8 Signs It's Time to Redesign Your Website

Updated 6/7/2023

Is your website design losing you business? Having a website that's clearly out of date will be less attractive to visitors and reflect badly on your business.

Surveys have shown that 81% of internet users think less of a business if the website is not updated and 39% would think twice about using a product or service if the website is not fresh, user-friendly and current.

According to a survey by Orbit Media, the average website lifespan is 2 years and 7 months, so unless your website was updated very recently, there's a good chance it needs a refresh.

Here are 8 unmistakable signs your website needs an upgrade.

1. You’re embarrassed to give out your URL. Your website is the online face of your company and you should be proud to have it represent you. If you’re not, that’s a clear sign it’s time for a new site.
2. Your website looks outdated. Sometimes, looks do matter. While it’s important that your website functions seamlessly, it also needs to look fresh and modern, not like it’s stuck in a bygone digital era. In fact, Google's John Mueller recently suggested that poor design could hurt a website's search rankings.
3. Your website is more than 5 years old. While there’s no hard and fast rule for how long a website should last, there have been a lot of advances in technology, best practices, and how Google ranks sites in the last few years, so if your site is more than a handful of years old, it could probably benefit from some level of overhaul.
4. Your website is not mobile-friendly or responsive. Almost half of all website traffic comes from mobile devices and Google is now basing its rankings on the mobile rather than the desktop version of a website, so it's crucial to give your customers an excellent mobile experience on your website. If you have a separate mobile website or a site that does not utilize responsive design, it makes more sense to build a new site from scratch using a mobile-first approach rather than trying to retrofit it with mobile-friendly elements.
5. Your website is not delivering the traffic, leads and conversions you expect. If your website is getting a little long in the tooth but still gets results for your business, there’s probably no reason to mess with a good thing. But if you’ve seen significant drop-offs in traffic and leads, your visitors are clearly not finding what they’re looking for, and you might want to consider a site upgrade to bring them back.
6. All your competitors have newer websites. While it’s true that you should do what’s right for you rather than blindly following what others are doing, if your competitors have websites that look and work better than yours, you’re going to be at a significant disadvantage. If your website is lagging behind competitors, consider an update to propel you to the front of the pack.
7. Your website does not offer an excellent user experience. A successful website is all about pleasing your users. If your site is difficult to navigate and doesn’t offer engaging, valuable content, your users will leave. While small tweaks can improve the visitor experience on an existing site, a new website designed with user experience at the forefront is often the best solution.
8. Small changes are difficult or impossible to make. Making small changes or updates to your site, like adding a blog post, updating an event, or changing a product description, should be easy for anyone on your staff to accomplish. If your website is built on a platform that is difficult to work with, or that requires a third party to make even the simplest updates, consider a new website built in an easy-to-use content management system (CMS). To find out which CMS is right for you, see our blog post Should You Use WordPress for Your Website?