Customers can already formulate an impression about your business from the first five seconds they spend on your website. That said, your website has the power to either turn a visitor into a paying customer or turn them away from your business completely.
There are many things that can cause visitors to have a bad impression about your website–and your business as a whole. To determine if your website needs professional web design and development services, here are the signs that you should look out for.
1. Your website looks awful
No business owner wants to admit that their website looks bad, but when you look at your competitors’ website and notice that yours is lacking, it’s time to admit that your website needs some work. Mismatched typography, poor-quality graphics, boring photography, blocks of text–if your website is riddled with these awful-looking elements, start looking for a web design service that can give your website the makeover that it needs.
2. Your website is not mobile-friendly
According to the World Advertising Research Center (WARC), 72.6% of Internet users will be accessing the web solely on their smartphones by 2025; that’s equivalent to almost 3.7 billion people all around the globe.
But today, we can already observe that the majority of an online user’s time is spent on a smartphone instead of a desktop. Hence, making your website mobile-friendly is a necessity if you want to provide a positive customer experience to your web visitors.
3. Your website is too slow
A sluggish website can make visitors click that exit button before they even see what you have to offer. Online users are impatient nowadays, and your website has to be fast if you want them to stick around.
Not only does a slow website turn off potential customers, but it also makes it harder to rank on search engines. Keep in mind that search engines consider loading times when ranking your website, and if your website is slow-loading, it may get buried in the latter pages of search engines.
4. It’s been so long since your last update
How long has it been since you updated your website design? If it’s been more than a couple of months, you might want to consider changing up your design a bit. But if it’s been more than a year or so, a website design update is a must.
Otherwise, your website will make a poor first impression on customers. Even if your website functions well and your business provides smooth customer service, an outdated website design can make it seem otherwise. After all, why should they expect good service if your website looks like it’s been left behind by the times?
5. You’re not converting enough visitors
The main goal of a business website is to convert web visitors into paying customers. If your website is not providing your desired conversion rate, then you might be in need of a re-design. Apart from that, you should also look into other areas of improvement, such as your content, digital marketing strategy, and customer service.
6. Your bounce rate is high
Bounce rate indicates the percentage of web visitors who exit the website after viewing one page only. So if you have a high bounce rate, that means there is something about your website is making a bad first impression on your visitors–so much so that they don’t even stick around for long.
There are a number of possible reasons why a website can have a high bounce rate, such as slow loading times, poor website design, bad customer experience, garish color schemes, and so on. If you don’t know what’s with your site (as is the case of business owners who are not well-versed in web design), seek the help of professional web design services.
7. Your competitors are updating their websites
If your competitors changed their websites into a sleeker, more modern design, your website can be directly affected. Why? Because customers can compare your websites and see theirs as more reliable and more trustworthy.
Of course, you don’t have to change your website every time a competitor updates theirs. But to stay on top or at least keep up with the competition, you have to time your updates carefully and be able to recognize when you’re starting to lag behind.
Website design is a crucial factor of any website, but it’s even more important for business websites that need to convert online visitors in order to make sales. So if you notice one or more of these signs on your website, it is high time to get a much-needed update.
