Is it time for a Web makeover?

If your site contains outdated content, if it's difficult to use, or no longer reflects the image of your business, you run the risk of turning off customers and prospects. And that means you're not only losing credibility in the marketplace, you're losing revenue opportunities.

The When and Why of Redesign
Businesses redesign their web sites for a variety of reasons.  Either they have a new product, their industry position has changed, or their audience has changed their expectations, habits, or technological capabilities. But it's often hard to identify how the web site should be redesigned to meet the challenge of those changes."

That's why pinpointing the goals of your redesign project is a critical step. Ask yourself why you're redoing your site. Has your business grown or changed? Do you want to upgrade to a more professional look? Do you want to update a static HTML site to a more dynamic site? Or does your site simply have problems that need fixing?

Once you've outlined your goals, you'll know whether you just need to completely overhaul it.

Steps to a Successful Redesign
Here are 7 tips to help you get started freshening your web site.

1. Analyze your current web site. Take a cold, hard, objective look at your site from a user's perspective. Is it easy to find what you're looking for? Is the content current and relevant? Do you offer the functionality for users to do what you want them to? While this is a good start, it is just that, a start. "It's just good planning to ask a lot of questions and analyze the site from all vantage points before any building commences, But you need to be asking questions the whole way.

2. Look at your competition. Go ahead. It's important to see what they're doing. In fact, you should always keep a close eye on your competition for new technologies, keywords, and new ways to communicate. After all, web surfers are fickle. If you're not keeping pace, you could be losing customers to more dynamic sites.

3. Define your audience and listen to them. Review your customer data to determine who your customers are. Then, actively solicit their opinions about your site. I would design an informal survey to go to a good bunch of people to start getting feedback, You'll start hearing the same things over and over and it'll become clear what they want. They'll be doing your homework for you, because they look at everybody else's sites, too."
 
 

4. Compile your "wish list." Once you've defined the ideal user experience and the functionality you need to achieve it, start compiling a list of things you'd like to accomplish. Because you probably won't be able to do everything at once, prioritize the items on your list and do what you can, when you can. Here are a few things to consider, if you're not doing them already:
• Capture customer data and add dynamic elements like surveys, newsletters, or regular promotions to make your site more interactive.
• Increase page loading speed by optimizing your graphics so they're small in size.
• Improve navigation with a system that's simple and consistent from page to page.
• Make your site easy to update by investing in a content management system.

5. Apply your brand personality to your web design. "This is where you look at your colors, your typography, and all the traits of your brand, which will come through as an overlay of the user experience and functionality," Presta says. But don't try to do this yourself. It's important to bring in a web site design professional early in the process. "Without a [professional] asking questions and challenging assumptions, you are really just stabbing in the dark," Cotler says.

6. Bring your team together. In addition to helping you develop a site design that is in line with your brand, a professional web designer can help you create a new site map and navigation system. (Often, the designer can do all the necessary HTML programming, too.) While your site's design is critical, so is the content. Assign the responsibilities of content development to a search engine optimization specialist and make sure that person collaborates with the designer to ensure that everything works together.

7. Budget time and money. Don't take a step before you know how much time and money your project will require. If you've done all your homework, you'll be off to a good start. .