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Your website is the window of your business’ soul. It’s how the world gets to have a sneak peek at what your company is all about. We know it’s often not easy to admit that your website isn’t performing well or that it doesn’t look that great, but if you’re reading this, chances are, it already needs an overhaul.

But the thought of doing it all over again can be a bit daunting. After all, whether your website was a DIY labour of love or you engaged professionals to design it for you, you’ve invested plenty of your own time to get your website to where it is today. You’ve already spent a sizeable chunk of change on research, content and possibly a web designer, so, why redesign it?

Well, there are just too many reasons to mention them all, but here’s the biggest one. According to a recent survey from US-based Blue Fountain Media, which a whopping 81% of respondents think less of a brand if its’ website is not updated. Your brand is the cornerstone of your business, and you don’t want anyone thinking of it as less just because your website is not up-to-date.

So, if you want to know when the best time is to redesign your website, the answers are right here.

It has a high bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors on your website who navigate away after a visit to only one page. An average bounce rate is about 40% – 55% – meaning that out of 100 visitors, 40 to 55 of them visit only one page on your website and don’t bother to check other pages. This usually happens when they didn’t have a pleasant experience while navigating your website, or that your content wasn’t relevant to them.

Every time this happens, your bounce rate increases. You can use Google Analytics to see how your bounce rate is doing right now. If it’s high, then it’s probably time for you to redesign your website.

It’s not mobile-friendly

According to the latest statistics from Statista, 91% of all internet users are mobile users. That means that almost everyone uses their mobile devices to access websites, yours included. If it’s not mobile-friendly, users will abandon it, leaving you with a high abandonment rate, especially if you have an online store. These days, Google prioritises ranking mobile-friendly websites ahead of the desktop version of the website.

It also pays to have accelerated mobile pages to ensure that they are fast, smooth-loading, and most of all, deliver excellent customer experience. Try opening your website from your mobile phone. If it doesn’t load within 3 seconds, then it’s time for you to redesign your website to make it mobile-friendly.

Your traffic is dropping

If you start to see that your site’s traffic is significantly dropping, then yes, that’s an indication that it’s time for you to redesign it. There are heaps of free tools out there to help you gauge your traffic, such as Google Analytics, Bitly, SEMrush, and more. A drop in your site’s traffic means your visitors don’t find what they are looking for anymore. That calls for an upgrade.

It lacks SEO strategy

We can’t stress it enough how critical it is to have search engine optimisation (SEO) on every website these days. Having SEO on your website helps search engines find and rank you. Bear I mind though that if your SEO strategy is outdated, it won’t work in your favour, because Google keeps releasing new algorithms and updates.

Optimise your title tags, so that search engines will understand what each page is all about.Ensure that your content has updated keywords, and so on. Hire a web designer but make sure they have the right expertise and know how to incorporate a solid SEO strategy onto your site.

It has an unprofessional design

The first impression always lasts, and if your website’s design looks outdated, chances are, your potential visitors will run away to other sites as fast as they can. The point is, looks do matter. It has to look fresh and modern all the time because even if it’s functioning well, if your audience don’t find it very appealing, they won’t bother checking it out. Take a look at your competitors’ websites, and if there’s look better than yours, it’s time for a redesign.

It doesn’t match your brand anymore

As we mentioned, your brand is the cornerstone of your business, and your design is the window of your website’s soul. But if your brand and web design don’t match anymore, now is the best time to redesign it. After all, it’s the representation of your brand, so they really have to be in sync with one another. From the logo to the colours, fonts, and formatting, just about every element of your site should match your brand so that your visitors will identify with it the way you want them to.

Need help?

While there’s no hard and fast rule regarding when the best time to redesign your website is, the signals mentioned in this blog should give you an idea when to start planning for it. If you need help, our web design services are professional, flexible and affordable. Check out some of our works here or contact us for a chat about how we can help you launch a brand new website.