We talk to a lot of associations about their websites. Many aren't happy with what's happening for their organization online, but aren't sure if those challenges warrant a full site redesign or not.
The question worth asking isn't whether your website is broken. It's whether it's still working for you. Here are five signs it isn't.
1. Your Staff Has Built Workarounds
They email members information that should be on the site. They avoid sections of the backend because it's easier than figuring them out. They manually update things that should update automatically.
This isn't a training problem. A website should reduce your team's workload. When it doesn't, staff absorb the difference quietly — because that's what small-staff teams do. But it adds up in time, in frustration, and in things that fall through the cracks.
The workarounds are worth paying attention to. They're a map of where the website is failing the team.
2. The Site Reflects Who You Were
Associations change. Programs get added and retired. Membership priorities shift. The way an organization describes its value to members today probably isn't how it described that value three or four years ago.
The website, though, often stays the same.
A prospective member landing on the homepage for the first time doesn't know the organization's history. They're reading what's there and deciding whether it's relevant to them. If the content was written for a version of the association that no longer exists — old programs, outdated language, priorities that have shifted — that prospective member isn't getting an accurate picture.
The site should reflect who the organization is now, not who it was at launch.
3. You're Losing People Before They Engage
For many prospective members, the website is the first real interaction they have with an association. Not a conference, not a referral — the website.
When that interaction doesn't go well, most people don't reach out with questions. They leave.
Some signs this is happening:
- High bounce rates on key pages — people are landing and leaving without clicking anything
- Drop-off at the membership application — they got interested enough to start but didn't finish
- Low time on page — people are scanning, not finding what they need, and moving on
These aren't just analytics problems. The site is getting in the way of the thing the organization is trying to do.
4. You've Outgrown the Platform
Sometimes the issue isn't how the site looks. It's what the site can do.
Every platform has limits. The problem is when the gap between what the organization needs and what the platform can deliver keeps growing. A reasonable request gets the same answer every time: there's a plugin for that, or it would require a workaround, or that's not something this platform supports.
Some areas where this shows up most often:
- Member-only content that's difficult to manage or breaks regularly
- Event registration that doesn't integrate with other systems and requires manual follow-up
- Site search that doesn't surface relevant content
- Mobile experience that was never properly addressed
These are core functions for most associations. When the platform can't handle them cleanly, the member experience suffers.
5. The Board Is Asking Questions You Can't Answer
How many members visited the site last month? Which pages are driving the most engagement? What's the conversion rate on the membership application?
A website is one of the most significant member-facing investments an association makes. It should be possible to evaluate whether it's working. When it isn't — when basic performance questions don't have clean answers — the site isn't giving the organization what it needs to make good decisions.
Boards are asking these questions more often. Make sure you've got a good answer.
What to Do With This
Not every association that recognizes one of these signs needs a full redesign. Some issues can be addressed with targeted fixes like better content, improved navigation, a platform upgrade in a specific area.
But when two, three, or four of these are present at the same time, the site has usually drifted far enough from what the organization needs that incremental fixes won't close the gap. That's when a redesign makes sense.
A few questions worth asking internally before making that call:
- How much time does the team spend working around the website each week?
- When did the core messaging last get updated, and does the site reflect it?
- Can the organization answer basic questions about how the site is performing?
- Are there things the team has stopped trying to do on the site because it's too difficult?
- What would a prospective member think landing on the homepage today?
The answers won't be perfect. But if most of them are uncomfortable, that's useful information.
If you’re planning a redesign and need a partner who knows how to navigate the technical and professional realities of a transition, let’s chat.
