Websites are like most things that you tend to use a lot… they need replacing more often than you’d like. Think about your favourite pair of running shoes, or your phone that you got a few years back – you will likely need to replace these soon due to them not being able to do their job as well as they once could, or better options being out there. This same premise applies to websites just as well, with the evolution of web technologies and the growth in competition online – websites are being updated more than ever in the past few years.
We’re going to look at what makes a website obsolete and why you may need to start thinking about a new website. Off the bat, here is a quick list of some of the reasons why your website may need replacing:
- You can’t update your content on your own site without help.
- Your website is unresponsive (doesn’t adapt for mobile/tablet sizing)
- The site has a high bounce rate
- Navigation on the site is difficult to use
- Accessibility of the site is not as good as it needs to be
- The design of your site is outdated/not reflective of your brand
- It’s been a while since you updated your site
- Your site is slow
We want the outcome of this blog to act as a helping hand for you and your business when it comes to deciding whether you need a new website. If you do feel that the blog has helped you out and you need a contact for a team who can help you fix your site... coincidentally you happen to be at the right place... contact us for more info.
You can’t update content on your own site
If you are relying on an external source to update your site each time you want to make content changes, you’re going to be running yourself dry as well as your piggy bank. Small changes like this can be time consuming and sometimes expensive.
Using a CMS platform can help you to make changes easily to your site, drag’n’drop features and a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface are often found on popular web builders to help you make changes easily. At BarkWeb, us and our clients use our own bespoke CMS: Jolojo, using the features mentioned above to allow clients to make changes whenever and wherever they want on the site.
Your website isn’t mobile friendly
62% of visitors who will be going onto your site will be on their mobile devices. Now imagine 6 out of every 10 people who visit your website cannot see or struggle to see content on your site – they get to the site and leave soon after due to difficult navigation, an ugly template on mobile, or text paragraphs which go off their screens. This figure has increased by almost double since 2015 and will continue to increase.
Responsiveness converts all content on a webpage to fit onto different screen sizes, such as minimizing image sizes, converting text layouts and hiding/showing different areas of the site to make it as easy as possible for a user to view the site on their phones or tablets. Not only will it help the user, but it will also help the website in search engines, as they often gauge search results from a mobile point of view.
Your site has a high bounce rate
What is a bounce rate? A bounce rate is a single-page session on your site (no, it’s not the number of times you can bounce a basketball in a minute). Meaning someone has been to your site and left after only viewing the first page they landed on. If your site needs a visitor to visit more than one page on your site, which most sites do, a high bounce rate is bad. One thing to note is bounce rate does not consider any interactions on the page – meaning if someone intentionally went to your site to, for example, grab or click on a phone number/email address and leave again then it will still count as a bounce.
Bounce rate is usually affected by having confusing navigation, an unattractive design or content that doesn’t portray what your business is/does. Usually bounce rates decrease after website redesigns.
Navigation on the site is difficult to use
While having a funky menu that stems to all pages or having a plain menu that has minimal navigational options may both seem like a good idea – it is usually better to have a menu that is accessible on every page for the main ‘core’ areas of your business that a visitor would likely be looking for when they get to your site. You need all the content on your site to be accessible, while also not having an over-complicated system in place. If you think that it may be hard to reach certain areas of your site, but you don’t know what to do about it, it may be time for a rethink and a redesign.
Accessibility of the site is not as good as it should be
Accessibility is a big thing when it comes to your website, as it is becoming increasingly important when it comes to the design of a site. The basic principle: the more accessible your site is, the more of your audience you will be able to reach. Accessibility is not as necessary as things like responsiveness or having good content on your site, however it is a key player in providing as many people as possible with access to your site, as well as reflecting well on your organisation by showing you are willing to put in the effort towards inclusion.
What do we mean by accessibility for a website? We are talking about things like visual limitations, hearing limitations, mobility limitations – all of which can have solutions on your site with small things that make the difference: proper alt tags, a user-friendly colour palette, correct organisation of content, unique and descriptive link names.
Accessibility is a requirement for public sector websites now, after the UK Government introduced accessibility regulations for them. They must be WCAG 2 compliant, which has also prompted many private sector businesses to follow suit – and is always beneficial to a website which follows these guidelines.
The design of your site doesn’t reflect your brand
You need your website to reflect exactly what your business does and is and showcases the best bits – making sure that the visitor remembers what your brand is at every stage. You need to be proud of your website, if you think that what the site looks like doesn’t matter and all that’s needed is some information then you are wrong. 66% (according to Adobe) of consumers would prefer something that looks appealing to them vs. a simple design. You need your site to stand out from the crowd and look good while doing so.
It's been a while since you updated your site
Is your site up to date? Think about fashion, think about your electronics in your house, think about all the things you see in your day-to-day life – all of which get updated regularly. At BarkWeb we have updated our site twice in the last 5 years to try and keep up with the latest design trends and UX improvements – while we can’t always stay completely up to date, regular updates mean we are slightly closer to the ball than we otherwise would be. It’s important that you try and do the same, visitors will appreciate a newer, easier, and nicer site than an older more outdated version.
Is your site slow?
How slow is slow? You could say that this is a subjective topic… but 53% of shoppers (https://digital.com/1-in-2-visitors-abandon-a-website-that-takes-more-than-6-seconds-to-load/) expect pages to load in 3 seconds or less. While this study was done on e-commerce websites, the statistic stays very similar for service sites too.
Alongside having the visitor leave your site if it takes too long, they may not even make it to the site due to Google prioritizing faster website speeds. This means if it takes too long for your site to load then it will likely affect Google’s ranking of your site – causing it to appear lower down in search results related to the site.
So... what now?
If you’ve made it to the bottom of this page, I’m going to assume that you are contemplating a redesign of your website. At BarkWeb we take pride in our bespoke designing and our eagerness to work with you to create something that both you and your customers will like. Fancy getting a new site which is almost completely customisable using our new bespoke CMS Jolojo? Chat to us today or ping us an email at enq@barkweb.co.uk.