9 things to consider before a website redesign
Everyone’s guilty pleasure is a good home improvement show. These hosts always know precisely how to create the best home using all the space available and transform a shabby home into a posh luxurious one. These same principles also apply to redesign your website to integrate modern trends, improve the user experience, and get the most that you can out of your business. Site redesigns do not include only cosmetic changes, but also many other functionality modifications.
As a Los Angeles digital marketing agency, we understand how daunting all of this may sound. So our team has compiled a small website redesign checklist of steps to help you achieve the perfect and most effective redesign. Of course, your website is one of your digital marketing campaigns’ key aspects, so you should make sure that it is continuously up to par. Read on for our easy steps on how to redesign and get the most out of your website.
#1. Review your current site with a microscope: What works and what doesn’t?
Before you take out your sledgehammer and plan to change everything on your site, take a good look around. You can’t know what to change if you haven’t understood what doesn’t work on your old site. Actually, this is one of the most overlooked steps in our website redesign checklist and is a common mistake. Carefully re-examine everything. A redesign is not something that you often do, so take this one chance to do it right. Look into your site analytics and try to figure out which pages are most often visited. Also, look at where the site visitors come from and where they continue to. This will help you figure out where your weak content is, and this will be where you will need to concentrate your redesign efforts. The pages that generate most traffic should only be further optimized.
Aside from looking at the details of your current content and design components, this redesign will also be a chance to measure the effectiveness of the usability and performance features of your website. Are you happy with all the features on your sites, or do you want to add something new? Is your host delivering the speed, security, and support that you need, or do you want to go back on the market for a new one? Always set aside a significant amount of time to analyze all the details of your old website before you move onto redesigning it. This will help make the whole process easier, and you will avoid making the same mistakes again.
#2. Find inspiration but also try to save time: Which tools are going to help you succeed more quickly?
As you start to move on to the next step of our website redesign checklist, we have to give you a small warning. It is very common to get sidetracked and waste time in this process. Many designers and developers get distracted and spend loads of time on the design aspect of a website. It is enjoyable to spend hours picking color palettes, fonts, and design features. The options for these are limitless, and that is exactly where the problem lies.
Try to set aside this need to toy around with colors and features and focus on some site builder options. There are multiple website builders available online to help beginners build a website on their own. Many of these builders now have powerful tools that help business owners create a one-of-a-kind website in a very short amount of time. Of course, this would mean you choose less of the detailed options in building a website, but you will be saving a significantly large amount of time that could be spent on other tasks. An example of a website builder is WordPress. By using their site, you will be able to create a website in a few minutes, without having to waste loads of time on special details. Why would you want to spend so much time slaving away at a website when someone else can just do all the heavy lifting for you.
#3. Look past colors and fonts: How can you prioritize your content?
With so many options for new designs, it can be easy to get overwhelmed or carried away by all the imagery and visual elements. For a successful website redesign, you need all your online presence aspects to be improved. You wouldn’t focus on the color of your rug if there was a giant hole in the roof.
If your online presence is a house, then your content is the framing around which everything else is leaning on. The layouts, fonts, images, and colors should be all focused on showcasing the strengths of your brand’s message. Observe analytics to figure out which articles and pages resonate with your customers and look for the posts which didn’t do as well as you expected them to.
Instead of using up text to brag about the history and the achievements of your company, showcase how your brand is essential for a customer. Try to describe how your services or products can help customers achieve a goal or solve a problem. Focus your writing on your audience and not yourself. No one will use a website that is salesy and robotic.
Also, try to have content everywhere and not only on your homepage or information section. Blog posts are a great way to inform potential customers about new ideas and practices. These blog posts can also include ways your brand will benefit customers.
#4. Concentrate on user experience: How should you optimize for conversions?
Just as your content strategy should be focused around visitors, the same way your fresh website must make it clear to the visitors where they should click. Show them where they can find the information and services they need. Do not choose your layouts and themes only on what looks good and what appeals to your eye. Remember, your website is not for you and should not be tailored to you. If your website doesn’t lead your visitors to where they want to go, then it becomes a business liability when it should be a way to grow.
