Is your website working hard enough for you? If not, then now is the perfect time to redesign it. In fact, the best-performing websites receive regular updates and redesigns every couple of years. Before you get started, it’s best to go over some essential questions for your website redesign strategy. These questions will help you pinpoint any problems you’re having and help you create a site that’s both efficient and proactive.
#1. How Do I Measure Success on My Site?
First and foremost, you need to identify the markers that will show you if your site is doing everything it should be (and more). What kind of quantifiable data are you hoping to get from this redesign?
- How many people visit your site daily/weekly/monthly?
- What about your conversion rate?
- What is your click-through and bounce rate?
- Which landing pages are the most valuable for your needs?
Whatever is critical to you, make sure that you have a system in place for tracking this data both right now and once you make adjustments. This way you can be sure that your changes are having the right kind of effect.
#2. Who is My Audience?
Another crucial step in your site redesign is to understand your target audience: the users who you want your website to attract and retain.
When defining your audience, you want to be specific without getting into too many details. For example, perhaps you want to attract DIYers who have a particular interest in projects that involve wood carving or carpentry.
Having more details can help you figure out what to highlight and what to cut from your current pages. Also, be sure to monitor your data with A/B testing so that you can further position yourself for success while understanding your audience better.
#3. How User-Friendly is My Site?
One thing that will increase your bounce rate (how fast people click away from your pages) is a site that is one of three things:
- Confusing (where is the link or button that I need?)
- Overwhelming (too many images/pop-ups)
- Disengaging (too sterile or off-putting)
When redesigning your pages, you want to make sure that your users can find what they need and access everything as quickly and enjoyably as possible. Not only does this help the end-user experience, it also boosts your website’s SEO. For the most part, optimizing your site for user-friendliness involves:
- Mobile sizing for smaller screens
- Faster load times
- Less scrolling
- Easy to read color scheme and layout
To help make sure that your site is looking and acting its best, it helps to get input from designers and professionals. Our website design experts will be happy to assist you!
#4. Why Are People Visiting My Site?
After identifying who your is, you should follow up with what your audience wants or needs. Consider the reasons why your audience visits your website (pro tip: use Google Analytics to see where site visitors spend the most time), so you know what areas to focus on. Common reasons users visit websites include:
- Finding information on how to solve a problem
- Discovering great content on a topic they care about
- Buying something they need or want
Whatever the goal, make sure that your redesign meets and exceeds those expectations. For example, if the content is what’s bringing people, then make sure that your top-rated pieces are front and center, and make it easier to browse through archived content to keep them engaged.
#5. What is My Competition Doing?
Chances are that your website has some stiff competition in search engine results. Research your competitors to see what they’re offering and how you can do better. Start off by searching for the keywords you want to rank highly for and then compare your site with the top results.
Remember that you’re looking at the competition to get inspired and see how your website could improve. You still want to stand out and show off what makes your business unique, so don’t just copy what your competitors do and call it a day.
#6. What Do You Want From Your Website?
Finally, approach your redesign from your own perspective. What are you trying to accomplish? In a perfect world, what would each visitor do when coming to your website? Are you hoping to increase likes and shares of your content? Do you want to increase overall sales?
When using all of the information you’ve collected about your target audience and their expectations, now you can use this data to further your goals. Make sure that you’re both addressing any issues that your audience is experiencing while also removing anything that doesn’t help you get to where you want to be.
Bottom Line
Redesigning your website can take time and effort to get it right, but once you succeed, your website can be a powerful resource for your business’ success.
