Techblog
Redesigning Your Business Website: When And How?
Your first business website won’t be your last. As your business grows and changes, so should its website. How do you go about a redesign?
Building a website is one of the first digital steps most SMEs make and it’s usually done on a small budget and to minimal requirements. But there might come a time when a redesigned website is necessary to further optimise it. When do you determine this, and how do you go about designing your website?
Every business big and small has a website, but no two websites are alike. Design is one thing, but functionality, usability and navigation are different things altogether. Before you jump into that, how do you tell when a redesign of the website is truly essential?
Why Redesign?
1. An updated look is needed
A website is the digital face of the company. An updated website in terms of information and design portrays a strong and good impression of the company to all who see it.
Incorporating the latest design trends keep consumer brands fresh, and shows consumers that the brand is up-to-date and competitive.
2. Users have a hard time with the current website
User experience is crucial for digital traffic. Time is money, and most internet users would hate to go into a site only to find that it loads slowly, they cannot easily find the content they want, or that they don’t even know where to start looking.
Users increasingly look for information while on-the-go. Websites should therefore be made mobile responsive to improve the whole user experience.
3. Business goals are not being achieved
Ultimately, meeting business and monetary goals are the main objectives of business websites. Good Call-To-Action (CTA) features and landing pages are needed to make this happen to convert visitors to customers.
Checking the above three boxes would signal that a redesign is necessary. Knowing how to choose a web designer is important too, but first you should also know how to go about the redesigning process.
Redesigning Your Website
Redesigning a website may not be the same as creating a whole new website entirely. It could mean taking whatever you have and making it even better.
1. Review your current site
Your current site definitely has some good points. Which of its current features do you like? Which do you not like? How can they be improved? These are some questions to answer.
User statistics are also important. Use Google Analytics to tell you:
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the average number of visits monthly,
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bounce rate (percentage of people who enter your website from a page, and leave immediately),
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time spent on site,
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popular sections,
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most frequented content, etc.
These statistics reveal what already works in your site that can be enhanced, and defines your audience and their interests so you know what more to cater for in the redesigned website.
2. Plan for the new site
After reviewing your current site, plan for the new. Go through competitor websites and pick out useful features. Analyse their website design, and think about yours. What will users see on the home page and what unique features can you add in to improve the user's experience?
Keep in mind that the redesign should always accommodate for better accessibility, responsiveness, and easy navigation for improved user experience. A simplistic design that directs users to pages of their interest would be better than an over-cluttered homepage.
Remember also to marry design with business objectives. What Call-To-Action (CTA) features will you put, and where, so as to improve conversion rates? Make these features A/B test-friendly so you can determine what really works later.
To ensure efficiency with this redesigning process, create a schedule that details the time you’re accommodating for each element of the process (e.g. reviewing competitor sites, designing and testing mock up pages, etc.), their expected budget, and delivery date. Ask your designer to help with this. They will have the experience to create a realistic schedule.
The ideal timeline and launch date should balance three factors:
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quality desired of the new site,
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speed at which you can work, and
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the costs required.
It should also allow for time to test the site and iron out glitches before it goes live.
Finally, set goals using your existing user data as a baseline. These goals should be SMART—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. For example, it could be: 1,000 site visits per month within six months, or to reduce bounce rates to below a certain percentage.
3. Focus on content
This digital age of knowledge-sharing makes content the driving factor for website traffic. Original, customisable and quality content especially can attract visitors, and these can be in the form of company blogs, social media posts, or how-to articles.
Consistently updating your website with new, interesting and relevant information can build regular visitors, leading to increased conversions.
Your content marketing strategy is therefore fundamental, and some considerations to improve this are:
Define your customer profiles (i.e. types of customers), their content needs and preferences—every content piece should address one of these personas so users find them more relatable
Determine the types of content you want to create: e.g. blog posts, social media posts, videos
Ensure content relevancy: use effective keywords in your content, and consider Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to optimise the content and website. This means the page designs will need to accomodate for things like meta descriptions.
4. Review and launch
So you’ve gone through the above points, worked with a web designer, and you now have a site that is ready to go live. Think you’re done? Not quite.
The next step is to A/B test your redesigned site, ahead of letting it go live. This gives you a chance to identify customer reactions to the redesign, collect real user data, and forecast business implications. A/B test features in your layout and/or CTA buttons, determine what works and what doesn’t, and make the appropriate changes.
When you’ve finally completed your testing and you’re satisfied with customer reactions, you can now launch the redesigned site.
Summary
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Always determine if a redesign is truly needed
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Redesigning a website encompasses taking what you have and making it better
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A detailed schedule makes the whole process more efficient
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It is essential to review your site before it goes live so you can better forecast the redesigned site’s business implications