In any marketing sector of a business, the awkward topic of redesigning your site may pop up in conversation. The worries entail deciding whether it’s time for a redesign or if your business needs one at all. Maybe you’re not getting enough leads, maybe it’s outdated and doesn’t match your branding, or maybe it’s generating leads, but not the right leads and not quickly enough. Let’s start with a checklist. 

We have provided a checklist for when you decide it’s time for a website redesign. Each step of the process comes in phases. 

Checklist: 
Step 1: Audit Your Current Website and Assets
Step 2: Gather Inspiration and Analyze the Competition 
Step 3: Create / Update / Review Brand Guidelines and Styles
Step 4: Create a Realistic Timeline
Step 5: Set Goals
Step 6: Understand the User Journey 
Step 7: Content First
Step 8: Start Designing

Phase 1: Why

When approached with the idea of a website redesign, you should ask why. What is currently wrong with the site you have now? Are you ready for a rebrand? Is your site not functional or outdated? These are vital to understanding why you or a client want change. 

Some may want to redesign because their site simply may not be a true representation of what their brand can offer. In today’s market, a website is the first thing they associate with a brand so first impressions count.

 Steps 1 & 2
Audit your current site to find specifics bugs that need fixed. Maybe the fonts and colors are complimentary to your background deisng. See which pages have the most views and which pages lack conversion rates. Bounce rates are necessary to look at to see when and why people are leaving your site. 

Once you audit your site, you can start looking for inspiration. Top companies have their websites constantly updated with new formats and responsive speeds. Check them out to establish a vision. 

Phase 2: Devise a plan

Project workflow and checklist drive a project to success. This will establish a timeline for your team and developers so you are all on the same page. Constantly check and update your workflow to make room for changes or bumps throughout the process.

Redesigns are all different. Some may target branding and navigation while others may target specific homepage content and customer flow. Hone in on why you are doing a redesign and make it happen.   

Steps 3-6

If you are going through a website redesign, your website should look different. Your new branding should show or your new navigation should be the highlight of the page. Make it known to your clients that you did this not only for your business but to make it easier on them. 

Make the design consistent throughout the site. Users like consistency! They don’t want to be dragged in all directions just to find one page. Fonts, colors, wording, and attitude should consistently be represented in all aspects of the website. 

Phase 3: Implement the design 

 Although new designs are good, you don’t want to lose the existing customers you already established loyalty with. Keep them in mind when implementing the new design. 

Sitemaps, storyboards, and prototypes should all factor into your process now. These tools give you a chance to tackle the redesign in incremental steps. You might even want to think about running A/B tests on the live website to confirm theories you have about problematic elements before implementing anything in the redesign.

Also, don’t forget how these changes will affect SEO. Maintain URL structures and keywords to ensure your conversions will go up not down. 

Steps 7 & 8

Users are mainly on your page for the content, so don’t let them down. Focusing on the information you provide is the utmost important thing when it comes to website redesign.  If they cannot find what they are looking for, then there is a problem. 

Once you established your goals and created a list for accomplishing those task, your design is ready to be created.

Blue Archer can assist any company in website redesign.