Strategy By Lui Nobrega · Jul 14, 2026 · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min read

7 Signs It's Time to Redesign Your Website

Websites get old faster than most owners expect. Here are seven signs to watch for, and how to test each one yourself in an afternoon. If two or more sound like your site, it is probably costing you business right now.

Signs 1 to 3: the easy ones to spot

Your site looks broken on a phone. It is slow to load. You do not want to put the web address on your business card. Any one of these is enough on its own.

  1. Sign 1. Open your site on your own phone and on a friend's phone. Try to read a page, tap the phone number and fill in the form without zooming. Your own phone is the best test.
  2. For a quick look at other screen sizes, use device mode in Chrome DevTools on your computer. Google calls it a first-order approximation, so still check on a real phone. See: Simulate mobile devices with device mode (opens in a new tab)
  3. Sign 2. Run your home page through PageSpeed Insights. If it does not pass the Core Web Vitals assessment, or the main content takes longer than 2.5 seconds to appear, speed is costing you visitors. See: PageSpeed Insights (opens in a new tab)
  4. Sign 3. Ask yourself one question. Would you hand a new customer a card with this web address on it today? If not, write down why.

Signs 4 and 5: the quiet ones

You cannot change your own hours, prices, or menu without calling someone. Your contact form stopped sending messages and nobody told you. Both of these cost you money every week, and neither one shows on the surface.

  1. Sign 4. Try to change your opening hours yourself, right now. If you cannot do it in about five minutes without help, that is the sign.
  2. Sign 5. Send yourself a message through every form on your site. Check that it arrives, check the spam folder, and check who else receives it. Many owners are surprised by what they find.

Signs 6 and 7: the ones about other people

Someone else shows up before you on Google for what you do in your own town. And your site still lists services you stopped offering. Visitors notice when a website does not match the real business. They start to wonder what else is out of date.

  1. Sign 6. Search Google for your main service and your town, the way a customer would. Note who shows up above you.
  2. If your site is in Google Search Console, open the Performance report. It shows the searches your site appears for and your average position in the results. See: Performance report (Search results) (opens in a new tab)
  3. Sign 7. Print your services page, or read it on screen, next to what you actually sell today. Circle everything that is wrong, missing or gone.

One more check: can everyone use it?

Check whether people who use a screen reader, a keyboard or large text can use your site. Tools can find many of these problems, but not all of them. Treat the results as a starting list, not a pass.

  1. Enter your web address in WAVE. It flags many accessibility errors on the page and helps you check the rest by eye. See: WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools (opens in a new tab)
  2. In PageSpeed Insights, or in Lighthouse inside Chrome, look at the Accessibility score as well as Performance. See: Introduction to Lighthouse (opens in a new tab)

Helpful links

Should you redesign or just update your website?

Count the signs. If one sign fits, an update usually fixes it. Change the hours, fix the form, shrink the photos. If two or more fit, a redesign usually costs less than patching, because the problems tend to share one cause. The site was built for how people used the web years ago, not for how they use it today.

Helpful links

What a redesign should fix first

Start with the things that cost you customers this week. Make it work on a phone. Make it pass Google's Core Web Vitals. Make sure every form and phone number works. Then make sure you can change your own hours and prices. Looks come last. A good looking site that nobody can use is still a broken site.

Helpful links

Common questions

How do I know if my website needs a redesign?

Redesign your website when it stops telling the truth about your business. Common signs: it looks broken on a phone, it fails Google's speed test in PageSpeed Insights, you cannot update your own hours or prices, or your contact form stopped working. If two or more of these sound familiar, it is time.

How often should a small business redesign its website?

There is no set schedule. Phones, browsers, and what customers expect keep changing, so watch for the signs instead of the calendar. Between redesigns, small updates keep the site honest: current hours, current services, fresh photos, and a contact form you test once a month.

Should I fix my old website or start over?

Start by testing it. Open your site on your own phone, run it through PageSpeed Insights, and send yourself a message through your contact form. Then list what is out of date. If the fixes are small, update the site. If the list is long, a redesign usually costs less than patching.

Sources and further reading

The takeaway

It is time for a new site when yours stops telling the truth about your business. Test it on a phone, in PageSpeed Insights and through your own contact form before you decide.

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