SaaS website redesign is a daunting endeavor.
It’s like taking an existing painting and then redoing it with a completely different brush and color palette. Sure, the result might look great, but will it still capture the original beauty and be as engaging to customers?
However, when done right, It helps improve the overall user experience, page speeds and search ranking.
Therefore, careful attention must be paid on every element of design, from navigation menus to content layout to visuals and images, as well as the technical aspects.
Here's a checklist that will keep you on track.
Redesign Website Checklist.
It's always a good idea to create a checklist when beginning any website redesign projects. This will make sure all key elements have been accounted for, and that no details are overlooked.
1. Setting objectives.
This could include optimizing user experience, improving the site's performance, increasing engagement, or even just making sure that the design looks great.
Developing a clear and comprehensive strategy is key to ensuring a successful website redesign.
It's important to consider how the user will interact with the website, what content should be included, and how it can improve the overall user experience.
2. Designing visuals and graphics.
Visuals and graphics are essential for creating an aesthetically pleasing website design, especially on the landing page. It's important to consider how visuals and graphics will be used on the website, and ensure that they are optimized for various devices.
3. Identifying target audience.
Understanding your target audience is key to ensuring a successful website redesign.
It’s important to Web designers to consider who they are designing the website for, and develop a website redesign strategy to ensure that the content is valuable and engaging to website visitors.
4. Developing website wireframes.
Wireframes are essential for developing a successful website design. Web designer or UI/UX designers can design the wireframes in online tools like sketch, canva, figma, etc and offline tools like Adobe XD, etc.
Wireframes ensure all elements of user experience, from navigation to content layout, have been carefully considered.
5. Optimizing code for website performance and speed.
Optimizing the code can help to ensure an increase in new site speed, and that search engines are able to crawl and index it effectively.
Loading speeds, uptime and responsiveness are all key indicators of overall website's performance.
Poor performance can lead to decreased user engagement and even lost sales or leads.
6. Improving usability on mobile devices.
It's essential to have a mobile website that is optimized for mobile devices. This includes ensuring that the design is responsive and looks great on any device, as well as making sure that all content is accessible.
Website Redesign SEO Considerations.
Organic traffic is a key factor of website success, and yet often overlooked during the website redesign process. It is important to ensure that organic search engine optimization efforts are implemented in order to increase the website's visibility and ranking result pages (SERPs).
This includes optimizing page titles, meta descriptions, headings, and other elements to index the website effectively.
Do Not Forget It Is Redesign and Not Rebranding.
You need to be incredibly careful when you are changing the website structure to visual appearance for the website to make sure it is aesthetically appealing.
Can your company design and produce recognizable designs using your logo? It could be time to update. Rebranding is much wider and impacts the marketing materials of your clients and all the printed material that reflects your brand.
When your client isn't communicating the brand's identity to their clients or prospects properly this may potentially create market confusion.
Start Planning Your Redesign with Clear Direction & Projected Timeline.
To create a new website, it's important to have a clear timeline. This involves deciding if a redesign will be needed and testing it.
If necessary, you may need to hire an external designer or delegate approval responsibilities to someone else. When entering into an external contract, make sure expectations are well-defined and that you understand any additional redesign cost is involved.
Creating an excel checklist document is an important step. This type of document should include all of the tasks that need to be completed in order to successfully redesign a website.
It should also include deadlines and budgets, as well as any other relevant information that will ensure a successful launch.
Alternatives for excel checklists such as using Google Sheets or Project Management Tools such as Trello, Asana, and Basecamp are popular options for managing projects online. However these tools are not a replacement for marketing managers or project managers.
Prioritize the Most Valuable Pages on Your Website.
A website’s conversion rate is the ratio between visitors who take an action, such as submitting a form or making a purchase, compared to the total number of visitors.
By understanding which pages have a higher conversion rate, you can identify your site's most valuable pages and determine how best to optimize them throughout your redesign process.
Determine Your Website's Goals.
As you begin planning your website redesign, it's important to determine your goals. What do you want to accomplish with the new design? Do you need a better user experience or improved navigation? Or perhaps both?
Think about how users will interact with your website,
Ask yourself questions such as: How can I make it easier for visitors to access important information? How can I provide a better user experience overall? What new features could I add that would enhance the website?
By answering these questions, you'll be able to determine what goals you should set for your website redesign. Here are some examples of reasonable goals you might have:
Increase visitor engagement by providing a more intuitive navigation system.
Improve the overall aesthetic of the website with modern visuals and designs.
Optimize loading times for faster access to content.
Make it easier for visitors to find the information they need quickly.
Increase user satisfaction with a better overall experience
Preserve Rankings & Traffic.
Perform keyword research which could help increase your organic search visibility after the redesign strategy is complete.
During its development phase, make sure that all URLs remain consistent to avoid any disruptions in rankings and traffic. Additionally, create a plan for redirecting old URLs to new ones in order to retain any existing SEO value.
It's also important to ensure that essential SEO elements such as meta tags, heading tags, and alt-text are kept consistent or updated across all pages of the website with relevant keywords.
