Website Revamp: The Ultimate Guide to Modernizing Your Site
Published June 17th, 2021
Do you need a new website or is your existing website worthy of another look? Why would you want to do this? Will this guarantee success?
Your website is the online representation of your business. Whether you’re providing products or services, it is in your best interest to keep it updated.
Let’s discuss the importance of revamping your website.
Like most website owners, achieving success with their website isn’t entirely a sure thing. So many things can go wrong. Let’s look at the factors why website owners eventually abandon their online presence.
Factors That Could Lead to a Much Needed Website Revamp
Your Website is Outdated
It happens. Websites that have been up for 2 or more years usually end up with outdated info. You could have lost interest in updating it or you don’t have any content uploaded. This makes your site look dated and stagnant. This usually ends up in people getting bored with your website and moving on to other more dynamic sites.
People Find Your Website Unappealing
Look at the websites made in the early 90s and the more recent ones you find today. No doubt about it, if you haven’t updated your website to conform to today’s standards, people will find it unappealing. That splash page that made you popular a few years back could be irritating to people who just want to get directly to the meat and potatoes of your website.
A website revamp can cut out all of the unnecessary fat attached to your old website and make it more streamlined to today’s taste and preference.
There are two ways to go about this. Either you go for a website rebrand (or redesign) or you could do a website revamp. Each one has its pros and cons.
A redesign is a great way to breathe new life into your website. The downside to that is the attached costs to creating a new logo, a new look, and a new feel. It could also turn off your loyal customer base especially if the change is too rapid for their taste.
A website revamp on the other hand is a slower process but it will help ease your customers to the changes you implement. You can do this in batches or stages of development. This can help you maintain your identity and still update your website so that it conforms to modern standards.
Both can be done by you or by a website designer who is skilled in creating amazing websites with compelling content and dynamic features.
At this stage, it is entirely up to you. The only major setbacks at this point is the budget you have allotted for the changes to be made and the timeframe you want this done.
Let’s say you want to save a ton of money and hold off on the redesign and focus on the website revamp. Here are the steps how:
Plan Your Revamp by Looking at Your Website with a Critical Eye
What do you hope to achieve with revamping your site? Do you want to update it so that it conforms to modern standards? Do you want to fix the dead links?
Take a critical look at your website and note what you want to improve. This can be done in stages of development. You can start with the basic pages like Home, About Us and Contact pages. These are the most crucial pages to update at this time. These are also the pages the webcrawlers look at on the outset.
Most people at this stage find it hard to let go of pages and content they’ve created over the years. It’s time to let go of sentimentality and get down to improving your most basic pages first.
Delete Unwanted Pages and Information
The reason why people do a website revamp is to streamline it and make it more current. Thus the need to delete unwanted pages and information. You can save those pages and information and try to update it in the future if you want. But for now, you will have to be a sadist and just get rid of them.
Create a New Web Structure and Layout
We’re looking for optimum efficiency at this point. Find out what pages you need and create a layout or web structure to make the user’s experience better when they visit your site.
You can start out with a few pages and build it from there. As long as you have your Home, Contact us and About page, you’ll be set.
Update Your Logo and Graphic Design
This is the best time to update your logo and the overall look of your website. All you need is a good graphic designer to help you create a more appealing brand image. There are many sites like Fiverr and Craigslist where you can find great graphic designers to help you.
Create a Content Calendar
Since the objective of your website revamp is to remain current a good content calendar and management plan will help you fill your “new site” up with relevant information.
Plan how you want to publish your content and keep a schedule so your customers know when to visit you and maximize the returns of their continued patronage.
Test Your Site
It’s always best to test your site before letting the public see it. Nothing says amateur louder than an incomplete website when someone visits you.
There are sandbox programs that you can test your website on before you go live. Make sure you navigate through all of the pages and check on the content you release.
Update Your Server
Move all of your old files to a folder and update your website by fixing its structure. You can do this easily if you’re using Wordpress or update it by FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP will require you to have your revamped website completely structured on your desktop for easy transfer.
Double check to ensure everything on the server is updated so that people visiting your revamped website won’t receive an Error 404 or dead links.
Go Live
Finally, it’s time to unveil your “new” baby to the rest of the world. Hit publish and let customers old and new enjoy your revamped website.
And there you go!
At the end of this, if you still want to do a website redesign, you can do that in the future. Think of your website revamp as a stepping stone that your loyal customers can easily follow to get to the new you.
Hire The Digital Marketing Experts
Here at Correct Digital we take online businesses and turn them into online empires through smart online marketing strategies and procedures. Our team of digital marketing experts are trained in SEO to help you rank higher in search results and ad management to ensure your message gets seen by the people you want. Need a new website? We also specialize in website design and online sales optimization to help your business grow like never before.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chester Canonigo left the corporate world to pursue writing as a career. Ten years in the industry and he still hasn’t looked back.
