NEWS

In today’s digital age, a website has become an essential marketing tool for any business looking to establish online visibility. In extension to helping you reach a wider audience, your website acts as a virtual showcase for your brand, giving customers and potential customers a sneak peek at your brand and its products or services. 

But the internet moves fast, and so does web design. Trends change rapidly, and technology gets upgraded at astonishingly fast rates. Keeping your website’s design from looking dated can seem daunting.

So, how do you know if your website needs a refresh? And more importantly, what steps can you take to bring it up to speed? 

Here are some key signs that your website is out of date. 

1. Your website design hasn’t been changed in years

If you haven’t updated the design of your website in more than 3-5 years, you are desperately in need of a redesign. According to research, the average lifespan of a website is 2-3 years. There are so many factors that play into how long your particular website will last and by last we mean how long it is effective and relevant for. Some of those factors include changes in your business, industry, customer expectations and design trends.

2. Poor user experience  

In the realm of website updates, enhancing the User Experience (UX) is a cornerstone for ensuring visitor satisfaction and engagement. If it’s not easy to navigate, simple to understand and doesnt reflect your brand offering users may not come back.

3. The content is dated 

Updating the content of your website is as crucial as revamping its design. Adding concise, up-to-date content that communicates your brand’s message and engages with your audience is highly beneficial. It improves user engagement and interaction and can also have additional benefits, such as improved visibility in Google search rankings. 

4. Poor Conversion Rate 

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) involves enhancing the proportion of visitors to your website that engage in a specific action, such as completing a purchase, submitting an enquiry form, or subscribing to your monthly newsletter. If your business is experiencing a drop in conversions this could be due to a number of issues such as poor User Experience (UX), a lack of persuasive elements, broken functionality and overcomplicated user journeys. 

5. Your website is slow 

Did you know that most users expect a website to load in 3 seconds or less? Reality is, it should. Anything above 3 seconds increases the likelihood of visitors feeling frustrated and leaving your site. By implementing the right performance optimisation and better hosting, you can eliminate the slow loading times easily to get your website loading in under 2 seconds.

Before making any changes to your site, you’ll need to measure your websites’ performance. We recommend starting with Google PageSpeed Insights. This is an easy-to-use tool that enables you to measure and test the speed of your web pages on both desktop and mobile devices.

6. Your website provides a poor mobile experience 

In 2024, non-responsive website development is no longer acceptable. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, users expect websites to be mobile-friendly and responsive.

An optimised responsive design is vital if you don’t want to frustrate your audience and give them a poor user experience (UX).

7. You find it hard to update 

Are you frustrated every time you need to edit your website because you have no content management system? Perhaps you have a CMS but the technology is outdated or just isn’t fit for purpose anymore with the frequency and nature of your updates. Updating the engine is the ideal time to refresh the bodywork.

To conclude

Your website is the hub of your branding efforts and one of the main places that people will find information about your company and how to buy your products or request your services. When you invest your time and money in digital marketing, it’s crucial to put your best foot forward and make sure that your website is up to date. Your website is the first opportunity for customers to connect with you. If you want to leave a lasting impression on your customers, you should give your website a refresh.

If you would like any further information or help evaluating the effectiveness of your website, contact us at jake@jccreativesolutions.co.uk or call us on 07968 112871.