Guest Post By Mary Johnso .Want to get involved ?
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Are you considering redesigning your website? Whether you’re changing the nature of your site, or it’s simply time for a little update, there are some important things to keep in mind when undergoing a redesign.
First of all, why are you doing this redesign in the first place? Think about what the purpose of this project is, and lay out some goals that you want to fulfill in this redesign. Do you want it to be more visually pleasing? Do you need it to be easier to navigate? Is it outdated and loading slowly? Are you trying to optimize it for search engine results? Whatever the purpose is, it’s important to have a clear vision in mind of what you want to accomplish with this redesign.
Once you have the overall vision in mind, you can consider how big of an undertaking this project will actually be. Will this be a complete overhaul, changing features, maybe rewriting your code base entirely, and giving the website an entirely new look? Or is it just simple visual redesign on the surface – reformatting and redesigning the look, updating the content, but not completely redoing the site. For this, it’s important to consider both what you want to accomplish, and what budget you have available.
First of all, why are you doing this redesign in the first place? Think about what the purpose of this project is, and lay out some goals that you want to fulfill in this redesign. Do you want it to be more visually pleasing? Do you need it to be easier to navigate? Is it outdated and loading slowly? Are you trying to optimize it for search engine results? Whatever the purpose is, it’s important to have a clear vision in mind of what you want to accomplish with this redesign.
Once you have the overall vision in mind, you can consider how big of an undertaking this project will actually be. Will this be a complete overhaul, changing features, maybe rewriting your code base entirely, and giving the website an entirely new look? Or is it just simple visual redesign on the surface – reformatting and redesigning the look, updating the content, but not completely redoing the site. For this, it’s important to consider both what you want to accomplish, and what budget you have available.
Now that you have some end goals in mind, go through your website as it currently is, and determine which elements can stay, and which need to go. Do you have excellent content, but a poor layout? Figure out how you can keep this well-written content, but in a design that’s more amenable to your future goals for the site. Are you an e-commerce site with an easy to use checkout page, but nothing else works? Keep the checkout page, or at least the basic functionality of it, and redesign the rest. Are you a free classifieds or ads site, and it’s easy to register for and post to your site, but impossible to navigate. Keep in mind, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, so it’s important to distinguish what does work and what does not work in your current design.
Once you have these elements in mind, it’s time to move ahead with your redesign. Bring on board a professional developer whom you trust to let you know what is and what is not possible, and how much it will cost you. If the redesign will affect functionality of your site in the interim, develop a plan to let readers know, so you don’t lose business while working on the site.
A website redesign can be an enormous boost for your business, just make sure you go about it in a smart and efficient way!
By Guest Author - Mary Johnso writes for Free classifieds website Sahipasand.com .
with classifieds ranging from used cars to real estate and jobs