You: “Yeah mate, I’ve got a website, I don’t need your services.”
Me: “…..when was the last time you had a look?”
You: “Huh…..?”
Me: “You’re website needs a redesign, trust me”
It’s 2022, business is good, you’re busy, you have many employees, an office, multiple vans and a company dog called Coco. Too busy, actually, you’re so busy with work, you forgot your website was designed in 1995 when you first started, and it was good, really good, back then. Now however, now your website looks like your business isn’t even operating anymore.
Here’s our 10 signs your website needs a redesign.
1. Slow To Load
Pretty self explanatory, and it may seem obvious but it’s much more important than you may think. Website visitors, your customers, don’t want to wait more than 8 seconds to find what they need – which may be a few clicks from your homepage. Every second counts – adding lots of images/videos/plugins and fancy widgets may look good after 20 seconds, bad news, your customers have already left and are now scrolling your competitors website.
2. Out-Dated Design
We’ve all seen those pages with the 6” border – well, they were developed pre-smart phone era to work on 17” desktops. Guess what, desktops are huge and smart phones exist. Yeah, sure, they work, but they’re dated, and gives the impression your business is dated too. With limited design features and 90’s styling, they lack professionalism and a modern touch – don’t get left behind.
3. Text, text, text
Stop boring your customers with business waffle – they don’t care that much. Customers do want to know a bit about your company, services and vision – but just enough to give them confidence to pick you. Mix up your content with some relevant imagery to keep your reader interested.
4. Your Homepage Is Still Someone Else's
Buying your business domain at the start was a good move – but still having it linked to the domain provider is not. It gives the impression you’re not open, or you’ve closed down – especially if you’re advertising your website still…come on. Solution? Wack up a maintenance mode page, so if any customers head over to your site, they know you’re still in business and have a way of contacting you.
5. Clutter
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Nothing looks more DIY than just chucking everything online anywhere it fits – think year 3 arts and crafts collage. Websites are a great way to display your business, team, services, projects and so forth, you don’t need to fit it all onto one 12”x12” page. Space will do more for your website than you realise, it’s a careful balance, almost an art, but more Tate Modern.
6. High Bounce Rate
Bounce is good for a tennis ball or a castle – but not for your website. Getting customers to click through to your site is hard enough, getting them to stay is even harder. Get some feedback from your ideal customers on your site, not your friends, they’ll always tell you it’s good. Ask them, does it tell them exactly what you do, how to contact you? Or does it leave them with more questions than when they started – so they just leave.
7. It Doesn't Reflect Your Business
It’s typical for a business to start with a single contact webpage when they start up, it’s cheap and does what it needs to do. Great, but has your business evolved since then? Do you look like a one-person-band when really you have a team of 20 on-call 24/7. Have you expanded your service offering, but every time you get a call from your website, it’s always for the same service? Keeping your business website up to date ensures your customers know exactly what you do.
8. Desktop Good. Mobile Bad
More than half of websites are viewed on mobile. If yours doesn’t work on mobile, say goodbye to at least 50% of your enquiries. Does your desktop site look exactly the same as the mobile site? Consider, a mobile user wants quick and easy contact details, to briefly see what you do, after all, when do you use your mobile most. A mobile site should be similar but not exactly the same as your desktop site – with easy to use CTA’s and scroll.
9. Too Technical
Is your website in maintenance mode more than being live? Are you able to easily make updates, add pages or update your blog? Websites do not need to be made complicated, sure they require some upkeep and tlc once in a while – but if you spend countless hours fixing plugins or addressing site health issues, it’s time to take it back to basics and get the fundamentals right.
10. Doesn't Relate To Your Ideal Customer
One of my first questions on an initial call, “who’s your ideal customer?”. If you don’t know, ask yourself, who have you been working for the last month, year, decade? Could be domestic or commercial, or both, or someone else. Whoever it is, your website needs to speak to them in their language. You may be fluent in “electrical speak” but is your customer? Probably, most definitely not.
want to redesign your website?
Our digital marketing for trades covers everything you need from web design, hosting and maintenance to give your outdated website a much needed refresh. Contact us to get started on your new trades website design.
