It’s a new year, which tends to make everyone think “upgrades”

Especially for DIY websites.

Happy 2026, everyone!! I’m the first to say that 2025 was a “good riddance” year, as opposed to a “ah let’s look back at the memories” year. And being completely honest, 2026 has started off on a bit of a rough foot at my end of the world. But that’s neither here nor there.

If you’re a small business owner heading into 2026, you might be thinking about what so many business owners think about in January. Rebranding, and resetting their online presence. And it makes sense that you’d think about it in the new year! It’s like the “New Year, New You” trope, but for your work instead of your lifestyle.

Not every problem can be fixed by rebranding (OR by a DIY website redesign)

This is ALSO when many people start thinking about rebranding (and redesigning their DIY websites), because it’s when they’ve wrapped up their finances for the previous year, and seen how things shaped up. It’s not been the most forgiving year, on that end of things, either. So – you might be looking at your 2025 end-of-year reports and thinking “how do I fix this problem”. And if you are, you’re not alone, by any means!

However – if you’ve landed on “well maybe I should rebrand” or “maybe it’s time to redesign my website” – there’s more to think about than the latest Facebook ad you’ve seen from a branding expert claiming that rebranding your business and updating your online presence will change everything overnight. As much as I’d love to lie to you – rebranding doesn’t solve every problem in business, and there are certainly things you can do BEFORE making a large investment in your branding, to see whether those steps help to bridge the gap. We’ll talk about those soon, but today, we’re going to go through ways you can identify that a rebrand and a website redesign IS your best next step!

A new website does have benefits, and can solve SOME problems!

After all, I wouldn’t be a very good brand strategist if I didn’t tell you that there are, in fact, many problems in business that rebranding CAN solve, and others that it can alleviate a significant percentage of if it doesn’t solve them altogether.

So how do you know when it’s time for a website upgrade, and/or a rebrand?

Which brings us to the question – what signs should you look for that indicate it’s time for an upgrade to your branding, and therefore your website? What little canaries are already in the coal mine, trying to point you in the right direction?

It’s important to note that none of the warning signs we’ll discuss below tell a whole story in and of themselves. They’re more like the individual musicians in a symphony, or the colours that make up a master artwork – together, they paint a picture. Independently, they have to be interpreted differently. All of which is to say, even if you tick one of these boxes, it doesn’t mean it’s immediately time to hop on the new-year-new-brand train. But if you’re seeing a pattern… your eyes likely don’t deceive you!!

1 – You’re not converting visitors

The first warning sign I recommend looking at relatively closely, is your visitor conversion rates. Now, tracking those conversion rates will depend on your individual setup, type of business, and more. You might have those kinds of metrics directly on your website dashboard, that will spit out a pretty percentage for you – or maybe your designer/developer set up event tracking, for example, in Google analytics that you can follow. Maybe you did it yourself!

Even if you don’t have access to what could be considered formal conversion metrics tracked by a system, you’re likely to notice if your conversions change substantially, even if it happens over a longer span of time. For example, if your visitor numbers stay relatively stable, but you start seeing lower numbers of purchases of your products or services coming in from your website… your conversion rate has dropped, and that’s something to think about very seriously.

On its own, this is a scary warning sign – because it’s one that hurts your bottom line. And I get that! But that, on its own, still doesn’t mean that it’s time for a business rebrand or website redesign. My recommendation if this is the only issue you’ve noticed, is to think about what else has changed lately. Have you changed your ad strategies? What about content creation and optimisation – have you changed your blog schedule in the last six months, or started or stopped another component of your overall promotional strategy? There are lots of reasons that your site might not be converting – up to and including issues with the systems themselves – if you’re a product based business, consider changes to shipping costs, material prices, etc… in other words, there are a lot of factors that can lead to a conversion drop. And NOT all of those problems can be solved by a rebrand!!

