Websites age, and when they do, they don’t become antiquities. They don’t have charm or rustic appeal. They look outdated, not secure, and not worth using. Even if your website looks fine, if it is clunky, difficult to use, or just plain frustrating you will lose customers, clients, and visitors faster than you can blink, and that’s not even putting search engines and their algorithms into the equation.
If you haven’t updated your website in the last three or more years, it’s time for a revamp, and to plan your success, you will want to follow these five stages
Start with the Drawing Board
It’s best to stay away from the computer when coming up with the concept of your redesign. There are professionals that can help your vision come to life, and though you should absolutely consult them before deciding on the final design (they might have ideas on how to improve interactivity, as they know what is possible and what isn’t), this is a great way to get the ball rolling.
What Do You Need to Change?
Having an audit done on your website will help you understand where the problem areas are, and what areas you should keep.
What Does Your Demographic Expect?
Another step you will want to take is seeing what your competitors are doing. This doesn’t mean copy them directly, but know what customers are used to and expect.
What Technology Is Available to You?
There are many ways to add additional power to a website, so see what else you can invest in. A chatbot, for example, can be a great tool to add.
Create Page Hierarchy Offline First
You need a simple page structure for your site and once again creating these offline can help you better visualize your website all at once. If you are a business that has more than one location, individual location pages will need to be made, but these can be grouped under a category page.
Smart hierarchies are intuitive to navigate and good for business.
Hire a Web Design Agency
Knowing what you want is a great way to see your vision come onto the screen but only if you have someone on your team that is familiar and talented with web design. If you don’t, there is nothing to worry about. Instead, hire a great web design Birmingham agency to take the heavy lifting off your shoulders.
Investing in such an agency offers two benefits; one, you have a professional designing and setting up your website, and two, they can optimize your site for search engines.
Create Content to Post on Your Website
Content is king, so when creating it, you will want to ensure it is something that your customers will want to read, watch, or share, and that it is optimized for SEO. This will give you the greatest engagement and reach.
Keep Updating It
You need to keep your website updated. This means going in to check on it and ensuring all the security, plugins, and themes are updated (even an unused plugin could become a security risk). It also means going through and updating and managing your content, so it is consistently accurate.