Your website gives potential customers and consumers the first impression of your company, acting as a business card. If you’re in charge of online marketing and visibility, chances are you’ve spent some time thinking about what you should be doing to maximize the benefits of your online presence.
If your website doesn’t seem to be getting the attention it deserves, no longer matches your branding, or no longer generates the links you hope for, it might be time to give it a go. redesign.
It’s no longer a secret that redesigning a website is a massive project, regardless of the size of your team. Proper research and planning are essential aspects of a website redesign project. For this reason, we will go over the specific steps that can help you be as successful as possible with this project.
Here are 5 steps to redesign your website
Start with a website audit
When it comes to redesigning your website, you will need to start by taking stock of your positioning in your market and the broader parameters that encompass it. Complete an in-depth analysis of the status of your online presence, including a recap of which pages on your website are the most visited, which content can be reused, and which is no longer important.
Consider using a tool like Google analytics to know the data relating to how your visitors interact with the pages of your website. Google Analytics will give you real data and insight into what works and what doesn’t. The information you discover may surprise you and this step is necessary to move forward.
Take concrete notes and keep track of all the details, as this information will be needed to perform A/B testing later. Understanding the weaknesses of your website is the best way to know where to focus your efforts. It’s also important to take note of which aspects of your website are working for you. Pages that generate traffic and convert consumers will need further optimization but should be kept intact as much as possible.
Understand what works for your competitors
Following a detailed audit of your website, you will need to start observing your competitors in your market and trying to figure out what is working for them. Don’t steal ideas from your competitors, rather, use their success to gain information that can be leveraged for your functionality. Ask yourself questions like these:
- Do you need to rebrand your image?
- What type of visual would work for your site?
- What design and layout would work best for your industry?
- What similarities do you see between yourself and their website?
Analyze at least 3 of your competitor’s most successful websites and compare their content, layout, and functionality. Note the most useful examples. This way, you will be able to refer to it during your website redesign, whether you decide to work with an in-house team or with an agency.
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Now that you’ve looked at where you stand and have been successful in gaining some inspiration for where you want to go, start by revising your branding guidelines. Once you have an idea of what’s trending in your market, it will be easier for you to determine how your branding is performing. Does your branding appear to be out of date compared to what is popular?
Is the tone of your brand easy to determine? Do the colors you’ve chosen still evoke what you want them to communicate?
It is important to remember that specific aspects of your branding should not be changed because your audience is associating the fonts, colors, and images of your site with your business and making too major changes there. could be confusing. Rather, be looking for ways to refresh and refine what is already in place while keeping in mind the trends in your market.
As you review and rewrite your branding guidelines, consider things like your logo, website buttons, iconography, and images and determine how these relate to promotional materials. including advertising and videos broadcast on all media channels. You’ll want your branding to remain consistent and concise, regardless of what you’re working with: web, print, or video.
Once again, if you are working with an agency for your new website design, you will need to make sure that your branding guidelines are easily understood by those outside your business.
Create an exact and detailed redesign plan
This step is one of the most underestimated and it is the creation of a detailed plan for the redesign of the site as well as a timeline. As we have noted, redesigning your website will take a long time. For this reason, a detailed timeline of all the milestones you need to reach is necessary to keep track of the milestones completed as well as to ensure that everything is going on schedule.
The time it takes to complete certain specific tasks will depend on the scope of the work to be accomplished, the objectives pursued by the redesign of your website, and your decision whether or not to delegate these tasks internally or to an agency. It is recommended to allow between 2 and 6 months for the redesign of your website. Regardless of who completes your project, you will want to be in constant dialogue with the team behind it.
Make sure you are in a position to offer feedback as well as the direction in the redesign process. Help where you can with content creation. Be realistic about when you want the website to be ready. If there is a pressing event that you need to be prepared for, then be sure to plan your time accordingly.
Put user experience first
In all aspects of your website design, user experience should always come first. Understand what users in your market are looking for and how they can easily access important information and your services through your website. When it comes to redesigning your website, the user should always be considered. If there are any gaps in the user experience, then it is crucial to address them during the redesign process.
Setting up tests to gauge user experience or asking users to fill out surveys or offer their testimonials is a great way to get feedback on what approach to take. Finding out what parts of your site are confusing or frustrating your users is essential to the redesign process.
Focus on the user’s journey and find ways to reduce the challenges they face from their perspective. You’ll want to increase your visibility and interact with your audience as much as possible, this way the process of redesigning your site can generate real results.
