9 Considerations Before Redesigning a Website

Has your current website seen better days? Has your competitor just put up a shiny new one? Before you reach for the number of the nearest web designer, here are 10 questions you should think about before you redesign your website.

1. What’s Different About Your Business?
2. Who Are Your customers?
3. What is Currently Working?
4. How Should You Handle Sales?
5. What is Your Web Design Budget?
6. What is Your Company Voice?
7. What is the Call to Action?
8. Which Technology Should You Use?
9. How Are You Going to Get It Done?

It may sound obvious but there is value in questioning the very nature of your business. Your business may have grown since you first developed your website so a website redesign may not suffice. Think about your business and its’ existing information. Can they be improved or expanded upon?  Are there new features that could be added to make doing business with your company easier? A website redesign is a fantastic opportunity to rejuvenate your entire digital marketing strategy.

Every business should have a USP – a unique selling proposition. What is yours and is it visible on your site? Your aims, objectives and why your offering is better than your competitors should be prominent. It should be on the home page for all to see and presented in a simple, precise way. Shouting from the rooftops has never been this easy so take advantage of it.

Knowing your customers and their needs will help tailor the next revision of your site to them. Since you last redesigned your website, your customers may have changed their buying habits or become more interested in another service. Are you addressing this adequately? Do you have a good understanding of your web statistics? If not, what do your customers like and what do they respond well to.

There must be something about the existing site that works for you. It may be simple like having contact numbers on the front page or it may be something more complex. Don’t rush into making changes to these areas without understanding what makes them work in the first place. You may lose customers if you sweep away the stuff that is converting visitors to customers. Analyzing your statistics can help but so can speaking directly to your customers. Use your site redesign as an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with existing customers.

Once a customer has been in touch with your company, how easy is it for them to complete the sale? Analyze your internal processes and find out how efficiently a customer moves through your business. Are after-sales questions handled efficiently? Do they have to speak to multiple people to get an issue resolved? By asking yourself questions like this you can come up with really creative solutions, for example using call-tracking software to smoothly handle all customer inquiries.

You need to assess the value of any changes and estimate the return on that investment to make the best use of your budget. For example it may be investing more money into a content management system, than buying stock photography. Work with a professional web design company to get the best value for money and don’t get talked into using gimmicks that won’t give you a measurable return on your investment.

Every site has a voice, some sound like crazy used-car salesmen and others like stuffy schoolteachers. Either of these voices may be absolutely right for your site but must be presented consistently and appeal directly to your customers. The ‘voice’ should be representative of the attitude of you and your staff so that customers get a consistent experience when they call or e-mail your business.

You have to ask your customers to take the next step, either buy directly from your site or get in touch with your company. This ‘call to action’ should be persuasive and prominent. Tell them on the first page of your site, what you want them to do and make it easy for them to do it. Learn more about Calls to Action.

This is a business decision not a technical one. You might want to consider how the website fits into your existing internal systems. Can you get the site to talk to your internal database? Do you want to regularly update parts of it yourself? You don’t have to understand how it works you just need to be able to brief your web team about what is important to you.

Learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for your new website.

Websites can be complex but as the client you don’t need to worry too much about all the technical jargon. Our web design team understands your needs and talks in terms of business objectives rather than programming languages. Ask around, get references, and put some effort into choosing the right web design company. Getting it wrong can be a costly and frustrating experience.

We hope you found this list useful. If you need help with web design or internet marketing, feel free to contact us.