Whats involved in giving your business website a facelift?
Your business website is your primary digital marketing tool. It’s a tool that helps market your business in the digital world. It’s a showcase about your business’s vision, your goals, your products and services. So, it’s important that you showcase your web presence in such a way that you get maximum profitability and user traffic.
Gone are the days when text-based websites were given more weightage and visitors liked visiting these websites. But in todays modern fast paced environment, a website’s design and accessibility is as important as the brand, message and its imperative that your content keep your users engaged. So, think about your website. Is it more than 5 years old? Will a redesign make your website more fresh, entertaining and engaging?
A website makeover will also prevent your customers from getting bored looking at the same content. Your website should feel new overtime a user returns. It should have rotating content, videos, imagery. News and posts on a regular basis.
The top 6 reasons for a website redesign?
Stay updated with new trends in fast moving digital world – To be successful in your digital marketing efforts takes constant attention. Adding content should be easy and frequent. Functionality and designs keep on changing every year. If you do not stay abreast with the latest web design trends, you will be left behind in the race.
Stay ahead in your market – When visitors land on your website, you only have about 4 seconds to convince them to click on a link and take interest in your business, products and services. If not they will go to your competitors website. You need to keep your website updated in order to stay ahead of competition. Your content should be new and interesting to your visitors.
Design no longer reflects your business aspirations – If you find your website no longer reflects your business or the aspirations of the users, it’s time to think about redesigning. You should find out what exactly your visitors are looking for, what they are use to. After all, user friendly is not just about the user interface. It’s well structured and formatted content that tells a story and guide the user through multiple pages so they get to the information they need as quick as passable.
Best use of search engine techniques – Is your website search engine friendly? If not, it’s the right time to think about re-design. About 82% of traffic comes from search engines. So, it’s better to have a website with search engine friendly features like pretty URL’s, inner page linking, alt and meta tags.
Greater accessibility – Your website will have greater effectiveness if it loads fast, does not include any broken links, and is viewable on smart phones and tablets. We call this responsive web design. if you want to reach your visitors through various devices such as desktops, laptops, iPads, and Smartphones your content should be easy to see and read on any device. Responsive web design is all we do. No need to build multiple websites.
To include social media – Your website is considered outdated if it does not have social media features and share links. Today, if you are not on social media, you are missing out on many things like new visitors, better rank on search engines, and easer word of mouth marketing. Redesigning with social sharing tools that make it easy for visitors to connect with you will help you circulate your business all over the web.
Good planning for website redesign
- Before you place the work of your website redesign in the hands of a professional web design company, consider why you are redesigning your website. If the reason of your website redesign is adding more user-friendly features, talk with a professional about what can be done and how these features will help you generate good ROI.
- Make a list of your strategic goals. Having a clear picture of your goals beforehand will give you and your web designer an idea of your requirements and priorities. Your web designer will help plan your tasks and help lower the costs of your redesign.
- You also need to decide whether you want to go for comprehensive or gradual redesign. A sudden overhaul can be harsh to your visitors. You should evaluate your users’ habits before you choose any one of these options. Find out what they will feel about an abrupt change in the website. After all, you are preparing the website for your visitors. You would definitely like to give the best to them. A gradual change can be much more expensive so, be sure you study what is needed and why before you start.
- Before you start your website redesign, make a list of the effective and ineffective aspects of your current site. They can be anything, the messaging, logo, the font color, font size or the images you have used. How easy is it to get from your home page to any content. 3 clicks or less? Once you know what works and what doesn’t, you can prioritize and work on things that matter most. An analysis with a professional web designer and a good understanding of Google Analytics will help you determine the most important parts of your present website.
- It’s a good idea to get inspiration from competitors’ websites. Try to identify what are the features in their website that really work, and try to emulate them in a better way.
- Just don’t automatically follow trends. Try to find out whether they could be beneficial to you or not. First analyze the new developments taking place in your industry. If you are in doubt about anything, don’t try to implement them in your design until you discuss it with your web designer. Keep your design simple to be on the safe side.
- Keeping content fresh and up-to-date is the #1 important thing to consider for an effective website. You can add a blog to your website but you will need to add content on a regular basis. There is nothing worse that going to a website and clicking on the news or blog page and the newest post is two years old. So, be careful when adding a blog or news page to your site.
Checklist to consider for getting the most out of your website redesign project:
- Keep in mind, website designs trends change rapidly. So choose accordingly
- You need to consider SEO, it’s imperative in todays web presence
- Identify the reason for website redesign
- Keep your strategic goals clear and crisp
- What type of redesign do you want, comprehensive or gradual? Think budget…
- Take ideas and inspirations from your competitors, but do not copy
- Go for responsive design. You will get success in reaching more users on different devices
- Don’t follow trends just to say you did. If in doubt, go with a simple design
A website redesign is a wise investment. It will yield you good ROI. If you want a rock solid profitable online presence make the call and get started today. 626 768-0760. PX Media is ready to help you make your business a profitable tool.
:by Douglas Goddard
