A Checklist for Redesigning Your Website


Your digital marketing strategy starts with your website, and it will be the most powerful tool of all for reaching out to your potential and existing customers. You should regularly audit your website for essential factors such as performance, ease of use and security to ensure that it always meets industry standards and requirements while also offering your visitors the best experience possible. As Web design trends come and go, the best practices change on a yearly basis, and both the search engines and consumers alike are constantly becoming more demanding. If you have decided that it is time to redesign your website, this checklist will help you to make the most out of this major undertaking.

 

 

Website Redesign

1 - Audit Your Current Website

 

Some companies go over the top when redesigning their websites, and as a result, they end up being counterproductive. You will first need to determine which factors are holding your website back and whether it even needs a redesign at all for that matter. Before you make the decision to undertake this major job, study the analytics from your website as it stands now to find out what's working and what isn't. Having an in-depth review of your current website will allow you to establish your goals and estimate the success of the new one.

 

 

2 - Determine Your Goals

 

The whole point of redesigning your website is ultimately to solve a problem, or at least it should be. Based on the audit you carried out of your old website, establish some core goals and key concepts for shaping your redesign strategy. Perhaps your goals are to increase traffic by improving your on-site search engine optimization, improve usability, reliability or security or simply to increase traffic or conversion rates. Have a clear outline of your goals before you start planning your website's redesign.

 

 

3 - Ask Your Visitors

 

Asking your visitors for advice as soon as you start thinking about redesigning your website will give you invaluable insights into how to approach the matter. There's no need to pester your visitors for their feedback either - just placing a poll on your website can be enough to get some useful information on their preferences, and if you want to get even more information, consider adding an optional survey for your visitors to complete. Visitor feedback will allow you to identify your goals more clearly and plan for success.

 

 

4 - Don't Neglect SEO

 

Search engine optimization is constantly evolving, but many websites have actually been hit hard in recent years by Google's algorithm updates which penalize over-optimized content. Redesigning your website also gives you the perfect opportunity to do away with any questionable SEO techniques you might have used before, such as excessive use of keywords or over-optimized anchor text. When redesigning your website, keep both your audience and the search engines (with an emphasis on the former) in mind to ensure quality content and user-friendly interaction.

 

 

5 - Test Your Website

 

One of the most important things to consider with modern Web design is compatibility across different platforms. With mobile Internet browsing set to overtake desktop browsing in 2014, it is absolutely essential that your website is mobile-friendly or that you have a separate mobile version of it. In fact, optimization for mobile is one of the number one reasons why companies redevelop their websites today. Be sure to test your new website on all of the popular browsers as well as on mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones.

 

 

6 - Promote Your New Website

 

Redesigning your website provides you with the perfect excuse to get reconnected with your targeted audience, and after you have gone to all this effort, you should use every digital marketing channel available to you to raise awareness about your new website. Be sure to mention it on your social media profiles as well as in your email newsletters, blog posts and any other platforms you use. It is often a good idea to start promoting your website's redesign before it is even complete, since this will give your audience something to look forward to.

 

 

7 - Analyse Your Results

 

A complete redesign of your website can still come with unexpected results, even if you take every possible step to give your visitors what they want. There may be a crucial design flaw or something in your marketing campaign which is holding you back, and because of this, it is important to dedicate your business to continuous improvement. Continue to analyse your efforts by tracking crucial Web marketing metrics, since there will always be new ways in which you can improve your website and your digital marketing approach.

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