Your website is your digital shop front. It may be the first contact that many of your potential customers have with your brand. So, if it’s not generating many leads or attracting much traffic it may not be delivering much return on your investment. If that’s the case then it could be time for a rethink.

Does your website have high quality web design?

Website design has a big influence over whether your site is likely to be successful. Clear, consistent and simple aesthetics will enable you to get your message across and direct your prospects into the sales funnel.

Strip out unnecessary design elements so your design is appealing but predominantly functional. Consider simplifying imagery or reduce the range of colours on your site.

How simple is it to navigate your website?

Bounce rates (i.e. the rate at which people leave your website) are significantly increased if it is difficult to navigate. Approach the site as you might if you hadn’t seen it before – can you find what you want? Improving site navigation could play a big role in making your website more effective.

Is the messaging clear from the first landing page? Make sure that you have an obvious navigation bar at the top and create menus that make sense to a casual browser, as well as to someone ready to buy.

Is your website responsive?

Time spent online on phones is now officially higher than on laptops – that tipping point was in 2014. Most consumers expect to be able to access websites on all their devices. If your current website design isn’t responsive, it’s a very good reason to consider upgrading!

Is your website easy to use?

It’s not just navigation that has an influence over whether your visitors will enjoy your website. Ease of use is another factor to bear in mind when you’re considering whether it might be time for a new website.

For example, you may have a home page with images that take a long time to load. If it takes more than four seconds to load a page, your website could lose you a third of potential browsers.

Has your website been optimised for search?

SEO techniques and structures are fast moving, and if you haven’t upgraded in the last three years, you could be pretty far behind.

Changing the structure and content on your website to achieve better SEO is a very good reason to consider a new website. Better SEO has a lot of positives, from enabling you to attract more traffic to helping to generate better quality leads.