Five signs it’s time to get a new website.

1. Your site is over three years old and has never been updated.

It goes without saying that internet technology has changed rapidly and dramatically over the last few years. Every year we learn more and more about unlocking the power of the internet for small businesses. Innovations in how websites work, run and look have also had a massive impact on the aesthetic and functionality of websites. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the algorithms that underpin it, have also changed a lot recently, so you may even find that your website has stopped showing up on Google. 

There is an absolute gold mine in different tools that you’re probably missing out on, from custom lead generation tools, surveys, native forms, booking systems and all sorts of wonders that not only serve your customers but can improve your business as a whole.

2. Your website is hard to navigate.

With so much of our life being reliant on our phones and computers, you can imagine the amount of research that has gone into optimising our interactions with them. 

User Experience (UX) is the design principle based on this research that guides not only the look of your site but how your user interacts with the site. It’s essential that every user can find what they are looking for and that you can provide them with an easy journey from first landing on your website right through to connecting with your product or service. 

If your navigation has more than seven headings, or worse, none at all, how will anyone be able to move through your website with ease? An indicator of poor UX is a high bounce rate (people leaving your website straight away). A website with great UX and clear communication sends the message that since your website is so easy to use, working with you probably is too. 

3. You don’t know who or where your web developer is.

The case of the missing developer is one we often hear in the office. It is no doubt cheaper and may seem tempting to source your website developer offshore, but what happens when you need updates? Technical support? Your business has developed? Your hosting expires? 

Many times we’ve had to rebuild websites due to offshore developers going completely MIA or not being able to provide any ongoing service. You may not even have a developer and have opted for a WordPress Page Builder or other drag-and-drop web design platform. No doubt, these have their time and place. 

But for small businesses, these often cause more headaches and do more harm than good. You don’t have any control over usability, or accessibility, and the design and content options are very limited. Not to mention if WordPress updates and your page builder doesn’t, your site can just stop working altogether. We personally build and manage all of our websites on a custom CMS, allowing for much more freedom, flexibility and a website that reflects our customer's business needs.
Not saying you have to go down this path, but it’s worth asking if your developer has your bests interests at heart over the long term.

4. Your website is slow

Your website page speed is actually much more important than you think. Site speed is an important factor that Google uses to determine your page ranking. 

Having a slow website will directly impact your SEO in a negative way. It’s also important to your customers, a faster loading site works much better for them, which will in turn, make it more likely they will stay on your site. 

So what might be making your website slow? 

Large file sizes or a site that contains too many large images that haven’t been properly compressed and will be hard to load. Another issue is the hosting location. We use Amazon AWS servers that are located in Sydney and a CDN (content delivery network) to cache content worldwide so that no matter where the user is, the server will be able to load the information quicker. 

We recommend something like Cloudflare, which we use for all our sites. If you want to check how your website is doing, you can use a tool like Google PageSpeed. But If your customers have already told you how slow your site is, then it’s really time to do something about it.

5. Your website doesn’t look good or work on mobile.

To be honest, this should probably be point number one. Actually, this should be its own essay. The majority of users visiting your website are on mobile. . In 2022, 19.27 million people used their mobile phones to access the internet. Mobile devices accounted for 51.98% of web page views worldwide in 2022. 

Responsive design means the layout of your website will adjust to suit different-sized screens, and responsive design is KEY. Older websites will most likely not have responsive design and, therefore, not work properly on mobile. Another common problem is designing a website based purely on the aesthetics of desktop viewing at the expense of mobile usability. By not giving enough attention to mobile, you are missing out on reaching 50% of your potential customers.

The good news is, getting a high-performing website for your small business is easy with the right development team. 

If you think yours could do with an update, book in a free chat with the team, and we'd be happy to help.