Your website is one of the most effective business tools, so making the most of it is crucial. A website redesign may be necessary if yours isn’t carried out as well as you had anticipated. Redesigning a website can serve various purposes, from enhancing user experience to boosting sales. Also, since your clients want a fresh, modern, and functional website, it can help you keep one step ahead of the competition. If you’re considering redesigning your website, you must be certain that the modifications will benefit your company and maximise your investment.
When it comes to redesigning your website, you want to make sure that the process is done right. This step-by-step guide will walk you through each phase of the redesign process and show how we’ve helped other clients achieve their goals.
Step-by-step Process of Website Redesign
Step 1: Defining Goals and Objectives
The first step in the redesign process is to define goals and objectives. Before you start designing, it’s important to know what kind of website you want to create. You should identify the purpose of your site, determine which goals are most important for this project and set measurable objectives that will help you track progress along the way.
In addition, it’s helpful to think about how users will interact with your new website so that they can easily find what they’re looking for on each page. This is especially true if there are multiple pages within one section (like “About Us” or “Contact Us”).
After you determine the goal of your website, the next step is to create specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely (SMART) objectives. This will assist in maintaining your focus and ensuring the success of your website redesign. Increasing website traffic by 25%, reducing page load times by 15%, and increasing user engagement by 20% are a few examples of SMART objectives for website redesigns.
Step 2: Analysing the Current Website
The next step is to analyse the current website. This will help you determine what needs to be improved and how it can be done. You need to look at all aspects of your website, including:
- Traffic and user behaviour – It’s important to know how many people visit the website, what they’re looking for, and where they go when leaving. This will help you better understand your users and how best to serve them. It also helps you identify areas of opportunity, like getting more traffic from search engines or social media sites.
- Website performance (how fast it loads) – Website performance is an important factor in determining whether your site will succeed. Users will get frustrated and leave if it takes too long for your pages to load.
You should also look at the bounce rate of your website, which refers to how many people visit a page and then immediately go back out (bounce) rather than continuing on to other pages. This can indicate that the page they landed on wasn’t what they were looking for or was poorly designed.
- Content – the quality of your content is a good indicator of whether your site will be successful. You want to make sure that you’re providing relevant and valuable information to visitors, or they won’t come back.
Step 3: Identifying the Target Audience
- Understand the target audience – This is essential to the success of your website. You should understand who you’re trying to reach, what your customers want, and how they’ll use the information you provide. You can do this by looking at demographic data or asking people within the target audience what they’d like from your business.
- Research user needs and preferences – Once you’ve identified your target audience, research their needs and preferences. This will help you create content that appeals to them. The more relevant your content is, the better its chance of being shared on social media.
- Define user personas – User personas can help you focus on your audience. A user persona is a fictional representation of an ideal customer based on research and data about your target audience. You can create one or more personas to represent different demographics within that group.
For example, if you’re marketing to parents with young children, you might create a “stay-at-home mom” persona and a “working dad” persona.
Step 4: Planning the Website Redesign
In this step, you’ll be creating a website redesign strategy. This is where you will outline the structure of your new website and design its user experience.
- Define your goals for the redesign: What do you want to accomplish with this project? Do you want more leads or sales from your site, or do you just want to improve its overall performance in search engines?
- Create personas for different types of visitors: Who are visiting your site, their needs, and how can their experience be improved through UX design decisions like site navigation or content layout (for example)?
- Determine what pages will live on each section/page of your new design: Are there any pages that need to be added or removed from the current version of your website (e.g., product descriptions vs customer testimonials)?
Step 5: Designing the Website
The next step in the redesign process is to design the look and feel of your website. This includes creating visuals, selecting the right colours and fonts, as well as choosing a theme that best represents your business.
To begin with, you should decide what kind of look you want for your site: do you want it to be modern or traditional?
You can also choose between a flat design (with no drop shadows or gradients) or a skeuomorphic (using realistic textures). If possible, ask someone with web design experience to help out here. Or maybe it’s best to hire a web design agency Melbourne to do it for you.
Step 6: Developing the Website
Once you’ve decided on your redesign approach, it’s time to get started with the actual website development. This is where you’ll write code and create content for your new site.
You can use any number of platforms or tools to create this content, from simple text editors like Microsoft Word or Google Docs (which are great for basic coding) all the way up to full-fledged WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors like WordPress that allow users to drag-and-drop elements onto their pages, so they don’t have to write any code at all.
The next step after building out your site’s design is testing it before launching it live online. It’s important not only because this step allows us, as developers/designers/content creators etc., to make sure everything looks good.
However, some browsers may have issues displaying certain elements properly unless they’ve tested the first time around especially older versions such as Internet Explorer 11, which still has its uses despite being outdated nowadays mainly due to its widespread use among business owners who find themselves unable to “upgrade” their computers despite having access to newer versions such as Chrome OS running Windows 10 Pro 64bit(Home Edition).
Step 7: Launching the Website
- Check the website for errors – if there are any, try to fix them before they become a problem. If possible, test the site on different browsers and devices.
- Optimise the website for search engines – this is important because if your website isn’t optimised for search engines, no one will find it. If you’re unfamiliar with SEO and don’t have the time or resources to learn about it, consider hiring a reliable SEO agency Melbourne to handle this step for you.
- Launch the website – the next step to launching your website is actually launching it. You can do this by uploading your website files to a web host or running them locally on your computer.
If you’re using a web host, make sure that they have the latest version of PHP installed because older versions may not support all of the features that modern websites require.
Step 8: Monitoring and Maintaining the Website
After you have launched your new website, it’s important to monitor its performance. You can use Google Analytics or other tools to track traffic, conversions, and user engagement. You should also respond to user feedback by updating content and features as needed.
Step 9: Promoting the Website
After you launch your website, you’ll want to promote it so people can find it. You should create an email list of interested subscribers who will be notified when new content is published. You can also share your website on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Tips to Achieve Success on Website Redesign
It’s time to unveil your website redesign after much planning, strategy, and building. Seeing your website’s brand-new look and benefiting from a successful redesign should be exhilarating. But, for many people, this final phase can also feel overwhelming and unnerving since they are worried about missing something crucial or whether the improvements they’ve made will be well-received.
Here are a few last suggestions to keep in mind to ensure a fruitful and effective website redesign.
- Thoroughly go over each component of your website redesign. Ask for input from trusted friends and family or even proofreaders. Check to see if your new website is simple to use and navigate. Observe how visitors use the website and make any required adjustments as needed.
- Pre-launch your website. Create a backup of the existing version of your website for further security, then gradually and carefully switch over to the new one. This will allow you time to address any errors or issues before formally releasing your website redesign and help ensure no significant surprises after launch.
- Don’t forget to inform people about the website’s launch. Inform your clients of your enhancements and how they might help them. Similarly, get in touch with partners, bloggers, and influencers who can assist in spreading the word to your target audience and boost exposure for your new website.
Hire Digital Rescue to Redesign Your Website
Your top priority should be getting a qualified web designer if you’re considering redesigning your website.
Digital Rescue has been at the forefront of Melbourne’s web design for more than 20 years, giving our clients unparalleled satisfaction. Our team of professionals is highly qualified, and we constantly work to stay current with the newest trends in website design, optimisation, and development.
Digital Rescue is the only agency you need to consider if you’re seeking for an experienced web design agency for your website redesign. Book your FREE chemistry call today for more information on our website redesign services and to discuss your project!
