Website redesign is tougher than designing a website for the first time. As a website owner, if you feel the need for redesign, it means that you are not happy with your website’s performance. So, a web design expert needs to understand your goals, analyse the existing website to uncover loopholes, decide about the elements that he can retain from the existing website and plan new elements to be introduced. Only then does he gets on to designing the new site. So, the process is more drawn out and requires more analysis.
Do you need a website redesign? – Set goals
A redesign is necessary in several cases such as failure to portray your current business scope, outdated visual appeal and performance, poor marketing efficiency or informative value, not user friendly, failure to perform as per your expectations, poor SEO performance and change in the needs of the target audience.
If your website does incorporate all features, goals, objectives and ethics of your business, and performs well, you might not need a complete overhaul of the website. Minor changes in the layout in order to give it a new look could do the trick.
BEFORE YOU GO IN FOR A REDESIGN, SET GOALS; THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR WEBSITE WILL BE BUILT AROUND YOUR GOALS.
Communication
A meeting between the designer and you will trigger the redesign process.
This session involves discussing pros and cons of the existing website. While you might not be satisfied with the overall performance of your website, you might like a few elements if you take some time to analyse the site.
An expert designer notes down all these points.
By the end of the meeting, the designer should have a very clear idea about your expectations. However, one meeting might often not be enough. Be open to meeting a few times before the actual design work starts.
Website audit and analysis
The designer will use various tools and testing techniques to test the efficiency of the existing website. He will identify areas where the website fails to meet goals. Google analytics and other tools will help the designer identify pages that receive maximum traffic and the ones that don’t.
He should also identify parts with outdated design and inefficient functionality. He will check whether the design adheres to latest SEO regulations.
In some cases a complete start-from-scratch approach is necessary to properly build your new website. This happens when your site is probably plain HTML static site and you wish to have more control of your site by having a CMS (Content Management System), such as WordPress integrated into your new website.
Analysis of competitor websites
Analysing successful websites of your competitors can be an extremely useful step in the redesign process. The analysis makes the designers aware of the latest trends that have proven to be effective in your business niche.
Planning
Once the web design expert completes the groundwork, he plans how new elements can be incorporated into the site. Here, it is important to keep in mind that the website retains some elements of the previous design so that existing customers can still relate to it.
Execution
The actual technical process begins at this stage. The designer needs to block search engine access to certain pages using robots.txt in order to avoid any issues resulting from content duplication during redesign. Ask the designer for milestone presentations so that you can suggest corrections. Keep in touch with the designer.
Testing
After the redesign is done, the developer tests it on fronts such as functionality, SEO, user-friendliness and trendiness. Once satisfied, the web design agency hands over the site to you.
The right steps ensure that the redesign is worth it.