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Are your website visitors on the decline?
Maybe it’s due for a redesign.
An updated website can help you attract more visitors, but website relaunches can be tricky. Without proper planning, a few months can quickly turn into a year, and your new website still hasn’t launched.
So, how do you keep your website redesign process on track?
That’s what we’ll cover in this post.
Let’s dive in:
Every website redesign process starts with a thorough audit, which helps you understand what’s working and what isn’t.
Here’s a list of what it should include:
Check your website’s readability and navigation because 42% of potential users will leave if it doesn’t work seamlessly. Look for red flags, like high bounce rates and slow loading speeds.
An outdated website means lackluster search engine optimization efforts, which may include improper metadata, duplicate content, or missing alt tags for images.
If you’ve noticed a steady decline in conversions, review your landing pages and identify areas where users abandon their desired actions.
In an era where 54.67% of web traffic comes from mobile, your website needs to work flawlessly on all screens.
If your business is rebranding, your current website needs an upgrade too. A redesign can help you align its look and functionality with your new brand identity.
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Once you know why you require a redesign, it’s time to decide what you hope to achieve. You can use the popular SMART strategy, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
Let’s use your web redesign plan to work through each step:
Be specific about what you want to achieve: Grow conversions by redesigning the website.
Although this goal is specific, it’s still not measurable, so change it: Grow conversions by 20% by redesigning the website.
If you feel this goal will stretch your resources thin, make it realistic: Grow conversions by 10% by redesigning our website.
Be sure this goal aligns with your long-term strategy: Grow conversions by 10% by redesigning the website to generate more revenue.
Finally, make the goal time-bound to add a sense of accountability: Grow conversions by 10% in three months by redesigning the website to generate more revenue.
You must know what your top competitors are up to because it will help your new website cut through the clutter.
When analyzing your competitors’ websites, look at:
What do you like about their design? Is it the color scheme, typography, or overall appeal? Analyze how their design choices contribute to the user experience and brand identity.
Is their layout better than yours? Check navigation menus, product and CTA placements, and the flow from one section to another. A well-thought-out layout improves usability and keeps visitors engaged.
Is their content better than yours? Look at their blog posts, product descriptions, and multimedia content. High-quality, relevant content can significantly boost SEO and user engagement.
What functionalities do they offer? Does their website have interactive tools, more social media integrations, or better shipping or payment options? These add-ons can make a website more appealing and user-friendly.
Knowing your target audience and their pain points can help you tailor your website redesign strategy to their expectations. But this means taking a deep dive into user behavior, which involves:
While demographics such as age, gender, and location are useful, creating user personas can segment your target audience better. Create detailed personas based on demographics, behaviors, interests, goals, and pain points. This should provide a clear picture of your target audience.
Surveys can help you gather feedback directly from your existing website visitors. Focus the survey on asking about their browsing habits and what improvements they would like to see on your website. Be sure your redesign aligns with this feedback.
Your customer support team will have a ton of insights on common issues and questions users face when browsing your website. This data can prove useful in identifying and improving areas with friction.
A solid project plan keeps your website redesign process from getting sidetracked. By creating a realistic timeline, you can manage your expectations without causing delays or draining your resources.
Here are some tips:
Website redesigning is a lengthy process that includes research, planning, design, development, testing, and launch. Breaking the project into smaller, manageable chunks keeps it organized and helps you stay on schedule.
Effective communication is crucial because many redesign tasks are interdependent. Plan tasks in the right order to avoid delays and assign responsibilities ahead of time so everyone knows what to do and when to do it.
Even with the best planning, unexpected delays can happen. Build some buffer time into your timeline to handle these issues without missing deadlines.
Regularly review and revise your timeline. If it changes, make sure to keep your team informed to keep the project on track.
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Setting a budget helps you avoid unexpected costs and keeps your website redesign project on track. When planning your budget, estimate costs for:
Estimate the cost of hiring designers and developers and expenses for testing. These three components form the backbone of your site redesign, and their costs will form the bulk of your budget. These costs will also vary depending on the complexity of the project and the expertise required.
