5STEPSTOASUCCESSFULWEBSITEREDESIGN

B R I D G E L I N E D I G I T A L . C O M 5 S T E P S T O A S U C C E S S F U L W E B S I T E R E D E S I G N 2

INTRO

5STEPSTOASUCCESSFULWEBSITEREDESIGNRedesigningyourwebsite?Don’tknowwheretostart?Not to

worry, we’ve got you covered. By the 3me you finish reading

this 5 step guide, you’ll have a solid plan to get you on your way to a brand new site. Get ready to a?ract, engage, nurture and convert your visitors! There are many good reasons for a site redesign. Whether sprucing up the look and feel of your site or improving

func3onality, most sites could use a refresh every now and then. Commerce is shiFing more and more online each year. In

fact, now 81% of consumers will research a company website before making a purchase (RetailingToday). Chances are they’re

even looking up your compe3tors. Your website gives visitors a strong first impression of your company. You want to makesure your site provides the assurance that your company ishealthy, forward-thinkingandready fornewcustomers. It is integral to the ongoing success of your organiza3on.

TOPREASONSTOREDESIGNYOURWEBSITE1.   Itlooksoutdated.

Mostbusinessesupdatetheirsitesevery3-7years.

2.   ItneedsupdaNng.ItdoesnotreflectyourlatestbusinessandmarkeAngstrategy.

3.   Itisnotresponsive.Itdoesnotprovideaseamlessexperienceacrossalldevices.

4.   Itishardtonavigate.Itprovidesapooruserexperience.

5.   Itcan’tbeupdated.ItishardtoaddnewcontentoropAmizeforSEO.

6.   Itdoesn’twork.FeaturesonthesitedonotfuncAonproperly.

AnNcipaNngabrandnewwebsitethatcanalso

funcNonasyour24/7leadgeneraNonmachine

makestheredesignanenjoyableandexciNng

experience.

81% ofconsumerswillresearchacompanywebsitebefore

makingapurchase.(RetailingToday)

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5STEPS

1

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

2

PLAN FOR USER EXPERIENCE

3

ESTABLISH CONTENT HIERARCHY

4

SET FOUNDATION FOR LONG-TERM GROWTH

5

POST LAUNCH STRATEGY

Learn how you can manage your en3re digital experience without limita3ons.

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FIRSTASK:HowcanyournewwebsitesupportyouroverallmarkeNngefforts?This is a commonly overlooked aspect of a redesign. Didyouknowyourwebsitecantriggersuccessinbrandawareness,socialmediamarke=ng,emailmarke=ng, lead genera=on and sales? Ask yourself what are the goals for the redesign and how your business will benefit in the long run.

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STEP1GOALS&OBJECTIVES

A Content Management System (CMS) is a pla4orm that allows non-technical users to manage content, trigger automated marke>ng func>ons and access analy>cal data on a single back-end interface. The best part about a good CMS system is that it helps users op>mize the way their business interacts with customers in an increasingly online world; leveraging the most important digital channel – their website - to do so.

GOA L & O B J E C T I V E E X AMP L E S •  ImproveSiteFuncQonalityonMobile

•  IncreaseNewLeads/FormSubmissions•  IncreaseSalesGenerated•  IncreaseNumberofSiteVisitors

•  ImproveBounceRate•  ImproveSearchEngineOpQmizaQon•  ImproveBrandAwareness

OUTLININGYOURGOALSEstablish your goals as the first step of yourwebsite redesign.These goals will

determine how the project will progress. If you have mul3ple goals, put them in priority

order. Tie each goal to a specific metric so you can measure success. If your goal is to generate more leads by increasing traffic to your site, you could say you want to increase traffic by 30% over the next four months. Once you’ve got your goals set, communicate them to all people involved in your redesign. You can even create a document to update

and share as the project moves forward.

PROTIP:Between outlining goals and diving into design, ask

yourself a bigger ques3on. Do you have the right Content Management System (CMS) powering your website? !

B R I D G E L I N E D I G I T A L . C O M 5 S T E P S T O A S U C C E S S F U L W E B S I T E R E D E S I G N

USEREXPERIENCEDESIGNUser Experience Design (UXD) is the process of enhancinguser saNsfacNon by improving the usability, accessibility orpleasure provided in interacNng with your website. In this

case, the user is your site visitor who is also your prospec3ve or current customer. Your new website should communicate products andservicesupfrontwhileguidingvisitors to completeoneor twomainobjec=ves,alsoknownascalls-to-ac=on.

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STEP2PLANFORUSEREXPERIENCE

Be sure to review wireframes with your design team to see how calls-to-ac3on will nurture and convert visitors and how your website will render on various devices (desktop, tablet, phone).

