3 Things You Need Before Redesigning Your Website

Before you jump right into an internet site redesign, there are some things you’ll need to do. I

 do know you’re excited however some preparation can seriously shrink on grey hairs.

If you gather what you would like consistent with the list below, you’ll be way more probably to check your project's success.

Redesigning your website isn’t like dynamic the wallpaper in your guest bedroom. Redesigning your website has to be about…

1. Building a more robust user expertise
2. creating it more manageable for internal groups
3. up performance, marketing, sales, SEO, and otherwise

Let’s dive in…

Number 1 – Analyze Your Website’s User information and Stats

However are you able to do one thing higher while not 1st knowing what you have??? ensure you’re pursuing your website’s stats.

You've got a lot of choices here however Google Analytics (screenshot below) is most typical and it’s free.

No matter what you use, you’ll need a minimum of a month of usable data to analyze. there'll be a ridiculous quantity of knowledge to sift through and it may be overwhelming.

At the terribly least, focus on the subsequent (note – these are from Google Analytics therefore the naming might vary if you utilize one thing else)…

Audience

Who are you reaching and what are their preferences? In analytics you'll be able to simply establish the following:

1. language/location
2. age/gender
3. interests
4. device – mobile, tablet, desktop – are you losing any of those guests as a result of your lack of responsive style?
5. browser (and perhaps OS if you’re developing something additional involved)
6. screen resolution (big monitors? very little baby screens?) – responsive design also will facilitate this.

Knowing these facts concerning your audience can assist you to create higher style selections. what percentage times have you ever been in an exceedingly meeting wherever decisions about design or development are created supported the meeting attendee’s personal preferences? Not good.

Mix this information with anecdotal info gathered from your sales, client service, and different customer-facing groups to develop some emptor personas.

This post on the perils of decision making in a net design method would possibly facilitate too.

Acquisition

However, is your audience finding you? For example, organic search is away and away from the biggest referral supply for Wood Street. However, you may see another combination of the following:

1. Organic Search – they're finding out you on engines. If you’re curious about obtaining additional details on this like keywords used, scrutinize Moz.com or SEMRush.
2. Social – are your efforts on channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat truly driving traffic?
3. Referral – are you getting traffic from other sources like directories, things like Reddit? however are you able to devolve on this with a replacement website?
4. Direct – they are writing in your address to urge to your website. this might be an honest indicator of how standard your domain (and brand) truly are.
5. Email – if you are doing a good little bit of email marketing, you wish this variety to be a solid supply of acquisition.  

Knowing wherever your traffic is returning from U.S.A.eful|is beneficial|is helpful} before a design so you'll be able to anticipate future acquisition opportunities and the way best to make an internet site to exploit those.

that brings us to…

Behavior

This can be the important meat and potatoes of analytics. what's operating for you? What isn’t? If you don’t grasp this going into a redesign, you're planning with guesses and smart intentions. What’s the quote? “The road to Hell is made-up with good intentions.”

there's plenty of nice stuff within the Behavior section. However, at a minimum, you’ll need to appear at the following:

• Website Content – what pages are they visiting?
• Time on the website – however long are they staying on these pages?
• Bounce Rate – after they get to a page, what percentage are going off of your site?

You'll be able to get a lot deeper here. For example, you'll be able to find out conversion goals with cash values hooked up to the conversions.

You'll be able to additionally scrutinize Behavior Flow to check however users are moving through your site.

Pay it slowly in their jab around. you would like to grasp this info before beginning on a redesign.

If you don’t you’re headed for

• additional of constant (then why bother)
• epic failure (big waste of your time and money)
• perhaps you get lucky and a lot of traffic finds you (pretty risky bet thereupon quite an expense).

Number 2 – What’s the Competition Doing?

A website design is your likelihood to throw them off their game. What are your competitors doing? Is it working?

Generally knowing what your prime competitors do finish up provides you with ideas on what to not do. the purpose of doing this analysis isn't to repeat or to even do the whole opposite.

The purpose is to seek out ways to raise serve the audience you and your competition are targeting.

You'll be able to do keyword and ranking research in tools like SEMRush (screenshot below) to check what keywords your competitions rank for. this is often real unjust knowledge.

With this data you'll be able to gain a true understanding of what your audience is trying to find and the way they’re obtaining there:

• Organic Keywords – what individuals really kind in Google to find your competitor. however are you able to leverage this data to rank higher?
• Backlinks – link building remains alive and well and vital in crucial the worth of a website. Is your competitor getting links from places wherever you can build a presence, sort of a directory or blog?
• Competitors – who are your competitor’s competitors? Are you on its list? Are the others on this list your competition too? What are you able to gain from wanting into their keywords and ranking?

But, don’t simply specialize in ranking against constant keywords. Run {the data|the info|the data} higher than through the “filter” of experience, client personas, and analytics. However, will this information be wont to higher target your audience?

You’re not just making an attempt to beat them within the SERPs (search engine results pages), but additionally in name and complete value. Are you there in their time of want a lot of this then your competition?

The opposite tool you've got is empathy. Get in character jointly of your client personas and poke around your competitor’s website a touch. Is it a decent experience? wherever might it use some improvement? What bothers you? What excites you?

Variety 3– Your Culture

We’ve hinted at this a bit within the last half of the competition. change your marketing. what's it concerning your company that your purchasers love? However, will this translate online?

Too typically clients can specialize in explaining culture and worth once they have to be compelled to show it. If I wrote an extended dyspnoeic article concerning however nice Wood Street is, would you suspect it? Maybe, however, you’d even be a touch suspended by the conceitedness and ego.

Now, if Wood Street had a well-designed, easy-to-use, and useful website, would you think we’re great? Maybe. most likely a lot of this over time. The proof is within the value that came to you thru mistreatment at the site.

If your website contains a number of the simplest data around but it's like crap or is tough to use, assume any of that helpful stuff gets used? Not likely.

Individuals online are distracted. A.D.D. isn't a powerful enough descriptor for a typical internet user. they're in an exceedingly constant state of complete and total, squirrel!

Take your time and really admit this. what's it about your company that actually matters to your customers? however are you able to bake that into your new website?

1. Nice client Service – your purchasers love you as a result of you sort things and solve their problems. admit this once you found out your website’s sitemap and structure? however are you able to organize data visually specified your purchasers will realize the assistance they have quickly and easily?
2. Thought Leadership – do your clients love you as a result of you getting the info and analysis on vital topics before anyone else? However, can you build upon this together with your new internet site? are you able to leverage this quality to realize leads or sales by adding calls to action to widespread pages or posts? Use this thought leadership to grow membership or loyal following by orientating the 2 goals mistreatment sensible web style and development.
3. Wonderful product – perhaps your merchandise is thus stellar that they're your biggest merchandising point. It’s what you’re noted for. Now, if you tell people however awful your stuff is, can they believe you? most likely not. Show them! produce videos of individuals mistreatment your product and talking concerning them. embrace testimonials – not the written one-liners, however a video or careful case study about somebody adoring your stuff and why.

There might be alternative reasons you concern your audience. If you recognize this audience and their needs, you’ll then know why or how you matter to them. From there you'll be able to construct a website that facilitates you to amplify the aspects of your company’s culture that your audience loves!

Your website remains a very important half (some may say the foremost important part) of your marketing. Don’t build a booklet website. Build an online site that lives and breathes. Develop a web presence that matters. By doing a touch further schoolwork upfront, you will!