How to know if your Website Needs a Redesign

A dysfunctional website can take a huge toll on your online business.
Research suggests that poorly designed websites are causing businesses to forfeit $2.6 billion in revenues every year. The highest fatality rates among corporate websites are often a result of inherently bad structures and poor aesthetics. But it’s not just about the ‘look and feels’ anymore. If your website is taking too long to load or contains outdated information, it is doomed even before your business hits the Internet.
It is not often obvious to identify how well your website is performing, especially in the fast-paced digital landscape. If you have been suffering through the same, there are some clues that you need to keep an eye out for.

20 Red Flags That Indicate You Need A Website Redesign

This checklist spans across 4 different segments and will help you determine exactly where your website stands on its redesign journey. We begin by looking closely at the following signals:

1. Website Data: covering traffic and engagement metrics.
2. Online Reputation: related to your brand’s standing and customer feedback.
3. Financial Costs: going over budget.
4. Technical Flaws: security, functionality, and load times.

Data Signs

Leaders looking for sophisticated strategies to improve their company website often begin by analyzing the data presented to them. There is a glut of information readily available via analytical and marketing tools, but without context, it can get overwhelming.
What helps is sourcing the most important traffic and engagement metrics and comparing them with a certain time period - the past month, the past year, and so on. While analyzing these 5 metrics, apply this exercise to gain deeper insights:

• Declining Traffic: It can be distressing to see your website steadily lose traffic. More often than not, this is caused when search algorithms lower their rankings on SERPs. If you are noticing this or a drop in traffic over a period of 3 to 6 months, it implies that your website is not optimized and needs a rehaul.
• High Bounce Rate: Bounce rates are the most frustrating metric for new website owners. They can range anywhere from 26% to 70%, depending on your location, vertical, and market segment. As of 2022, even with our heightened understanding of indexing algorithms and the explosion of creative design templates, the average range for a “good” bounce rate on a website stands between 41-55%. Check if your bounce rate is higher than this threshold.
• Poor Lead Generation: A website is no longer a passive business asset. It can attract customers to sign up for a free demo or register their details for a follow-up call. If the average visitor time is dropping and lead generation is no longer effective, then it’s time to take proper action.
• Low Conversion Rates: Conversion Rate is the single most important metric for digital businesses since concerned it directly impacts sales. Yet, it is not widely understood as it varies depending on your goals and brand reputation. For example, a business that is just starting out might have a lower conversion rate on its website. Or, if it operates in a niche, with a small number of high-value clients, conversions may remain low. However, when the business scales or it adds new products/services, it should definitely see an increase in conversion rates. If you are noticing an unusual drop in this metric compared to your earlier campaigns, or a year ago, then it means your website is not keeping up with change.
• Failure with Target Keywords: If your website is not appearing on the first page of search results, you have missed the bus. The clear majority (95%) of online users do not look at the second page of Google’s search results. How does one get on the coveted first page? Search engines rank your website based on how relevant the content of your website is for certain “target” keywords that people are searching for online. If your website has minimal text, the chances of it hitting the target keywords are lower. Another common mistake is only optimizing the homepage of the website, rather than all the pages.

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Reputation Signs

A well-designed website will enhance customer loyalty, credibility in the industry, and differentiation in the marketplace. It motivates and inspires potential employees by communicating your values. In an age where positive employer brands receive double the number of job applications, your website plays a crucial role in the success of the business. These signs should ring warning bells about your online reputation:

• Poor Brand Recall: Websites are resources not just for customers but also for potential and existing employees. A quick brand survey of your key customers and employees can reveal whether it is meeting their needs. If they are unaware of the website completely or not using it, react before it affects your business at large.
• Mergers & Acquisitions: When a company decides to change direction as a business, gets acquired, or plans a merger, the website is one of the first properties that reflect the change. Rebranding exercises today must include an end-to-end website redesign.
• Wrong Inquiries: Contact forms, lead generation forms, and live chats are often used by website visitors for inquiries. But the moment it becomes a portal to solve FAQs, the information structure becomes flawed. Visitors should be able to find the most basic answers while browsing your websites. Incorrect inquiries into your business/products/services can mean that the wrong message is being sent out - either by your design or by the content in it.
• Competition Analysis: Quarterly competitive reviews can reveal if you have dropped in search engine rankings compared to your competitors: a clear sign that your website is not performing as well as theirs. If you belong to a highly competitive industry such as technology or retail, it means risking losing your clients to the competition. However, do not turn this into a matter of keeping up with the Jones - consider a redesign only if you objectively feel that their websites look better than yours.
• Negative Feedback: Online reputation management is constantly shifting with the popularity of social media, where feedback and reviews are put up instantly. While most businesses attempt to mitigate the effects of negative feedback by consistently seeking out and highlighting the positive reviews, it’s a matter of serious concern if your clients are not happy. It will turn off prospective clients as well. A balanced opinion of a neutral third party - such as a design agency - can help you re-evaluate your website to improve it.
• Outdated Information: Here is a recent example - when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many websites scrambled to put up announcements, banners, and microsites. A few months down the line, all the numbers and predictions made were invalid, making the websites look outdated and futile. A redesign should hence be considered carefully, with incremental redesigns that serve a specific purpose.

