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Originally Posted On: https://www.pwmedia.com/a-quick-guide-to-planning-your-website-redesign
In today’s digital world, a functional and relevant website isn’t an option—it’s essential to running any successful business. However, the work isn’t over when your website is finished. To stay competitive, you should always look for ways to improve your current designs, accessibility, and user experience.
Updating your website can keep you ahead of the competition by improving user experience, boosting your audience, and staying relevant to current and future customers.
Why It’s Important To Update Your Website
As trends and societal norms and trends change over the years, so do search engines like Google. Their algorithms change according to user behaviors. Adaptation to user needs and expectations is a requirement for website development and maintenance. Keeping your website design fresh and engaging benefits your brand and bottom line, whether it’s a few tweaks to the aesthetics or an overhaul in templates and interface.
Another vital component of website redesign is website accessibility. Companies have a social responsibility to create an inclusive space for their customers. There shouldn’t be any barriers preventing customers from accessing your website, regardless of socio-economic restrictions, situational disabilities, or physical disabilities. You should always have someone monitoring your website accessibility to ensure optimal efficiency.
The Benefits of a Website Update
Updating your web design has several benefits. Not only will you have something that feels new and fresh for the user, but you’ll have a better understanding of where your business stands with its customers—making it easier to set goals and plan for the future.
Improve the user experience
No matter how beautiful a website is, it isn’t worth anything if the user experience is poor. Chances are you’ve heard of UX/UI design, which stands for user experience and user interface. Every step a customer takes on your website comes down to UX design. When you redesign your website, you can change anything that prevents your customer from having a positive experience.
Increase your web traffic
Updating your website is the best time to evaluate your current analytics. Figure out where customers are losing interest and make changes as needed. When you focus on what will drive more web traffic, you’ll find it easier to convert more sales, drive growth, and gain a larger audience.
Strengthen your brand
Today’s competitive marketplace requires strong branding and clear company goals. To stand out, create something your audience will recognize and associate with your brand. When you revamp your website, it’s the perfect opportunity to update your branding and create a more cohesive experience for the customer.
Top 3 tips for updating your website
There are several best practices to keep in mind while working on your website redesign. As mentioned above, everything comes down to the overall user experience. However, it takes a little planning and know-how to get it where it needs to be.
1) Work out your strategy
Before you even consider making changes to your website, have a plan. This process takes time and money, so preparation is key. First, look at your current website and note anything obvious that needs to be adjusted. Are images fuzzy? Is the font size too small or hard to read? Is your messaging clear? Do all the links work?
Next, take a moment to write down your goals for the website. Check out the competition and take note of anything they’re doing that you might not be. Make a list of things essential to your website and things you’d like to include if they can be efficiently worked into the design. Set realistic expectations and stay on track by setting yourself a timeframe for this undertaking.
2) Design with the user in mind
Great web design always focuses on the user. When you consider how important customer loyalty is to a thriving business, it makes sense to judge your website based on the user’s perspective.
Think about how easy you make it for someone to place an order. Think about how you want a customer to go through the purchasing process on your website. What is your ideal customer journey? If it seems like getting to a specific page takes too many clicks, or some pages load too slowly and analytics show people abandoning their cart—these are things to address.
3) Clean up SEO and increase accessibility
If you want a high-performing website, you need to evaluate it for search engine optimization (SEO) and accessibility. SEO is an incredible way to build new web traffic and garner the attention of an audience you might not reach elsewhere. You want to be sure that you’re using the best keywords on your landing pages, product descriptions, and metadata elements like title and meta descriptions.
When you make accessibility a priority, you can guarantee an increase in visitors. Not only that, but your reputation stands to improve as people notice that you value an inclusive space and take the time to create one for your customers.
Signs of a Successful Website
Once you make changes to your website, you might be wondering how to tell if they’ve made a difference.
- Quick loading speeds—check the load time of your homepage and any pages rich with content and media.
- Increased web traffic—if there’s a significant difference in the visitors you receive since updating your website, you can guarantee your changes made a difference.
- Mobile-friendly—Full optimization for mobile devices will significantly increase your reach.
- Positive analytics—check to see if there’s been a change in bounce rate and other analytics.
- Improved SEO performance—SEO takes time, but continuing to update your website with current, valuable content and media will help boost its ranking on search engines.
Start Planning Your Website Revamp Today
If you’re ready to take it up a notch, you need to work with web designers who understand each component of a successful website. Our team at PW Media will not only reinforce your brand identity but provide a thoughtful balance of design and accessibility.
When you work with PW Media, we’ll help you with all facets of website development, from conversion-driven landing pages to intricate web-based applications. Additionally, our dedicated team can help you connect with your target audience through specialized social media and search engine marketing tactics. Contact us today!
