6 Things to Think About When Redesigning Your Website

6 Things to Think About When
Redesigning Your Website

Sometimes your web site may need to be redesigned – you may have changed your look, information to be included in the web site, or just feel like a change. When undertaking a redesign, there are six important factors you should take into account.

1. Users shouldn’t have to learn

New visitors to your site – whether it’s on its first redesign or its tenth – shouldn’t have to learn how to use your site. You may want to introduce a new look and feel, but users that come to your site should feel comfortable with navigation and useability.

2. Make it simple

A site that focuses on being eye-catching might get a first-time visitor’s attention, but beware of a site that takes a long time to load or has convoluted navigation.

Return visitors will quickly become frustrated trying to find a page they know exists somewhere on your site. Think long-term with regard to maintainability and useability.

3. Consider the relaunch

The best time to turn on a new site is when you have the fewest visitors. Analyse log files of the previous few months to determine whether launching on an early weekend morning or a late weekday night would be the least disruptive.

4. Don’t let URLs die

If your web site has been indexed by search engines, you do not want to start changing the name of your pages, as users will be sent to an error page. Try and keep the page names the same, and if you are deleting a file, think about adding a redirection facility.

5. Take Time to consider the small things

Small things often help bring visitors back. Does your site have an inconsistent voice – first person in some places, third person in others? Has there been one somewhat buried section that you’d like to bring up higher in the site’s design? And do you have e-mail addresses posted on your site that end in domains other than your own?

Ensuring consistency through your site will help keep visitors over the long term.

6. Update regularly

You may be using your web site to provide information to your clients or friends and family. Visitors come and go regularly when the content is updated on a regular basis. Even if you don’t have regular updates on your web site, you may still want to check if any external URLs you have on your site are still active.

Coral Computers can help with the redesign of your web site. If you would like more information, please contact Coral Computers on 02 9870 7777. We can also provide Hosting for your web site, to find out more call us, or visit us at http://www.coralhosting.com.au.