Are you on the fence about updating your website? Consider this: Your website is often the first and most important touchpoint in your customer journey. When traffic metrics slip, it’s a signal that your web design may no longer be aligned with how your customers think, search, and convert. From engagement and conversions to search visibility and growth, your website must actively support your business growth.
Below, we break down the key signs that your web design needs attention and how strategic updates can help you regain momentum.
1. Your Website’s Average Engagement Time Is Decreasing
Average engagement time (AET) is pretty self-explanatory; it’s the time a customer spends actively engaging with your site. You’ll want to maximize AET because the longer prospects spend on your site, the more likely they are to convert. Therefore, look for the following AET decreases and how to fix them:
- Organic search: After searching on Google or Bing, prospects visit your website only to leave shortly after. The root cause may be a lack of engaging content or an information mismatch between your site content and the content displayed in search results, which search engine optimization (SEO) can help address.
- Paid search: A poorly designed landing page can reduce AET. Rethink your web design and landing page content. Think about what prospects expect after clicking your ad.
- Social media: Your customers may be interested in your promotions, but leave shortly after visiting your landing page. Make sure your landing page and social media content match.
Regardless of the channel, you and your web design team must identify and resolve these issues by using Google Analytics or a comparable analytics tool to guide your web design updates.
2. Your Website Conversions Are Dropping
A decrease in conversions can go hand in hand with a decrease in web traffic. When you notice conversions decreasing month over month on your website, you may be experiencing:
- Broken links across your site will create a poor user experience.
- An expired website security certificate will decrease your business’s credibility.
- Weak website content can cause customers to lose interest in your offerings.
If you’re experiencing one of these or all of them, it’s time to get your web designer involved or consult with a web design agency for help.
3. Your Search Rankings Are Dropping
If you appear lower and lower on search engine results pages (SERPs) for target keywords, it’s probably time to rethink your web design. You’re getting beaten on SEO and content marketing, which are two areas you have control over and can be improved with better web design.
So, how do you know whether your SERP rankings are dropping each month? You can use tools to monitor them, such as Moz and Semrush, but they can be pricey. A digital marketing agency can help pull this data for you and provide insights into which web design enhancements can improve your SERP rankings.
4. Your Company’s Growth has Plateaued – Web Design Can Help!
If you’re eager for bigger growth, it might be time to consider supplementing your marketing needs with an external digital marketing agency. They bring fresh perspectives from different verticals to build better websites. They do so by optimizing your web designs to improve website AET, conversions, and search rankings. Or if you’re looking to expand content to deliver a richer user experience, they can help with that too!
The Bottom Line / TLDR
If your website’s AET, conversions, or search rankings are dropping, or your company’s growth has plateaued, it’s probably time to update your web design! Issues such as poor content, weak landing pages, broken links, and outdated SEO can hurt your website’s performance across organic, paid, and social channels. By enhancing web design, monitoring analytics, and leveraging external marketing expertise, you can effectively resolve these web design issues.
Connect with Uplancer today for your free web design consultation.
