Website Redesign: How to Do It, Steps, and Prerequisites

Loss of visibility, decreased traffic, increased operational demands, outdated design… The reasons for wanting to redesign a website can be varied.

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To avoid adding features to a flawed website, it is sometimes necessary to start from scratch! 

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A website redesign is, however, a major project that requires good organization. This article will outline the necessary steps for a successful website redesign. 

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I. What is a website redesign? 

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A website redesign involves its complete restructuring. It may be necessary to completely overhaul or modify its visual identity, reorganize elements, modify existing content, and change Content Management System (CMS).

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As a reminder, a CMS is a tool that allows for easy administration and management of a website and its content. The most well-known and popular CMSs today are Wordpress, Wix, and Webflow. 

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A website redesign therefore involves creating a new version of the website from scratch, while optimizing existing content. 

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II. Why Redesign a Website? 

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A website redesign may be recommended in two situations: technical reasons or strategic reasons. 

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1. Technical Website Redesign

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When technical limitations hinder your entire site and not just certain pages, a redesign may be advisable. 

These limitations can be of various kinds:
 

• Outdated website

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• Lack of aesthetic appeal and/or usability

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• Excessively long loading times

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• Security vulnerabilities

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• Poor search engine ranking 

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• Poor adaptability to mobile formats (non-responsive site) 

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• Underperforming CMS or one that requires too much maintenance 

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All of these elements are inherent to your site's structure. It is therefore complicated and often ill-advised to correct them: the time required would be the same as for a complete redesign. 

2. Strategic Website Redesign

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A website redesign can also make sense when you wish to change your site's strategy. For example, this could involve a restructuring of your digital presence due to changes in the company's activities or composition. 

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Depending on its motivation, this type of redesign can take various forms: 

- Graphic redesign when the site's aesthetics are outdated 
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- Complete redesign when you are no longer targeting the same users (UX work needs to be redone) 

- Deep and complete redesign when your business evolves and the site's architecture needs to be revised 

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Thus, when you develop a new activity or wish to reorganize your current offering, a content redesign will also be recommended. Indeed, an evolution in activity often leads to an evolution in the target audience.

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This consequently leads to an evolution in the desired user experience. 

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Optimizing existing resources on a website is therefore often insufficient to properly adapt to a strategic change in the company.

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We recommend consulting user experience (UX) experts to determine what is most relevant based on your business evolution. 

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III. Website Redesign Steps 

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To successfully redesign a website, it is essential to properly sequence the project. To achieve a result that meets your expectations and objectives, the redesign will proceed in 6 steps. 

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1. Existing Site Audit

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The first step in a redesign is auditing the current site. It's important to identify and differentiate effective elements that drive traffic from areas for improvement.

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‍To get a comprehensive overview, the audit is generally conducted from three angles: technical, UX, and SEO. 

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The technical audit aims to identify all blocking elements from a software perspective. This step aids in decision-making when choosing technologies for the new site's development. 

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For instance, if pages load too slowly, it might be wise to migrate to a more modern CMS. 

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The SEO audit analyzes the traffic and natural search engine optimization effectiveness of each page of the site. With this data, existing content can be optimized. Relevant content will therefore be used on the new version of the site, and less effective pages will be reworked. 

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UX auditing assesses the user experience offered by your website to visitors, enabling the creation of the most appropriate and optimized new design. 

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2. Scoping to define the new website's structure and content

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Scoping is the stage where you discuss with a web designer to define your objectives and work on the new site's structure. 

It is essential to establish your website's objective.

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Many websites aim to promote a product or service. However, each sector, field, positioning, and company has its own rules, constraints, and ambitions. 

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During the scoping phase, the web designer conducts a benchmark of existing websites that match your category.

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This allows you to select the aesthetic aspects that resonate with you. 

User journey analysis places the internet user at the heart of the creation process. While it's very important that you like your new site, it's even more crucial that your site is effective and that its navigation is pleasant for your defined target audiences. 

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3. Content management for the new website

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Once your site's structure is established, it's important to immerse yourself in its existing content to ensure the final result aligns with your expectations and brand identity. 

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Thus, the results of the previous audit help determine which texts, images, and other relevant elements should be retrieved and integrated into the new site. The designer is fully immersed and will know how to differentiate what should be kept from what should be discarded.

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It is sometimes necessary to revisit the company's graphic charter. 

In the case of a new activity or modification of existing content, the new content will need to be written with SEO and UX optimization in mind.

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A high-value and pleasant-to-read content will be much more effective if due attention has been paid to user experience. Consequently, your site will benefit from better natural search engine ranking. 

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4. The design of the new website

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The design phase involves fleshing out the framework built in previous stages. This means integrating all content and graphic elements into the dedicated sections, whether new or existing.

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‍The designer pays close attention to the signals their mock-up(s) send to users. It is common practice to conduct numerous user tests to optimize the browsing experience. 

A suitable aesthetic and an intuitive interface encourage users to explore your site.

