So, you need to begin a web site redesign. Possibly you simply completed a model overhaul or your product was just lately up to date. No matter your cause, a redesign generally is a big success — or not. It will also be an extended and tedious endeavor, which is why each redesign wants to start out with a transparent imaginative and prescient and/or drawback to resolve.
The higher you might be at defining that imaginative and prescient on the very starting, the extra profitable your redesign will likely be — and the smoother the complete course of will likely be as properly.
Whether or not you’re working with an company, redesigning your web site in-house, or proposing a redesign to company stakeholders, this information has ideas that will help you strategize your web site redesign and guarantee it seems to be an enormous success — not a flop.
Web site Redesign
An internet site redesign is the method of fixing and updating the content material, construction, format, and navigation of your web site to enhance efficiency and convert extra guests.
Many organizations choose to revamp their web site to welcome extra site visitors as their enterprise grows. Others invest in a website redesign as half of a bigger rebranding initiative. No matter why your organization is involved in a web site redesign plan, the mission itself is an enormous endeavor, to not point out an necessary one to get proper contemplating the vital function your web site performs in your advertising and marketing and model picture.
In truth, new analysis has discovered that 50% of consumers think website design is crucial to a business’s overall brand. To many guests, the web site you publish is simply as necessary because the merchandise you promote.
How Typically Ought to You Redesign Your Web site?
In keeping with Business 2 Community, the typical lifespan for a web site is 1.5 to 2.5 years. As a result of design tendencies change and know-how advances, that is the typical period of time {that a} redesign will really feel “recent” and aggressive. Nevertheless, that timeframe is simply a benchmark, so you have to to find out what works greatest to your distinctive group.
The next components can decide how usually it is best to redesign your web site:
- How usually your model or objectives change. If you’re itching for a brand new web site, first ask your self, “Does this web site nonetheless characterize who we’re as an organization?”
- How a lot funds you allot to design and growth. Ask your self, “Can a web site design wait, or do I’ve causes to make use of the funds on our web site now?”
- How lengthy your web site stays practical and quick. Step into your prospects’ footwear and see if you happen to can navigate the positioning properly and discover every part you need to discover with out encountering errors or lengthy web page load instances. Nearly 50% of internet sites get between four and six page views per visit — all that looking signifies that your web site’s navigation and velocity actually do matter.
- The efficiency of your web site. Ask your self, “Is that this web site changing an inexpensive quantity of site visitors? Do individuals keep on the web page for an inexpensive period of time, or do they bounce?”
- Adjustments within the trade. For instance, when Google introduced that it will be altering to mobile-first indexing, it necessitated that websites be mobile-friendly, or they’d lose natural site visitors from Google.
Your web site is the place guests and prospects go after they need to ask questions, learn content material, or buy services or products. For that cause, it’s greatest to be additional ready when committing to a web site redesign.
You could spend extra time constructing your web site redesign plan than you’ll on the redesign itself. In the event you’re questioning what ought to go into your web site redesign technique, begin with the steps under.
The way to Redesign a Web site
- Benchmark your present efficiency metrics.
- Decide your web site redesign objectives.
- Outline your branding and messaging.
- Outline your purchaser persona(s).
- Defend your search engine optimized pages.
- Analyze the competitors.
- Take stock of your high-performing property.
- Select the best software program.
Let’s unpack eight vital web site redesign ideas to consider when planning and finishing your redesign.
1. Benchmark your present efficiency metrics.
Earlier than you start planning your web site redesign, doc your present efficiency metrics. This gives you a good suggestion of the place your present web site stands and what metrics you may enhance upon by your redesign.
Analyze your present web site’s month-to-month efficiency within the following areas. The significance and relevance of every might differ relying in your web site redesign objectives, however it’s useful to drag every metric earlier than you dive into your redesign.
- Variety of visits, guests, and distinctive guests
- Bounce charge
- Time on web site
- High-performing key phrases when it comes to rank, site visitors, and lead technology
- Variety of inbound linking domains
- Whole new leads and kind submissions
- Whole gross sales generated (in {dollars})
- Whole pages listed
- Whole pages that obtain site visitors
In the event you don’t have entry to this info, I like to recommend instruments like Google Analytics and HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics for higher monitoring and visibility into your web site’s efficiency.
