Maintaining a website can be rather like looking after a house: you might be convinced that it all looks perfectly fine and doesn’t need much of an overhaul, until someone else sees it and, well… they point out a lot of things that are actually quite wrong with it.
In the case of your website, though, it probably won’t be your mother-in-law who notices the problems, but instead a customer. So, when should you start mulling a website redesign?
Your website consists of just one page
Yes, a one-page website was probably all well and good when you were just starting out and didn’t know too much about how to design a website well. After all, the fewer pages a site has, the less that can potentially go wrong with it, right? However, your customers could strive for much more than one page.
They will want to read more about what products or services you offer – and you should probably separate all of that information across several pages so that people can more easily sort through it.
Your website looks inconsistent
This can refer to its fonts and colours – which, if you mix up too much, could leave your site looking like it was quickly thrown together in the 1990s – or the site’s voice. If that voice comes across as fun and eccentric in some places but formal and professional in others, visitors could see you as somewhat inept.
That’s because, if your website is a messy patchwork of colours, fonts and voices, it could give the impression that you haven’t paid enough attention to how the site all hangs together.
Your website’s layout is a little too, erm… experimental
There’s a good reason why many websites adhere to a familiar structure. It’s because it’s consequently easier for people to quickly navigate the site and so find the information they need.
Hence, you should remember to stick to tried-and-tested principles of web design – like keeping the menu at the top-right of your site’s interface and putting the logo in the left corner.
It’s not obvious how people are supposed to contact you
Yes, you probably have a fair few calls of “contact us” scattered across your website’s content – but have you made it simple for visitors to act on that call?
If you’ve just settled for listing your company’s phone number, you are likely to be losing business from people who would prefer to contact you though other means – such as by email, social media or contact form. So, include an email address and social media links. Also, we could integrate a contact form for you.
Your website’s design hasn’t been updated for years
If that design has barely been touched since – say – 2015, you could be missing out on opportunities to impress your site’s visitors by showing them web design elements that are much more 2021.
Even if you are still a web design novice, our Bronze web design package would enable you to redesign your website without feeling too daunted by the process.