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Website Redesign: Beginner’s guide + A ten-step checklist to successful website redesign strategy
Emma
Dec 15, 2023
14 min read
Introduction
The phases before you finally decide to redesign your website are peculiar for everyone, but there are some similarities:
✅ You feel like your website doesn’t connote your current brand identity.
✅ The pages feel stuck in the past.
✅ The structure and format of your website don’t work anymore and navigation is difficult.
✅ Your website performs poorly. There is low traffic and low conversion rates.
And many more. There’s just the nagging feeling that you need a complete overhaul.
If this is you, you’ve hit the jackpot with this article.
We’ll be showing you how to craft a winning strategy for your website redesign.
Ready to begin this adventure?
Let’s start.
What is a website redesign?
A website redesign is the process of improving your website both externally and internally.
This includes working on the visual appearance, optimising or totally changing the existing content and the technical aspect of the website to improve user experience.
You may need to work on search engine optimization, website speed, mobile and desktop performance and general website accessibility.
A website redesign is more than just a refresh or a face-lift. The goals of a website redesign can be to establish a new visual identity or to improve the performance of an existing website on search engines and for users.
While there may be many opinions about website redesigning, it’s beyond just the process of tightening up some web pages and refreshing your content. There’s a lot more and the process will require so much intentionality to succeed.
There are many reasons why you may consider redesigning. Some of them include:
An outdated website
User-website mismatch
Low traffic, leads and conversion rates
To cater for new offerings and implement a rebrand.
Lots of errors and bugs.
These reasons and more will warrant a website redesign. So, it’s time to get your ship sailing. But a good captain will need to know the important tips to guarantee success.
Let’s see a step-by-step guide to creating an effective website redesign strategy.
Table of content
As stated earlier, redesigning a website isn't an easy process and can be quite expensive and time consuming. Because of that, we’ve broken down easy pointers to indicate when your website needs a redesign.
Point 1- Your website isn’t mobile-friendly
With Over 55% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, you’d be leaving a lot on the table if your website isn’t mobile-friendly. As a result, you should consider redesigning your website for mobile devices to help you improve your website's user experience and boost your chances of increasing the number of website visitors.
Point 2- Your website has a high bounce rate.
Your website’s bounce rate is a crucial metric for measuring your website’s performance. When you notice a bounce rate above 56 % or more, it can mean that users find your website difficult to navigate, and this can be an indication that you need a redesign.
Point 3- Your website is slow to load
Your page load time can significantly impact your website. When your website takes so much time to load, it can lead to a poor user experience for your visitors, make them quickly leave your website, and discourage them from returning. Plus, a low loading speed can also affect your visibility in search results. However, you can redesign your webpages to load faster to help you deliver an improved user experience, higher ranking on the SERPS, visibility, and increased conversion rates.
A great way to improve your loading speed is by using good providers to host your website. Providers like Superflow can aid your marketing efforts by enhancing your website performance to fetch more site visitors who can become returning customers.
Point 4- Your website has broken links
Broken links significantly impact the user experience. Picture this: you click on a link expecting to access information, only to find the frustrating “404 error page.” In many cases, this can drive visitors away from the site entirely.
Links can become broken for various reasons, such as when a page goes missing, ceases to exist, or has a misspelt URL. Further, deleted content and other issues can also contribute to broken links. Thankfully, you can identify and address broken links on your website by entering your website’s URL into brokenlinkcheck.com.
Point 5- Your website doesn’t match your brand
Look through your website to see how it fits into what your brand is about. Does it efficiently portray the products you sell or the services you offer? Is the language and tone still consistent with your most recent brand tone? While websites can need some adjustments, like adding new images, editing a company’s mission and brand messaging, and producing relevant content, sometimes you may need a complete redesign to ensure your website aligns with your business services.
Point 6- Your website contains outdated content
Outdated content may negatively affect your website’s authority on the SERPs, making you lose customers to your competitors. Because of that, you’ll need to remove irrelevant information on your website and replace it with valuable content to improve your brand’s reputation, user experience, and visibility. The web redesign process often includes creating fresh content, which can impact your appearance on search engine pages and attract more website visitors who can turn into returning customers.
Point 7- Your website is complex to navigate
If your website is too complex for visitors, it can make them quickly leave and check out other vendors, impacting your overall engagement and business results. You should make your web content very much accessible to users.
You can perform periodic website tests by browsing your website to get a feel for its UX and identify areas your customers may have difficulties navigating. With this, you’ll find actionable ideas you could adapt to the website for an effective website redesign.
Point 8- Your website features an outdated design
Your website design can attract or turn off potential customers. Little wonder why 94% of negative website feedback connects to web design.
You can avoid design-related issues by revisiting your website design for a complete overhaul or a comprehensive update after about a year and half or two years. This ensures your website designs and functionalities are relevant and at par with the recent trends.
Point 9- Your website isn’t optimized for search engines
If you notice your website isn’t ranking on the SERPs, you’re far away from your potential customers, meaning your customers can’t even find your website. And if they can't find you, it means they can't check out your services and this can affect your business.
To remedy this situation, you can redesign your web pages to optimize them for on-page SEO. This will ensure your site gets a better search engine ranking, leading to increased website traffic and more prospects checking out and subscribing to your services.
Redesigning your website can yield several benefits, including:
Improved website visuals and functionality
Redesigning allows you to incorporate the current design trends on your site that can boost the visual aspects and functionality of your website, and this can help you improve website users’ experience.
Improved Security
During a project redesign, you can fix all security errors to ensure optimum security for your website. This way, you can guarantee your website visitors the security of their information while on your site.
Enhanced search engine optimization efforts
With a website redesign, you can improve your site’s overall performance, especially its ranking on search engines. This will enable you to boost your website’s SEO and increase organic traffic.
Beat Competitors
Redesigning allows you to include new features and improve existing functionalities that can make your site stand out from the competition and attract more potential customers.
Cohesive Brand Identity
A website redesign allows you to revisit your brand message and identity to ensure consistency. This can improve brand consistency and build trust with visitors.
Improved User Experience
Redesigning enables you to make your site more engaging and straightforward for users to navigate for an enhanced user experience.
Technical Efficiency
Updating the technical aspects of your website, such as code optimization, landing page loading times, and responsiveness, can help you achieve a more efficient website.
Below are some tips to guide you while selecting a web design company for a redesign:
Write out what you aim to achieve
Start by specifying the areas you’d love to focus on during the site redesign and state all it requires. This way, you’ll narrow your options and find a provider to meet your specific needs.
Ask for references
Contact design companies in your area and ask for references from professional peers. You can use the information to create a list of websites you like and pick your choicest website from the list so you can connect with the company.
Check portfolios and case studies
You can explore the company’s portfolios and case studies to learn more about their experience and expertise in web development and design. You can also contact the brands they’ve worked with to get detailed information about their services. Afterward, choose a well-established, experienced, and trustworthy company with an excellent reputation and demonstrated expertise.
Know your timeline and budget
Write out the amount you’re willing to spend on your site redesign and when you want it completed. With this, you’ll choose a company that doesn’t just meet your design requirements but also your budget.
Seek a creative, problem-solving approach
Look for a team that brings a creative, problem-solving approach to your website and has experience creating unique functionality across their projects. You can read the company’s online reviews to see their works for their past clients.
A successful website redesign process begins with a killer strategy and a will to see your project succeed.
From task management to feedback and collaboration, Superflow is a compulsory buddy for your website redesign.
All you have to do is sign up and try out the features for free.
If you have more questions, you should check out our FAQs section below to see the answers
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