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This allows you to deliver the value you intend to convey and can convert visitors into clients or partners. Furthermore, by visiting different pages, the user sends an excellent signal to search engines: your site matches what they are looking for.

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This significantly improves your SEO. 

During the design phase, a good web designer also considers the interactions and animations to integrate into your new site.

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Many interactions can be integrated into the mock-ups. However, limited by their tools, the designer will often add comments to their mock-up to describe the desired animations. This allows the developer to integrate them as faithfully as possible.  

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5. Development of the new website

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Development is the stage during which the developer brings the project to life. They transform the design mock-up, which is purely aesthetic, into a coded and interactive website.

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To do this, various development languages or no-code tools (CMS) can be used. 

This transformation involves static elements like text or images, but also interactions: buttons, filters, login areas, appointment calendars, and more. 

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The developer's goal is to create pages optimized for all screen sizes, with fast loading speeds and accessible to all users.  

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Website accessibility is a major factor to consider today. A site's accessibility refers to its ability to be readable and usable by all internet users. A disability or technical issues like an outdated browser are examples of factors that can hinder a site's accessibility. 

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We invite you to read our article on web accessibility if you wish to learn more about the topic. 

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6. Launching the new website

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Once the site is complete and tested by the various teams and stakeholders, the site is launched. Tests are used to identify any potential bugs or malfunctions, whether visual or technical. 

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During launch, the new site and architecture are migrated to the existing domain name. It's important to consider Google's parameters at this stage to ensure the preservation of all existing traffic and SEO. 

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The site is then sent to the web host to be published online. It's important to properly configure the hosting to ensure the site has an SSL certificate.The SSL certificate ensures your site's security and is an important element of organic SEO. 

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Once the site is live and functional, content creation is a key element to gain and increase its traffic. We invite you to read our complete guide to Organic SEO for more information on this topic ! 

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IV. Best practices for a successful website redesign

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1. Choose your team wisely for a successful website redesign

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To achieve an effective redesign that meets your objectives, it's important to assemble a team of experts.

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Indeed, as mentioned above, many areas of expertise are required to successfully redesign a website. That's why it's better to go through an agency for your site's redesign.

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Good agencies deploy cross-functional teams of designers and developers accustomed to working together to create an ideal website. 

Furthermore, to generate qualified traffic to your site, a search engine optimization (SEO) expert can contribute significantly.

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Indeed, beyond your brand's reputation and any advertising efforts, an SEO strategy is the best way to attract many visitors sustainably and cost-effectively. Writing targeted and optimized content is one of the pillars that allows a website to achieve better online visibility. 

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A web design agency that also offers expertise in natural search engine optimization is therefore the optimal choice for a custom, high-performing website. 

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2. Create a website redesign plan

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Developing a schedule during your project's ideation phase is also crucial. Having a clear view of tasks dependent on other contributors increases your productivity and provides an excellent overview of the project's overall progress. 

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An agency typically organizes project management as a “roadmap”. The roadmap is a plan that details the various actions to be taken, their responsible parties, and their deadlines. This way, you can calmly and confidently track the project's progress. 

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3. Defining the specifications for the website redesign

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A comprehensive and precise statement of work ensures a result that meets your expectations. Indeed, having clear objectives and instructions allows the designer to respond more effectively to your needs. 

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Furthermore, establishing a statement of work greatly minimizes potential overlooked features. It also offers a comprehensive project overview to anticipate and prepare each step by having all necessary elements available. This way, the full development of your new website will be faster and likely less expensive. 

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We invite you to clearly define your strategy and objectives to ensure the most effective collaboration with your service provider. 

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V. Frequently Asked Questions 

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Will I lose the articles I've written if I redesign my website? 

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No, a website redesign retains all your content relevant for natural search engine optimization. Indeed, migrating from one CMS to another, such as from WordPress to Webflow for example, offers the option to export your written articles. 

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Will I lose search engine ranking if I redesign my website? 

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In the case of a site architecture restructuring, a website redesign often leads to a slight drop in search engine performance. It's important to know that the links between your pages are one of the essential drivers of SEO.

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However, when migrating to a new management tool, it's possible to declare the migration to search engines and plan redirects to retain as much of your ranking as possible. 

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Is it better to redesign my website or create a new one? 

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A thorough audit of your site will reveal its technical limitations and SEO limitations. For minor limitations, working on the existing site is an option. For major limitations, a complete site redesign is strongly recommended.

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Redesigning a site or building a new one from scratch are comparable tasks in terms of duration and cost. A redesign is preferred when visual elements, content, and traffic need to be preserved and reused. 

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What is the cost of a website redesign? 

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The cost of a website redesign depends on various factors: graphic design work, number of pages, complexity of integrations, technologies used, etc. The cost is calculated based on the service provider's average daily rate (ADR) and the time required to complete the project.

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On average, the price ranges from €3,000 to €8,000 for a custom website of fewer than 10 pages with standard functionalities and significant design work.