Redesigning a website gives you a chance to breathe new life into your online presence and reignite interest from your target audience. However, it must be approached with a bit of caution. Rather than diving headfirst into the process, it’s crucial to take a step back and think strategically about what your goals are and how to reach them.
To help you do this, we reached out to the Hello Mellow web design agency to get some inside info on how best to prepare for a website redesign. We condensed their sage advice into the following steps:
1. Know your goals and metrics
Why do you want to redesign your site? Answering this question will provide you with an overarching goal. This goal will then reveal the metrics you need to guide the new look and feel of your site. If you’re an e-commerce site, your goal might be to boost sales. For a portfolio site, it could be building your reputation.
Once you establish your central goals, choose the right metrics to track them. These can range from total revenue to customer acquisition costs to email open rates. Ideally, you’ve already been tracking relevant metrics on your old site, so you can compare them with the redesign once it’s up and running.
2. Audit your website
Before redesigning a website, assess your old one. Pay attention to what’s on it, how it looks, and how easy it is to navigate. Note what works, what doesn’t, and what could be done better with a new design.
To do so, rely on your website analytics rather than your gut feelings. Look at your most frequently visited pages, best-ranking primary keywords, and calls-to-action (CTAs) with high click-through rates. Likewise, identify low-traffic posts and ineffective design elements. Either avoid them when redesigning or update them to boost their impact.
3. Research competitor websites
This step achieves two things. First, it ensures you don’t inadvertently copy what others are doing. Second, it ensures you don’t fall into the trap of reinventing the wheel and confusing your target audience. Furthermore, researching the competition allows you to adopt best practices and stay abreast of industry trends.
4. Know your target audience
A successful website, just like a successful business, depends on knowing your target audience. Who are they, what are their needs, what are their pain points, and how can you effectively address those pain points to deliver what they need?
To find and reach that audience, start with the basics—age, gender, education, and income. Then, broaden it out to include pain points and solutions as well as content that can effectively address those. Finally, craft that content by eliciting the emotions that resonated with your audience and reflect your brand identity.
5. Choose the right content management system
Nearly all websites use a Content Management System (CMS). As the name suggests, this piece of software allows you to manage the content on your site – writing new posts, updating old posts, and customizing the front-end design.
Powering over 43% of the internet, WordPress is by far the most popular. That being said, it also has a fairly steep learning curve if you’re new to website design. So you may need to contact a professional agency or consider another CMS. Luckily, there are plenty of options. Whichever one you choose, ensure it has a responsive design perfect for mobile devices as well as up-to-date code that improves load times and creates a seamless user experience.
Redesigning a website is a powerful opportunity to reinvent your brand and reconnect with your audience. Keep the above five tips in mind to do so effectively.
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