Moreover, make notice of which instruments you used to measure every of those benchmarks previously. Ideally, you’ll need to use those self same instruments when amassing your post-redesign metrics. In any other case, you’ll be evaluating apples to oranges.
2. Decide your web site redesign objectives.
What’s the “why” behind your web site redesign? When contemplating a redesign, there ought to all the time be an excellent cause behind it.
In the event you’re answering with “properly, it’s been some time since we’ve finished one” or “my competitor simply did a redesign,” these causes aren’t ok on their very own.
Keep in mind: It’s not nearly how your web site seems, however slightly the way it works. Be crystal clear about why you’re doing a web site redesign, and tie these objectives to measurable outcomes. Then, talk your objectives along with your crew, designer, or company.
Contemplate the next data-driven goals to your personal web site:
- To extend the variety of visits and guests (each are necessary as one customer might go to greater than as soon as)
- To cut back bounce charge
- To extend time on web site
- To enhance area authority
- To extend the whole new leads and kind submissions
- To extend the whole gross sales generated
- To boost current SEO rankings for necessary key phrases
Many of those objectives are depending on each other. For instance, with the intention to generate extra conversions, you may additionally want to extend site visitors whereas lowering your web site’s bounce charge.
Additionally, check out the metrics you pulled out within the earlier step. Are there any metrics you may enhance upon along with your new web site? Maybe you utilize your previous web site metrics to encourage new objectives, too.
3. Outline your branding and messaging.
Earlier than crafting your new web site design and content material, be crystal clear about your required branding, messaging, and distinctive worth proposition. Doing so will guarantee consistency throughout your total web site.
Anybody who visits your web site for the primary time ought to instantly perceive what you do, the way it might profit them, and why they need to keep onyour web site, so they do not flee to opponents.
Take our homepage for example: It is instantly clear what we do, what we provide, and the way any customer can get began.
Take into consideration whether or not you propose to vary your branding and/or messaging, or if it can keep the identical. In the event you plan to vary it, what wants to vary? Maintain these adjustments top-of-mind as you redesign your web site.
As you develop your messaging, use clear, concise language. Keep away from trade jargon which will alienate components of your viewers and make you sound extra like a business-babbling robotic than a human.
Contemplate the next instance of how we might describe HubSpot in a “gobbledygook” means:
HubSpot helps corporations throughout a number of international locations scale back churn by backfilling the gross sales pipeline with extremely certified site visitors that generates leads that convert into prospects with excessive lifetime worth. We obtain this by offering modern software program that integrates all advertising and marketing channels for a synergistic view of the information that determines and prioritizes high-value advertising and marketing actions.
Say what? Let’s translate that into the way in which individuals truly converse:
HubSpot’s all-in-one advertising and marketing software program helps over 100,000 companies in additional than120 international locations entice leads and convert them into prospects. A pioneer in inbound advertising and marketing, HubSpot goals to assist its prospects make advertising and marketing that folks truly love.
A lot clearer!
Moreover, as you develop your company branding, think about what visible elements of your web site must be redesigned and what can keep the identical. Have you ever created a brand new brand, style guide, or colour palette? Be certain that these are utilized to your new web site so it stays according to different components of your model.
For some extra inspiration, try our roundup of our favourite B2B web site examples:
4. Outline your purchaser persona(s).
Your web site is not only about you. Truly, it’s hardly about you.
When your guests land in your web site, they’re asking themselves, “What’s in it for me? How might this assist me?”
Communicate to your guests in their language by crafting your web site design and content material round your buyer personas.
As an illustration, if you happen to’re a advertising and marketing supervisor at a lodge trying to herald new enterprise, you may goal 5 totally different purchaser personas: an unbiased enterprise traveler, a company journey supervisor, an event planner, a vacationing household, and a pair planning their marriage ceremony reception.
Ensure you clearly determine your purchaser personas so you may form your web site redesign technique across the web site guests that matter most to you.
