10 signs your website needs a redesign

Most redesigns happen for the wrong reason: someone got bored of looking at the site. Boredom isn't a business case. These ten signs are — and if three or more apply, the rebuild usually pays for itself.

1. Your homepage can't say what you do in five seconds

Show the first screen of your homepage to a stranger. If they can't tell you what you do, who for and what to do next, that's the most expensive problem on the list. It's also the cheapest to fix — it's copy and structure, not technology.

2. The site describes a business you no longer run

Services have changed, pricing has moved, your best clients look different — but the website still sells last year's business. The site starts training the wrong people to enquire. Our work on North & Co started exactly here: the business had moved upmarket and the website hadn't.

3. Mobile is an afterthought

Open your site on a phone and try to enquire. Pinch-zooming, tiny tap targets, tables that scroll sideways — more than half your visitors are having that experience. If the site was designed desktop-first years ago, it shows.

4. You're not getting enquiries, or the wrong kind

If the phone rings but the leads are poor, the site is often underselling you — attracting price shoppers instead of considered buyers. If the phone isn't ringing at all, work through why a website stops producing leads before assuming a redesign is the answer.

5. Your competitors' sites make you wince

Not because theirs are prettier, but because they make the buying decision easier. In a considered purchase, buyers shortlist three suppliers. If your site is the weakest of the three, you're out before the first call.

6. It loads like it's 2014

Slow pages lose visitors before they read a word, and Google notices too. Run your homepage through our free website score — if performance comes back poor, that's usually a symptom of an ageing stack rather than a fixable tweak.

7. Small changes need a developer

If updating a service page or adding a case study means emailing an agency and waiting a fortnight, the site isn't a business tool — it's a poster. A modern build puts routine content in your hands.

8. You're embarrassed to send people to it

This one is unscientific but reliable. If you find yourself saying 'the website's a bit out of date' on sales calls, you already know. The site is supposed to shorten the sales conversation, not need apologising for.

9. Nothing connects to anything

Enquiries arrive in an inbox and live there. No CRM, no tracking of where leads came from, no automated follow-up. A rebuild is the natural moment to wire the site into how you actually work — the thinking behind our automation work and builds like Fieldwork.

10. It's not appearing in search — or in AI answers

Search has widened. Buyers now ask ChatGPT and Perplexity for recommendations as well as Google. Sites with clear structure, proper headings and well-organised service pages get cited; thin five-page brochures don't. If you're invisible in both places, the problem is structural.

A redesign triggered by three commercial signs will outperform one triggered by boredom every time.

When it's not a redesign

Some of these are fixable without rebuilding: copy, photography, speed work, a clearer enquiry route. We'd rather tell you that than sell you a project you don't need. Start with the free website score for the technical picture, or send us the link for an honest read on the rest. If a rebuild is right, our websites service sets out what that includes and what it costs.