There are lots of reasons people decide to have their website redesigned. One of the major reasons is actually one of the best — growth.
Maybe you’ve kept your website up-to-date all this time through one of the many do-it-yourself programs, and now it’s time to turn it over to a qualified professional while you focus on expanding your business. Or maybe your site is getting traffic, but it’s just not pulling in sales anymore.
Whatever the reason, there are several things to keep in mind before you take the steps needed to do a complete overhaul of your site.
1. Make a like/dislike list – It might sound silly at first, but taking the time to write down what you like, and dislike, about your current site can help you focus on what needs to be done to make the new one even better. Ask your customers to take a short survey listing their likes and dislikes about the site as well. You might be surprised by what you read!
2. Be sure you have enough – By that I mean enough time, money and patience. A redesign of a larger website can be quite the undertaking, and it can be costly if your site has to be moved to a different system that can take some getting used to (such as an improved shopping cart).
When you get quotes from web designers, budget around 10-15% more than the given quote for things that almost always unexpectedly creep up during an overhaul.
3. Not during peak sales time – The worst time to launch your newly designed website is right in the middle of your peak sales season. Not only will sales drop off because customers may not realize that you’ve redesigned, but you’ll almost always lose valuable “natural” search engine ranking as well. Which leads me to the next step…
4. Make sure all your pages go somewhere – There’s nothing worse than seeing a “File Not Found” error on one of your pages listed in the search engines. If you’re upgrading to a new system, such as a shopping cart or a new content management program, make sure you have redirects in place to point your old traffic to your new pages – including the search engines. Consult your web designer on how to do this if you’re unsure.
5. Finally, have a plan – A website redesign without a plan is like building a house without a blueprint. Make sure you have measurable and reasonable goals you want to accomplish as a result of this new design.
Whether it’s increasing sales by 10% in a quarter or getting more people to subscribe to your newsletter, having a real goal in place makes it easy for you to see if your design is working, and what can be improved. And, just like with your old site, be sure to get your visitors feedback on the new page too!
Tags: web redesign