Five signs your website needs a redesign

Websites age faster than we notice. You see yours every day, so it always looks normal to you. A new visitor sees it for the first time and judges your whole business in a few seconds. Here are five signs that it is time for a refresh.

1. You have to pinch and zoom on a phone

If text is tiny and buttons are too small to tap on a mobile screen, you are losing most of your visitors. The majority of people now browse on phones, and Google ranks sites based on their mobile version.

2. It takes more than a few seconds to load

Open your site on mobile data, not on office WiFi. If you have time to get bored before it appears, so does your customer. Old themes, heavy sliders and oversized images are the usual causes.

3. You are embarrassed to share the link

This is the most honest test. If you hesitate before sending your website to a new client, or you add "it is a bit outdated, we are working on it", you already know the answer.

4. You cannot update it yourself

If changing a phone number or adding a photo means calling a developer and waiting a week, the site is working against you. A modern website comes with an admin panel that lets you edit content in minutes.

5. It does not match your business any more

You have added services, changed prices, moved from retail to wholesale, or grown from a one-person shop to a team. But the website still describes the business you were five years ago.

Redesign or rebuild?

Protect your Google rankings

If your current site ranks for anything, tell your developer before the redesign. Page addresses should stay the same, or each old address should redirect to the new one. Skipping this step is how businesses lose years of SEO in one afternoon.