Look at your website! Do you think it is up to date to get your purpose served? Do you believe that it is good enough to attract your target audience to call them into action? If yes, your website is probably okay this time. But, if your answer to the questions above is ‘NO’, it is high time you redesigned your website to go with the trend and keep your rank stable.
To help you redesign your existing website, we have come with a website redesign checklist where we are going to share some tips for you to effectively get your website redesigned. Keep reading.
Why Do You Need A Website Redesign?
Well, redesigning a website is not a piece of cake. It requires time, effort and money. If you do not have enough strong reasons to redesign your website, why should you consider this venture at all? Let’s explore some of the reasons that are strong enough to justify the redesigning of your website as soon as possible:
It’s Too Old
No matter what purpose your website has, it has to be up to date to serve that purpose effectively. Your website that would look attractive five years ago might not have the same appeal to the visitors now. If you have not updated your website for the last few years, your website is almost outdated when it comes to the latest SEO, UX, and web design.
If you think that your website is too old, you can consult with a website redesign agency to get professional advice and tips about how to proceed on with the new website. Ask yourself if your existing website is meeting your needs or whether you require an upgrade to add something spicy.
Low Traffic
If you are not getting the expected traffic from the webpages of your website, it is probably the time to rethink about redesigning your website. On top of strengthening your website with up to date information and infographics, you should also go for online marketing like Google ads to attract more visitors to your website.
It is important to find out the weaknesses of your website along with the on-page SEO issue so that those can be corrected properly in the new website.
Low Engagement or CTR
Only getting more transient traffic won’t help you much if you cannot hold them on your website. Your website should be designed in a certain way so that your target audience can get themselves engaged in the posts and services you provide.
If the visitors leave your website just staying for a moment, it is a hint that the website has something wrong that is failing to compel the users to give you more CTR. In that case, redesign your website with website redesign best practices so that the visitors stay longer and visit repeatedly on your website.
Doesn’t Work Good on Mobile
According to a survey of Perficient Digital, 58% of site visits came from mobile devices in 2018. It is increasing by the passage of time. If your website is not made mobile-friendly yet, that’s one of the biggest mistakes you have made so far. It is important to make sure that mobile users can use your website easily and smoothly.
If your website is not perfect for reading from all kinds of mobile devices, it’s not an ideal website for the search engines. You will go lower when it comes to ranking if your website seems awkward and difficult for mobile users. So, when you do your website redesign project plan, do not forget to make that more mobile-friendly to get more visitors on your site.
Change of Business Strategy
The goals and strategies of a business may go under a frequent change after a certain period. If the same happens for your business too, it is a no brainer that your website should reflect the change in it.
You may have a new UVP, new product or new target audience after a year or more. In that case, you should also consider giving your website a new shape to accommodate the latest changes in the products, goals, and strategies so that your customers or audience stay up to date about your business.
You Find Your Website Tedious
This single reason is enough to redesign existing website for one that gives you comfort. If you are not happy with the color combination, design, looks, and style, it is time for you to shift. Modern websites are responsive and stylish to draw the attention of the target people. If you cannot compete with your competitors in these fields, you may fall behind in the field of business as well.
So, have a careful look at your website and find out the problems that need to be fixed to keep your website on track.
Website Redesign Checklist: How Do You Make A Good Website?
If you come with a proper plan and research, you can avoid a lot of hassles while redesigning your website. Here is our 8-step checklist for you that will help you make a great website to serve your purpose well.
Set Your Goal
First of all, identify the needs, that is what you want out of your website. Fixing your goal will help you get that achieved quicker. No matter whether your target is to increase the sales or have a big community for sharing content and engaging them, setting your goal will keep you on track.
To fulfill your main goals, you may set some small goals like collecting an email list from the signup data and reward the visitors with guides/e-books to achieve CTR.
Analyze The Metrics
The data of your existing website is important to redesign your website better. If you dig inside the present website metrics, you can trace the pages that bring more traffic and are doing the task properly. Conversely, you can find the issues that your present website is facing.
Once you analyze the website you have, you know your users, where do they come from and how do they come to your website. Collect all the available data so that you can change your policy, approach or marketing strategies, if required, on your new website.
Create A Persona
Your target audience is most important to your business. The buyer persona will let you know the demographic details, interests, online behavior, and hobby of your target audience. You have to keep their age, like-dislikes, mindset, problems, profession, etc. in mind while designing your website to meet their needs.
By creating a persona of those target audiences, it becomes easy for you to trace your customers, buyers or users and their demand.
Keyword Research
Keyword research helps you in two ways. Firstly, you can optimize your content with proper keywords for the search engines. And secondly, you know the language and search terms your target audience use to get information from the web. If you can research the keywords properly with free and paid tools, the chance is that your website will rank higher and you will get more visitors.
Check The Content Along With SEO Audit
You do not need to start from scratch if you are going to redesign your existing website. You can keep many pages and posts intact if they align with proper content strategies and SEO best practices. When it comes to content, check the readability, grammatical mistakes and anything that destroys the flow of the writing.
Check if on-page SEO is done perfectly. Find out the broken links to correct them. Also, check the backlinks to ensure your off-page SEO is going right.
Get An Expert Designer Or A Website Builder
When your research and planning is completed, it is time to hire a web designer. However, you can also get your website designed by any website builder. Both of these options have pros and cons. If you are looking for more flexibility and control, a web designer is better.
the contrary, if convenience and affordability are your priorities, you can go for a web builder. You may ask now, how long does it take to design and build a website? Well, it depends on your budget and the time a designer spends. If you need to make your website faster, a website builder will let you do so.
Prioritize UX
UX stands for user experience. It is about simplifying your website for the target audience so that your users get their targeted products easily. For example, if the majority of the visitors to your website expecting to buy men’s shoes, you should keep that category in a place of your website that is easily visible without any effort.
Text, buttons, color combinations, etc. should be used in a way that is most convenient for visitors to get their work done. Do not complicate things unnecessarily unless you want your visitors to leave your website dissatisfied.
Ensure A Better Mobile Experience
As mobile users are increasing on the web, you should not make a blunder by ignoring these users. Your website should be responsive so that they work on cross platforms and browsers with equal smoothness. You have to ensure that your website loads faster on mobile.
Final Thoughts
Redesigning a website may seem costly and time-consuming for you. However, think of this as an investment that has a good return on investment. We hope that our website redesign planning guide will help you reach the pinnacle of success.