Your website is one of your most powerful and useful marketing tools. As time goes on, design changes and technology advances, nudging you and your company to consider a new website design to stay current.
With many factors, steps, and costs to consider, starting a redesign project or building a brand new site can get a bit overwhelming, even if it isn’t your first time.
That’s why we have pulled together this post. Keep reading to get answers to the most frequently asked questions we hear from clients regarding kicking off a new website redesign.
Do I really need a website redesign? How do I begin?
The first place to start is to determine if your site needs a website redesign is to assess your business needs and see if your website syncs up.
Ask yourself some of the following questions to be better prepared when you meet with a web agency about finding the right solution for your company’s project:
- Is my site functioning properly?
- Do I need more than one new page layout template to accomplish our goals?
- Is our site design or content out-of-date?
- Does our website accurately represent my company?
- Is my target audience visiting my website? Do they find it useful?
- Have our services or products changed? Do we need to rework our site structure to account for more products or services than when we first started?
- Are we happy with our current web design agency?
Learn what you need to know to manage an effective website redesign project.
How long does it take to redesign a website?
It depends. There are many variables involved that influence the length of your project. Some of these factors include:
- The size of the website
- The CMS you choose to use
- Any custom or advanced features that need to be added
- When content is ready
- Your feedback and input on the work
The most important thing to remember is everything is interrelated. While even the best website design firms can help adjust timelines, staying on schedule is key to keeping to your desired timeline.
My target audience has changed. How should we adjust our site to fit their needs and goals?
First, find out who is currently visiting your website using basic analytics. You’ll want to do a bit of discovery work to define and describe the “persona” of your target audience.
Once you’ve compared who you are reaching and who you want to reach, you may need to adjust your content, structure, navigation, and design to better suit the audience you are trying to reach.
Should we set up and use a web analytics tool?
Linking your site with an analytics tool is important for understanding how your marketing efforts are working, user behavior, and so much more.
Consistently evaluating your site’s analytics will help you better understand your audience and adjust your marketing strategies as necessary.
Our website is hard to use on smartphones. What do we have to do to make sure our new site looks good on all screen sizes?
Today, more than ever, building websites to be compatible and responsive on mobile is key to any great website. When redesigning your website, you and your agency should plan to build it for mobile users.
While it sounds like this may be an item to leave to the developer, you’ll need to work as a team to develop how the site will be experienced and found on different devices.
Do we need to have all of our content prepared before contacting an agency?
Not at all! While it is great to be prepared with ideas and needs, the website content may often shift as the project begins. In discovery, you can find your users, outsiders, and even employees will all need a unified way to be communicated to.
Additionally, if your content isn’t working on your current site, we’ll want to get it on the right track and do some re-writes to make sure you’re representing your brand and reaching the people you want.
How important is website accessibility?
Very important. You want your website to be a simple and seamless experience. If you don’t make sure your website is accessible, you’re excluding a significant portion of the population.
What is search engine optimization, and do I need it on my site?
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is necessary for improving how a website ranks on search engines (e.g., Google and Bing). Without SEO, your prospects and customers won’t be able to find you. Ensuring your website includes the best coding practices and integrates smart SEO is key to any great website.
There’s a lot to learn about SEO. Here are a few resources from our blog:
- An introduction to schema and how to use it on your website
- 5 steps to improving your local SEO ranking
- SEO for web developers: A beginner’s guide
Use this tool to start planning a new website that will drive long-term digital marketing success.
After the redesign, am I done?
While the hardest part of the process may be over, you’ll want to continue making edits to the live site. A website redesign can be just as ineffective as the site prior if the proper updates aren’t continued after launch.
What to expect when you partner with TBH Creative
While we’ve given you some general frequently asked questions when starting a website redesign, here are some specific notes about what it’s like to work with our team at TBH Creative.
How does the website redesign process with TBH Creative work?
It all starts with a business or company reaching out for our services through our online submission or making a call to our office. Once you provide some basic info about your needs and goals, we’ll schedule a call with our sales team to determine fit.
I’m not local to the Indianapolis area. Can we still start a project with you?
Yes! We’ve worked with clients all over the country. We’re great at communicating via phone, email, and video.
Read interviews about how the website design process works with our out-of-state clients:
What platform does TBH Creative use to build websites?
We’ve created new websites built on content management systems from WordPress to the Rock RMS, and we also offer our own easy-to-use CMS.
What do our clients like best about using TBH Creative’s CMS? We built it so that its users don’t need to know HTML or have any website editing experience to manage their websites. Our CMS is as easy to use as standard word processing software.
Starting a website redesign is a big undertaking. The best projects always start with defining needs, making strategic plans, and partnering with the right website company. While it’s not an easy process, it creates a stronger foundation for the following steps and sets up clients to reach online success.
