One day you take a good look at your website and realize it’s seriously out of date. Its appearance is so turn-of-the-century and navigating from one page to another is a confusing chore. If you want to breathe new life into your brand, a website redesign is a relatively easy way to do it. But if done incorrectly, it consumes a lot of your valuable time and money.
If you’ve decided the time is right to revamp your company’s website, we’ve compiled a list that we hope will help you avoid the five most common mistakes a brand can make with a website redesign project.
WEBSITE REDESIGN PROJECT
It isn’t just about updating fonts and replacing outdated graphics and images. There are a lot of elements that go into designing a user-friendly site that perfectly captures and reflects your brand’s message. If you set out preparing for potential problems, you’ll have fewer regrets on launch day.
1. Don’t Try to Wing It.
Have you ever tried putting together a child’s toy without looking at the instructions? You always seem to be left with those few parts you forgot to put in. Without a clearly defined plan for your site, you may end up with something that’s beautiful to look at but not very functional. Define the problems and deficiencies of your current site and what you hope to get out of the new one. For example – do you want more subscribers? Then think about adding more landing pages.
2. Design for Your End-User
A beautiful website is lovely to look at, but remember that visitors come to your site for the content. A content-first approach to your redesign will make your site more meaningful and user-friendly and will set your brand apart. Make a point of learning who your audience is and what their needs are and design accordingly. From a practical standpoint, remember that Google places a significant emphasis on the speed of sites, and users have come to expect sites that load quickly.
3. Simplify Navigation
Redesign your site so that navigation is simple and easy for users. Confusing navigation and ambiguous menu choices are frustrating, especially to new visitors. Menus should be easy to read and optimized for mobile. And don’t forget the little things, like changing the color of visited links.
4. Don’t Forget to Redirect Links
The last thing you want visitors to see on your redesigned site are 404 Not Found messages. Not redirecting links also counts against your site’s search engine ranking, so you’ll need to make sure old links redirect to the same content on your new site. If you want to conquer duplicate content issues, maintain your site rankings and improve your end-user experience, double-check that every link from the old site is redirected to the redesigned one.
5. Selecting the Wrong Redesign Partner
Your redesigned site will only be as good as the team you hire to design and build it. Start by asking the right questions and pay careful attention to whether your actual needs and concerns are addressed. It is possible to find a firm that can work within your budget to give you a beautiful customized site. The old adage “You get what you pay for” applies here. Don’t try to save money by cutting corners on your redesign.
Keep Working
Websites are living things, so your work is not done once your website redesign project launches. Continue to give your visitors a positive experience by consistently adding new content and tweaking what doesn’t work. It will set your site apart from the rest.
