Does your website need a redesign?

Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking, so the phone version is the one to check first. Open your own website on your phone, the way a customer would, and go through the eight signs below. Each one takes a minute or two.

You have to pinch and zoom to read it, the buttons are too small for a thumb, or tapping the phone number doesn’t start a call. Google recommends responsive design, where one site rearranges itself to fit any screen, because it’s the easiest kind to build and keep up.

Google’s target is for the main content of a page to appear within 2.5 seconds of it starting to load (web.dev). To check yours for free, type your address into PageSpeed Insights, which reports on phones and computers and suggests what to fix (how it works). Look at the phone results first.

Our article How fast should your website load? explains the numbers in plain English.

Look at the address bar while your site is open. If Chrome shows “Not secure,” Google’s Chrome help page tells visitors that someone may be able to see or change what they send through the site, and that the site owner has to fix it with HTTPS. Anyone who visits your site can see that warning.

Old hours, a phone number you no longer answer, a team page with people who have moved on, a special that ended years ago. A customer who trusts the old hours makes a wasted trip.

Then compare your site with your Google Business Profile. Google’s guidelines ask for your real-world business name and your regular customer-facing hours. When your website and your profile say the same thing, customers get the same answer wherever they look.

This one is our own rule of thumb, not a Google rule. Someone landing on your home page should see, without scrolling, what you do, where you do it and how to get in touch. If any of the three is missing or buried, the page is making visitors work too hard. Our guide What your website needs has the rest of the checklist.

If every small change means a call and an invoice, the site is costing you more than it should. Thumbtack’s advice when you hire a developer: “make sure your website is built on a platform you can use after their contract ends” (Thumbtack).

An accessible site works for people who use screen readers, keyboards or zoom. The W3C’s Easy Checks are a first look anyone can do: Does every page have its own title? Do images have a text description? Can you reach every link with the Tab key? Does the text stand out clearly from its background? WCAG asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal-size text.

There’s more in Is your website accessible?

Search Google for your business name and look at the result for your website. The headline of a search result, which Google calls the title link, can come from your page’s title, one of the few places Google takes it from (SEO Starter Guide). If yours just says “Home,” nobody can tell what you offer.

Google Search Console is free and shows which searches bring people to your site. Our setup guide walks you through it.

One or two of these signs can often be fixed on the site you already have, like a smaller photo, an updated page or a new page title. When several show up together, or the site is built on something you can’t change, starting fresh is often simpler than patching.

A redesign doesn’t have to throw away what already works. Your logo, photos, text and colors can all come with you.

If you’re weighing one, here’s how our redesigns work.