Every website needs a rejuvenation after it has been operative for sometime. Whether you are planning to re-brand the website or just work on a new look or feel for it, many important factors have to be considered before you get started. At times, giving an overhaul to your website might be a long and tedious process. It is extremely crucial to consider the framework of your website and analyze the impact of redesign. The checklist provided in this article will make the redesigning process a smooth interface for you. This checklist will make sure that you are on track during the redesigning process.
Is Your Website Goal Oriented?
Even if you are doing a redesign just because your website has been the same since some time, it is important to define some goals. You would surely want your website to perform much better than it was performing earlier. Consider these important aspects that determine a successful website:
- Monthly unique visits
- Time spent by visitors / customers on the website
- Bounce rate
- Conversion rate
- Current status of the keywords
Once you have determined what goals you would like to achieve through the website, measure the goals. For instance, if your goal is to improvise on the conversions then in measurable terms it can be – increase the conversion rate by 20%. If you think that this task is consuming a lot of time, make a note of the current performance of your website and determine a goal of keeping it intact or improving the website performance.
If Your Website Usable?
There are many dimensions to the usability of the website. It is dependent on many factors like the website hosting platform, design of the website, website navigation, content, images on the website etc. Enhancing the usability of the website is one of the most important factors that one must consider while redesigning the website. Ideally, a website must feature the following characteristics:
Useful : The content present on the website must be valuable and informative for the people.
Usable : People should be able to use your website easily.
Desirable : Your website’s image, content, brand and the overall appearance must generate a sense of appreciation.
Searchable : People should be able to easily locate the website related content on both – on-site and off-site basis.
Accessible : Your website content should also be accessible to the people having disabilities.
Credible : People should be able to count on your website and trust it.
Is Your Website Complaint To The Standards?
The World Wide Web consortium has determined certain standards for website creation. Do these standards matter? Yes they do! The websites that comply with the standards, feature better modern browsers, rank higher in the search engine listings, provide with better accessibility and work on lesser amount of bandwidth.
Does Your Website Feature High-Quality Content?
As stated above, the website content must be valuable and useful for the visitors/customers. A good looking website without meaningful content is like a beautiful jewelry box without any jewelry in it. It’s a pleasure for the eyes but there is nothing for the mind in it! The content present on your website is information for the people. It might comprise of blog posts, videos, audios, articles, podcasts, images, charts, slideshows etc. As most of the people browse the internet to get information, having helpful and interesting content is a strong asset for you when it comes to gaining the people’s trust.
Is Your Website Compatible To Rank In The Search Engines?
It’s time that the web designers become aware of the importance of search engine optimization while working on the structure of the website. The important page elements like pictures, titles and even videos can either contribute to the search engine rankings or harm them. While redesigning a website, consider your old website’s most valuable pages in terms of SEO. Take account of the pages receiving the maximum traffic, having the maximum number of inbound links and having the highest keyword rankings. Create a plan for utilizing the 301 redirects so that you don’t loose out on any of the valuable link juice.
Is Your Website Secure?
In today’s world, as the hackers get creative and intelligent with their hacking attempts, website security is a highly essential aspect. The first step towards securing the website is to opt for a powerful web hosting platform. With the web hosting platforms like VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting, reseller hosting; most of the reputed web hosting companies provide with efficient security features like CSF firewall, mod security on the web server and security module that help in protecting the critical data. Also check if the web hosting company is performing security tweaks and if the services like PHP, MySQL, Apache, FTP are hardened. With the redesigning process, if you think that you also need a change in terms of the web hosting platform, do that as well. Moreover, it is also important to plan ahead in terms of utilizing encrypted login pages, strong passwords, creating backups of your files and having tight file permissions.
Do Some Final Checks…
The tiny details do matter! Check on the factors like spelling and grammar, browser compatibility, typography and other such small details that can have an effect on your website re-launch.
If redesigning the website is the need of the time, make sure that you are considering every small and big thing associated with it. This task might seem a little difficult and complicated but of you pay attention to all the vital factors; the end result would surely be fantastic! Every element of a website is interconnected; therefore, it is important to have concrete goals for the website redesign so that all the website elements are perfectly synchronized and you move ahead in terms of achieving the best.
