Redesigning a website is a lot like remodeling a house. It’s a huge undertaking that raises all sorts of questions about what’s really important, what can be tossed aside and what’s just there for curb appeal.
Your key stakeholders can be like well-meaning family members who are all eager to offer advice but ultimately only care about the one area where they spend the most time (or where they think their guests will spend the most time). If it’s the kitchen, they don’t care what’s going on in the basement—until it floods, and they’re stuck cleaning it up.
Since the very act of making something better requires getting a little messy first, this can create a lot of uncertainty and stress. Like any good contractor, we want to ease you through the stressful phase so you can start seeing the benefits of your new home—well, website—right away. We do this by talking you through the process, providing reassurance and most importantly, answering your questions. While every website is unique, many of the same questions and concerns come up whether it’s a website for a small local business or a global corporation.
Here are five of the most common questions our clients ask about website redesigns.
When you’ve spent years building up a website, it’s daunting to think about starting all over. Here’s the good news: You don’t need to throw out all your existing content, and in most cases, you shouldn’t. (Here’s why.) But just as starting over completely can hurt your search results, it’s equally ineffective to put a bunch of window dressing on something that’s not working as well as it could.
If you already have a good handle on who your buyers are and what they need, a steady stream of solid leads coming in and a way to nurture them, you might only need to refresh the design of your site, rather than completing a complete overhaul. However, the majority of the companies who come to us do so because they need to see improvement in at least one, if not all of these areas.
If your website isn’t inbound-friendly, changing up the design scheme won’t be enough to attract and nurture the kinds of leads you want. This is where an inbound marketing agency like Kuno Creative can help. Our team approaches a website redesign from all angles, from the content strategy and graphic elements to structuring each page so customers will stay there, click and come back for more. We start any project by analyzing your existing content and comparing it to your competitors so you can use what’s working and rework what isn’t.
Many companies assume they know who they’re targeting, but very often, they don’t know enough about specific customers and what they need at each stage of the buying process.
It’s not enough to say you’re targeting healthcare providers. You need to know the key decision makers, their titles and their challenges. What questions do they have when they’re considering whether to buy your product or a competitor’s?
We seek to answer those questions with our buyer discovery process. Then we use the insights we uncover to determine how to guide each type of buyer through your website, whether they’re looking for more information or are seriously considering a purchase. You wouldn’t talk to a prospective customer the same way you’d talk to someone who has been buying for the past five years. In the same way, you should adjust your website content depending on who’s viewing it. To give you a better idea of how that might look, here are three examples of companies making the most of website personalization.
Web design trends have changed a lot even within the past few years. One example is the concept of keeping the most important content above the fold to eliminate the need to scroll. Now scrolling is expected with so many people navigating your website from their smartphones or tablets.
Here are a few quick pointers on what’s in and what’s out when it comes to website design.
Today’s best websites load quickly, speak to the needs of the buyer, offer a clear path and have responsive design elements. They’re also optimized for capturing and nurturing leads.
If you’re asking the question, you’re probably already aware of how important this is. More than 60 percent of all Americans now own a smartphone, and we’re increasingly using them to research solutions to our problems.
There are a few basics HubSpot reminds us to consider, including:
A better solution, however, is to incorporate responsive design so your site can adjust to any device.
One of the most important changes Google has made since the last time you updated your website is Google Hummingbird, the new algorithm that tries to match the intent of the person who’s searching with the most relevant content. More and more of us are typing in questions as we search, rather than a string of keywords or phrases. Adjusting your website content accordingly can boost organic traffic to your website.
But, as we mentioned earlier, don’t ignore the content you already have, or you’ll risk losing SEO value. Instead, take time to analyze the keywords that resulted in the most organic traffic, and look for the pages and calls to action that received the most clicks.
Before digging into a website redesign project, it’s important to determine what you want to accomplish and how you expect the new design to impact your bottom line. It’s not enough to realize you haven’t updated your site in a while and you want to make sure you’re keeping up with the latest trends.
Without a strategy and analytics to measure the impact, a website redesign is just like adding a few coats of paint to the living room. It looks striking and inviting, but it does little to actually make your home a better place to live.
What questions do you have about redesigning your company’s website? Ask them in the comments below.
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