6 Important Things to Remember BEFORE a Website Redesign That Most People Don't Know

A website is an integral business tool that can make or break your brand. A good, interactive website can help promote growth and ensure ROI (Return on Investment) for your company, provided that you keep abreast of the times. An outdated website can be detrimental to growth, but when you choose to redesign your website, doing it wrong can also be damaging to your intended purpose.

So, what should one keep in mind when embarking upon the process of redesigning their website? Let’s take a look.

1. Know What a Website Redesign Involves

First things first. Understand what it is that you have to do.

Website redesign means a do-over or renovation of your existing website to fit the current times and evolving needs. However, one must not mistake it for a website refresh.

When you redesign your website, it typically means that the visual appearance, as well as the website code, will undergo significant change. This will result in a completely new visual identity, with fresh modules or new features being incorporated. There is a major overhaul of the content management system, and all these aspects are brought alive almost simultaneously.

On the other hand, a website refresh implies that the core functionality and structure of your website are untouched, with only minor changes being applied. For instance, tweaking the color palette of your web pages and changing the typography will come under this process.

Now that is out of the way, let’s move on to the other meatier points.

2. Assess Your Current Website

Before you decide on redesigning, you have to first analyze what is working for your website and what isn’t. You need to figure out what features and aspects to change, whether they need to be changed at all, and what new aspects should be incorporated.

Make use of analytics tools to understand what your customers are looking for, what your page visitors deem valuable, and what they ignore. Those features that don’t seem to be working for you are expendable – chuck them out or modify them to suit your purpose. 

Website designs have a significant impact on your online presence and marketing performance. Find out what pages are being overlooked, which CTAs (Call To Action) aren’t being used, and how the web traffic is flowing. All these bits of information can help you make impactful decisions about your new web design.

3. Know Your Competition

Once you know why your current site isn’t doing well, you should study your competitor’s site. When you are upgrading, you need to go for a new style and approach, not a copy of an existing site.

Understanding how your rival sites work will help you gain a frame of reference. You can understand the current trends and best practices that are being followed in your industry, and this will help you generate novel ideas for functional features for your website.

Additionally, by analyzing a competitor, you can also avoid making the same mistakes they are making.

4. Choose The Right Platform

Building your website on the best CMS (Content Management System) is crucial. This will allow you to change, add, and delete content on your site according to your requirements.

A CMS can be open-source, whereby the source code is public, or it can be proprietary or private, where all upgrades and improvements made are an in-house affair. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of systems, so choose the apt platform depending upon your website needs.

Make sure whatever platform you choose, it allows you for responsive design. This ensures that no matter from where a user visits your website, the web page will automatically reconfigure its elements to fit to that particular device screen size, thereby creating an efficient user experience.

5. Gauge Your Design Elements

Redesigning a website is typically done with a view of long-term utility. Therefore, it is imperative that your design delivers on seamless user experience and business growth. The major advantage of a custom design company when compared to DIY website builders is that you have greater control over important design elements rather than sticking to limited templates.

Below are some crucial design elements that you should consider:

• • Navigation: The navigation structure of your website should make it easy for your user to find what they are looking for. The structure should be defined by the nature of your business and your website goals. Each website requires a different navigational structure, for instance an e-commerce site, a government organization's website, and a media promotional website all require different modes of navigation structures.
  • Color Palette: Choose the colors that go with your branding. This is important to establish your brand identity. Going with synchronous color schemes will help people remember your brand, build trust around it, and ensure recurrent customers.
  • Visual Cues: These include images, photos, videos, etc. Decide how many stock and original photos you would need, and what role should videos play for your website design.
  • CTA (Call to Action): A call to action can be effective in bringing business. So, decide how you want your CTAs to look like. Are they clickable icons or fillable forms? Think about the most effective method to place them on your pages to achieve higher conversion goals.
  • Web Page Layout: More often than not, having a clean layout would catch more attention from your users. A cluttered layout would seem messy, and your customer might find it difficult to find the relevant information that they seek. Sketching a layout depends largely on the specifics of your business, so think carefully about how you want that to be.

6. Be More SEO Friendly

Website redesigning is a market booster, so you need to up your game to be discoverable amongst the scores of other sites out there. For this purpose, enlist the SEO cavalry. Optimizing your website for search engine optimization during the redesign process will ensure you have a series of stepping stones to be on the first page of search results.

Here are some guidelines to follow:- (h3 tag)

• Well-written meta descriptions, page titles, and permalinks for your content are a must.
• The content should be designed for readability, complete with headers and subheadings if needed.
• Incorporate keywords in an organic way during content creation. Research on the right keywords to use for your landing pages.
• Finally, check your website’s loading time and keep it as minimal as possible.

And Most Importantly…

Remember, preparation is key in making a functional, lead-generating website. Following the above steps won't lead you astray, and if in doubt, don't hesitate to enlist the help of an expert, like Webstix.

Webstix, armed with two decades of experience, will aid you to redesign an impactful, high-ranking website that you desire.