Use analytics to figure out how your customers find you, where they go and how they make a purchase on your website. Do not focus on working on the “fun” parts of a redesign. Start by working on the basic functionality of your site. This is a highly important step in our website redesign checklist. A positive website experience will make visitors more likely to become customers and brand supporters. These people will also recommend your services to their friends and other potential customers.
#5. Think of a plan and start working: What do you need to meet your goals?
Now you have a general idea of your website and how a redesign is going to help users reach certain goals. The next step in your web redesign checklist is to write these ideas down. Take note of your current strengths and weaknesses, along with details on how a redesign is going to solve your past problems. Make sure to realize which parts of your old site you will keep, what new components you need to create, and what content can be optimized. Since your content needs to be customer-based, you must also make sure you define your target audience.
Create personalities by figuring out what they are looking for, what stands in their way, and how your company can help them. Along with defining your goals, you should also formalize deadlines and realize when things need to be done. Keep coming back to your plan to make sure you are on track and aren’t distracted.
#6. Preview your website on various devices and browsers: Are you covering all users?
Once you complete all the previous steps of our website redesign checklist, it is time to check on the user experience yet again. Today, there are so many devices being used to access your website. Not everyone is going to be looking at your website in the same dimensions, browsers, screen sizes, and devices. So, you must make your website accessible and comfortable for users from various devices.
First, start by checking your analytics to find out what browsers your customers are using. Open and test your website on all versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer. You can also check out other browsers such as Opera, Edge, and even the Yandex browser. Make sure you are covering everything viewers may use.
You must also check out what your site looks like on mobile devices. Responsive web design is very popular right now, and this technique makes websites compatible with all devices and browsers. In fact, once you invest in responsive web design, your website will adjust to different dimensions and screen sizes on its own.
#7. Make your work clear and visible: How can you reach a wider audience with keywords?
Next, you must make sure that all your new layouts and visuals go to waste. More than the majority of your traffic is going to come from visitors who clicked on a link from a search. Search engines are the entryways to your audience, and your content and site should be compatible with this.
SEO or Search engine optimization is the right way to go when it comes to online marketing. Start by writing a list of the topics you think matches your brand. It should include your products, the subjects you write about, and your expertise. Think of keyword phrases for each topic, and try to figure out how users would type these out to find you.
Don’t be afraid to dive deep and get really specific. Long-tail keywords will be searched less but will be helpful in the long run. Viewers will surely be grateful to have found your resources and are more likely to become clients. Generic keywords are more competitive, and more established brands usually end up getting clicked on.
#8. Improve your technical SEO: Why should server speed and security matter?
SEOs must extend beyond your content, page titles, alt tags, and headings. Technical SEO is the behind-the-scenes elements that contribute to search engine crawlers. These are who are going to scan your site to understand the relevancy and trustworthiness of your site. One of the most important technical SEO components is your site speed.
Longer page loading can significantly affect traffic and sales, and it can also impact your position in search results. Try to keep your templates and layouts of your website as lean as possible. Don’t overwhelm your site by adding extra plugins, widgets, and features.
Mobile-friendliness also plays a large role in search performance, especially when it comes to location-based searches. A user-friendly site sitemap is vital, which is the security of the HTTPS protocol.
#9. Test your design: What should you do better next time for website redesign?
Once you launch your new design, promote it as best you can. Spread announcements through press releases, emails, social media posts, and other methods.
Just as analytics were important in the past steps of the website redesign checklist, they will also play an important role going forward. These will help you measure your success and show you what areas need improvement. Abandoning analytics is often the reason for a redesign in the first place. A redesign does not mean the end of your efforts. Keep your future goals in mind, along with a list of features you want to implement in the future. This is going to help you with your next redesign.
Now that you have your complete website redesign checklist keep your path in mind and get moving!
If you need help on this journey to a website redesign, then you are in luck. An experienced digital marketing agency such as Mirdon Production can help you with all the steps of the way. Let our team prove your design and functionality for a site that is going to get you the results you want.