2 – Your branding no longer lines up with aspects of your business

Now that being said, one of the major catalysts for a drop in conversions, is content targeting issues/mismatches. And as we know, content targeting issues are, largely, branding issues. If your branding has been created intentionally and strategically by a pro, then there’s no reason for your website and social content not to appeal to the audience you’re intending to reach, and, again, assuming things are set up properly… conversions should grow, or at minimum remain stable (with a few exceptions for strange circumstances). It should literally be built for growth. So starting with the baseline assumption that you DO have a strategic brand, that was built by a pro, that means it’s time to ask yourself: has my business changed substantially since this was created?

Different industries change at different paces – some businesses may be able to keep one visual identity, whether they’re large or small, for decades. More, even. Maybe with a small tweak here and there, but overarchingly, they can remain the same. That can’t be said for every sector though! And it also can’t be said for businesses that haven’t quite “hit the mark” yet with their visual content targeting in the first place. Sometimes, especially if your content creation is of the “DIY” persuasion, there’s a bit of back and forth to trial and error a visual brand identity that attracts the clients you want to work with, or who need the cool things you sell. And there’s nothing wrong with that!

But if you’re thinking of a change, it’s a good idea to ask yourself whether you’re doing it because you think it’s a quick fix, or whether you’re doing it because the content you’re using is genuinely not attracting the clients/customers that it’s supposed to. Because one of those, is a branding problem. The other… it’s very much a “something else” problem!!

3 – You’ve seen a recent, dramatic, negative change

This option might feel like a bit of a cop-out, especially since you can consider number 1, “drop in conversion” AS a dramatic, negative change. But it’s not the only one that can point to needing to update your branding and/or make changes to your online presence!

Examples of these kinds of changes cover tons of areas of your business –

• Drops in website conversions
• Sudden ad conversion dropoff
• Opt-in rate dropoff
• Decrease in web visitors
• Decrease in time spent on pages
• Decrease in social engagement
• Major drop in social content views
• And more

All of these can be individually explained by other means, too, so take this with a grain of salt. And, make sure you evaluate the OTHER options it could be, before undertaking a brand refresh entirely. For example, maybe your ads stopped converting because you switched to a new style for your graphics, for example. And it’s not that your overall branding needs to change, just your approach to the “ad creative” attached to your content. Maybe it’s not visual at all, maybe you need to make changes to your audience targeting selections in your ad management system.

There are secondary explanations for ALL of these – too many to go through them all here. But if you’re looking at that list, and saying, “Huh, I’ve noticed a handful of these lately…” and you can’t think of independent explanations? It might be a sign that it’s time to bring your branding and website more in line with what your audience is attracted to.

4 – Your systems are outdated, and due for changes

The final item in our list today, is far less subjective than reviewing your metrics for changes (because we all know that while numbers are numbers… what makes sense as a “change” in metrics for one business, might just be regular seasonal variability in another!)

This one, is all about logistics. Specifically, the logistics of your existing web and content infrastructure. So, what I want you to think about here, is multi-fold. Are you trapped using outdated plugins on your WordPress site, because something business-critical is no longer receiving updates? What about your hosting – is it still handling your amount of traffic well? Loading your site quickly? Does it look like it might be time for more resources? What about editing your website – can you manage it yourself? If you have someone on staff (or someone external, like me!) handling your web updates and edits, then if they haven’t brought up with you that it’s time for changes, then you’re probably in the clear here. However, if you manage that side of your business presence yourself, then you’ll probably have noticed something “up”.

“Outdated systems” also includes things like outgrowing your existing platforms – for example, maybe you’ve set yourself up on a web builder that doesn’t integrate e-commerce, and it’s time to move into that realm for 2026. Naturally, that’ll mean it’s time for an update – and during that update, is the perfect time to make changes to your presence as a whole! Using these transition points strategically is powerful, and can bulk what would otherwise be an overwhelming amount of changes into one hand-off between your old presence, and your new one.

Looking for a pro to bring your website into 2026?

I’m not going to tell you that if you’ve aligned with one of these points in particular, it’s DEFINITELY time for a change – because that would be a straight up lie. Every business is different, meaning every business’ processes for these kinds of brand evolutions should be unique too. And that’s okay!

But if you ARE looking at this list and going “okay yeah, all of these actually apply to me, and it might be time for a change” – then we should talk. I would love to put together a plan to get you ready for the bulk of this year, and many years to come!