Why Redesign Old Websites?

Should a businesses redesign old websites? What would the web look like if it was never… redesigned?

The first-ever website was created in 1991; Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research [Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire] ) explained the concept of the World Wide Web project. The earliest registered domain was established in 1985 by Symbolics.com. In the 1990s, few organizations had any idea what a massive business transformation the internet would bring about in just a few years. Most ’90s commercial websites are no longer accessible, but you can get an idea of how they appeared by visiting Space Jam, a 1996 design that is still online. Its basic font styles, black-and-white background, and spinning icons serve as a reminder of our humble beginnings.

For those who want to enjoy some online nostalgia, check out archive.org and check out sites like excite.com from 1996! You can get a good idea of how your website will look to others if you never update it!

14 Clues Your Website Needs an Update

Problematic small business websites may need a simple refresh, but others could require a major site redesign. You can’t repair what you don’t know is broken. A professional website analysis and report by a trusted digital marketing company will identify conversion fails, visual issues, and user turn-offs. 

Here are fourteen signs your website needs a redesign:

1. Button up – If links and buttons are too close together, users may find themselves adjusting screen size and struggling too many times to successfully click, and finally give up. Poor navigational user experience (UX) can be the death of a commercial website. 
   
   
2. Can you hear me? – Unresponsive layouts can quickly send users elsewhere. There are many varieties of handhelds; webpages must be adaptable and mobile-friendly. You can see example of how Modern adapts the customers desired website to mobile viewport here. 
   
   
3. Click here; learn more – Weak calls-to-action (CTAs) don’t explain why the user would want to “contact us”, click here, or learn more. “Get your free checklist” and “Sign up for exclusive tips” are examples of stronger CTAs. 
   
   
4. Click-to-call – Manually locating a phone number, then flipping between the keypad and webpage to call is an inconvenience that needs updating. Click-to-call is a hyperlink that automatically initiates a phone call from the user’s device. This improves user experience and when integrated with call tracking, it becomes a data source that provides marketing insights. For our Tomball local businesses, we have a click to call on every mobile page. 
   
   
5. Everything old is new again – It’s impossible to keep up with website color-design trends because old-fashioned is retro; a good thing. Choose colors and fonts that complement your brand and cultivate the user mood you want. 
   
   
6. Few conversions – There can be several reasons why your users don’t click through. Broken links, design inconsistencies, gimmicky sales content, poor grammar, and slow page load speed can lower conversion rate. We make CRO (conversion rate optimization) a focus in all of our projects. 
   
   
7. Inclusivity – Is your website accessible by blind or low-vision users? Assistive technology, including text-contact options for hearing-impaired customers, shows you want to include all populations. 
   
   
8. Insecurity – Protecting your customers’ information is paramount. A redesign usually inludes software and theme updates and will check to see that your website is safe from new vulnerabilities. 
   
   
9. Low SEO – An SEO audit can reveal your failure to rank, high bounce rates, low conversion rates, low-to-no organic search traffic, or weak backlinks that put you in Google search purgatory. 
   
   
10. Negative feedback – If a customer casually mentions that a link “took me to the wrong place,” or “I couldn’t figure out how to order it online,” those are red flags not to be ignored. Consider one of several methods for measuring customer experience. 
    
    
11. No AI citations – Your business wants to be a reliable informer, and AI citations acknowledge your content as a knowledgeable source. This is increasingly replacing SEO for higher rankings. 
    
    
12. Obstacle course pages – Cluttered, disorganized page layouts are overwhelming and can frustrate users enough to cease the struggle and seek a competitor. The days of more pageviews being a positive metric are over. 
    
    
13. Scalability – Your website easily handled traffic 10 years ago. But thanks to increased business, you may be seeing signs of poor performance, including frequent utilization alerts (bandwidth/memory), server errors/timeouts, slow load speed, etc. This is more true of sites with user databases or national websites than local business. 
    
    
14. Time is money – Three seconds is the longest most users will wait for a page to load; mobile users want a load speed under 2 seconds. When a page loads in one second, the average conversion rate is 40%.

Bigger Business Needs a Better Website

Another sign you need a website update is if your business is expanding. Maybe you plan to offer new products or services, or you may feel it’s time to rebrand. In line with the new Google ranking requirements, you should consider refocusing on content marketing. 

Is your website holding your business growth back? A website upgrade can accommodate marketing growth for organizations and commercial businesses. Ask the Modern Marketing & Media experts about professional website redesign.