How to Redesign a Website for Your Business: A Complete Guide

Did you know that your web visitors form an opinion in just 0.05 seconds or that 61% of website users say that if they don’t find what they are looking for within five seconds they will drop off and go to another site? This Forbes article highlights these along with many other important website benchmarks to help you assess whether or not your site is up to snuff.

Countless brands either qualitatively or quantitatively know that investing in ongoing design and development maintenance or even large brand projects or migrations are important several times throughout a company’s growth, but how to do it well is another feet in and of itself.

A website redesign is crucial for businesses to stay competitive and meet evolving customer expectations, competitor updates, or market-level changes. Over time, your website may become outdated, leading to higher bounce rates, lower conversions, a poor user experience, and even security risks (like malware attacks from failing to install a security update). 

This comprehensive guide will outline the key steps involved in redesigning a website for your business. It covers the initial preparation phase, formulating an effective strategy, creating and testing prototypes, and the final launch process. Additionally, it provides a website redesign checklist to ensure you don't overlook any critical elements during the redesign process. By following this guide, you can determine the optimal frequency for a website redesign and position your business for long-term online success.

Prepare for the Redesign

Before embarking on a website redesign, it's crucial to understand the reasons behind it and gather inspiration from various sources.

Understanding the Reasons for Redesign

Companies may consider a website redesign for several reasons, such as rebranding, repositioning, launching new products or services, improving user experience, increasing traffic and conversions, enhancing functionality, optimizing for mobile devices, updating technology, staying competitive, addressing user feedback, or accommodating seasonal changes.

Gathering Inspiration and Ideas

Analyze your competitors' websites to identify effective design elements and areas for improvement. Look beyond your industry for inspiration from companies with similar target audiences or brand traits you want to highlight. Explore design galleries, social media platforms, and websites dedicated to showcasing creative designs. Pay attention to user experience, visual appeal, messaging, and useful features that align with your goals.

Formulate a Strategy

Before formulating a strategy for your website redesign, align the redesign with your business goals. Document your current performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and set measurable objectives. Common goals include increasing website traffic, reducing bounce rates, enhancing lead generation, boosting sales, and improving search engine rankings.

Aligning Redesign with Business Goals

Start by understanding the "why" behind your redesign. Avoid redesigning solely because it's been a while or because competitors have done so. Clearly define your goals and tie them to measurable results. Communicate these goals with your team, designer, or agency. Consider objectives like increasing visits, reducing bounce rates, improving domain authority, generating more leads and sales, and enhancing SEO rankings for important keywords.

Protecting SEO Value

Preserving your SEO value during the redesign is crucial. Conduct an SEO audit to identify high-performing pages, keywords, and inbound links. Create a spreadsheet mapping old URLs to new URLs for 301 redirects. Optimize new pages for targeted keywords using on-page SEO best practices. Minimize changes to well-performing content until after the redesign, and plan to add new content addressing neglected topics or keywords.

Create and Test Prototypes

Building Functional Prototypes

Create interactive prototypes that simulate the final product's functionality. Start with low-fidelity wireframes and evolve into high-fidelity prototypes with realistic interactions, animations, and device testing capabilities. Utilize prototyping tools that allow scenario simulations, data table integrations, and browser-based testing for remote or in-person sessions.

Conducting Usability Tests

Test your prototypes with target users to identify usability issues and validate design decisions. Define clear objectives and create realistic tasks aligned with your product's core functionality. Recruit a mix of existing and potential users for diverse insights. Choose appropriate testing methods like in-person, remote, moderated, or unmoderated sessions. Analyze user interactions, document challenges, and iterate based on feedback to refine the prototype before final development.

Finalize and Launch

Handing Over Design to Developers

Ensure a smooth handoff to developers by providing clear, organized design files and documentation. Publish final designs in a tool like Zeplin, separating them from iterative files. Use version history and commit messages to track changes. Organize projects into sections, use tags for filtering, and display screen variants concisely. 

Document design behavior, requirements, and user flows through annotations and dedicated flows. Highlight reusable components and design system elements to streamline development.

Ensuring a Smooth Launch

Before launching, meticulously review the website's design, content, and functionality. Verify text accuracy, imagery licensing, brand consistency, and visual appeal. Test user experience, conversion paths, third-party integrations, and site performance across devices. Create backups, secure the site, comply with laws, and crawl for errors post-launch. Optimize metadata and set up analytics to monitor performance.

Conclusion

A website redesign is a significant undertaking that requires careful planning and execution. This guide outlined the key steps involved in redesigning a website, from understanding the reasons behind the redesign to gathering inspiration and formulating an effective strategy. It emphasized the importance of creating and testing prototypes, conducting usability tests, and ensuring a smooth handoff to developers. 

The guide also covered the final launch phase, highlighting the need for meticulous review, testing, and optimization.

Businesses must prioritize website redesigns to stay competitive and meet evolving customer expectations. By following the outlined steps and leveraging the provided website redesign checklist, companies can position themselves for long-term online success, improving functionality, aesthetics, and overall performance. A well-executed website redesign can enhance user experience, increase conversions, and boost brand recognition.

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FAQs

1. What are the steps involved in redesigning a website?

To successfully redesign a website, follow these key steps:

• Establish clear objectives for the redesign.
• Employ a user-centered design approach.
• Implement a user interface (UI) redesign.
• Revamp the website's information architecture.
• Develop updated wireframes.
• Concentrate on refining your content.
• Ensure the website's layout is resourceful and adaptable.

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2. What is the typical cost range for a complete website redesign?

The cost of redesigning a website can vary widely, ranging from $3,000 to $75,000 per site. The price depends on who is doing the work: agencies may charge between $5,000 and $75,000, freelancers typically charge between $3,000 and $10,000, and in-house or do-it-yourself (DIY) approaches can cost between $800 and $5,000.

3. What elements are typically included in a website redesign?

A website redesign involves a comprehensive update that may include changes to the site's code, content, structure, and visuals. The goal of these changes is to enhance the user experience, which can lead to increased revenue, reduced bounce rates, and overall improved performance.

4. How can I plan and execute a website redesign?

Planning and executing a website redesign involves several structured steps:

• Start by evaluating your current website to understand its strengths and weaknesses.
• Define clear goals for what you want to achieve with the redesign.
• Develop a detailed action plan based on these goals.
• Implement the redesign according to the plan.
• Once launched, analyze the outcomes to assess the impact of the changes.
• Consider additional strategies to further enhance the website's performance.