Every so often, web owners in McKinney, Allen, Plano and Frisco need to review and assess their website. This is important because trends AND technology used in web design have never changed as often as they are now.

We also recommend that every couple of years, your Frisco website should undergo a major “redo”. This is important in order to maintain a fresh appearance for your company.

Many web owners launch their website, then never touch it. If this is your, it will appear that your company is behind the times to anyone who visits your website. Since online marketing channels and SEO is constantly evolving, you have to stay current or risk losing your position to a competitor who’s on top of their game and has an updated site.

Other reasons like migrating to a new content management system or rebranding your company can also serve as motivation for re-designing your website.

When planning and implementing your McKinney website redesign, there are many things to consider. Following are 10 important items you should be thinking about when doing this all-important task.

8 Important Points to Consider when Redesigning your Website

1. Website metrics – before you even begin, evaluate your current site’s performance to see where you stand. Metrics, such as Google Analytics, include number of visitors, click-thru-rate, bounce rate, time on site, current SEO rankings and more.
2. Website goals – have a solid reason for re-designing your site beyond “it’s been awhile.”  Redesigning your Plano website should be more about how your site works rather than how it looks. Integrate your reasons with your metrics and be sure you clearly communicate this to your web designer.
3. Account for your current site’s assets – many web designers fail to consider how a re-design can hurt more than it helps. For example, you may have a page on your existing site that does very well and has lots of inbound links. Losing this page could do great damage to your position in the search engines. Important assets you need to be sure you preserve may include – most shared/viewed content, most visited pages, best performing keywords and number of inbound links to individual pages.
4. Review your competition – while it isn’t wise to obsess about what your competitors are doing, it can be very helpful to understand where they may be outfoxing you. Use readily available tools to review competitor’s site so you can learn the strengths and weaknesses of each. Don’t copy your competition but instead learn from it and use it as an opportunity to learn where you can improve your site.
5. Optimize your site for SEO – hopefully you’ve got all the tools for building search engine rankings but it’s amazing the sites we encounter who don’t. If your changing from one style of website to a new style, be certain to include 301 re-direct strategy to ensure you don’t lose any of that traffic or value.
6. Call to Action – these are the elements in your site’s content and design that motivate a visitor to take action – be it to click ‘buy’ or simply provide their email address or download a whitepaper. Your website shouldn’t be static but rather should motivate someone to take action. Examples of good opportunities for conversions include: free whitepaper, contests/promotions, product purchases, free trial, etc.
7. Include a means for “Fresh Content” – have an ongoing content development strategy, such as promotional BLOG articles posted on your site on a regular basis.  Google values “fresh content” and the best way to accomplish this is by writing and implementing weekly promotional BLOG articles.
8. Include extras – any website built today should include basic elements like a homepage, product page(s), an About Us page, FAQ page and a Contact Us page. So you should go well beyond these basics to make your website standout.

1. A blog for example is a great way to provide important information on an ongoing basis.
2. You can also include landing pages for lead generation
3. Add RSS capability
4. Include social sharing buttons on all your pages

This list of 8 things to consider when redesigning your Plano website isn’t meant to be exhaustive. Each business and industry is unique. Much of what determines the success of a redesign occurs before you actually do the work. Many website owners get caught up in how the site looks rather than how it works.

Following these 8 recommendations though will ensure you’re well prepared to successfully re-design your website.

North Texas Web Design provides McKinney Web Design and Carrollton Web Design for businesses in the North Texas area including Plano and Frisco. We provide web services at an exceptional value: Professional, affordable, and designed with your goals in mind.  Call us today for website maintenance, hosting, web design and SEO services.