10 signs your business website needs a redesign
Score your site in 5 minutes and find out whether you're losing customers to an outdated website. Every item comes with how to self-check and how much it's costing you.
How to use it
For each of the 10 items, score your site from 1 (great) to 5 (critically bad). If you're not sure, give it a 3. At the bottom you'll see your total score and a recommendation on whether you need a redesign now or can wait.
The site takes longer than 3 seconds to load
After a 3-second wait, 53% of mobile visitors close the tab. Those are customers lost before they ever saw your offer.
Check at pagespeed.web.dev or gtmetrix.com — enter your URL and look at the load time for mobile and desktop.
Every extra second of load time = 7% lower conversion. On a site with 1,000 visitors a month, that's tens of lost inquiries.
Layout breaks or text is too small on mobile
60-80% of traffic now comes from phones. If your site is awkward on mobile, you're losing the majority of your audience.
Open your site from your phone. Test: are buttons tappable without zoom? Is text readable without scaling? Does the menu work?
A clunky mobile experience = up to 70% bounce. Google also pushes mobile-unfriendly sites down in search results.
No HTTPS — browsers show "Not secure"
Without an SSL certificate, browsers scare visitors with a security warning. Many will close the site without trying to understand why.
Open your site. If there's no lock icon to the left of the domain in the address bar, you don't have HTTPS.
Sites without HTTPS lose up to half their visitors at the warning step. Google also ranks them lower.
The design looks like it's from 2015-2018
Modern visitors compare your site to Apple, Stripe, Notion — sites they see every day. A dated design signals that the product is also dated.
Tell-tale signs: heavy shadows and gradients, tiny fonts <14px, narrow text columns, glossy buttons, auto-rotating hero carousels.
A dated design lowers trust. Competitors with modern sites win inquiries even when their actual service is worse.
No clear call to action
Visitors shouldn't have to guess what to do next. If there's no obvious button above the fold, they leave.
Open your homepage and ask yourself: in 3 seconds, is it clear what you offer and what to click to order? If you have to scroll or think, that's a problem.
Sites with one strong CTA above the fold convert 2-3× better than sites with scattered links.
No pricing on the site, or it's hidden
Modern customers compare 3-5 options before buying. If your site says "contact us for pricing," they go to a competitor who shows it.
Are there specific prices on your site, or at least a "from X to Y" range? If not, this point is about you.
Transparent pricing raises inquiry conversion by 30-50%. It's especially important for salons, auto shops, and small business services.
Google doesn't find the site by your company name
If your site doesn't show up first when searching the exact company name, Google has indexing issues — and you'll never rank for anything else either.
Search Google for "your company name + city." The site should be in the top 3 results. If it's not, that's a red flag.
Without SEO visibility you only get traffic from ads or direct links. Organic search is free customers you're missing.
Only stock photos, no real images
Stock photos read instantly as "generic template." Real photos of the team, the space, the work — that's what builds trust.
Walk through your site. How many photos are actually yours, and how many are smiling Shutterstock people in suits?
Sites with real team/work photos convert 1.5-2× better than templates. Especially critical for services and local businesses.
Forms don't work, links go nowhere
If a visitor tried to submit an inquiry and got an error, they won't come back. Broken links = instant exit.
Fill out the contact form on your site as a customer. Did the notification arrive? Do all menu links work? Are all buttons clickable?
A broken form means losing 100% of inquiries you could have received. This is the most expensive problem on the list.
Conversion rate below 2% (or you don't know it)
A good services site converts 3-5% of visitors into inquiries. Below 2% is a signal the site isn't pulling its weight. Not measuring at all is even worse.
Open Google Analytics or Plausible. What percentage of visitors submit a form? Below 2% = problem. Not measuring = install analytics today.
Doubling conversion from 1.5% to 3% = 2× more customers from the same traffic. That's the whole point of a redesign.
Want a free 15-minute audit of your site?
We'll share our screen, show you exactly what's underperforming, give you 2-3 quick wins you can apply without a redesign, and estimate what a full refresh would cost. No commitment.
Book the audit