Even the most fabulously planned, perfectly designed website gets old.

Like a well-loved pair of jeans that’s gone saggy in the bum, a tired, outdated website isn’t doing you any favours.

Jeans lost their shape?

I know when it’s time to upgrade my jeans. Sometimes they lose their colour. Sometimes they lose their shape. Sometimes I rip through the knee. Denim essentials that were once an asset eventually become a hindrance. I may live in denial for a week or two, but eventually, realise they are doing me no favours at all.

It’s not so obvious when a website is not fit for purpose. A quick glance may not tell you when its days are numbered. But this checklist can.

Five signs it’s time for a redesign:

1. You get plenty of visitors, but they don’t sign-up to your email list.

There’s a number things that could’ve gone wrong here.

Maybe people don’t love what you’ve got to say, so they’re not signing up for more of it. Maybe they do love what you say, but it’s not obvious how to sign up. Maybe they can see how to sign up, but aren’t convinced why they should.

You need to re-examine your whole offer and how it’s presented, plus take a look at your analytics data for more clues (more on that later).

2. It’s a challenge to make content changes.

You should be able to make changes to your website quickly and easily, to respond to feedback from fans and clients, tweak the wording, or move things around. If every change or update is an arduous chore, either the website design isn’t user-friendly, OR your designer isn’t friendly.

Either way, that’s a problem for your business.

3. It’s not responsive.

Websites can be viewed on screen sizes from 5 inches to 40 inches. It needs to look good no matter where it’s being displayed. You can check the responsiveness of your website in 30 seconds using the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool. 

4. Your business has changed, but your website hasn’t.

You’ve changed. Your business has changed. But your website hasn’t.

It’s natural that your business will evolve over time. But websites aren’t quite as organic. You can make improvements as you go, bolt on new functionality, adjust design features, but eventually what you need now is so far away from what was originally designed, your website just doesn’t work for you the way it should.

5. Your audience doesn’t love it.

If they do love your website, they will view more than one page, spend at least a few minutes on the site each time they visit, and they’ll keep coming back for more. Your analytics data will give you a picture of how audience attitudes to your website are changing over time.

As you stock your blog with valuable posts the ‘Pages Per Session’ and ‘Average Session Duration’ measures should increase.