Nathan Yerian
Redesigning a website can be a rewarding endeavor if done for the right reasons. A redesigned site may look better in the end, but unless you plan for measurable marketing goals you may end up with less web traffic and less opportunities than you had with your old website. Incorporate these four points in your redesign to increase your website’s potential for greater traffic.
1. Utilize current assets – Your current website has certain assets that have caused either a positive or negative affect with search engines. The goal here is to isolate the aspects of your website that have provided value and be sure that they are included in the redesign.
For example, keywords your website currently has a high search engine rank for, content that led to this rank, inbound & outbound links that magnify the value of this content, and the navigation structure all need to be accounted for and analyzed for potential incorporation in your new website.
2. Plan for future content – Gone are the days of meta tags, and other behind the scenes SEO strategies getting your website to the first page in a Google search. Now it is all about content. By creating a strategy at the beginning of a website redesign to further your content, and its distribution, you are starting with a winning recipe.
Incorporating a blog into your new website design will set the stage for unlimited content additions, and a constant stream of fresh keyword rich content. More content, fresh posts, & relevant keywords are all favorably looked at by search engines. Additionally, if your content has real value, you are opening up opportunities for your website to secure more links. When readers find value in your content, they may link to your content, or use social bookmarking sites to recommend the content to others. These links will increase page rank, and traffic.
3. Plan to use Social Media – If your old website did not connect to social media, make sure your new site is ready to take advantage of these elements.
Social media components can expand the reach of your message exponentially. When you are creating your new VALUABLE blog content, plan to use your social media components as a distribution tool to increase the readership of this new VALUABLE content.
Proper use of social media can also positively affect your search engine ranking by creating an increased opportunity for backlinks. Some search engines are now including social media content in their page rank algorithm. Higher page rank = more visitors.
Many companies I speak to are actually afraid of social media. They think it is overwhelming, & time consuming. It doesn’t have to be.
If you are not currently using social media, plan to adopt a strategy that incrementally incorporates selected social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) one at a time. This will make it an easier transition and narrow the learning curve of each platform.
4. Plan to Change – If you are redesigning your website to increase your traffic, make a plan for continual improvement. Keep track of how visitors found your site, what they visited while on your site, and what potentially made them leave the site. This is easy with Google Analytics integrated on your site. You can review the data to see where visitors are finding value and modify your existing content to give them more of what they are looking for.
Since you already know you are going to change the content of your site, make sure that your web designer incorporates a Content Management System (Read: “Choose the Right CMS for Your Website”) that allows you to add to and alter existing content. This will allow you to make small changes (text edits, image changes, etc.) to the website without having to rely on (and pay) your web development company.
* This is Part 2 of a 3 part series on redesigning websites. Be sure to check back with us for Part 3 (Converting Web Visitors into Leads). Also read Part 1 (5 Bad Reasons Companies Redesign Their Website).
