8-Step Website Redesign Checklist You Need to Follow in 2022

There must be a proper plan and a strategy for the website redesign activities to meet the objectives set by the business. It becomes necessary to re-examine the website and assess the areas that need change. Web admins must deploy experts and develop a website redesign checklist that must be strictly adhered to. This article will discuss the steps that web admins must follow.

The marketing activities of businesses have an increasing focus on the website. It becomes necessary to improve the visitor experience by redesigning the website. It may lead to severe apprehensions about the outcome, but it can help improve conversions through the website when done correctly. Website admins must capitalise on the latest web design trends and newer technologies and add them as features.

Key Steps of Website Redesign Checklist

Do a Website Audit

Before you plan to redesign your website, it is essential to understand where it stands currently. It will also help you with a comprehensive overview of the web assets you have. It can also help you validate what is working for your business and what isn't. Your sitemap is the ideal point to start the website audit. You must also analyse the traffic that is coming to your site.

Always review the content and the blogs and other collateral present with you. Check whether the content addresses the audience more than projecting the business as the problem solver. If you aren't managing the audience, it becomes necessary to change the content.

Competition Analysis Reigns Supreme

Analysing your peers can help you gain practical insights into the areas on the site that need change. Always be careful when selecting the peer websites to assess. Consider only those competitors who adapt to change and quickly deploy new technologies on their websites. Validate your website through various website grading software and map them against the competition.

Competitor benchmarks can help you come across new components on the site that may have slipped your view. It allows you to gather ample information about the strengths and weaknesses of your peers. It can also help you ascertain why you were gradually slipping away from your peers. You can now easily modify the pre-set goals and make suitable tweaks to your audience outreach strategies too. 

Finalise your Goals and Objectives

When you opt to redesign your website, there must be a reason behind this exercise. It becomes essential to address the existing issues on the website to date. It will help you ascertain the goals and objectives when you plan to redesign the website. The task force that will oversee the project can finalise it. These goals will form the basis of the website redesign checklist. 

Once you are clear about the utility you will have from redesigning the website, you must also finalise the KPIs and the other parameters you will use. Remember that the KPIs will depend on the objectives you wish to have from the website. Several KPIs will be interdependent and will cover various aspects of the business.

Understanding the User Journey

As the audience will use your website for various activities, you must have a clear picture of the user journey across the website. Mapping the user journey will help you focus on the behavioural attributes of the visitor as they browse through the website. You must use historical analytics and ascertain the web pages visited most by visitors earlier.

Your aim must be to reduce friction the user might experience and ensure they remain satisfied and receive the information they were searching across the site. You can use surveys and take the help of heat mapping software to understand the content that users prefer on the site. It will help UX designers recreate the workflows visitors can take on the redesigned website.  

Finalising the Features that Need Change

Once you have finalised the design-related issues, you must strategise well to address them. You can brainstorm with your specialists about the various ways to manage them. List out the changes you need on the website. You may also wish to have entirely new components on your website. 

There are several new technologies and features that you can have on your website. Always check whether your CMS version will support these feature additions and the allocated resources. Then, based on the inputs from the specialists, you can list out the plug-ins you will use during the upgrade. Finally, have the list of action items to help you estimate what updates you will cover when redesigning the website.

Discuss with the Website Experts

Once you have finalized the features, you need to change or add to the site and the objectives you wish to attain, you can call in the experts. When selecting the website design company, always check their antecedents and ask for a few references and testimonials. The design agency must have adequate experience in your industry to help them understand your goals. It will help if you discuss the revised design that the site will have with the website designers.

The experts can fine-tune the website improvement checklist and create a few wireframes and the new sitemap. It can help you understand the workflows that can exist on your website. Mapping the user flows can help you visualise how visitors will interact with your new site. You can now optimize the user journey and ensure the visitor is satisfied with what they find on your website.

Make it SEO Ready

You must optimize the redesigned website for search engines too. However, remember that making the SEO ready isn’t limited only to keyword research and optimising website content. Your team must have the latest search engine updates at their fingertips. It can lead to subtle changes in the website design and other changes.

With the introduction of the Core Web Vitals as an essential Google update, web admins must optimize websites to provide an enhanced experience to visitors. The expert team must readily make suitable changes to the webpage design to ensure that they adhere to the requirements of search engines and rank higher during a keyword search. Also, ensure you optimise the website for mobile site view, and businesses must address this aspect in the revised website design.

Test it Properly and make Miscellaneous Changes

Once the revised design is ready, you must ensure that it follows the branding guidelines. You can utilize specialised design experts who can assess whether the new design assures user satisfaction and adheres to the revised search engine guidelines for websites. Also, test the website on all devices and browsers and ensure that it renders the same on all screens.

It would be best to address outdated content and meta tags promptly. Testers must check all aspects of the website, including the CTA buttons and other links across the website. The blogs must be appropriately categorised with the appropriate tags to help visitors. Experts must also check whether the web pages are loading within the requisite time. 

Conclusion

There can be various reasons to redesign the website. One of the common reasons is to stay ahead of your peers and enhance satisfaction for site visitors. Therefore, it is crucial to have a website rebuild checklist and adhere to the timelines allocated to the project. Before starting, the senior management must understand the reasons behind the redesign exercise.

The success of the exercise will depend on the resources allocated for the project. But preparing for the redesign exercise is the key, and there must be strict deadlines for the project. Always adhere to the critical steps mentioned in this article to ensure the project remains on track. You can call in the experts. We are available over call or email.