3 Warning Signs That Your Website Needs A Refresh

Websites have become more than an online brochure. They are now the hub for everything—your virtual model, online design center, and sales center. Websites are doing more than their fair share of work these days and have become a critical part of every business. If you are thinking about redesigning your website, you are not alone. The shelf life of a website design is usually 1-3 years and then it’s time to freshen things up. Technology changes constantly and consumer demands and expectations change right along with it. A website can quickly become outdated. Just think about what messaging looked like early in 2019 verses where it is today—accommodating in person and virtual, addressing scarcity and high demand.

We’re going to cover the top 3 things that indicate it’s time to freshen up your website. The good news is that thinking about it and planning for it now will help you make good use of remaining marketing dollars and help prepare for the spring selling season.

1. Time

We’ve already talked about the time frame, but why does a website need a facelift so quickly? This is one time it makes sense to keep up with the Joneses. A website can look old and tired after just a few years and when buyers compare your website to competitors, the style can look out-of-touch, like the fashion from 3 years ago. Unfortunately, vintage doesn’t work when it comes to technology. Another biggie is that Google updates their algorithm frequently and awards change, so having an outdated website can hurt your ranking in search engines.

2. Your Website Isn’t Mobile First

Again, back to Google, rankings are now only determined based on your mobile site. It’s time to do what we call the “fat finger test” and see how your website stacks up on mobile. All of your primary pages and actions should be configured for mobile. It should be easy to scroll down on pages, images should be sized properly on mobile, and all text should be readable. You also need to make sure that phone numbers have click-to-call and driving directions are easily accessible since those are the actions that home shoppers perform most frequently on mobile. Once you’ve performed a test yourself, have a few people outside of your company do the test as well. And when in doubt, call a professional. BDX can perform a free digital marketing assessment, just click here.

3. Speed

There is nothing more frustrating than a slow site to home shoppers. If your bounce rates are high, site speed could be to blame. Fortunately there are a multitude of free site speed checkers out there. We like the site, GTmetrix. A quick look will give you an idea of how you rank.

Speaking of rankings, have you ever wondered how your website actually stacks up against other builders of the same size? A report card of some sort would be so helpful! Well, there is a way to find out with BDX Blue—the marketing blueprint for the home building industry. Finally there is a benchmark to know how you stack up against other builders of the same size through powerful reports and industry trends. BDX Blue is a monthly subscription that includes website heat mapping, imaging intelligence powered by AI, SEO site analysis, and our own proprietary webIndex that ranks your site against sites of builders of similar size. We covered heat mapping last week—one of our most popular articles YTD. You can read it here if you missed it. We will be doing a few follow up articles on websites in the coming weeks so stay tuned! Email us or visit us at theBDX.com for more information.

About the Author

Alaina Latiolais is currently the Marketing Manager and HBA Partnership Program Manager for Builder’s Digital Experience. She previously worked as a Digital Marketing Consultant for BDX working with builders of all sizes in the Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi markets. Finding her love for B2B marketing, she now helps educate home builders about marketing and technology and understanding the digital consumer. Alaina has over a decade of experience working with small, medium and large businesses on their marketing strategies, always with a strong focus on the latest technology and results. She has a practical approach that saddles between warm and daring, always challenging businesses to take the next step to adopt new technology and ideas.

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