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So, you’re thinking about redesigning your company’s outdated and outmoded website in favor of a state-of-the-art digital masterpiece that will crush your competition and make your employees proud? Baller move. Assuming you want your website redesign to be lit and not lame, follow these 13 imperative website redesign tips. For best results ensure your company has undertaken a brand recalibration with updated brand identity and look/feel.
Pro tip: if you’ve been thinking about a logo redesign, now is the time to do it. Otherwise, pour yourself a cup of coffee and dig in.
1. Identify the Goals of the Redesign:
First things first, define your goals and what you want to achieve with your website redesign. Do you want to make more bank? Rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)? Get more followers than your ex's new boo? Or maybe just improve user engagement and make your grandma proud? Whatever your goals are, make sure they're clear, specific, and actually achievable.
2. Analyze the Current Website:
Time to take a deep dive into your current website and figure out what's working and what's... not so much. Use all the fancy tools out there like Google Analytics and user testing to gather data on user behavior, page load times, and all that other nerdy stuff. This will help you identify what's lame and what's lit on your current site.
3. Define the Target Audience:
Who the hell are you designing this website for anyway? Figure out your target audience and create some buyer personas to really understand their pain points, motivations, and goals. And don't forget to speak their language! If you're targeting millennials or GenZ, you better know how to speak the lingo, fam.
4. Conduct Keyword Research:
Let's get real, you want your website to be found by Google. So do some keyword research and find out what folks are searching for when they're looking for stuff like yours. Use fancy tools like Google Keyword Planner and make sure you're using those keywords throughout your content. But don't overdo it or you'll end up sounding like a robot.
5. Plan the Content Strategy:
Your website's content should be clear, engaging, and on-brand. Create a content calendar and come up with topics that are both informative and entertaining. We call it infotainment. Make sure your content is optimized for search engines, authentic and centered around solving your target demos problems, and also shareable on social media. Because let's be real, if it doesn't get shared on social media, did it really happen?
6. Create Prototypes:
Now it's time to start making your website dreams a reality. Create a sitemap to help you envision your website's structure and page hierarchy, including parent and child pages. Then create some wireframes to ensure that your user-experience (UX design) is presented in a way that will capture the highest conversions and show off your ideas. This will help you get a sense of how your website will look and function, and it's way easier than just winging it.
7. Create the Right Assets:
When you break it down, a website is just pixels, images, and text. Avoid stock photos and videos if at all possible, and hire professionals to create high-quality, custom, images and videos to make your products or services shine. Ensure that your copy captures the width and breadth of your offerings, how good you are at delivering them, and engages your visitors.
8. Ensure Your Website is Device Ideal
Back in the day “responsive design” was the buzz word. Oh how the industry has grown. Well, we have a new buzz word, one we coined ourselves: “Device Ideal”. Because everyone and their grandma is using phones, tablets, and even large screen TVs to video your website these days. So make sure your website is ideal for any screen sizes and resolutions. A device ideal website will ensure your visitors have the best experience regardless of the device they're using to research your company.
9. Optimize for Speed:
Slow websites are a pain in the ass. In the immortal words of Sweet Brown “Ain’t nobody got time for dat”. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to ensure your website is lightning fast. Compress images, minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, and optimize your website's code to improve load times. Trust us, your visitors will thank you.
10. Test and Iterate:
Once your website is live, it's “Go” time, Houston! But don't get too drunk on your own success or you’ll have a major malfunction. Keep testing and iterating to make sure your website is performing as well as it should. Use A/B testing to compare different versions of your website and gather feedback from users. Keep an eye on your website analytics to track your progress towards your goals and make adjustments as needed. Rinse, wash and repeat.
11. Make Sure Your Website is Accessible to All:
It's important to make sure that your website is accessible to everyone, including those with hearing and visual impairments. This means designing your website with accessibility in mind, including features like alt text for images, keyboard navigation, and proper use of heading tags (all of which also help your SEO). By making your website accessible, you'll be able to reach a wider audience and provide a better user experience for everyone.
12. Research The Latest UX and Design Trends:
While it's important to stay on top of the latest design and UX trends, it's equally important to avoid jumping on every bandwagon that comes along. Instead, take the time to research and evaluate new trends to determine if they will actually benefit your website and your users. Avoid fads that are purely aesthetic and focus on those that provide real value, such as improving user experience or increasing conversions. By staying informed and selective, you'll be able to create a website that is not only visually appealing but also effective in achieving your business goals.
13. Don't forget to have fun!
Yep, redesigning a website can be a lot of work, but it can also be super fun and exciting! So don't forget to enjoy the process and let your creativity shine. Play around with different design elements, try new things, thoughtfully push the limits of your industry and don't be afraid to take risks. After all, a website is a reflection of your brand's personality, so let it be unique and amazing.
In conclusion, redesigning a company website is a big task, but by following these top 13 tips you'll be well on your way to creating a website that's not only visually stunning and on-brand, but also optimized for user experience, search engine visibility, and the highest conversions from visitors to customers. Remember, a website is often the first point of contact between a company and its customers, so make sure it's a great one. With careful planning, attention to detail, and a healthy dose of creativity, your website redesign can be a huge success. So let's get started and make that website shine!
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Company Summary:
Makespace is a full-service web design and digital marketing agency that helps businesses elevate their online presence. Headquartered in Louisville, KY and serving the globe, Makespace has been creating beautiful and effective websites for clients of all sizes and industries since 2006. They specialize in custom website design, web development, enterprise solutions, e-commerce solutions, brand development, and digital marketing services.
Our team of experienced designers, developers, content creators, creative directors, and digital marketers work together to create websites that not only look great but also drive traffic and generate leads. They use the latest technologies and best practices to ensure that their websites are responsive, fast, and optimized for search engines.