There can be several reasons why one can want to redesign their websites. Maybe the site seems outdated, has a high bounce rate, or has several broken links – all can affect traffic influx and conversion rates which can be tackled by redesigning the website.
So if you want to change the content, visuals, structure, or code of your website, redesigning is the way to go about it to improve the user experience (UX).
There are several things that you will need to keep in mind before planning to redesign your website. If you don’t know where to get started from, then we got you covered!
Some of the things that need to be checked before you get in touch with a web designing agency to execute your plan are as follows:
1. Decide whether you want a Website Redesign or Revamp: Revamping the website would mean a complete overhaul, while redesign wouldn’t change much of the functionality. Revamp is a good idea if you need a total change with the structure, design, content, and code to recreate your website completely. But if you want to retain the high functioning of your website but change the look and feel, then redesigning is ideal for you. Ensure that you know what you want before you start with the process of redesigning your website. If you are confused, your web redesigning agency will help you with it.
2. Review your Existing Website: After you crawl your website and glean out some information, review it thoroughly. Make a list of everything you love on your website and keep it on your new website. Check what aspects of your website are generating some value for your business, and they are irreplaceable. Also, list down all the things you want to change, what aspects impede the functionality, and the like. After reviewing your website, you should hire UX developer from a web designing agency who can help you understand whether what you want can be just updated or whether your website requires a whole new revamp.
3. Check What Your Competitors are Doing: This happens to be a crucial step when you start making your website. But it also comes in handy when you are opting for a redesign.
If you check your competitors’ websites now, you’ll get a better understanding compared to your current website. Make a list of everything you love about their website, what can be incorporated from their websites to yours, and how those might be helping their businesses. Even the features you hate in their websites will allow the web designing agency to understand what kind of redesign you’re looking for.
4. Know Your Audience: You will have to re-evaluate your audience once again when you go for a website redesign. It is crucial to see if you want to narrow down your target audience or enlarge it to reach out to different groups of new people. Your services and products might have become more specialized and can cater to a bigger group, so you will need to formulate strategies for your websites accordingly. For example, what might work for people above 40 years might not work for the current generation, and depending on whom you cater to, formulate your website accordingly.
5. Check the Functionalities You Need: Your web designing agency will tell you that this is one of the most crucial steps of redesigning your website. People will come to your website to get fast access to different types of information they’re looking for online. And your website has to ensure that it is user-friendly to save navigation time. Your website should show categories of your services, pricing, and samples everything with one click. The easier it is to navigate your website, the faster you convert your traffic, generate leads, and grow your business. So always remember that functionality and redesigning work together!
6. Get Data From Analytics Tools: Use the Analytics tool to check all the data and content of your website once again. This will allow you to understand what content is working for your website and what is not. You’ll also be able to identify any broken links and site errors present on your website. All these data will also help you evaluate the site visits, bounce rates, and time spent on the site. Once you have crawled your site and found proper analytics – it will be a great discussion point to start with when you hire a UX designer from a web designing agency to redesign your website.
7. Check if you need a content Marketing Plan: You must curate original and authentic content. More than 60% of the visitors will connect to your company if you brew fresh, unique, and quality content, as it will speak of the company’s authenticity and values. Plan ahead what kind of content you want on your website, like blogs, videos, graphics, social media links, and the like. Once you have an effective content marketing plan in place, you’ll be able to identify what you want to change or incorporate in your new website.
8. Check Other Marketing Strategies You Can Use: You can wish to incorporate several other marketing strategies in your new website that will be different from your content marketing plans. This means you can opt for a monthly newsletter campaign via email marketing. So you can check what is required to get more email subscribers. You will need to ensure that when you redesign your website, your marketing goals and your website goals should complement each other, as this will help upscale your business.
9. Check the SEO status of your Website: When you are going for a redesign of your website, you should ensure that it doesn’t worsen the existing SEO optimization on your website. The redesign should boost the optimization further and not set back your online rankings. If your current website does not follow any SEO guidelines, a redesign can give you an excellent opportunity to incorporate it now. You can take the help of an SEO service to ensure that the redesign is smoothly conducted and your new site gets ranked on the search engines quickly.
10. Keep Future Goals in Mind: After you have planned everything you want to incorporate, evaluate your current website and your competitors’ ones, you will be professionally able to execute your plan. But one of the critical aspects of redesigning that you must not forget is your future goals. Ensure that before you contact a web designing agency for redesign, you tell them how you want to accommodate your business goals of the future. Make a list of how many site visitors you will want to see in the coming year and by how much you would like to increase your lead. Also include details about how you want your clients and customers to feel when they visit your business site. Keeping your redesigning plans aligned to your business goals ensures that it will be ready to handle all the future changes due to business growth.
Redesigning a website can take a lot of work and can be time-consuming. If you feel overwhelmed by the process, have an open conversation with your web designing agency, and they will guide you better in this regard! It can be an ultimate failure if small details like these are not taken care of right before starting their redesigning procedure.