Website Redesign 101: Practical Tips to Consider When Redesigning Your Website

Redesigning a website is like renovating an old home. It seems easy on the outside, but reality paints a different story altogether. 

Even after you have chosen a new template, a new colour scheme and a new optimisation strategy to keep it running on search, redesigning your website does not end there. Redesigning your website must follow a strategy or a blueprint so you know what aspect of your old website you need to change and what you need to retain.

Any website redesign should follow a plan. Your plan will be the foundation of an organised structure for your new website. Planning allows you to know what aspects of your website needs to be changed and what aspects are already performing well so you do not have to touch it. 

Along with planning comes assessing your old website structure. Try to ask yourself the following questions.

• Does your website have missing pages?
• Do you have duplicate and outdated content?
• Do you have duplicate links?
• Does your website contain broken links?

If your answers to these are in the affirmative, target these areas of your website as you redesign.

• Is it mobile-friendly?
• Are the pages loading quickly?
• Is your website incorporated with your social media channels?
• Is your website easy to navigate?
• Is it user friendly?
• Does it capture your current brand image?

If your response is no to these questions, include these aspects too as you redesign.

Next is to come up with the foundation of your website. Even if you want to retain certain aspects of your old website (in terms of design or content), it is not going to be easy as copy pasting it. As you go along with your redesign, check whether the links are working, the page names and other details of your old website are intact. This also goes for the plugins and applications that are linked to your website. Make sure that these remain unaffected. 

The implementation should follow a predictable pattern. If content and design will change, the process implementation should start with the content writer, followed by the web designer and then the web developer. Communication and documentation is essential. 

Work closely with your hired SEOs during the redesign of your website. A good-looking website that does not perform well on search is not a good idea. You might be ruining good search standing and ranking when you focus only on redesigning your website on the outside.

Additional Tips:

Always backup your existing website before you implement the any changes.

Remember the saying do not fix it it isn't broken? This applies when redesigning websites. Focus on aspects of your website that needs repair and let the rest remain as is. 

Always aim for the best version of website - design-wise, content-wise and functionality-wise.

Have a test version of your new website before publishing it to live. You do not want your website viewers telling you of your errors.

SEO Trends You Need to Invest On with Google Hummingbird Around

Is SEO dead? 

Of course, it’s not. For as long as there are websites and there are businesses that are pushing for an online marketing strategy, SEO is not going anywhere. 

With that fact in mind, it is important that businesses pushing for a website know that they need to play the rules of Google Hummingbird to have a favourable position on search.

With the new algorithm, it is important to invest heavily in content marketing. Before, even if the articles were complete nonsense, it can help rank a website for as long as the article is optimised with keywords. This downplays businesses who carefully craft their words as they are overturned by companies who are taking the short cut. 

Make your content marketing efforts extra valuable by creating engaging content about your business. Create content that resonates with your audience by creating content from the perspective of your audience. Research on what they want to see from your website, and work with it well from that point. 

Focus  on making relevant articles for your audience such as how-to’s and practical guides as opposed to excessive self-promotions. Forget about keyword research too, competitive analysis and search volume locally and internationally. Understanding your market more than identifying what keywords to stress on is essential in coming up with content that matters both to your audience and to Google.

Aside from content marketing, mobile optimisation is a Google Hummingbird rule that you should adhere to. Before, it was an option. Now, it is mandatory given the wide ownership of smart phones and tablet computers.  

It now becomes essential that businesses have a mobile content strategy and a responsive mobile design for their website. Achieve a responsive mobile design by making your website look great on a variety of devices. Work with web specialists who can help you develop a mobile version of your website. 

Strategise your mobile content based on the behaviours of mobile users. With Google Hummingbird’s value for complete search queries / questions instead of just keywords or search phrases, it follows that you need to make your content answerable to questions and not just embellished with keywords. If you do not have an FAQ page, maybe now is the best time to invest in one.

In relation to your mobile content strategy, you need to find a way to shrink your web content such that it will fit the limited space of a mobile phone or a tablet computer. Scale your words and your visuals while maintaining the message you want to send across. Brevity and creativity are essential at this point. 

Lastly, instead of investing heavily on link building, focus on building your brand. Take advantage of Google Authorship, a program that helps you establish yourself as a thought leader in your chosen industry. Great content attached to your byline and picture will help you get noticed by searchers today and in the future.  

More than anything, it is a great way to build credibility. With Hummingbird’s importance towards content, the articles and blog posts you worked hard to write for your business will not go to waste.