Redesigning your website? Ask these questions…

Now that you have identified your website definitely needs an overhaul, where and how do you start? But wait, before starting there are few questions you gotta ask yourself. Agreed that a website redesigning is no mean task. These explorative questions could help you tremendously in lending a direction.

Roll up your sleeves now and get ready to dig in. This may sound a bit of a tedious task on the surface, yet there’s no relief than having a plan as to where to invest what and how much.

Why are you redesigning your website?

This essentially means the objective you intend to achieve through your website. Ideally, a website reflects your business. It speaks volumes about your approach towards business.

Write down the strategic objective you expect to achieve through your site. Is it listing new products/solutions or you are planning a rebranding exercise (this may employ a different approach) or catering to the new age consumer. Defining your objective forms the basis and the blue print of your site. This is where your site architecture and design starts getting shape.

How well do you know your customers?

This information is critical as the site is built for more business – be it from current customers or potential ones. Any business goal formulated will have a clearly defined customer base to be targeted. Hence, take time out to think in your customer’s shoes. Who are your target customers (this could be the industry you are targeting)? What would you like to see from their perspective or what is in your website for them? What services are most sought by them? What will be the most effective tool or technique that best showcases your services? How easily can they find or explore your services and so on (this is of paramount importance in case of visitors who may turn to be prospects.)

Remember, having a clear idea about your targeted base gives you quality leads; after all that is the purpose of a site.

What are your competitors doing?

This doesn’t mean that you got to develop a replica of your competitor’s site. Study their website to get an idea of how their services have been showcased and the loopholes in them (so you don’t do that!). It helps to have a reference or rather a comparison.

What is working in favor and what not in your current site?

Make a list of what has worked, what hasn’t and which ones could be enhanced. This helps in having just the ones that you need and removing the unwanted ones. Studying these well in advance is tremendously helpful in identifying the pages that are frequently visited and those that aren’t. It basically gives clarity and sets your priorities and focus in place.

Backed by these data’s you can design the pages and plan your content. It’s about striking a balance between ‘must-haves’ and ‘good to haves’. The approach saves you from unwanted clutter and enhances the site functionality and performance while saving costs.

Is the current CMS you are on catering to all your needs and can it scale up for future goals?

If you are a content-thriving site, consider analyzing your current CMS platform and check if it is flexible enough for additional enhancements and scalable for future plans without having to pocket out a substantial cost. Audit the performance and the weak points.

Include your marketing goals whilst planning as your site is the hub where the marketing activities evolve and gets triggered.

Should you outsource or built in-house?

The answer will arrive for itself as an outcome of thorough assessment. The assessment phase determines the resources required. Assess honestly and explore the pros and cons. If you are considering building it in-house take a thorough look at the internal resources that are available and those that could be made available full time. Remember, redesigning is a full time and on-going process that requires a dedicated team. Do not underestimate nor overrate either of them. The costs involved are definitely critical and your in-house team may fit the bill, yet, don’t underrate the advantages in having an external professional team on the job. People in the business of website development may have more updated tools and techniques.

Also, don’t miss to include the perspective of having a responsive site that’s compatible across devices.

Save time, resources and most important from the mental burden with this check list.

Got any questions or need assistance in website redesigning? We’d love to help you. Contact us today and get started.

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