Successful Website Redesign: Read This Before You Start!

In this age of wide spread internet use, it is imperative that your business does not lag behind when it comes to utilizing the worldwide web. In this sense you should create well thought out website, where potential clients can learn more about your products and services, and subsequently lead to maximizing sales. Nonetheless, before redesigning your existing website, there are very important things that need to be considered by you to successfully redesign your website.

Things to consider before website redesign project

1)  Not understanding how websites are created – There is a difference between web design and web development. One aspect focuses on making your website look good while the other makes it work like it’s supposed to. Not understanding the difference between the two and how to integrate them effectively is a common website flaw.

2)  Not analyzing your current setup before embarking on redesign –  You should pay close attention to what makes your current website weak to avoid repeating the same mistakes and create a better one for future success. This may involve weaknesses in how you collect user data, missed opportunities for soft calls to action, low traffic pages. Google Analytics is a great tool that can help complete this task. If you don’t have Google analytics installed on your site, do it now.

3)   DIY or getting it on the cheap – In most cases, cheap is expensive. You should avoid generic websites that do not have the tools to help your mission and grow your business. Free or low cost websites are a no-no for creating a professional look unless you have the necessary expertise to tweak them effectively and make necessary changes to layout and code. Investing in your online presence and website will produce dramatically better results and opportunities.

4)   Hiring unqualified/ unsuitable people – Your web design firm or agency should be qualified enough to build you a good website. Avoid those who may not avail enough time for you due to having too many clients. You should ensure that they can maintain regular contact and keep you in the loop so as to address your concerns.

5) Not insisting on a clear Scope of Work (SOW) – In contracting your web experts, you should make sure that there is a clear outline on timely deliverables that match your expectations and budget.

6) Competitors – competitor websites have data, and looking at this data can quickly give you ideas for your own web marketing. This set of tools can help you learn more about the competition Moz.com and Compete.com.

7) Focus on look rather than content – Much too often, you may concentrate on making your website look good at the expense of incorporating relevant content. This does little to help your business. Content should not be compromised at the expense of flashy video or animation.

8) No list building capacity – It is imperative that at strategic points on your pages you have the tools that enable you to collect potential clients’ contacts so that you can follow up with these leads. A good idea is to include a newsletter subscription tool so that visitors can enter their email addresses. Some of the tools you can use are MailChimp and Constant Contact

9) Poor SEO ranking – If your website does not rank highly on search engines, you will not have the optimum exposure to enable potential customers to find you easily. You may have to change your content to be SEO optimized. To test your SEO and website ranking you can use this SEO Tool.

10) Poor lead generation – A poor conversion rate of visitors to leads is a major sign of poor web design. This could be due to a number of reasons ranging from poor content to a structure that does not encourage click through to more of your pages and soft calls to action.

11) Obsolete content – You should always make sure that you have new and fresh content. This entails you being conversant with current and upcoming trends, so you can keep your visitors engaged and have them come back for updates.

12) Non-Optimized for new devices and platforms – More and more people are accessing web pages on hand held devices. Your website should be optimized for viewing on various devices other than traditional desktop. This will include Smart phones, iPads and various other devises.

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