You have decided that you need a website redesign but have you sat down and thought about the specific reasons why? We are often contacted by companies who are after a redesign of their website but who have no clear vision of what they want. We have listed a set of questions we ask to help us understand the reasons behind the request and to enable us to put together a proposal that meets the requirement.
Here are the 10 questions you need to ask yourself before you start a website redesign;
10 Questions to Ask Before You Redesign Your Website
When was the last time you updated the content?
If your website is a ‘brochure’ site, then there may not be need to update the content. It is wise though to make sure that the basic information is correct; have you launched a new product / service, any changes of staff or have any of the contact details changed?
Another thing to consider is are you keeping your blog updated? The internet is littered with out of date blogs started with good intentions. Be honest with yourself, if you don’t have the time to keep your blog updated then delete it.
Who is your ideal customer?
How well do you know your customer? Thinking about your ideal customer will help you to focus on the key messages that you need to get across to sell your product / services.
We are not going to go into detail about how to create a customer persona as there are plenty of guides available to help you do that.
Are you looking to change the look and feel?
Since launching your website, have you changed any part of your company branding? Have you updated the logo or perhaps changed the colours?
Perhaps you plan to have a re-brand and are tying that into a redesign of your website. If you are looking for inspiration for the look and feel, we have a blog post in which we have covered that.
Do you want to add more content to the site?
A website redesign is a perfect opportunity to do a content audit. This is where you take a look at the information contained on your pages and blog posts and make sure that it covers all of the message you are trying to get across to your (potential) clients.
Digital Marketing Agency, SingleGrain has a comprehensive article on how to conduct a content audit.
What do you like about your current website?
When you do your website redesign, it is unlikely that you are going to through your old website away completely and start again. What pages do you want to keep? This may be the most popular pages – see below for analytics. Whatever it is, collate the information together ready for the redesign.
What do you dislike about your current website?
Conversely, what don’t you like about the current website? There is no point in redesigning it if all you are going to end up doing is recreating all of the parts that you don’t like.
One way to collate this information would be to hold a workshop within the company to get the opinion off all of the teams. Each team within the business may have different views of what does or does not work for them.
What other websites in your industry do you like the look of?
It is useful to keep an eye on the website of competitors to see how they are doing it. That is not to say that you would copy them. Rather you see what works for them and then do it better.
Do you have analytics for how visitors arrive at your website?
A lot of what we have talked about so far is subjective. Analytics however is the objective part. By looking at the analytics for the website, you can see what pages are popular, where people are coming from and what search terms they are using.
If you don’t have analytics installed, Google Analytics is the industry standard, then it is worth doing that before you start the redesign to give you some data to work with. It will also be useful to be able to compare the traffic after the redesign.
We include Google Analytics in all of our website builds but if you need help setting it up on an existing site, then drop us a message and we can help.
Is your current website mobile friendly?
We are at the point now where mobile web browsing has equalled or passed that being done on traditional desktop / laptop computers. Depending on your industry sector, it could be even higher.
Google has also taken the approach that it will penalise websites that are not mobile friendly and relegate them in the search results.
Most modern websites are mobile friendly (all ours are) but it is worth making sure that this is a key component of your website redesign.
What do you want the redesign of your website to achieve?
Last and by no means least, this is the key element to your website redesign. Why do you want to do it? Having a goal in mind will help guide you through the whole process and something to measure the completed project against.
We can help
If you need help with the redesign of your website, then visit our web design page to find out more about our services.
