A Website Redesign is All you Need: Get your Hands on the Key Points to Success

February 25 2015

To a brain to brain publisher, it is important to know that his website is a hub of digital-first publishing strategy. In a way, he should ask himself:

website-redesign

Am I satisfied with my website or do my website gives the feeling that it could do a lot good than it’s currently doing?

If the answer says: Yes, it’s not up-to-the-mark and that it can do a lot better than that; a comprehensive website redesign is all you require. It sounds like a good idea until this expectable task gets down with its nitty-gritty details of planning and you actually start working on some of your ideas for development and redesigning. Its then you became aware of the idea that this is going to be no amusing, peaceful or easy. Rather, it’s going to be a daunting task, a gruelling, endless battle in which you get stuck in while moving from one point to another and trying to do your best.

The companies get themselves tangled in the website redesign cycle. They’ve been bamboozled to think that a redesign will lift conversions and revenue. They might think that an assuming beautiful new design will increase audience trust and therefore, sales. That’s a false hope.

To understand the risk, conclude about the number of changes you will make during a redesign. Imagine a list of changes proposed and depth of changes occurred during a creative meeting. You may change the home page headline, site-wide, template layout, fonts, navigation bar design, shopping cart and many more.

Marketers usually prefer to go into a redesign process that includes knowing the target audience, setting up controlled split tests, prioritizing test to solve issues obstructing conversions, and analyzing insights of data to make informed changes.

This dramatic, “revolutionary” redesign should not prove to be haphazardries to your company. It’s not that there is no need for redesigning. You probably do; a better, less-risky, iterative, structured design approach that also involves testing incrementally and making some improvements.

Few points you need to keep in mind before starting your website redesign:

  1. Your new site “look and feel” and also lift conversion.
  2. Learn which elements will actually improve results.
  3. Maintain your team’s focus on the business than “aesthetic” redesign.
  4. Your website must not face any lags in-between redesigns.
  5. Avoid dramatic “Revolutionary” website redesign risk.

Start your website redesign with this checklist:

  1. Responsive Design: Readers today access content from various digital devices and to them mobile usage is infinitely on rise. Risking your customers to competitors with cosmic mobile adaption is not a great idea. Update your website with the feature of responsive design, so it will be adaptable to any type of screen display.
  2. SEO savvy: Demand of highly accessible content, has made necessary for you to make it as simple as possible so that your audience find what they are looking for.

    • Your redesign must allow for multi-tier taxonomy tagging helps readers to find what they are seeking.

    • Double check your website that it allows you to generate relevant URLs for your content and ensure good rankings on search engines.

  3. Speed: Make your website to load within seconds. Potential visitor will move onto another one if your website doesn’t. Skilled development allows your website to translate to speedy load times.
  4. PCI Compliant e-commerce: Your site needs to be e-commerce cooperative. If customers purchases from your site, then they willing to stick around, keep returning for more shopping. So, it is important that your e-commerce website needs to be PCI compliant for the safety of your customers and your business.
  5. Integration facility: Your site must integrate easily with your email service provider. If you are spending time spreading widely your content and navigating your data then you’re constantly moving backward. In support of your strategy, your website should have multiple integrations.
  6. Understanding and managing your users: Publishing content today is more about your audience experiences than ever. Managing your audience today is important to manage subscriptions, track registrations and gather user data.
  7. Community on site: Today its all about social world; so, your website should enable users to access your content through social media and not only this, it should also interact with you through their preferred platform. It should also animate community on site, with forums, product ratings and recommendations, blogs and other user-generated content.
  8. 24*7 online Support: As a publisher, it is compulsory for your website to come with ongoing support, because challenges and changes are unavoidable. Drop version is not recommended. A design and drive of your site must stay with you all through the journey.

After all the hardcore planning and the internal cringing over day in and day out, get ready to jump off the low-flying helicopter and hit the battleground with your allowance on your back and your weapons in your hand. Select that platform that will grow with you.
Good luck, soldier!