75% of website visitors attribute credibility to good web design. Maybe your website’s theme and design was hot four or five years ago. Maybe you paid thousands to get the best web designer.
None of that matters if your website is using old graphics elements, flash graphics, and rough scaling tech. Websites should be updated every other year, preferably. If you’re thinking of a website redesign, you probably needed one last year.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you prepare for this transformation. You can retain key branding elements while bringing your website up to date. You can make your website faster and improve conversion rates.
All you need is a vision, a plan, and someone to execute it.
Goals of a Website Redesign
Before you start your search for the perfect website design, you need to lay down some goals. To get more than a superficial makeover, you’ll want to identify what you want to accomplish. Is it to lower your bounce rate?
Do you need to make your website more accessible for mobile devices? Are you adding more interactive elements and embedded media? Does your navigation need simplification?
Make note of all the improvements you want to make on top of new visual aesthetics. Keep your on-page SEO in focus with your redesign, too. Research how each improvement will get you closer to the numbers you need to hit.
Try to get some early first-impressions from family, friends, or loyal followers before launching. Avoid any surprises from your website redesign plan.
More Calls-To-Action
A complete redesign is an opportunity to improve and refine your CTA. Redesign your funnels so that any returning visitors become new conversions. You have to redesign your CTAs because they will stick out like a sore thumb after a website redesign.
Remember to match the same materials and color themes used in your new website. For those who don’t use CTAs currently, read up on effective CTA design and usage.
Rich Multimedia
Every redesign effort should focus on seamless incorporation of images, video, and animations. Ditch the dependence on stock photography and create your own. This adds a valuable layer of authenticity to your business.
Stock video services can still be useful for video marketing. It might even be a smart move to source some stock VR/360 videos. This can add a level of professionalism not found on many websites.
Make sure your redesign allows you to easily update and customize multimedia content. Include relevant image tags and metadata for SEO purposes. Finally, don’t forget to make all multimedia content cacheable and scalable for all devices.
Chat Bots
Live chatbots have come a long way over the last few years. This has become a viable format for providing customer service. It’s a more personal form of FAQ guides or automated phone queries.
If the customer has a basic question that they need to be answered quickly, they would rather type it into the chat box than go through phone menus. Yes, a human interaction is the best option, but this is a realistic and cost-saving alternative.
When incorporating your chatbot, try to be upfront and transparent. Don’t sell it off as a real human chatting. Customers don’t like to be tricked into thinking they’re talking to someone on the other side.
Safety and Security
Every website renovation should be accompanied by a complete security check. Use this opportunity to verify that your website has its SSL certification. No, you shouldn’t go without just because your store isn’t located in the same domain.
Customers will be looking for that SSL certification while surfing. Google will also be looking for your certificate, too. They play favorites towards websites that have it, e-commerce or not.
Make your website official by forking over the $50 a year and protect yourself from attacks and bad PR.
You should always practice regular website back-ups, especially throughout this process. At any point that your website becomes inaccessible or corrupt, you should have a back-up to troubleshoot it. You can easily automate this process, too.
There are add-ons and CRMs that have built-in backup schedules. Backup your databases, too, every time you install a new theme or perform a major redesign.
A Slick New Paint Job
We’re listing this element of the redesign last in order of importance. Most businesses start with this first, but that’s a mistake. If you’re not planning the functional, tangible items first, you may back yourself into a corner.
You should start your search for the appropriate theme based on your needs. Filter out any themes that can’t support the customizations without heavy dependency on add-ons. This is partly why we love frameworks like Genesis.
Easy to customize and get everything under the hood set, easy to swap themes without starting over. You also don’t need to worry about website downtime because of how quick child themes can be applied.
No matter the platform, though, proper web design principles must be followed. Throwing a bunch of HTML5 graphics and responsive design isn’t enough. Fonts, topography, and colors play such an important part of good web design.
Finding Premium Website Redesigns
As technology continues to push the envelope for what a website can do, it’s important to keep up. If you allow your website to fall behind on compatibility, SEO, or presentation, your numbers will suffer. Your website will come off as dated, untrustworthy, and out of touch.
If all of these website redesign tips sound a bit overwhelming for a one-man job, don’t sweat it. At Surfaced Media, we take pride in the simple beauty of web design. We can manage any size, shape, or purpose of a website design.
Let us take your brand into the new year with a new look and feel. Captivate your target audience with a redesign. Contact us today to find out how we can help.