By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team

One of my favorite movies is Marathon Man, starring Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman. In a classic scene, protagonist Olivier asks Hoffman, “Is it safe?” while holding a dental drill to his front tooth. This gruesome scene reminded me of another equally painful question, “Is it time?” — time to redesign and rebrand your website.

If one asks the question, the answer is usually yes. Here are a few convincing reasons why a redesign is in your best interest: perhaps your company has outgrown the current site; your image has changed along with your product and services and the site doesn’t fully reflect the scope of your company; the functionality is outdated along with the look, feel and navigation; or you need a fresh new brand image to re-energize your productivity.

10 Guidelines to a Successful Website Redesign

The Web Success Team has just launched our newly redesigned and rebranded website. Over the years we added pages, tweaked content, and modified the existing site to keep it current. We reached a point where we realized it wasn’t adequately representing our company today and we needed to make a change now. The process was challenging but rewarding because it caused us to examine our services and refocus on our core business. During the process, we developed 10 guidelines that may help you make the transition more effectively:

• Website Assessment: Objectivity is the key. Get independent assessments from online marketers, peers, customers, and vendors that use your site. They will point out the pros and cons that could be incorporated into the new site.
• Strategic Marketing Goals: You should clearly define your strategic goals and objectives: What do you want to accomplish with the new website; what messages and image do you want to convey to the viewer.
• Analyze the Competition: It is good to review several competitor sites to see how you can improve yours. We also reviewed sites that we found engaging.
• Budgeting: This is no time to cut corners. Your website is your best return on investment. It is your Internet sales force and the digital face of your company to your prospective customers.
• Rebranding: Now may be a good time to rebrand your image along with your website. Perhaps a new logo, tagline and colors, repositioning your company image along the lines of your unique selling proposition – what makes you stand out from your competition.
• Redesign: There are many designs to present your company and its products and services. The current designs are incorporating a modular approach where visitors can quickly see your selling points in portals to direct customers to key pages. Our Web Success Team incorporates this type of navigation. A content management system should be part of the redesign, so you can easily update your site without technical assistance.
• Direct Response Content: Your website content should be rewritten to be about the visitor experience. They are looking for benefits and advantages, reasons to contact you. Another key component is keyword rich content so your site can be effectively search engine optimized and more visible to Google and Yahoo. Finally, any site should have social media icons on the home page, so visitors can connect with you on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.
• Offers and Promotions: Some of the most visited pages are ones that offer specials, promotions or incentives. If you use this category, make sure the incentives are credible and not gratuitous – offer real value.
• AB Split Testing: In launching your site, you may want to do AB split testing in which you test 2 versions of the home page. The changes may be dramatic or subtle: from tweaking content and offers to a different look and navigation structure.
• Analytics: The days of finger in the wind are over. Use analytics to track site activity on each page, analyze the statistics and adjust your site accordingly. Remember even with a new redesign, your site should be updated periodically with fresh new content.

Our Experience May Help You

Having just gone through the process of redesigning and rebranding our website, the journey has been rewarding. We are getting positive feedback from our visitors, added attention to our services, and the statistics show people are spending more time reviewing the site and contacting us. Hopefully, our experiences will help motivate you review your site and ask yourself, “Is it time?” Contact us if you would like an complimentary marketing assessment of your website and our suggestions on how to improve its performance. To your web success!

Grow Your Business Online: These tips are meant to be used as a guideline to improve traffic to your site, increase your conversion rates, help turn visitors into buyers, and keep you ahead of the competition. Turning to a web marketer can ultimately save you time and money and increase your success online. The Web Success Team has many proven marketing strategies and techniques. The Team would be happy to discuss your web marketing needs with a complimentary consultation and web marketing assessment of your current site. Simply mention this article when contacting bob@websuccessteam.com or call 818-222-5643 for an appointment. Please visit our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter for more information. To your web success!