5 Signs You Need a New Website

Think of a website as a living thing that should grow alongside a business and continue to provide customers with everything they need in one easy-to-navigate location. Now think about your website. Has it grown with your business over the years? Or has it remained the same, unchanged by time?

If your website hasn’t been updated in the past year or several years, chances are that it’s no longer functioning properly or that it looks like it belongs from another decade. If this description fits the bill for your website, it may be time to invest in a new one. The dedicated team of web designers from FirstPage Marketing can help you create the perfect website for your unique business needs, whether you’re looking for a completely custom design or a WordPress theme site.

Find out what makes a great website design.

To determine if your business needs a new website, look for these key signs of an outdated site:

1. Pages Load Slowly

In today’s high-speed world where people have all the knowledge they need at their fingertips, there is a stronger emphasis on being able to find what you’re looking for almost instantly. This means that older, slow loading websites can often be overlooked or ignored by users simply because no one wants to wait more than 3 seconds for a site to load. Your site may even be overlooked by Google because it tends to prioritize website’s with faster loading speeds.

Having excessive loading times can also lead to a higher bounce rate, due to users visiting your site but leaving before the page has fully loaded or because they didn’t immediately find what they were looking for. A fresh redesign of your website can help resolve these issues and convince users to stick around on your site for longer and actually convert into customers.

2. Your Site Isn’t Mobile Friendly or Responsive

Since more than half of all internet searches today take place on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet, having a website that isn’t mobile friendly or responsive will not only turn off a lot of potential customers but will also be viewed as a lower quality site by Google. Investing in a mobile-first website will increase loading times and will help improve your rankings on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP).

When thinking about having a new website built for your business, it is important to keep in mind that responsive doesn’t always mean mobile friendly and vice versa. To ensure that your website properly fits both smaller screens and larger screens without looking cramped or leaving a ton of wasted space, you will need a website that is both mobile friendly and responsive.

Learn more about why a mobile-friendly website is important for your business.

3. Conversions on Your Website are Low

Low conversion rates can be caused by several different factors, including having an outdated or poorly designed website. If your website was designed poorly or has a ton of outdated information on it, visitors to your site will most likely find it difficult to find what they are looking for and may even get lost or distracted while trying to navigate their way to your contact form or checkout page.

One of the simplest ways to improve conversion rates on your website is to have a clear navigational system that is easy for users to follow. When users visit your site they should intuitively know where to click to find the information they need or to contact your business. If your website’s navigation has been expanded and cobbled together over the years or it’s just too complicated for the average person to follow, getting a brand-new website can help eliminate these issues and streamline your sales process, leading to higher conversion rates.

4. You Can’t Update Content on Your Own

Are you currently relying on a web developer to make even the simplest changes to your website because it’s too difficult to do on your own? Then it may be time to start utilizing a new content management system (CMS) that is extremely easy to work with like WordPress.

Find out if WordPress is a good CMS for your website.

Getting a new website designed for your business can help save you money in the long run by allowing you to make changes on your own, whether you want to publish a blog post or update images throughout the site. Most websites today are built using a CMS, making it easy for business owners to quickly update their websites without having to learn how to code.

5. Your Website No Longer Reflects Your Brand

A business’ brand, products, and messaging will evolve over time as the business grows and the world changes. Your website should also evolve alongside your company branding and messaging to ensure a consistent look and appeal across all of your business’ marketing. If your website has fallen behind with the times and no longer matches your company brand, you may not be making the best first impression with potential customers.

Having a well-designed site that aligns with your company branding and messaging will allow you to better speak to your customers’ pain points as they are today, not as they were a few years ago.

If you think it’s time for a new website for your business, get in touch with our dedicated team of web designers today. By working closely with you throughout the entire web design and development process, we can make sure that your new website not only meets your unique requirements but also exceeds your expectations.

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