How to Know When it’s Time for a New Website

I’ve talked to quite a few photographers, wedding vendors, and creative small business owners over the years, and one question that they often have is this: they’re wondering when to scrap the old website and build a brand new one. They’ve often been in business for a few years, and their old website served them well, but it hasn’t grown with them in the way that it needs to. If I just described you as well, then keep reading! This list below will help you to better evaluate your site and know that it’s time for a new one.

Sign #1: Your Website Feels “Blah”

Maybe you’re cringing on the inside every time you send your website link to a potential client, and thinking, “Please love me for me, and not my outdated website!” Or maybe you’re just feeling like you’ve changed since you started your business. You may have gotten a lot more clear on the styles and overall web design look that platform that you’re into. A lot of creative small business owners begin their site on one platform, and after checking out different platforms after a few years in business, they switch to another that fits their needs a bit better. It’s ultimately all about finding the style, functionality, and platform that immediately shows your best self so that potential clients will be blown away!

Sign #2: Your Services Have Changed

It’s natural for services to evolve over time as you get to know your interests and your clients a bit better. Perhaps you’re realizing that the biggest revenue-generating aspect of your business is not adequately represented on your website, and you’re not sure if it’s a structural problem, a copywriting problem, or a design problem. When you go through a website evaluation with me, we can talk about how to adequately address that problem and figure out a plan for addressing it. Sometimes, the best step forward is to redesign the website based on your newest services and business goals.

Sign #3: You’re Speaking to Everyone

Maybe your ideal client has changed over time, or maybe you need some help figuring out who that person is. When you’re thinking critically about your website, think about who you’re speaking to in your website copy. Does this person talk a certain way? What aesthetics are they into? What interests, excites, or concerns them? If you’re not super clear on who your ideal client is, it’s very likely that your website visitors will feel like you’re not talking directly to them, and move on. We don’t want that! We want your ideal clients to feel right at home when they visit your site, and that’s why I include brand strategy workshops with every branding and web design project that I complete.

Sign #4: You Want to Switch Platforms/More Functionality

Maybe you started your website on Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, or one of the many others out there, but you’re feeling a little underwhelmed and don’t know what to do about it. This is precisely why I design websites for wedding vendors, photographers, and creative small business owners in Showit. Its intuitive, flexible, drag-and-drop interface allows you to create ~virtually~ anything your creative heart desires! It also connects with Shopify Lite (for e-commerce) and has an option for hosting a WordPress blog as well. After learning about Showit and designing photographer websites within it, I’m super impressed and I think you will be, too!

Sign #5: Your Website is Not Secure

Your website should begin with https://, not http://. This extra “s”, accompanied by a small padlock symbol, is called an SSL certificate, and it is one of the ways to secure your website and prove your identity/ownership of it. If your website doesn’t have it, it hurts your credibility with users and search engines. If your website is not secure, you can either add that SSL certificate yourself, or create a new, secure site that’s secure right from the start.

Sign #6: Your Website is Slow

If you’ve tested your site on one of the many page speed investigation platforms out there, and you’ve found multiple times that its loading times are simply too slow, this is an SEO and user experience red flag. It may be the case for several reasons, but is often due to photos being too large. In this case, you can either remove, compress, resize, and re-upload your photos, or you can begin your new website knowing that photo compression and web-ready images will be a vital part of the process. This step is especially important for photographers, since photographers typically display many photos on their websites.

Sign #7: Your Website is Not Responsive

Since over 50% of all website traffic comes from mobile, it’s incredibly important to make sure that your website is responsive and mobile-optimized. If it’s not optimized for mobile users, the bounce rate tends to increase because it’s too much of a hassle for mobile users to stay on your site. And along those lines, it’s important to give mobile users just as nice of an experience as desktop users. What I love about using Showit is that when you create a website, you have full creative control over both the desktop and mobile versions. This is a HUGE bonus, and is not the case on many other website builders that I’ve used. So be sure to take full advantage of that capability to make the mobile experience amazing!

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are also plenty of personal reasons to make a big switch! And sometimes, you just feel it in your gut because you’ve been putting it off (I’ve been there!).

I am available for completely customized brand design and Showit web design projects if you’ve read through this whole post and have realized that it’s time for a website makeover. Feel free to get in touch with me by filling out my contact form, and I can’t wait to talk branding and web design with you! Or if you’re not ready for such a big commitment, you can sign up for a website audit here.