How To Create A Well-Planned Website Redesign Strategy?

Redesigning a website means doing something more than just enhancing and adjusting styles. The very goal of the website redesign strategy is typically increasing the user traffic, updating the website's outdated style and improving the obsolete functionality. Website redesign can be counted as a smart business tool to be used for improving certain aspects of a website's design and functionality for achieving business or personal goals.

 
The praiseworthy and exciting part of having your website redesigned is creating countless opportunities and possibilities regarding how to proceed, based on the business goals and needs. Breaking the stereotypes and introducing unique elements differentiates the website from the hard-core competition. 

Ruling Factors To Prioritize While Developing A Website Redesign Plan 
A website can be successfully redesigned only when a well-structured plan has been created. Through these carefully curated steps, developing a comprehensive and efficient website redesign plan will be made easy: 

1. Conducting A Website Audit 
Performing a thorough website audit is the first step to creating a website redesign project plan. It helps in assessing both the strengths and weaknesses of the current website, as well as identifying which areas should be improved. This handy-to-do list will better help in making data-driven decisions for improving the overall website performance. 

 a. Current Website Assessment 
Assess your current website to evaluate its performance, design and content. By assessing, it will be easier to identify the areas likely to cause issues, like broken links, outdated content or slow loading times. 

b. Using Website Audit Tools 
With the help of Website Audit Tools, it's possible to obtain detailed reports on website performance, user behaviour and search engine rankings. Installing Google Search Console, Google Analytics and other SEO auditing software into practice for collecting more data and obtaining better insights. 

c. User Behavior Flow Analysis 
To analyze user behaviour, it's essential to use the insight collected by the website audit tools and understand how they are interacting with the website. For identifying the pain points, it's a must to check for patterns which include high bounce rates or drop-offs on specific pages. 

d. Evaluating User Experience or UX 
To evaluate user experience, you have to check your website's navigation, mobile responsiveness and readability. A positive user experience is a must for visitor retention and to encourage conversions. By conducting a UX audit, it becomes easier to troubleshoot the web design's potential aspects likely to hinder a good browsing experience on a website. 

e. Being Focused on SEO 
Focusing on SEO is necessary for identifying issues such as improper metadata, missing alt tags for images and duplicate content. When SEO is improved, then it creates a drastic impact on the website's visibility on the SERPs. 

f.Conversion Identification Opportunities 
Reviewing the website's landing pages and identifying the areas where users are dropping off before they complete the desired actions, is where the conversion opportunities can be identified. Therefore, a new website design iteration can be created to improve the conversion rates by building strategies for optimizing these areas. 

2. Understanding the Target Audience 
A successfully redesigned website requires a deep understanding of the target audience. To get closer to their needs, pain points and preferences - analyse user behaviour and preferences by means of website analytics and tracking. By applying these proven methods, you can better understand  the target audience: 

 a. Creating Detailed Visitor Personas 
Detailed visitor personas are created to represent the ideal visitor base according to the demographics interests, behaviors and pain points. When a client profile is created, then it's better to understand the audience segments because the design has been tailored to the visitors. 

b. Conducting Surveys 
Surveys are useful for gathering feedback directly from the website visitors. Questioning them about their browsing habits, preferences and what should be their preferred improvements on a website brings up fresh new ideas for redesigning a website. 

c. Utilizing Heatmaps and Session Recordings 
With the help of heatmaps and session recordings, the user interaction density on the website can be analyzed.  The heatmaps and session recording tool shows where the visitors are clicking, scrolling and hovering the most. These even provide real-time views of how users are navigating a website. 

d. Leveraging Analytics Tools 
Leveraging Analytics tools, like GA4, help in obtaining detailed technical reports covering site performance, visitor behaviour, and user experience. Whatever insights have been derived from Google Analytics data or any other tools, make the basis of the redesign. 

3. Brainstorming New Design Ideas Relevant To The Business And Its End-Customers 
Re-branding a website through website redesigning calls for brainstorming to discover a concept, graphic element ideas, aesthetics and typeface styles, originating from a mind map or a web. It's great to brainstorm about a web redesign, or initial design to spark a set of new different ideas and perspectives. Brainstorming is a great opportunity wherein the website designers and developers re-think deeply about the business and end-customers. 
These are the helpful pointers to go about discovering new ideas to redesign a website:

a. Fostering Creative Ideas Exchange 
Brainstorming sessions for website designers and developers to exchange ideas help them share innovative solutions and explore new design possibilities. 

b. Emphasizing On User-Centric Design 
By emphasizing user-centric design from the beginning till the end of the collaboration process, keeps the end-user experience at the front. It ensures the design decisions are aligned with user preferences and their needs. 

c. Agile Methodologies Implementation 
By implementing Agile methodologies, like Scrum or Kanban, collaboration and flexibility can be enhanced in the process. Agile frameworks enable incremental improvements and iterative feedback loops. 

d. Conducting Regular Design Review Sessions 
At the regularly conducted design review sessions, the designers can present their concepts to both developers and stakeholders. Through this practice, all the parties are kept aligned with the design direction and come up with valuable input. 

e. Encouraging Cross-Functional Learning 
Designers and developers deeply understand the roles and challenges of each other's roles when they are encouraged to cross-functional learning. Like this, the exchange of knowledge promotes empathy and collaboration. 

 f. Prioritizing Accessibility 
Accessibility has to be prioritized to ensure the redesigned website is inclusive and accessible to all users, along with those with disabilities. 

g. Testing Prototypes Together 
For receiving early feedback from both designers and developers, it's best to test the prototypes together. Through this collaborative approach, the potential issues can be identified and even allowed for quick adjustments. 

h. Using Version Control Systems 
With the use of Version Control Systems like Git, code management and efficient design changes become easier. In this manner, all team members work on the latest version which reduces the risk of conflicts. 

i. Addressing Technical Constraints Early 
When the technical constraints are identified early in the redesign process, then designers better understand the technical limitations and create solutions aligning with the available resources. 

4. Testing and Iterating 
To get the desired results, the website design has to be tested and iteratively improved. It can be done using a thorough testing program to identify potential usability issues with prevailing website iterations easier. 
There is better accessibility in website redesign testing through effective iteration control. It allows the testers to thoroughly assess each iteration. Each iteration of the redesign should clearly define its testing objectives by outlining the testing aspects with clarity. These include user navigation, effectiveness of CTA and page load times. 
Through A/B testing, different design variations can be compared and the better-performing elements can be identified. Through this approach, it's easier to make data-driven decisions and choose the most effective design options. 
It's necessary to test across multiple devices and browsers to ensure each web page as well as its site content is delivering a consistent experience for screen responsiveness and platforms. 
Consistency should be maintained with the overall design direction and to align decisions ensuring consistent brand identity in the overall website redesign. 
User-centric changes are to be prioritized on the basis of the received feedback. Because the users are not aware of the iterative process, hence, fixing user experience and customer complaints at the earliest is essential. 
Keeping focus on usability and user experience ensures the redesigned site is intuitive, can be navigated easily and provides a positive user journey. In this regard, surveys are to be conducted and heatmap tools should be used. 
A professionally done website redesign is the work of expertise and meticulous planning. The whole project is about understanding the audience, anticipating their needs and delivering a seamless browsing experience which compels them to be back for more. Regardless of the business size, it's always a wise decision to invest in top-notch website redesign services and keep your business ahead of the curve. So, no more outdated layouts. It's time for a great-looking digital presence that works wonders for the bottom line.