Check out our handy buyer persona builder to help you create detailed buyer personas.
Is your audience altering as a part of your web site redesign? Do your branding and content material align with this audience? Reply these questions as you are strategizing your web site redesign.
5. Defend your search engine optimized pages.
Getting found on-line can be important to bettering your web site’s metrics. If nobody is ready to discover and go to your web site, how will you enhance new leads, conversions, or gross sales? Listed here are some ideas for designing your new web site with search engine optimization (SEO) in thoughts:
Doc your most search-valued pages.
Use your marketing analytics to determine which pages obtain essentially the most site visitors and inbound hyperlinks, convert essentially the most leads, and finally cowl essentially the most influential subjects in your trade. In the event you plan to maneuver any of those extremely priceless pages, ensure you create the correct 301 redirects.
Create a 301 redirect technique.
Talking of 301 redirects, these are extraordinarily necessary when it comes to retaining the site visitors and hyperlink worth related to a given web page. Create a spreadsheet to file and map out your 301 redirects (previous URLs vs. new URLs). Then hand this doc over to somebody technical for correct implementation.
Do your key phrase analysis.
For each web page in your newly designed web site, pick one keyword/topic every web page will deal with. As soon as you identify the key phrase(s), use on-page SEO best practices to optimize your web site pages. Moreover, think about including new content material and pages to your web site that tackle these explicit key phrases and subjects that could be uncared for in your present web site.
Save time and rank higher on Google with our free on-page SEO template.
6. Analyze the competitors.
Whereas we don’t suggest obsessing over your opponents, it can assist to know the way you examine. First, run your web site by HubSpot’s free Website Grader instrument to generate a report card of how properly your web site is performing. You may also use this diagnostic instrument to judge your opponents’ web sites, so that you’re conscious of their strengths and weaknesses.
Subsequent, check out your opponents’ web sites, and pay attention to what you want — and what you don’t. This course of is that will help you notice what you are able to do higher in your web site. When you conduct your competitive analysis, put collectively a listing of motion gadgets highlighting some areas for enchancment and how one can set your self aside out of your opponents.
7. Take stock of your high-performing content material.
Whereas a redesign is a good way to enhance the efficiency of your web site, there are sadly numerous methods through which it will probably damage you. Your present web site doubtless incorporates many high-performing content material property that you have already constructed up, and shedding their effectiveness due to a redesign can severely harm your advertising and marketing outcomes.
As an illustration, such property may embrace your:
- Most-shared or seen content material
- Excessive-traffic pages
- Greatest performing or rating key phrases and related pages
- Variety of inbound hyperlinks to particular person pages
For instance, if you find yourself eradicating a web page out of your web site that has collected a excessive variety of inbound hyperlinks, you possibly can probably lose numerous search engine optimization credit score, which might make it more and more tough so that you can get discovered on search engine outcomes pages (SERPs).
Remember that many net designers don’t think about this step as a result of they’re neither entrepreneurs nor search engine optimization specialists. Don’t hesitate to remind them about this, and assist them alongside by auditing your web site and offering them with a listing for sustaining or updating vital pages in your web site.
8. Select the best software program.
The ultimate (however arguably most necessary) step of the website redesign process is choosing the proper software program with which to create and host your web site. This software program is often referred to as a content material administration system (CMS), and it’s used to develop, design, and publish your web site for the world to see.
CMS software program is useful for a couple of causes. Whether or not you’re a novice digital marketer or a grasp net developer, a CMS can simply assist you create a stunning, practical web site. Choosing the proper CMS is determined by what you are promoting, reminiscent of what CMSs you’re already accustomed to and what options your web site redesign requires.
There are a whole bunch of CMSs to select from, together with Content Hub — the one mixed CMS and CRM. Or you may evaluate among the best CMS platforms to study your choices.
Get Began on Your Web site Redesign Immediately
Whew! Now you are able to plan, design, construct, optimize, launch, and analyze your new web site. Apply these seven steps to revamp a web site that pulls extra shoppers, wows extra guests, and converts extra prospects.
Editor’s notice: This put up was initially revealed in January 2013 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
