
- Too many ads
- Graphics-heavy content
- Poor coding
- Poor hosting services
If your site’s pages take too long then you’re losing out on profits. Bounce rates will increase and the trust of your visitors will dissolve.
2. Difficult Navigation
You need a website revamp if visitors can’t find the information they need or want. It shouldn’t take more than two-page visits to figure out your site lays out information and content.
The best way to test how good the navigation of your site is, have a newcomer visit it. Try to ask them to find things like the shopping cart, contact information, or policy terms. If they can’t find those things quickly, your site has poor navigation design.
Difficult navigation increases bounce rates but not in the way you would expect. If a site is hard to go through, a visitor tends to bounce back to the homepage or cycles through the available tabs. It’s only after a few failed attempts that a visitor is likely going to leave for good and try a different website.
3. Content Doesn’t Display
Even if your web pages load and the text shows, you should still consider a website revamp if the other content does not display. If the images, videos, and ads fail to load then there’s something wrong in the back-end of the site.
This could mean a number of things:
- Content file sizes are too big
- Hosting server is down
- Outdated site design
Don’t forget that browsers and search engines change over time. If you don’t get a website revamp on a regular basis, your once top-of-the-line site will get left behind. Browsers won’t read the information as well as they used to.
Make it a point to visit your pages and see how well images and videos load. As soon as you notice they fail to load even after a few refreshes, it’s time to revamp the design.
4. Outdated Information
How many times did you visit a site, call the administrators, and learn that the information on their site is no longer valid?
Outdated information is a red flag for most visitors. If they find something on your site only to discover it’s no longer true, they’ll lose trust in your business. This is especially true if you changed product prices but did not update the price list on your website.
Every time you change vital information, do a site revamp. You should do a minor revamp to edit changes like product prices and contact information. Do a major revamp if you have to fix your whole blog library and inventory of products.
5. No Responsive Design
In 2017, there were 2.32 billion smartphone users. This will increase to 2.87 billion by the year 2020. Not everyone uses the same kind of phone and your site needs to cater to the different capabilities and designs of those devices.
A responsive website is a better solution. This is a design that lets a website adjust to a device’s screen size and resolution. This makes it possible for a website to load as needed regardless if the viewing screen is a big smart TV or a tiny smartphone.
You do need to get a website revamp if your site is static. Your bounce rate will increase when visitors realize they can’t see all of your site’s information without scrolling. Going from a static design to a responsive one requires a full revamp since you’re changing how the site builds its pages.
6. High Bounce Rate
This should be a no-brainer but the moment you see your bounce rate go higher on a regular basis, it’s time for a full website revamp. You don’t want visitors to come in and then suddenly leave.
You want them to engage with your content and follow through until you get profitable conversions. If the bounce rate goes up, you’re not getting the money. People are leaving before they accomplish something.
The reason for the high bounce rate could be any of the factors mentioned above.
At the same time, the problem could also be the visual design of your site. You need to take into consideration that people judge a book by it’s cover even when they shouldn’t. Your site’s visual design might be turning people away.
Keep in mind that a good first impression will keep visitors in. A beautiful design, easy navigation, quick loading times, and updated information all come into play to reduce your bounce rates.
7. No SEO Traction
Does your website’s design follow good SEO guidelines? Are your blog entries, product listings, meta tags, and more building your site’s SEO standing? If your site’s design does not improve SEO traction, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and revamp the site.
Without an SEO-friendly design, you won’t get visitors. Your site will end up in the bottom rankings of Google. The solution here is to revamp the site, get an SEO expert to check how your new design improves SEO, and follow up from there.
Get a Website Revamp Now
Did your website hit a red flag on any of these reasons? Is it time for you to revamp your site?
We’ve got you covered. We offer top-of-the-line web designing services and a free consultation too.
If you’re still not sure or want to know more about what we can do to revamp your site, feel free to contact us. We guarantee you the best design to get your site back on track.