No website is ever fully complete. And chances are that when you first created your website, you couldn’t have predicted how your brand would have evolved or how your customers’ preferences may have changed since that time.
This begs the question, is your site due for a redesign? How often should you be redesigning it?
While some folks may recommend revisiting your website every year as part of regular website maintenance, the truth is, every site is different. You may find yourself revamping your website more often—or perhaps making smaller changes here and there, and reserving larger revamps for more specific occasions.
Whichever camp you fall into, this blog will help you identify the factors signaling when it's time to redesign your website.
Need a little help with your site? Design a website with Wix today.
But first, what is a website redesign?
A website redesign usually refers to a major overhaul of your website structure, your web design, the user experience or other core components (both to the code and aesthetics) of your site. It’s intended to help your site look and work better than before.
It is not to be confused with a website refresh, which involves more minor tweaks to the appearance of your site. A website refresh may happen in tandem with a redesign—however, a redesign involves updating the “engine” behind your site (think: switching your content management system or rearchitecting an online shopping experience to increase revenue). It takes more time and effort to roll out because of the intricacies involved.
We often notice that Wix’s enterprise-level users redesign their sites every two to three years for both brand and functionality purposes. But, as noted earlier, your timing may look different depending on the nature of your brand, your customers and your definition of a successful website.
8 signs that it’s time to redesign your website
So, how can you tell if your site is due for a makeover? Keep an eye out for these essential signs.
01. You have a high bounce rate
One of the most telling statistics about a site is how many users stay on it. Your bounce rate can tell you the percentage of site visitors who land on your site but leave it without viewing any other page. Tools like Wix Analytics can show you your bounce rate—and even tell you how it compares with other sites that are similar to yours.
There’s no magic number, but a bounce rate below 40% is generally considered solid, with the average bounce rate landing somewhere between 26% and 70%, according to HubSpot.
There are a variety of reasons that contribute to a high bounce rate, like slow site speed, poor design, bad links or a lack of connection to your content.
It may take some trial and error to find the exact causes, but if your users are bouncing, there is room for site improvement. Here are three quick tips to reduce bounce rates:
Review your site navigation and make sure it’s easy for visitors to find the pages they’re looking for
Incorporate strong calls-to-action on your site that encourage exploration
Add visuals and interactive assets—pictures, videos and testimonials—to your site to invite more engagement with your page
Craft content based on what your users are searching for
Identify the pages where your visitors are bouncing the most from and focus on improving those first
Get inspiration from the pages where your visitors hang out the longest or where they continue their search
02. You’re not meeting your KPIs
Your site holds critical information about what’s working and what’s not working for your brand, site and audience.
Maybe your content isn’t performing up to expectations. Could that be attributed to a lack of visibility? Is your customer acquisition low?
Or, are your eCommerce sales low? If so, are customers dropping out on certain product pages or at certain points of the sales funnel? Are they even making it to your checkout page?
Consider different access points or product offerings that could help move the needle in the right direction. There are likely a multitude of things worth testing (be it a change to the information hierarchy of your site, your images or your overall branding) that can help you meet your business goals.
03. You’re scaling up your business
Your site is an ideal place to show off case studies, services, product lines and other information about your growing brand. A redesign can help to ensure that your online presence keeps pace with your business, especially as it takes on new forms and functions.
When you’re updating a website, it’s important to remember both the front end and back end. As part of your website redesign, you may choose to add new pages, new features or new integrations. Or, perhaps you’ve grown your business and added a new franchise or offering, and needed to rethink the customer flow. Any of these changes may impact both the UX and backend performance of your site.
As you do so, you’ll want to keep things like site security, speed and reliability in mind as you anticipate larger spikes in web traffic. Similarly, you’ll want to bear in mind any new roles and permissions that you need to set up to help your team work more responsibly and efficiently.
Did you know: Wix Enterprise offers solutions built for scale. You can rest assured knowing that no matter how quickly your business grows, your site is ready to handle any growth in traffic while keeping your visitors safe and happy.
04. Your site looks sloppy on mobile devices
The ubiquity of smartphones demands that sites are built with mobile in mind. In fact, in the last quarter of 2023, mobile devices accounted for about 58.7% of all global web traffic.
Not offering a pocket-sized version of your site would alienate a good chunk of your visitors. So, if your site doesn’t already have the best possible mobile experience, you may want to consider carving out time to work on your mobile site.
Good mobile-first design allows your users to do what they want to do: browse your content, buy products and navigate to different pages without feeling overwhelmed. Other best practices include:
Make sure buttons are large enough to click with a thumb
Use large, easy-to-read fonts
Declutter your page, i.e., simplify menus and space out content so that both are easier to navigate on a smaller screen
Show the most important information first and be strategic about website hierarchy
Tip: Use Wix’s Mobile Editor to optimize your page's layout and add mobile-only elements, such as a “Back to Top” button and a “Quick Action” bar.
05. Your site loads at a snail’s pace
Site visitors want to see content, fast. According to a 2023 Statista survey, 54% of users won’t stick around if a site takes five seconds or longer to load. Beyond losing potential customers—a slow-loading site could hurt your search engine rankings.
That said, a slow site can be the symptom of various issues, including “Frankensteined” sites that have garbled code, large files or poorly maintained integrations. It could also be the result of cluttered content and overall poor infrastructure.
Tools like Wix’s Site Speed Dashboard can help to diagnose the issue by showing which of your pages take the longest to load (alongside your Core Web Vitals), based on real visitor data.
As you seek to address problems, here are some website speed optimization strategies to keep in mind:
Compress large image files or use a system like Wix, which automatically crunches images down for you
Limit the use of big files like GIFs and unnecessary animations
Place larger or higher resolution elements lower down on your page
Remove any plugins or tracking codes that you’re no longer using
Learn more about Wix site performance and our commitment to making industry-leading performance a reality for every site.
06. Your customers are complaining
Your main goal in running a site is to attract and maintain the attention of site visitors by serving their needs. If you’re receiving complaints from users about the functionality of your site, then you’ll want to pay attention.
Your customers can offer a perspective about your site that you may not otherwise have (or maybe one that you can’t consider because you’re too “close” to your site or product).
Common complaints—like the site speed, poor design and confusing navigation—can be addressed with a site redesign where you can give proper attention to these bottom-line issues.
07. You’re going through a rebrand
There’s perhaps no better time for a redesign than a rebrand. The two pair perfectly together, and oftentimes, it’s easier to tackle both in one fell swoop.
Consider a redesign if your site does not match the caliber or standards of your brand. This will ensure your site is a true reflection of your brand; consistency is what separates good brands from great brands.
08. Your site looks old and outdated
First impressions matter. Visitors may form an opinion about your site in a split second, so you’ll want to make sure that your site is instantly memorable. If your site appears outdated, you run the risk of customers immediately writing off your brand as stale.
To avoid this issue, use your redesign as an opportunity to weave in more contemporary, future-proof design. Study competitors’ sites for visual inspiration, research design trends and/or consult a professional. You can either redesign using drag and drop templates and designs that website builders incorporate in their editor or you could even use AI tools, like Wix’s AI image creator, for fresh ideas.
Keep in mind that your site doesn’t need to have everything all at once. As Wix user and founder of floral studio Moonwake Meadow, Nicole Oliveira, advises, you shouldn’t try to be everything for everyone. “I want people to come to me because they like my specific style, so I try to push that out into the world,” she says about her own website, which she redesigned after switching to Wix because her original site felt too cookie-cutter. “I decided to invest in something more in line with who I am as a person.”
“I loved Wix because it’s so much more customizable [than other website builders I’ve tried],” she adds.
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