It’s been a few years since you first set yourself up online, and a lot has changed since then. Your online business has grown, maybe even changed direction a little, and it’s time for a website redesign. It’s imperative that your site broadcasts the right message to your potential clients. You want your website to attract your ideal client and tell people what you and your business are really about. Do not overlook the importance of your site’s design…this can often make or break a potential client’s decision to work with you.
Before you even consider reaching out to or engaging with a web designer (or writing a single line of code if you’re DIYing it) you need to prepare for this project. This will make your life, and your web designer’s, so much easier! A lot of thought and detail goes into a website redesign, so the better equipped you are, the better the end result will be. Keep reading to discover the best ways to prepare for your website redesign.
Three Essential Items To Gather For a Website Redesign
It’s no use throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks…you need to have a solid plan of action for your website redesign. To make sure your website redesign lives up to everything you dream (and more) make sure you’re prepared by gathering up:
- Your business plan
- Your marketing plan
- Your brand style guide
Why are these so important? We’re so glad you asked! In order for your web designer to get a clear picture of how a website redesign can best serve you and your business, they first need to know your plans. Knowing your business and marketing plans will help a web designer redesign your site in such a way that is geared towards helping you achieve your business and marketing goals.
Having a brand style guide is often overlooked by businesses…if you don’t already have one, it would be worthwhile to get one together. This will ensure that your web designer (and anyone else you work with) keeps inline with your brand’s style so your business can easily be recognized across the internet.
But What If You Don’t Have The Three Essentials for a Website Redesign?
If you don’t already have the above, fear not! In the absence of a business plan, marketing plan and brand style guides, you should compile a detailed list of the following:
- Your short and long term business goals
- Any marketing you’re currently doing and marketing you have planned for the future, including offers
- Your current and ideal clients
- Your direct and indirect competitors
- Terms and keywords people search for to find your business
- Projects you have previously completed and case studies
- Testimonials and reviews from previous clients and people you have worked with
Why is all of this information important to a web designer? If your site is going to help you achieve your goals, your designer needs to know what those are!
Knowing what marketing you’re doing will help your web designer redesign a site that supports your marketing efforts and offers within a funnel help convert online visitors into paying customers.
Information on clients and competitors will enable your designer to gear the site towards your ideal clients while at the same time, helping you to stand out from your competition.
Keywords and phrases are important for any web-based project because this is how you’re going to be discovered online by potential clients.
Previous projects and client testimonials are social proof. You definitely want your web designer to be clued up on this so they can include this all-important information in your website redesign.
Other Things You Need For a Website Redesign
In addition to your business and marketing plans, it’s going to be incredibly helpful to your web designer if you can provide them with the following:
- Three websites you like and reasons why you like them – a secret Pinterest board is great for this! However, if you’re not comfortable with Pinterest, consider creating a Google Document or Google Doc so you can easily share it with your designer.
- Three websites you dislike and reasons why you don’t like them – you can compile this in the same manner as the sites that you do like.
- Your brand colors – include as much information as you can. RGB numbers, HEX codes and named colors, if they exist. If you don’t know what these terms mean, ask your designer—they’ll be happy to share that information with you.
- Your brand fonts – bonus points if you can detail where to find them (Google Fonts, Adobe, etc).
- Your business’s logo – make sure you share these as high-resolution vector files. If you don’t have these logo files, ask your designer to include the creation of these in their proposal. Consider setting up a shared Google folder or Dropbox so you can easily share all this information in one place.
- Systems login information – your web designer is going to need access to your domain, web hosting and possibly your Google accounts. Make sure you gather up this information or better still, share your login credentials with them via LastPass. This is a safe and secure way to share login information without having to give out your passwords.
The Most Important Thing You Need For a Website Redesign
If you haven’t had a chance to think about it yet, make sure you’re clear on the goals you want your new website to achieve. These should be related to and supportive of your business and marketing goals.
Ask yourself, “What are the three main actions I want a user to take on my site?” Knowing this and being able to articulate it to your web designer will help them design a site that will aid you in reaching these goals.
Prepare For Your Website Redesign!
Getting your site redesigned is an exciting time! But you don’t want to jump into this head first without a plan. There’s a lot more to a successful site redesign than meets the eye. In order to get the best redesign possible, make sure you gather up all the necessary information before you reach out to your local web designer. This will save both of you a lot of time and make the whole process a lot smoother and more enjoyable. Preparation is a key part of an amazing website redesign!
Once you have all your information together, don’t forget to book a complimentary 15-minute call with us via our online scheduler at virtuallynat.com/chat to get started!
Oh and before you go…
Want to start writing the content for your new website? Check out our article on Writing SEO Friendly Content in 5 Easy Steps.
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