When estimating the cost of content creation, think about the cost of writing fresh content, graphics, and other multimedia content that will go on your website. Create a spending plan for marketing campaigns to ensure your content reaches the right target audience.
Your redesigned website will need ongoing maintenance and updates. Set aside funds for regular updates, security patches, and new features to keep your site current and secure.
The layout of your website influences 94% of first impressions, making it necessary to create a user-focused design.
A well-planned design phase includes:
Create a design brief that outlines your vision, goals, and requirements. It will serve as a roadmap for your design team and keep every member on the same page about what needs to be done and when.
Develop wireframes and mockups to visualize the layout and functionality of your site. These will help you understand the website structure and make changes to it before moving into full development.
We live in a mobile-first world, which means your website needs a responsive web design to reach a broader target audience.
Prioritizing an intuitive design can help you win over 75% of visitors who see well-designed websites as more trustworthy. Keep your design phase focused on enhancing user satisfaction.
Content and SEO often take a back seat when planning a website redesign, which is a mistake because they can help your new website attract and retain visitors. You have to ensure that the content and SEO complement your design.
When creating a content strategy, start with:
Review your current content and identify high-performing assets you’ve already built up. Make sure your redesign doesn’t remove or affect these assets because it will affect your SEO credit and search rankings. HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Software can help you identify existing top-performing content.
Organize your content creation efforts with a detailed plan and editorial calendar, which can help you attract a steady stream of visitors. But this plan should align with your existing content and long-term business goals.
Both existing and new content needs to be optimized for the right keywords, meta tags, and alt text because it will help improve your site’s online visibility and attract more organic traffic.
Multimedia like images, videos, and infographics make your site more engaging. Use this content to share product and service updates, how-to tutorials, and other important announcements.
While choosing the right tech stack helps your site perform well, testing ensures it meets user expectations. These website redesign steps include:
First, you will need to settle on the right tech stack and content management system (CMS) for your redesign, which typically depends on:
Work closely with developers to bring your design to life. Use project management tools like Monday or Jira to streamline communication between your team and developers. Regularly review your development progress to make sure it is headed in the right direction.
Test your website prototype together to get feedback from all the stockholders. Usability, performance, cross-browser, and device testing can make sure your website is ready for prime time.
Identify and fix any bugs or issues before the launch. The last thing you want is for your customers to catch issues you didn’t. Because they won’t tell you what’s wrong, they will just bounce and may never come back.
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After you have tested the website thoroughly and fixed the bugs, it’s time to prepare for the launch.
When launching, be sure to:
Decide whether to do a soft or full launch. A soft launch lets you test the site with a smaller audience, while a full launch releases it at once to everyone.
Keep your target audience informed about the launch. Using social media to announce the launch and adding a timer to your existing website are two great ways to build some excitement for your new launch.
While you can test and retest your website in a staging environment, there is only so much you can do. Some features, like live social feeds, won’t work in a staging environment, meaning you need to monitor your website for any issues after it goes live.
Website redesign is an ongoing process, not a one-and-done deal. You can’t just sit back and relax once the redesigned website is live. Regular monitoring will still be needed to run smoothly and boost conversions.
So, you need to:
Set up analytics tools to track how your site is performing and what improvements are needed. Google Analytics is a popular tool, but you can try other options like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Hotjar.
Keep monitoring your website for key metrics like:
While analytics tells you about the site’s performance, collecting feedback can strengthen your improvements. Once again, you can talk to your customer support team and conduct user surveys to understand how your website is doing and what needs to be improved.
Whether it’s a B2B or B2C website redesign, the process is complex, time-consuming, and requires sound technical skills. A seasoned digital marketing agency in Reno has not only the skills but also the experience to redesign your website. And since the agency takes care of everything from planning to post-launch monitoring, you can focus on what matters most – running your business.
That’s it!
These steps can help you plan, redesign, test, and launch your website. But when redesigning, keep in mind that it’s an ongoing process. That means your website needs some TLC now and then to stay relevant and attract more visitors.
The good news is that you don’t have to carry this burden alone.
We can help you redesign your website or even build a new one from scratch. That’s what we love doing at Wildish. If you are planning to redesign yours, don’t hesitate to call us today!