It’s time to face the music: is your website working well for your business? Are you in love with it?

If you answered no, then keep reading!

The Internet is a fickle place. Design trends come and go; the devices people use to browse websites change constantly and buying patterns shift. If you’ve had a website for a while now, you may ask, “has my website gotten stale?”

A website is a powerful tool that can do wonders for your business if it’s set up for success. It should be the portal that promotes your services, tells potential clients why you’re the one they should work with, and ultimately, lead to sales. But from website visitors ghosting as soon as they land on your website to designs that look like they came out of the last decade, there are plenty of signs that your website could do with some TLC.

Here are 5 signs to keep in mind when deciding if it’s time to get your website updated.

You’re not being clear about what your business is and who it’s for

If potential clients can’t understand what you do and how they may benefit from your services as soon as they land on your website, it’s unlikely they’ll want to buy from you.

People don’t know what they don’t know, and if they’re shopping around for something they’ve not bought before (whether that’s coaching, a new product etc.), you need to make it as easy as possible for them to learn how you can help them solve the problem they’re having.

The solution to this doesn’t need to be complicated; focus on making your brand/mission statement succinct with these three critical points in mind:

Who do you work with? Who is your business for?
What does your business do? What is the impact?
How are you helping people? What are your services/products?

Here’s a little formula you can use to help prep this:

“I/WE HELP (your niche/clients) TO ACHIEVE (what they desire) THROUGH/BY (what you do).”

In practice, this may look like this:

“I help purpose-driven entrepreneurs gain confidence and clarity in their business through collaborative strategy workshops and custom design experiences.”

When you’ve got a straightforward statement like the above, make that ish prominent on your homepage!

2. Your site isn’t mobile-friendly.

When was the last time you looked at your website on your phone?

With more than half of all Internet traffic coming from mobile devices, if your site isn’t responsive or doesn’t work correctly on phones, that’s definitely a sign it needs updating. It’s too easy to create a beautiful-looking website on a desktop and leave the mobile version looking like a hot mess.

Most of your audience is probably looking at your website on their phone (especially if you’re directing them to it via social media), so it pays off to regularly check what your website looks like on an actual phone. Ensure no vital information is hidden or obscured, all your links, navigation and contact forms work, and your text is readable/legible.

Your audience is always on the go and won’t want to waste time on a site that’s hard to use when browsing on their phone, so you need to make sure your website is ready to draw them in, not push them away.

3. Your brand isn’t being represented well.

First impressions matter when it comes to websites, as they are subject to a quick snap of judgement; visitors form an opinion about your website in roughly HALF a second, with that opinion determining whether they stay or leave. 75% of consumers also admit to judging a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design.*

The first impression people get of your business is based on how you present yourself online. If you haven’t updated your website in a year or more, chances are it’s not a great representation of who or what your business is in the present.

For example, if you’re branding yourself as a chic, luxury fashion brand and your website looks like a mid-1990s eCommerce site with flashing banners and pixellated imagery, something is clearly off, right? The look and feel of your website must match up with how you want to be seen by customers online.

If you haven’t updated your website in a long time, you may also find that potential clients won’t bother looking through it if they assume they won’t find anything useful or recent. When this happens over and over again for too long, the results can start to look pretty bad; no one comes back after their initial visit; less traffic means fewer sales opportunities; fewer sales equals lower profits… you get the picture.

We all go through periods of evolution within our business. If you’ve updated your brand assets, messaging, photography or services, now is a great time to check that your website reflects those changes accordingly.

4. Your website takes ages to load.

If there’s one thing I know solopreneurs value most, it’s their TIME.

If your website visitors land on your website, and it takes more than a few seconds for the pages to load, they may get fed up fast and leave. Think about when you’ve been searching for something to buy on a clothing website. If the page shows you a loading screen for several minutes, not the clothes you’re looking to buy, how soon do you jump off to a different website that loads quickly and lets you buy without issues?

Your website visitors may be going through the same scenario, so let’s ensure you bring the best user experience by fixing your page speed!

To find out what your page speed currently is, use free tools like:

Google PageSpeed Insights
Pingdom
GTmetrix

They each offer personalised recommendations for your website, with the usual culprits being to:

compress images that are too big
reduce third-party scripts (i.e. javascript code)
reduce video file sizes
reduce the number of fonts in use

5. There’s no Search Engine Optimization.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential if you want people to find your business online when they look for products or services like yours (e.g. “best restaurants in New York City”).

If your site isn’t optimized, it will be difficult for search engines like Google to crawl through your content and rank the most relevant pages.

Optimizing your website could look like:

Ensuring each page has a unique meta description
Giving each page the correct heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3)
Adding alt text to all images (unless they’re for decoration)
Uploading your sitemap to Google Search Console

It’s important to note that SEO is a long-term strategy—it takes time to see results, so don’t expect overnight success. However, if you stay committed to the process and continue making small changes over time, you should eventually see significant results.

YOU MIGHT LIKE TO READ: 3 Actionable Ways To Boost Your Website's SEO

Make your website shine with a few strategic tweaks and guidance.

You’re a professional business owner, and your site should reflect that. To recap on the “my website needs an update ASAP” signs to look out for:

Check that your website is mobile-friendly. View your website on your phone (or ask a friend to for a second perspective) and check that nothing is awry.
Be clear about who you are and who you work with. Aim for straightforward messaging so people know exactly what to expect from you, don’t be wishy-washy and vague.
Make sure it reflects your current stage of business. Your site should be up-to-date and represent where your business is at now, not where it was a year or two ago if things have shifted since. Be clear about any new projects and services offered by you, and make it easy for people to get in contact or buy.
Regularly check your website page speed. It will turn off visitors if it takes forever to load, so use the free tools to your advantage and give your website visitors a seamless experience they’ll want to return to.
Take your SEO one step at a time, and remember it’s a long-term strategy from which you’ll gain results for years to come.

Sometimes people don’t know what needs improving on their website, but a few tweaks can make a world of difference. A refresh of your website will transform it from a site you’re embarrassed to share to one that’s doing what you want it to do; promote your expertise 24/7, win over potential clients and boost your revenue without you needing to watch it constantly!

BUT if the thought of checking over everything and making updates on your own fills you with dread, then a VIP Design Day is a timely, practical way to get your Squarespace website refreshed by a professional website designer (that’s me ☺️) that doesn’t require you to get stuck in the weeds of DIY design. Learn more about them and book your day here.

*statistics sourced from: https://www.sweor.com/firstimpressions