Have you noticed that your website is slower than others? Does it have poor functionality, usability and an outdated design? Noticing less visitors are coming to your site? These can all be signs that your website is well overdue for an update. With the new year approaching now is the perfect time to update your website for better design and functionality, and more hits. Here we look at five tell-tale signs your website needs a New Year’s update and how you can get the website update the best suits your needs.

Your Site Doesn’t Function On Mobile Devices
Nowadays, more and more people are accessing websites using mobile devices such as phones and tablets. If your website does not function on these mobile devices, you can easily be cutting out at least half of your audience. Responsive design incorporates website functionality for desktop computers, laptops and mobile devices. An expert web designer can provide responsive web design that functions across all devices and screen sizes, so no one misses out on visiting your website.

Fewer Website Visitors
An important part of monitoring a website is tracking where your visitors come from, and how many site visits you have. If your site visits are declining, that means less people are learning about your business and you are not engaging with your customers as well as you could be. Optimizing your website content for readability and search engines helps more customers find you and your website online. On the other hand a website with poorly written or badly organized content that’s both outdated and not useful will quickly lose you customers and push your website further down the search results list.

You Have A High Bounce Rate
Website visits isn’t the only metric you should be using to track your website success. Bounce rates indicate how long someone stays on your side after viewing one page. If your bounce rate is high, that means that more people are leaving your site quickly without spending time reading your content and information. There are several potential reasons for a high bounce rate, but one of them can be poor site architecture and usability. An expert web designer is highly skilled at analyzing and identifying where your site can be improved in terms of user experience and visitor retention. Updating your site can mean that not only do you get more site visitors, but those visitor stay for longer and spend more time learning about you.

It’s Your Website… And You Don’t Even Know How To Use It
While bringing in a professional web designer to create your site is ideal, you want to be able to use and understand your website as well. If your website is overly complicated or you have to ask your web designer for every single change or update, you may need a new, more user-friendly design.

Your Website Is Not Connected To Social Media Or A Contact Form
Your website is your online business card. It’s a way for visitors to get in touch with you and learn more about your business. But if your website is not connected to related social media sites or a contact form where visitors can reach you directly, your website is not going to be an effective marketing tool. Contacting a professional digital marketing specialist can allow you to coordinate the marketing channels on your site and help you to reach your customers more effectively.

If you notice any of these five signs of poor website performance or you feel like your website needs a new year’s makeover, contact your local professional web designer for an expert opinion and diagnosis on how to make your website work better for you.