Forrester Research says that 75%ofweb visitorswho can’t find the informaNon theyneedwillseekanswersfrommorecostlysupportchannelssuchasphone,email,orchat.Theother25%ofwebvisitors respond in the followingway:16%findother soluNonsandtheremaining9%endupgoingtoyourcompeNNon(yikes!).

PRO TIP: Consumers may behave differently on each device so design

accordingly. Someone visi>ng your site on a mobile device may look for different informa>on than someone viewing from a desktop. More than 17% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices – a number that will only increase going forward (Sta>sta).

17% ofallwebsitetrafficcomesfrommobiledevices–anumberthatissureto

increase.

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INFORMATIONARCHITECTUREInformaNonArchitecture(IA)istheorganizaNonalstructureandlabelingofpagesandfoldersonyourwebsite.The goal

is to help users find informa3on and complete tasks efficiently. To do this, start by thinking about the priori3es of your site and what

visitors will need to see first. Outline how the informa3on fits together and relates to the overall purpose of the site.

It helps to iden3fy your UniqueValueProposiNon (UVP).AUVPdefines why your products or services are different from orbeker than thecompeNNon.You’ll need to know your UVP later on to develop your search engine op3miza3on strategy (SEO).

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STEP3ESTABLISHCONTENTHIERARCHY

Your homepage should give a high-level overview of your company and define yourUVP.Your naviga3on and the pages linked to your homepage are then sub-categories and so on. If your company sells cars, your homepage would explain why they should buy a car from you over

the compe33on. Then the pages linked to your homepage will describe the models of cars that you sell and so on.

Search Engine OpNmizaNon is the process of affec3ng the visibility of a website or web page in a search engine’s unpaid results – oFen referred to as “natural,” “organic,” “earned” or “unpaid” results.

Homepage

ABCCars

Company Blog

DetailsSub Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub

Category Category Category

Category 1

Category 2

Posts

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LAYOUTVERSATILITY&ADAPTABILITYMany studies find that companies redesign their websiteevery 2-3 years. Yet there’s a difference between a full website

overhaul and necessary tweaks to keep things func3onal, fresh and updated.

A full website overhaul is 3me-consuming and may include implemen3ng an en3rely new Content Management System. Make sure you do it right the first 3me around to extend the life3me of your website. So,howcanyoumakesureyourwebsitewillstandthetestof=me?Buildinanelementofadaptabilitytoyoursite.

There are two different ways to think about site adaptability. The first type is what we call being responsive or mobile-op3mized. The second way a site can be adaptable is by being built on a WYSIWYG

editor.

A responsive site recognizes the screen size of the device being used and automa3cally adapts the layout accordingly. Most sites

are built this way and it is a must-have for long-term strategy.

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STEP4SETFOUNDATIONFORLONG-TERMGROWTH

AWYSIWYGeditor stands forwhat-you-see-is-what-you-get.This typeofeditorenablesnon-technicalusers toedit andaddnewcontentwithouthaving to codeoroutsource toa third-party.Being able to make quick updates to your site, as well as add new pages and forms, means that you can present relevant informa3on and support your sales and marke3ng strategies.

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ENSURETHESUCCESSOFYOURNEWSITECongratulaNons! If you’re at this step, you’ve recentlylaunchedyournewwebsite.You’ve worked so hard to refresh

your online presence but you can’t just set it and forget it. Make sure your site con3nues to be successful by following these steps:

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STEP5CREATEAPOSTLAUNCHSTRATEGY

POSTLAUNCHSTRATEGY1.  Review analy3cs and set benchmarks to monitor performance.

2.  Op3mize for organic keyword performance.

3.  Align website content with business goals.

4.  Create an editorial calendar and publish new content.

5.  Check site health regularly.

Remember those goals you set in Step 1? Whether you wanted toincrease visitors or form submissions, you can track these analyNcs onyour live site!You can use Google Analy3cs to track data points that can tell you all about the health of your site and the new visitors you a?ract to it. A CMS and marke3ng system like Bridgeline Unbound takes this one step further to track data and deploy automated marke3ng campaigns to

nurture your leads all day, every day.

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Automation Flow Builder

Landing Pages

Lead Capture & Nurture

Segmentation & Targeting

Email Campaigns

Flexible Publishing

Enterprise Search

SEO Management

Publishing Workflows

Mobile Friendly

Faceted Catalog

Cart & Checkout

Shipping & Payments

Coupons & Promotions

Order & Inventory

Social Monitoring

Reputation Management

Drive Engagement

Schedule

Publish

Dashboards

Actionable Insights

Reporting

Optimization

Goal Tracking

UnifiedProductSuite

MARKETING CONTENT COMMERCE SOCIAL INSIGHTS

Manage your en3re digital experience without limita3ons.

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