Start Fresh in 2010: A How To Guide on Redesigning Your Website for the New Year

Recently Marqui went through a complete web redesign to better represent who we are as a company and what products and services we can offer to our customers. We’re ecstatic about how it turned out. To celebrate our new website we’re going to write some consecutive posts with input from our entire team on the six crucial aspects of a website redesign to help anyone else out there who is planning a redesign for 2010. Today’s post is just a brief introduction about what we will be talking about in the future, and little bit about why you should think about redesigning your site as well.

Any website needs continuous improvement to be a worthwhile marketing tool. Too many sites on the web today look old and obsolete, which does nothing but degrade the company’s web presence and their brand authority in general. If you feel that your website is detrimental rather than advantageous for your brand and marketing strategies, perhaps it’s time for a redesign.

Before undertaking a redesign, it is important to determine why you’re doing one (and because you’re bored with your current site isn’t a good reason). Just because you look at your website everyday certainly doesn’t mean that your visitors do, so it is important to look at your site through the eyes of a first time visitor; does your site still come up lacking? If you’re not sure whether your site is still competitive or not, here are some good reasons to do a website redesign: 

1. The size of your website has grown dramatically. Most websites will continue to grow with your business. If your company and subsequently your website have grown significantly but you haven’t redesigned your site, some important information may be buried where potential customers won’t be able to locate it. 
2. You need to introduce a content management system (CMS). A website redesign is a good reason to revise and review the current content on your site to make sure it is still relevant. Implementing a CMS can help you keep your content fresh and compelling and can help your site get found more easily by search engines. 
3. Your website is too hard to navigate. If you’re beginning to feel like this is the case it is almost certainly time for a redesign. Often, navigation issues arise when the amount of content on a site grows but the website design doesn’t. You need to evaluate how easy it is for customers to locate information and take the next steps towards buying your product. 
4. Your site design doesn't reflect your current business objectives. As companies expand and evolve so do their business objectives and brand. Does your current website communicate the depth of your business? Does it portray your current brand message? If you have changed your services, added new products or changed the scope of your business in general and are still using the same site design, you’re not doing your business justice.

1. Website Audit
2. Site Design: Brand and Theme
3. Content Creation Strategy
4. Usability and Navigation Planning
5. SEO Strategy
6. Maintenance Schedule

Posted by Amberlie Denny at March 1, 2010 10:05 AM

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