What is website redesign?

Redesigning your website involves changing your site in order to optimize its marketing efforts. It usually includes updating your functions so that the user experience is the best it can be. Although it can be a lengthy process, it is crucial in assuring your website is providing your customers with the information and access they need.

Many think once the original website design is completed, any redesign will fly by. While it can, it’s best not to underestimate the process. After all, sometimes a website redesign can involve completely rebuilding the website!

What is the difference between a website redesign and a website refresh?

A website redesign means updating the coding, design and visual aspects of your website. This may include new modules, a new content management system (CMS) and a new functionality of your website.

A website refresh usually means keeping many aspects of the website the same and changing or updating smaller aspects of the website. This can mean changing some colors on the site or updating the text on certain pages.

Reasons you should consider a website redesign

Branding: Your company has gone through a rebranding process that needs to be reflected on the website

Color is one of the most important things to consider when rebranding. Colors play an important role in your company’s branding efforts. Not only do they help identify your work, but they should grab the attention of your site’s visitors. Once you’ve created your branding strategy and style guide, it is crucial that it appears consistently across all of your marketing efforts.

Your website should be your most identifiable marketing strategy, so you need to make sure that your company rebrands properly. If your company is working on a rebranding strategy, check out our resources for creating a website style guide.

Your website should be your most identifiable marketing strategy, so you need to make sure that your company rebrands properly. Click To Tweet

 

Legal Compliance: Ensuring your website is ADA compliant

Some people don’t realize that ADA regulations apply to websites. These regulations allow your website to be accessible to everyone who visits your site. That being said, you need to make sure that your website is meeting guidelines and can pass as ADA compliant. 

Not sure what that means? No worries! Check out the GDPR and ADA guidelines.

Your business has pivoted and need to update your service offerings

A common occurrence in every business is updating product or service offerings. Maybe you are no longer offering a specific service, or maybe you’ve added one. Either way, you need to make sure that your website design and marketing efforts reflect this update.

Whether this means adding a new page, or updating one that already exists, you should take the time to determine how you will prioritize this new service and where it will be emphasized. 

Additionally, organizations and businesses may want to turn their site into a lead generation website. This would mean attracting customers through blogs, search engines and social media with the help of an inbound marketing agency.

Improve user experience and increase lead generation

The most important aspect of your website is the user experience. How is it impacting your site’s success or failure? What can you do to determine where to make changes?

Fortunately, you can use Google Analytics’ Behavior Flow report to determine what keeps users interested on your site. This tool allows users to pinpoint where users are going and where they are dropping off in order to maximize their site. The team at Google recognizes the importance of your site and they have provided this information so you can optimize your efforts.

Increasing your lead generation is another reason for updating your site. Content first web design includes branding, content, design and call to actions (CTAs) working together to increase your site’s conversion rates. You need every aspect of your site aiming towards creating valuable leads. A content first redesign is crucial in a lead generating website design. 

Remember that website design and lead generation can both be accomplished as long as you approach the task properly!

Your website isn’t mobile responsive

Most people in society today have some kind of smartphone and use it for much more than just making phone calls. With the creation of various applications people have been spending more time using their mobile devices for recreational purposes.

Additionally, smartphones and other mobile devices have given users the ability to access the internet at any time or place. This has shifted companies to focusing on how their application or site is viewed and accessible via mobile devices.

If you don’t have a mobile optimized website, this is something that may encourage a website redesign. One way to tell if you do not have a mobile responsive design is to check if it requires zooming in on text or CTA buttons in order to access or read the content. If you find yourself zooming in, your site may need to be updated so the user experience on mobile devices is as good as it is on computers.

Considerations when redesigning a website

How do I redesign a website without losing SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial whenever you are creating content and marketing materials for your brand. That being said, SEO should be utilized on your website as it is your most powerful digital marketing tool. 

In order for your website to be found on search engines, you need to make sure that you have used SEO fundamentals. This begins with researching high ranking keywords to use in the text on your landing pages and throughout your website. SEO can be used in URLs, slugs, permalinks and other areas throughout your site. In other words, when redesigning your site, be sure to think about SEO from the beginning.

How much will it cost to redesign a website?

Your price will vary depending on how you decide to redesign your site. If you decide you want to use a company to help with the process, each company you research will have varying prices. That being said, make sure you do the research before choosing just any company to help with the redesign process, as whoever you pick should have proven experience.

What are the website’s most viewed pages?

Most viewed pages vary for everyone. Each business attracts their customers to their site differently, whether it be through the content they share or the offers they produce. Either way, it is important that you emphasize these pages and continuously improve the content in order to get conversions.

Not sure what your most viewed pages are? Don’t stress! A great tool to help with this is Google Analytics. This free tool gives users the ability to track website traffic in order to better appeal to target audiences.

What is the website’s target audience?

Your target audience is who you want to find and utilize your website. The way they find your site may vary depending on their interests, so it is important that you know what they want to find.

Google Analytics offers tools that allow you to track and view your visitors’ behaviors. These behavior reports can provide you with the most common paths taken on your website, how long users spend on your site and what page they leave. Additionally, these tools allow you to view what users search for on your site, interactions with certain links and how fast your site is.

SMART Goals: What are we trying to accomplish with a new website?

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals that are determined for your business. These digital marketing goals should be set for each aspect of your outreach campaigns, especially for your website. 

Before redesigning your website, it is vital that you determine what you want your website to achieve. Maybe your goal is to improve the session length, or maybe you want to increase SEO and position tracking. Perhaps you want to boost your audience a number of times over with a new email marketing strategy. These goals can be measured and monitored — they’re perfect SMART goal material.

<h2id=”level-of-effort”>Website redesign level of effort

Your website has to work for you and your needs. That being said, when redesigning your site all hands should be on deck and research should be done before making any changes. Not only should the cost of the redesign be considered, but also discuss how the process will look.

At DC Dev Shop we work with our clients throughout the entire design process to guarantee that their website is exactly what they want it to be. For example, we check in with clients to ensure we are building the site with their needs in mind. Our six-step website build process includes everything from discovery to quality assurance and launch in order to get your site working perfectly and your team onboarded easily.

Want to do it yourself? No worries, it’s definitely possible! Our team recommends you research a CMS before you make any changes. Depending on your CMS there will be different ways to redesign certain aspects of your site. Before you make any changes, try watching tutorials and reading about the redesign process.

How do I redesign an existing website?

Before starting a redesign you need to decide what you want to accomplish. What are your business goals? Do they require a full or partial rebrand? How can you redesign your site so that it is generating leads?

Look at your current website and note what you want to change, get rid of completely and keep. You also need to specify what is the most important aspect of your redesign and what you want to prioritize. From this you can create a website redesign project plan.

Next, you need to specify your target audience and what attracts them to your site. How can you best serve them with the content you provide? What on your current website works best with this audience and how can you improve it?

Once you have determined your short and long term goals you can start planning your website redesign.

Final Thoughts: A website is never really complete and should be updated regularly

The most helpful thing you can do for your business is update your website regularly. This doesn’t mean redesigning your site every year, but consistently checking and updating the content in order to make sure it is all accurate and up to date. Have a growing company? Event for a small business, website redesigns can make a world of difference!

Your website offers potential customers an initial impression of your business. Therefore, you need to make sure that you’re putting your best foot forward in all aspects of your website. While it can be scary to think of your site as never being complete, let that serve as a reminder to always update your content.

When you’re ready to work with an experienced agency to redesign your website, make sure to reach out to our team at DC Dev Shop! We offer services in WordPress development, web design, and inbound marketing — all to help our clients optimize their digital presence!