Every entrepreneur and business at some point will have to go through the process of redesigning websites. A website to continue producing results will have to undergo at some point major updates, upgrades, and a redesign. To stay competitive redesigning websites is necessary to keep up with markets, customer expectations, and competition.
There are many reasons why a company or individuals redesign their website. At times, it is the competition, other times technology changes and standards, in most cases it is the performance of the website itself. When a website does not produce the desired results, often a redesign is necessary.
Regardless of reason, there are numerous things to consider when redesigning websites. To shed some light on what to expect and best ways of managing the redesign of a website, here are some tips and things to consider.
10 Points to Consider when Redesigning Websites
1. Get clear on the goals of the website redesign?
Prior to getting started with a redesign of a website, entrepreneurs and companies should get clear on the goals of the website redesign. What are the main reasons for the redesign? Is it to receive more product orders such as with e-commerce websites, is it to receive more leads, provide more information, and so on. Get clear on the objectives of the website redesign prior to getting started.
2. Avoid disrupting or loosing existing marketing results.
Too often a website redesign hurts existing marketing results and efforts. To avoid loosing or disrupting marketing results and existing campaigns, the website redesign has to incorporate any necessary infrastructures such as URL structures, indexed content, and existing ranking results. Search engine rankings are tied to specific pages of a website, blog articles, and home page. Elements that have produced these results should be transferred to the new website.
3. Organize and produce required content with quality.
Content is a critical component of the success of any website. When redesigning websites, existing content should be organized properly and additional content should be produced as needed. Unique, relevant content should be produced with quality in mind for best results. All website content should be optimized to achieve improved results.
4. Develop effective and measurable landing pages.
In order to be able to measure effectiveness, landing pages are necessary. Many websites operate without the use of landing pages, which does not help measure results. To be able to see what works and what does not, a business or an individual must deploy landing pages that can be easily altered. At times, changing the color of the button can yield drastically different results. When redesigning websites, landing pages should be included.
5. Any website redesign at this point should be Responsive Design.
Responsive Design means creating and developing the website in HTML5, which is now the standard in website development. Responsive Design websites work across all major devices such as smart phones, tablets, and computers. They are responsive and adjust to the device, working properly and being accessible. In our mobile digital culture, Responsive Design is not an option anymore, but a requirement.
6. Create user-friendly website navigation structure.
For a website to produce desired results and perform well, a user-friendly navigation is required. Consumers and website visitors do not like confusing navigation and hard to find details. The more clicks are necessary by the website visitor, the lower the conversion rate will be. Keep navigation user-friendly and organized intelligently for best results.
7. Hire professional website designers for the website redesign.
The saying “you get what you pay for” is very true with website design and development. It is even truer when redesigning websites. A website is such an important aspect to an entrepreneur or business, so it should be done by professionals. Many make the mistake hiring a friend, some web guy, or an inexperienced designer. The results of the new website will reflect this inexperience. To get the desired results, a professional website design company or individual should be hired for the job.
8. Design and place properly the “call to action” elements.
Many websites lack the proper “call to action” elements. Therefore, they lack the desired results. For a website to yield results, offers, incentives, and other call to action elements should be created through design that catch the eye of the website visitor. In addition, they should be strategically placed on landing pages, home page, and secondary pages of a website. They should be incorporated into a website redesign for improved results.
9. Have an adequate budget for the website redesign.
To redesign a website that will yield the proper and expected results; an adequate budget should be created. Many website developers offer a free consultation and often will provide proposals that will outline cost. When redesigning websites, know what budgets are required to get the job done right. Often, choosing a cheap route ends up with a cheap looking website that does not yield the desired results. A business or individual should do their homework and find out what it will cost to get it done right.
10. Know what to expect when changing a website.
Often any changes to a website will quickly cause website visitors to react. In many cases, even improved websites cause visitors to act differently than expected. Often causing a website to produce less sales, leads, and sign-ups. E-commerce websites often experience a drop in orders even after an improvement of a website. This is normal and eventually visitors return to more normal behavior. Website marketers and owners should have the right expectation when going through redesigning websites.
