WEBSITE REDESIGN SERIES

Part of our collection of practical guides designed to help business owners make informed decisions before investing in a new website.

Does Your Website Need a Redesign?

Your website might still be online, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s still working well for your business. So how do you know when it’s time for a redesign?

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Your website no longer reflects your business

Perhaps your business has grown since the website was created. You’ve added new services, changed direction, developed a stronger reputation or started working with different customers.

But your website still talks about the business you were several years ago.

Your website should reflect where your business is now, not where it was when the site was first created.

It looks dated

Design trends come and go, but this isn’t really about whether your website looks fashionable.

An outdated website can make your business appear less established or professional than it actually is.

If the design feels old-fashioned, the pages are cluttered, the typography is difficult to read or the website simply doesn’t compare well with others in your industry, it may be time to look at the bigger picture.

Your website is often the first impression someone has of your business.

It’s difficult to update

This is particularly common with older WordPress websites. You may have to work around an outdated theme, complicated page layouts or plugins that don’t behave as they used to.

Perhaps making a simple change feels like a technical job rather than something you should be able to do yourself.

A modern website should make it easier to manage your content rather than making you afraid to touch it.

Things keep breaking

An older WordPress website can become increasingly difficult to maintain. Plugins become outdated. Themes stop being supported. Different parts of the website can become incompatible with one another. You might start seeing:

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Broken layouts

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Missing features

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Error messages

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Plugins that don't work properly

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Problems after updates

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Features that are difficult to maintain

At some point, continually fixing an old website may no longer make sense. Then rebuilding is a better investment than continuing to patch an ageing website.

It doesn’t work properly on mobile

Most people will experience your website on a phone at some point.

If visitors have to pinch and zoom, struggle to read the text, navigate awkwardly or find that important information is difficult to access, your website isn’t providing the experience it should.

A modern website should work naturally across different screen sizes.

Your customers shouldn’t have to work out how to use your website.

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Imagine you’re a potential customer seeing your website for the first time. Would it give you confidence in your business?

Your website isn’t generating enough enquiries

A website can receive visitors without actually helping your business.

Perhaps people are finding you through Google but aren’t getting in touch, or your services aren’t explained clearly enough. Maybe your calls to action are difficult to find, or visitors aren’t sure what they should do next.

A redesign gives you an opportunity to look at the whole customer journey, rather than simply changing how the website looks.

The structure has become confusing

As businesses grow, websites often grow with them. A new service gets added here. Another page gets created there. A new menu item appears. Eventually, visitors can struggle to find their way around.

A redesign gives you the opportunity to step back and ask: What does the customer actually need to find? Then the website can be reorganised around that journey.

Your website no longer reflects the quality of your business

This one is easy to overlook. You may have built a successful business with years of experience, excellent customers and work you’re genuinely proud of. But if your website still looks like it did when you were starting out, there’s a disconnect.

Your website should give potential customers a sense of the quality, experience and professionalism that already exists in your business.

Sometimes the technology is the problem

A website can look reasonably fine on the surface while the technology underneath has become outdated. This can happen particularly with older WordPress websites.

The theme may no longer be supported. Plugins may be obsolete. The site may have been built using methods that make it difficult to develop or maintain. In those circumstances, simply changing the colours or replacing a few images won’t solve the underlying problem. Sometimes a proper rebuild is the right answer.

Does your website need a redesign?

Your business has changed significantly
Your website looks dated
It’s difficult to update
Parts of it regularly break
The technology is outdated
It doesn’t work well on mobile
Visitors struggle to find information
Your services aren’t clearly explained
It’s not generating the enquiries you expect
It no longer reflects the quality of your business

A redesign can be a fresh start

Your existing website has probably served your business for a reason. There may be valuable content, useful pages, customer testimonials or years of experience behind it.

A redesign doesn’t mean throwing everything away. It means taking what you’ve learned and building something better for where your business is now.

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Does your website need a redesign. Explore more practical guides to help you make informed decisions before you make a decision.