This guide will help prepare your team for the website redesign process.

1. Analyze the competition

The first things first with a redesign (or even a new website design), is to look at your competition. Once you’ve identified a few competitors you can analyze their sites. What are they doing really well that has people talking about them? What are they doing that doesn’t seem to be attracting attention? You can pull inspiration from what works while staying away from what doesn’t.

🌶Hot Tip:

Don’t only look at who your competitors are today. Dream big and look to the big companies in your market.

2. Roadmap for content

You want to start your new site on a solid footing. Begin with a wireframe, an image that displays the functional elements of a website or page. It will help you identify what type of content belongs on each page for the designs stage.

It will also help to determine which CMS is right for your needs. Having a wireframe will help your design and development team point you towards the platform that will be the best for your organization.

3. Research & design for those who use your site

Knowing who your audience is and why they come to your site is important. Are they coming to your site for help or information; do they read and share your blog posts on social media often? Do they look at your site on their mobile phones; are they viewing it on a computer? Your small business or nonprofit website design can incorporate these aspects.

🌶Hot Tip:

Having an accessible design for all types of devices and including social media integration will make you a superstar.

4. Optimize for SEO & Analytics

Last but not least make your site easy to find via search engine optimization (SEO). You want to show it off to the world not hide it. If you don’t know where to start, Moz has a helpful SEO guide.

It’s important to collect, understand, and use data to track the site’s performance. The best way to do this is with the holy grail of data management: Google Analytics. This free tool, tracks what devices people use to get to your site, how long they stay, what sources bring in the most visitors, and much more. Business.com has a great introduction article to the boundless world of Google Analytics.

By collecting data, you are equipping your organization with the knowledge of what is working and what doesn’t.