When to Redesign Your Contractor Website: 8 Signs It's Time

Your website might be old, but is it actually hurting your business? Not every old website needs a complete redesign. But sometimes, holding onto an outdated site costs you more than investing in a new one.

Here are eight signs that indicate a website redesign should be on your radar.

Sign 1: Your Website Doesn't Work on Mobile

If you pull up your website on a phone and it's hard to navigate, hard to read, or requires pinching and zooming—that's a problem. Mobile traffic typically accounts for 60-70% of contractor website visits.

A non-responsive website isn't just inconvenient. It actively loses you customers who can't easily contact you from their phones. And Google penalizes sites that don't work well on mobile.

Sign 2: It Loads Too Slowly

Test your website at pagespeed.web.dev. If your site takes more than 3-4 seconds to load, you're losing visitors before they see your content.

Slow sites also rank lower in Google search results and perform worse with paid ads. Sometimes speed issues can be fixed without a redesign, but often the underlying platform or hosting is the problem.

Sign 3: You're Embarrassed to Share Your Website

This one's simple: if you hesitate to put your website URL on your business cards, or you find yourself explaining "we're working on updating it"—that's a sign.

Your website is often the first impression potential customers get of your business. If it doesn't represent your current quality of work, it's working against you.

Sign 4: Your Competitors' Websites Are Better

Visit your top competitors' websites. If they look significantly more professional, more modern, and more trustworthy than yours, you're at a disadvantage.

Customers compare. When they're getting quotes from three contractors and two have professional websites while yours looks dated, it affects their perception—even if your work is better.

Sign 5: You Can't Easily Update Content

If making basic updates—like changing your phone number or adding a new photo—requires contacting a developer and waiting days, your website is a liability.

Websites should be easy to maintain. Information should stay current. If yours has outdated content because updates are too difficult, it's creating friction for both you and your visitors.

Sign 6: Your Website Doesn't Reflect Your Current Services

Businesses evolve. Maybe you added new services, stopped offering others, or changed your focus area. If your website still reflects who you were three years ago, visitors are getting the wrong picture.

This is especially problematic if visitors contact you about services you no longer offer, or don't realize you now offer exactly what they need.

Sign 7: Traffic Is Fine, But Leads Are Not

If you're getting traffic—from Google, from ads, from referrals—but visitors aren't converting into leads, there's a conversion problem.

Sometimes this can be addressed with specific optimizations. But if the entire site structure, design, and messaging are working against conversion, a strategic redesign might be the most effective fix.

Sign 8: Major Business Changes Are Happening

Certain business events warrant a fresh website:

• You've rebranded or changed your company name
• You've significantly expanded your service area
• You've grown from a one-person operation to a team
• You're targeting a different type of customer than before
• You're about to invest significantly in marketing

If you're about to spend money driving traffic to your site, make sure the site is ready to convert that traffic.

When Optimization Beats Redesign

Not every website problem requires a full redesign. Sometimes you can:

• Improve speed without changing design
• Add better calls-to-action to existing pages
• Update content and photos without restructuring
• Add a landing page for specific campaigns

Consider the cost-benefit. Small improvements might be enough—or they might just delay addressing the fundamental issues.

Questions to Ask Before Redesigning

1. What specific problems am I trying to solve? Be clear about goals beyond "it looks old."

2. What results do I expect from a new site? More leads? Better leads? Easier updates?

3. Will I invest in driving traffic to the new site? A beautiful new website still needs visitors.

4. Am I prepared to provide the content? Photos, testimonials, service descriptions—these make or break a redesign.

5. What's the true cost of keeping the old site? Lost leads? Wasted ad spend? Missed opportunities?

Making the Decision

A website redesign is a significant investment. Make sure you're doing it for strategic reasons, not just because the current site feels old.

The right time to redesign is when your current website is actively costing you business—through lost leads, poor mobile experience, slow performance, or misrepresentation of who you are today.

When those factors align, a new website isn't an expense. It's an investment in stopping the bleeding.