10 Signs Your Website Needs a Redesign (With Scorecard)

Your website probably needs a redesign when visitors cannot do the main thing you built it for, when it works badly on a phone, when the information is wrong or old, or when you are embarrassed to send people there. This guide gives you ten concrete signs and a scorecard, so that a vague feeling that the site is “not great” becomes a clear answer: redesign now, fix a few things, or leave it alone for the moment.

Why a feeling is not enough

Almost every business owner thinks their website could be better. That is not a reason to spend money. Equally, many owners put up with a site that is quietly costing them enquiries because they have stopped looking at it. The signs below are designed to cut through both problems by giving you specific things to check.

Do the checks as a customer would: on your phone, over mobile data, without logging in, starting from a Google search for your business name. Ask a friend who does not know your business to try as well, and watch where they hesitate.

The ten signs

1. It is hard to use on a phone

If text is tiny, buttons are fiddly, menus do not open or you need to pinch and zoom, the site was not designed for the device most of your visitors use. In Singapore, a lot of customers look you up on their phones, often while standing in a queue or sitting on a bus. A site that fights them loses them. This sign usually means a redesign, because it affects every page and every template.

2. Your contact details are hard to find or wrong

Your phone number, WhatsApp link and address should be visible within a few seconds of landing on any page. If they are buried in a footer, hidden in an image, or out of date, you are making customers work to give you business. A wrong number is worse than none. Fixing the details may be a fix; fixing a layout that hides them is a redesign.

3. The wording describes the business you used to be

Old services, retired prices, a team page with people who left, a “new for 2019” banner. Out-of-date content makes visitors wonder whether anyone is still there. If most of the content needs rewriting, a redesign is the natural moment to do it properly.

4. It is slow

Open it on mobile data. If the page takes a long time to show anything, visitors may give up before they see your offer. Slow pages often come from huge images, too many add-ons or weak hosting. Some of this can be fixed without a redesign, and our guide to website speed for small businesses shows where to start.

5. The next step is unclear

Ask a stranger what they would do after reading your home page. If they are not sure whether to call, WhatsApp, fill in a form or keep scrolling, the page lacks a clear call to action. Our website conversion guide explains how to give each page one clear job.

6. The form, button or chat does not work

Test every route a customer might use: submit the contact form and check it arrives, tap the WhatsApp button, tap the phone number, click the booking link. A form that silently fails is one of the most expensive faults a small business can have, because you never see the enquiries you lost. A broken form is a fix. Several broken parts on an unsupported platform is a sign of something bigger.

7. It looks less trustworthy than you are

A business that is well run can still have a site that looks careless: stretched photos, mismatched fonts, broken images, pages that look unfinished. Visitors judge quickly. If you are reluctant to put the website address on a quotation or business card, listen to that instinct.

8. Nobody on your team can update it

If changing an opening hour needs a week of emails, or the person who built the site is unreachable, the site will drift out of date and stay that way. Who can edit it, and how quickly, is as important as how it looks. This is also where ownership matters: see who owns your website.

9. It does not match how you work now

You may have added services, moved premises, changed your name or started serving a different kind of customer. If the site cannot show the business as it is today without awkward workarounds, it has outgrown its structure.

10. You avoid sending people to it

This is the most honest test. If you would rather send a PDF, a WhatsApp message or a social media page than your website, the site is not doing its job as the place where customers can check you out.

The scorecard

Give each sign a score from 0 to 2: 0 if it is not a problem, 1 if it is a problem but fixable, 2 if it is a serious problem. Add up the ten scores. The total is out of 20.

Two things override the score. First, if the contact form or WhatsApp route is broken, fix that today whatever the total. Second, if the site is fine but nobody is replying to enquiries, a redesign will not help. Tackle reply speed first.

What to look at beyond the website itself

A redesign is only part of how customers find and trust you. Check these too, because a polished new site cannot compensate for gaps elsewhere:

• Your Google Business Profile. Hours, photos and details should match the website. See the Google Business Profile guide.
• Reply speed. Customers who message you expect a prompt answer. Read how reply speed affects enquiries.
• Real proof. Genuine reviews and examples of work. Never invent them to make a new design look better.

If you decide to redesign

Use the website brief template to organise what you need, and the guide to redesigning or rebuilding to choose the scale of work. To compare what different approaches cost, see website design cost in Singapore.

When not to redesign

Be as willing to say no as yes. Hold off if:

• The only real problem is that few people visit. A new design does not create visitors by itself.
• The site works, is accurate and you simply fancy a change.
• You do not yet know what the site should achieve. Write that down first.
• The business is about to change significantly. Wait until the new shape is clear.

Next step

Work through the ten signs this week and write your total on a piece of paper. If it lands in the middle range, fix the two or three biggest faults first and then reassess. If it lands high, read the website redesign checklist and decide on the scale of work. Our website design page explains how we approach it.