Your website is the virtual storefront of your business.Your website is often the first impression a person gets of your business and you know what they say about first impressions: They’re important. So, naturally, you’d want that first impression to be a sleek, quick-loading, and easy-to-use experience. What it takes to redesign and optimize a website?
The first step in a redesign is setting goals for your site that will make it better. It should be something deeper than just an aesthetic overhaul; a complete rethinking of how the site works. You’ll need to set goals about improvements in more traffic, more conversions, better optimization for conversions, and a plan for types of content.
You’ve noticed that most of these goals tend to be numbers focused. That’s for good reason because one of our goals for the website is to maintain a data-driven redesign strategy. We don’t do things for the sake of doing them, we do things because the numbers point in that direction. We design your site with these numbers in mind. If the data says your audience is going to certain pages or that most of your leads come from other pages, we can use that information to tailor a streamlined website that fits your company, your brand, and your customers.
When building a site, one of the major things we look to implement and improve is the user experience. This includes things like the smoothness of the site, organization, the overall flow and if it makes sense. The last thing you want is for somebody to get lost or frustrated by the site which usually results in them leaving it. This is measured by tracking your bounce rate which measures how quickly people are leaving your site. The goal of a well-functioning site is a low bounce rate which equates to people spending more time on your site rather than coming and going immediately.
As included in the Bandersnatch episode of Coffee Talks, you want your site to be easy to follow for your users and provide many branches on your conversion path. Everybody is unique, and every user wants something different. This behooves you to provide as much information as you can and produce content in all forms, such as blogs, videos, social media, etc. Improving and smoothing out your conversion path will make it easier on your future customers.
All the numbers, data, and information underneath the surface walk hand-in-hand with a visual overhaul, as well. We’ll work closely with you and your team to make sure your website represents your business and brand in the ways you want.
With that, be sure you know that this process is a two-way street. As much work as we’ll do, we expect the same from our partners. A typical redesign should take 8-10 weeks and that’s with both sides contributing efficiently. As much as you will rely on us to build the site, we’ll rely on you to provide information and feedback so we can digitally represent your business as best as we can.
Work doesn’t stop after launch day, either. Part of being a data-driven team means constantly watching and reporting the data to continue to improve the site over time. With constant advances in tech, features, and SEO, it’s a death sentence to stay complacent with a website.
Building a website is a team effort, both our team’s and yours, but being able to reap the benefits of a beautiful, streamlined website is worth all the time and effort that it takes.
Watch the full series now, check out last week's blog, and be sure to check back every Friday for another edition of Coffee Talks!