How to Redo a Website Without Pulling Your Hair Out
There’s a good case for constantly updating your website, but sometimes you must start from scratch. Maybe not from a blank slate with entirely new content, but at least your website’s look, feel, and site functionality.
Plenty of websites only need a few tweaks rather than a full redesign. Still, if your website is tired and stale, if it doesn’t reflect your company’s current branding, or if site visitors aren’t receiving enough value from your website, it could be time for a website design project.
Here’s how to redo your website without the project going awry.
Why Are You Redoing Your Website?
Before you prepare for your website redesign project to begin, have a clear goal for the new site. Why does the old website need to go? That answer should be the driving force behind every decision that you and your team make.
Is the old website not delivering enough leads? If so, the entire focus of the redesign should be around the user experience (UX) flow, getting site visitors to enter forms. Is the old site stale and unengaging? Time to add eye-catching design details and functionality that keeps people engaged.
Get Your Team Aligned On the Redesign Process
Once you have your team focused on the same goal for the new site, make sure that everyone is clear on the redesign process. One of the most common hangups when designing a new website is content not being ready, so make sure your content teams are the first ones ready before any pixels get designed. Having your content ready for design will cut down on your designers redoing work or shoehorning new content into designs they’ve already finished.
Keeping your redesign process as transparent as possible also makes it easier to get everything ready before launch, and not just the design. On the technical side of your site, the developers should be included when designing any highly interactive or intricate functionality. They may be able to help with recommendations to cut on development time before the design is finished with their mockups.
Create a Launch Plan and Stick to It
Deadlines are tough, but that’s even more the case when it comes to redesigning a website. If you’re not careful about sticking to a hard launch deadline, you could see your website go live weeks or months (at best) later than you expected. Make sure all teams stick to their deadlines so the entire project continues to move along on schedule.
When it’s time to launch, make sure all of your support and hosting partners are aware of your plans. They may be able to help spin up development sites to correct mistakes as you find them and then launch a new version with all of your consolidated feedback. They also can help to reduce downtime during the transition, accommodate any new traffic from your promotion of the new site, and troubleshoot any issues that you missed during final QA.
Work as One to Redesign Your Website and Start Fresh
Plenty of website projects start out well but quickly fall to the wayside for lack of clarity, execution, or a little bit of both. So your website redesign doesn’t swallow your team whole, here’s what you should do to get started. Declare your goals for the new website before you start designing, and get your team aligned on the process so there are no surprises. Once the site is ready to go live, make sure to have a launch plan in place so it goes as smoothly as possible. Now is the time to start your redesign project so you can get ahead on your goals for next year.