As a digital marketing agency, we’ve built hundreds of websites. Each one has its own unique story, brand, and challenges. Whether it’s a new website or a redesign meant to refresh an online footprint, there are several elements that drive our process for designing websites that help position our clients for success.
Here are the top things we recommend you do with any website redesign.
Set the Right Foundation
A successful website design starts with a clear vision of the purpose. It also includes a thoughtful plan that outlines the way forward for content, design, and user experience.
Articulate the vision and set metrics
Describe what you want the website redesign to do and what you want to achieve. Perhaps you’re looking to raise engagement levels, enhance the overall experience, or increase brand awareness.
Leverage your brand identity
Your website is one of the most visible applications of your brand. Build a mood board with samples of your brand elements, including your voice and visuals, to help guide your design. Review your photography and video assets and create new ones if needed. High-quality videos or animations help tell your story in an engaging way.
Deliver a strong user experience
It’s important to provide a positive experience, which includes navigation, information presentation, user journeys, and page components. Build a sitemap and information architecture, and then focus on page specifics. Be sure to review the experience on multiple devices.
Cover All Fronts
All aspects of a website redesign interrelate. Content needs appropriate SEO and accessibility measures to be searched and read. Design and information presentation should be fresh, engaging, and load quickly.
Develop your content strategy
Conduct a content audit to identify what information is missing, unnecessary, or outdated. Align these findings with your audience personas to create relevant messaging.
Make SEO a priority
Your new design should consider SEO navigation and tagging practices. To maintain search ranks, reroute outdated URLs to more recent ones. This is important as a rebuild can harm your current SEO if done incorrectly. Review the traffic received for any items you want to remove from the website and decide whether you should simplify or remove them.
Optimize website performance
Slower speeds can have a negative impact on the user experience. Review loading times to see if design and development actions can increase speed.
Be accessible
Refer to the latest ADA accessibility guidelines to see how you can interact with more viewers.
Stay On It
There’s no such thing as a completely done website redesign. The digital world keeps evolving and enhancements can be continually made as you gain new insights.
Monitor website activity
Tracking visitor activity and behaviors provides actionable insights you can use to help reach your goals. Be sure to install analytics and regularly monitor them.
Redesigning a website is a big initiative, and there are many components to consider. Knowing what to think through will help ensure you move toward the outcomes you seek.
AI was used to help write this article.