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Financial Signs

Websites are essential expenses for a business of any size. But what happens if the operational costs keep increasing and you are no longer able to justify them? A redesign may be the answer if you are observing these warning signs:

• Negative Marketing ROIs: Digital marketing campaigns for your website include domains such as SEO, email marketing, advertising, content marketing, and social media marketing. When the return on investment (ROI) starts falling fast, it points to the decreasing efficiency of the website.
• High Proposed Redesign Budgets: Typically, when a website is scheduled to be redesigned, the scope of work depends on how outdated the code is, the amount of data that needs to be cleaned before migration, and the number of redirections required. But if the website has not been maintained well and redesigned has been long overdue, project costs can run much higher. Constant high quotes from multiple agencies or designers can be another indication.
• Racked Up Expenses: High website maintenance costs, including hosting, tools, and personnel expenditure, is an indicator that you need to explore alternative service providers. And if training costs for new users of your web application continue to rise, you may need to check how user-friendly the website is, and if it needs an upgrade.

Cheaper Website Redesign Alternative

Technical Signs

Among the top ten technology challenges for businesses today are information security, risk management, compliance, and technology integration/ upgradation. Businesses that lack an understanding of these domains and other Internet terminologies are potentially laying their websites open to cyber attacks such as cross-site scripting and hacking. Rather than letting these highly technical problems throw you off guard, bringing in an expert to solve them is a recommended maneuver.

• Hacking Attempt: In 2019, 3 websites were hacked every hour in India, compounding all existing concerns about cybersecurity. As the threats increase in complexity, businesses can no longer wait to implement corrective measures. A security audit and redesign will check for backdoors and potentially compromising gateways, helping prevent future attacks.
• Legal Issues: Privacy concerns are rising with growing digital rights awareness amongst Internet users. Securing data transmission to and from your website has become a priority if you want to avoid legal issues. If your website has not switched to HTTPS:// or is facing legal action related to data security, it’s time for a redesign.
• Unfriendly User Navigation: Constant UI/UX troubles, ailing mobile responsiveness, poor information architecture, or difficulty in navigating - if your website suffers from any of these symptoms, it’s time for a full website design check-up!
• Need For New Functionality: Adding e-commerce capabilities, e-cart, checkout pages, or a custom quoting engine will require you to restructure your website to make it more attractive to shoppers. As a part of the entire ‘packaging’ of your solution/service, your website’s user-friendliness, logical flow, attractiveness, and layout will affect final buying decisions. Hence, each site element will need a redesign to capture the attention of visitors and gently push them towards a sale.
• Lag in Loading: Today, 83% of people expect a webpage to load within 3 seconds or less. Server bandwidth issues and outdated codes can cause your website to load slowly, turning potential clients off. It is a common occurrence when you are scaling up your business and the website is unable to handle the increased workload.
• Project Delays: Redesigns can be the answer to the hurdles being discussed in your marketing team meetings. “The CMS is too complicated to use” or “we cannot integrate with the website” are your not-so-subtle cues. If you can relate to this or your developers/designers are unable to fix problems within the website, it is a clear indicator that it needs a redesign.

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Conclusion

Websites are assets, not liabilities. When considering a redesign, its value proposition is subject to the urgency of your business needs. To that end, we hope that the above 20 reasons shared above help you make a timely decision about redesigning. With a data-driven approach, you can build your website into a strong marketing instrument that will hold its own. In the next post - Our Guide To Redesigning A Website - we bring you a thorough understanding of the process.
In case you are still struggling with the decision of whether you need a website redesign - here’s something to cheer up your day:

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