Finally, after the redesign is complete it's essential to monitor your site’s performance on search engines and analytics tools such as Google Console, Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster and Yandex Webmaster. These tools provide insight into the performance of a website by giving on traffic data, keyword, backlinks, site structure and errors.
Website redesign can be daunting, especially when it comes to maintaining your SEO rankings. Fortunately, there are a few steps you can take to ensure that your search engine optimization efforts on the new website redesign won't lead to a decrease in visibility.
First foremost, make sure to create 301 redirects for all of the pages on your old website. This will tell search engines like Google that the page has been permanently moved and needs to be redirected with its link equity intact. A good audit of the current URLs before starting the website redesign is essential for mapping out these redirects.
Relaunching the website can take up to eight weeks for search engines to re-index and show in the SERP. Working with a webmaster to ensure that all SEO best practices are being followed will make this process smoother.
Another crucial step is to maintain your content. If you've built up good SEO rankings from your old website, it’s important to not lose any of that value by deleting or changing the content on pages without properly redirecting them. It's best practice to keep at least 80% of the original page's content intact when redesigning a page to avoid this problem. Additionally, making sure that any new copy incorporates important keywords, phrases and technical elements like meta tags will also help in maintaining visibility.
Personalize Your Website Based on Your Brand Guidelines.
I'm not going to lie and tell you my personal style. How do you communicate with your audience? Use colors, fonts, or images reflecting your company identity. Make sure that your audience understands your text immediately and can understand it without getting confused.
By leveraging the power of software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools, you can modernize your website quickly and easily. From creating a responsive design to integrating advanced functionality, SaaS solutions make web design faster and more efficient.
One of the most popular SaaS solutions for web design is WordPress. This powerful content management system allows users to easily create websites with custom designs that are mobile friendly and optimized for SEO. You can also use plugins to customize your site's features or add new ones such as eCommerce capabilities. Additionally, there are thousands of professionally designed WordPress themes available that allow you to get an up-and-running website in no time.
If you're looking for a more advanced solution, consider using a website builder like Wix or Squarespace. These services make web design even easier by providing customizable templates and drag-and-drop features. With these tools, users can create modern, professional sites without having to write any code.
Finally, if you need a custom solution for your website redesign project, then hiring a web developer is the way to go. Web developers are experts at creating websites from scratch and can tailor their designs to meet your specific needs. They will also be able to provide ongoing support and maintenance so that your website continues to look great and run smoothly over time.
With SaaS tools, website builders, and web developers, there are plenty of options for a successful website redesign. So no matter what your budget or timeline is, you can create an amazing website that will help you grow your business.
Testing and Delivery.
Your web developer checks thoroughly for functionality and accessibility (plugins installed and SEO, ensures the optimization for various versions of browsers and much more). Web design companies are expected to provide high quality web sites that comply with all web development standards.
Once a final decision is reached by the development team, we'll start building the new website. FTP is commonly the method that uploads websites files to ftp. Web designers also provide hosting services to clients. In some cases there are suggestions.
Experiment Thoroughly Before Making the Site Live.
Approval of wireframes and websites is required for testing before the rollout. The results from user testing help users make more informed choices about how to improve the site live. It is also possible to test new software for beta purposes.
You can either allow visitors to opt into beta testing or notify your site visitors of specific elements of beta testing. Let your beta tester know you can report any errors and ask for their comments.
Conclusion
A website redesign can have a powerful and positive impact on your business. It can help you increase customer engagement, drive more traffic to your website, and create better user experiences. With careful planning, creative design, and a focus on usability and performance optimization, you can ensure that your website redesign project results in a successful outcome for both you and your customers.
A well-designed website will deliver measurable benefits for years to come. Investing the time and resources into a professional website redesign is an investment worth making for any business looking to gain an edge over its competitors in today’s digital world.
With a little bit of effort and some help from web design agencies like Writing Simon, you can transform your online presence and give yourself an edge over other businesses. With that in mind, it’s time to get started on your website redesign project and make sure that you have the best plan of action for success. Good Luck!
FAQs
How can I ensure a successful website redesign?
The success of any website redesign project ultimately depends on how much effort is put into the planning and execution phases. Working with experienced professionals who have a proven track record of success can make all the difference in achieving your desired outcome.
Additionally, taking care to properly plan out each step of the process and focus on usability and performance optimization will help you achieve the best possible results for your business.
What kinds of benefits can I expect from a website redesign?
A website redesign can have a powerful and positive impact on your business. It can help you increase customer engagement, drive traffic to your website, and create better user experiences.
It can also give you a competitive edge in the digital marketplace over other businesses by providing an improved online presence that is optimized for performance.
Do I need to hire professionals to complete my website redesign project?
While there are some web design tools and services available for those who want to DIY their project, hiring experienced professionals with a proven track record of success may be the best way to ensure that your website redesign yields successful results. An experienced team will be able to guide you through the entire process and make sure that your project meets all of your goals.
When should I start my website redesign project?
The earlier you can begin planning and executing on a website redesign, the better. Investing the time and resources necessary to create an effective website design up front will save you time in the long run and give you the best chance of achieving maximum benefits for your business.
It is important to stay informed about any changes in technology or industry trends as they happen so that you can adjust accordingly during a website redesign project.