How do you execute a website redesign project?

1 Define your goals

Before you start any website redesign project, you need to define your goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve with your new website? Who are you trying to reach and how? How will you measure your success and return on investment? By answering these questions, you can create a clear vision and scope for your project, as well as align your website with your overall digital strategy and brand identity.

2 Conduct a website audit

The next step is to conduct a website audit, which is a comprehensive analysis of your current website's performance, content, design, usability, and SEO. A website audit will help you identify what works and what doesn't on your website, as well as the gaps and opportunities for improvement. You can use various tools and methods to conduct a website audit, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, heatmaps, user surveys, and competitor analysis.

3 Design your website

Once you have a clear understanding of your goals and your current website's strengths and weaknesses, you can start designing your new website. This step involves creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes that show how your website will look and function. You should also consider your website's information architecture, navigation, layout, typography, color scheme, images, and other visual elements. The design of your website should reflect your brand identity, as well as your user's needs and expectations.

4 Develop your website

After you have finalized your website design, you can move on to the development stage, where you turn your design into a functional website. This step involves coding, programming, and integrating your website with various platforms and tools, such as your content management system (CMS), your email marketing software, your social media accounts, and your analytics tools. You should also optimize your website for speed, security, accessibility, and SEO, as well as ensure that it is responsive and mobile-friendly.

5 Test your website

Before you launch your new website, you need to test it thoroughly to ensure that it works properly and meets your quality standards. Testing your website involves checking for errors, bugs, broken links, compatibility issues, usability issues, and performance issues. You should also test your website from different devices, browsers, and screen sizes, as well as from different locations and networks. You can use various tools and techniques to test your website, such as manual testing, automated testing, user testing, and A/B testing.

6 Launch your website

The final step is to launch your new website and make it live for your audience. This step involves transferring your website files from your development server to your live server, updating your domain name settings, and setting up redirects for your old URLs. You should also monitor your website's performance, traffic, conversions, and feedback after the launch, and make any necessary adjustments or improvements. Launching your website is not the end of your website redesign project, but rather the beginning of your ongoing website maintenance and optimization.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?