There comes a time when your personal or business website gets stale and outdated, and (urgently) requires remodeling. It’s a natural process. However, sadly, many people fail to identify this stage of the process. Months turn into years and they continue using the same old website, knowing less that the time and trend have changed—and so is their audience’s taste and preference.

How old is your website? When was the last time you tweaked things a bit? When did you last hired a professional to make sure your online presence is up to date?

If it’s too long to even remember, it’s definitely the time.

Other than that, here are 7 tell-tale signs your website desperately needs a makeover:

1. It doesn’t sync with your evolved brand image

Your brand and business have come a long way since inception. Right? Its message has changed over the course. This calls in for a change in the appearance of the website to compliment what your brand really is now.

2. It still isn’t responsive to device sizes

Not having a mobile-friendly website is no less than a sin in the SEO world today. How does your website look on handheld devices? Is it viewable? Are things easy to read? It MUST be responsive!

3. It isn’t optimized to latest SEO practices

SEO world has changed a lot in the past few years, thanks to consecutive algorithm changes of Google. Today, website design and technical practices must go hand-in-hand to be more visible on search engines. Is your website optimized on the designing end?

4. Traffic is consistently on the decline

If your website traffic is falling consistently, there might be plenty of reasons behind that. One of the major ones could be the outdated design.

5. Time Spent on Website’ is poor

Time spent on the website is an important SEO factor. When people come to your website and aren’t staying on for long (with bounce rate pretty high), know it for a fact that something isn’t right on the landing page. And more often than not, it’s its overall appearance.

6. The contents need to be updated but you haven’t done it

Your content is outdated. You want to update those details. But you can’t. Why? Because there’s no CMS (like WordPress) where you can easily update the contents. It’s an old-school website made from the ground using HTML, CSS and other languages. In order to change or add contents, you need to get your hands dirty on the technical end and you don’t really know how to do that.

7. There’s no social media integration

Social Media is everywhere!!! Being on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms is no less than essential for businesses. So while you must have a social following, your website must also be integrated well with your social media accounts, highlighting your reach and encouraging people to connect and engage.

These are 7 very evident signs your website needs to be redesigned immediately. However, like every real thing, it’s easier said than done. The process of redesigning takes time. And the first challenge on the path is to hire the right professionals who are qualified enough to match your needs and expectations.

5 Tips to Hire the Right Website Designing Agency

1. Start your search on Google. But don’t blindly believe everything you see. Those rankings of “best website designing agency in India” might be flawed and biased. Also, don’t believe the claims that you read of agencies’ websites.
2. Pick a handful of good names and check the kind of services they offer. What is their expertise? What kind of projects have they worked on in the past? How does their clientele list looks? What kind of testimonies or reviews have they gotten?
3. Narrow down your list of this handful of names on the basis of their experience, team qualification, expertise, pricing and past work.
4. Contact these designing agencies via email or phone call. Or, if possible, visit them in person. You don’t have to interview them but after telling your requirements, ask them lots of questions. About their experience, expertise, industry trends, work approach and so on. The basic idea is you want to know more about them and the kind of work they do.
5. Whoever satisfies you the most, go with them.

Of course, these 5 tips are rather broad. But they do create a framework, using which you easily find a nice and reliable website designing company. Good luck!