You wouldn’t start a remodeling project on your home before having a clear plan of the work you want to do. In the same vein, it’s important to take the time to plan carefully before taking on a website redesign. Refreshing your content is vital, but you need to know how to handle things professionally and efficiently first. This guide can walk you through a few essentials.

Think About Your Clients

Some business owners think a great website starts with a layout of the necessary pages, but that’s not the first step. Before you touch a single web page, you need to take the time to think about your target audience. After all, they’re the most important online visitors you have.

Check out available statistics and perform research to learn more about the habits of your main customers. For example, what kind of problems, questions, or concerns do they have? What are their main goals when visiting your website? Another key question is whether the majority of people browse your website from a mobile device or PC.

Create Site Architecture That Improves the User Experience

This next step also contains a few surprises for many business owners. It involves designing the layout and organization of your website. This is called site architecture.

A common misconception is that the architecture should revolve around your brand’s identity. Again, that’s only half the story. In reality, your main goals should always revolve around making the shopping experience as enjoyable as possible for your key customers.

You don’t need a huge wall of text or flowery words for product pages. An image with bullet points is usually enough to get your point across.

Shoppers mainly want to know about features and benefits. When you keep your layout simple, clear, and functional, you make it easier for people to find what they need, which in turn makes them happier.

Invest in Quality Content

Resist the temptation to recycle all of your old content during a website redesign. While it’s OK to keep pillar pieces that are driving a lot of traffic, you generally get more benefits from replacing the majority of your content. Considering how much trends have changed over the years, it’s not surprising that up-to-date information is valuable.

Pages don’t need to be huge to be effective, but they do need trustworthy, high-quality information. You want visitors to trust your expertise. In fact, refreshing your main content regularly is a great way to boost overall traffic.

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