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What thoughts come to your mind about redesigning your website?
What I'd like to know is what are your potential concerns and specifically how would you love it to be!
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4 Answers
We are actually in the midst of a redesign too. We happen to build websites for a living, so we tend to be super picky about the process. Here are the things we are focusing on:
1) Message: What is the message my company is trying to convey? What makes us different from the thousands of other web design companies? This should be front and center, but in a simple, non-flashy way.
2) Services: What are our primary services, or the services you are known for? For example, we specialize in Joomla (a CMS) and we also specialize in SEO for small business. We also do Joomla training, which many web development companies don't do.
3) Design trends for graphics: Reviewing the latest design trends, we will utilize them to come up with a design to reflect what is most current. For example, gone are the days when your navigation should be a graphical element. Now the main message on your site is often portrayed in very large letters, and navigation sort of falls to the background.
4) SEO: You cannot build a website without considering SEO (search engine optimization). Before you begin is when you should start thinking about this. What are the keywords you are trying to target? What content is relevant for those keywords and meshes well with your company content? How will you label your navigation to optimize keyword usage?
5) User knowledge: Are your users technically savvy? This is very important in today's market considering the plethora of technical opportunities in web design. Be certain you aren't building a site that is over your user's heads. You want them to USE it, not become frustrated by it.
6) Competitors: What are you competitors doing? While most designers will say they design in a vaccum, the truth is they keep their eyes on who is doing what. Check out your major competitors. What are they doing and how can you do it better?
7) Ease of updating: This isn't one we need since we build the sites, but it's a biggie with our customers. This is why we specialize in Joomla, since we have yet to find a client we couldn't train to update it. You no longer have to keep a web developer on a tab to continuously update your site. With Wordpress or Joomla you can easily do it yourself.
Note that these are not done in the order presented. You actually kind of go in a spiral design mode where you touch on each one, then come back and go through them again, then do it again. You are meshing everything together until you have a plan that fits on all levels.
I'm doing that right now as I am expanding on my consulting business. I'm turning a personal blog into a full fledged company site . . .
What I'm looking for in my site is the following:
- Standards Compliance - use as much CSS/HTML as I can and use the least amount of Flash and Third party products as possible.
- Ease of updating - CMS system is a biggie. I want to write posts and get them out the door. I don't want to have to do a days worth of design on a page if I don't have to.
- Flexibility - I need to be able to adjust to the changing web landscape. What works for me today might not work for me tomorrow. The Search Engines change daily - so I need to adapt to keep and improve on my rankings. Social Media is hot right now - but will it be in a year or two?
- Mobile - the future of the web is in mobile. The site has got to work on IPads/Iphones and Drioids, as that market is only going to increase over the next couple of years. Keeping my design focused on Standards (HTML5/CSS3) should help that.
Every site is different though - and at the end of the day - your analytics and market research should tell you where you need to go with your site.
I think this is a question all businesses, small, medium and entrepreneurs should be asking. There is tendency to become complacent where our web presence is concerned. Big mistake. True, not everyone has the budget of CNN or Oprah Winfrey's OWN site, but I would suggest that all small and medium sized businesses set aside a "face lift" budget just for the purpose of updating their websites. I totally agree with Ryan, CSS/HTML is the way to go, and SEO is essential.
When it comes to design aesthetic - think "face lift", think fresh. Little things can make a big difference. Nothing is more of a turn off as going to a website that is emotionally unavailable, and boring. Or worse still, revisiting a website and everything looks and "feels" the same as your last visit. Consumers of so unpredictable, we can never take them for granted. An engaging website with a fresh content and media elements can do wonders.
I completely agree with Bonnie. However, we just redesigned ours too and we followed the guidelines of Hubspot (www.hubspot.com). They are really good. You can get a lot of ideas from them for free especially about SEO.
Good luck!
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