What to consider before committing fully to redesigning your WordPress website

Author: Max Waldburg

Thinking about redesigning your website? Here’s our take on what you need to consider before diving in. Read on – it could save you a lot of money!

1. The purpose.

Ask yourself why you want to upgrade your website.

• To keep up with your competitors?
• To sync with your social media channels?
• To optimise your site for mobile devices?
• To get more visitors to sign up to your newsletter.
• To improve your organic search ranking?

Before making any changes, we recommend getting input from the relevant stakeholders. This should involve asking your customers how they think your website could be improved.

2. Analysis and Technical information.

Google Analytics is a virtually limitless source of useful information that should guide you as you make alterations to your website. Like Google Adwords, Google Analytics is an interface which takes some time to get used to but doing so is definitely worthwhile. The following are some of the important questions that Google Analytics will enable you to answer:

• Which sign up form converts better (sidebar, below the post, about page).
• What errors a visitor encounters during the checkout.
• How many visitors have downloaded your ebook or brochure etc.
• How much time is being spent on a particular page.
• The bounce rate: knowing this figure will give you an idea of whether or not your visitors are finding the information they need quickly or if they are turned off by the look and feel of your site.
• Goal conversion rate: this will tell you the rate at which visitors are performing goals that you specify eg. phone calls, form submissions or transactions.

Where your website is going to be hosted also needs careful consideration. It is important to have website hosted on a server which is reliable otherwise your site may be slow or even offline at times.

3. Get Involved

We believe that it is very important that you are involved during the entire website redesign process. At exSite we usually go through the following phases:

• Project discovery
• User requirements gathering
• Wire framing,
• Design,
• Development,
• Content implementation,
• Testing
• Client Testing
• Website Launch

If you can’t be involved in the entire process, make sure you nominate the right person to do it on your behalf. This will mean that you will receive updates on the most important aspects of the website creation process rather than being constantly bombarded with unnecessary details.

Give your chosen designer prompt feedback so that you are not delaying the process.

Be specific about what you would like to change – the colour, the font, layout, quantity of elements etc.

4. Consider website design trends in your industry.

Here at ExSite we pride ourselves in creating new and innovative designs that has user experience at its core.  We feel that it is our duty to stay on top of what’s on trend so if you are looking for inspiration, be sure to check our client portfolio.

5. Content creation

Surprisingly, this appears to be one of the most difficult parts of the entire process.

Post upgrade, it is common for websites to experience organic ranking turbulence. Here at exSite we will provide you with an SEO strategy that will make the transition seamless.

Are you planning on redesigning your wordpress website? Call us now.