Website redesigns are one-way designers work to refresh the site. However, there’s another process called a “glow up,” which is even better! This is a complete transformation from the bottom up!
It’s essential to consider the visual aspect of a website redesign. It’s more than just dusting up and sprucing up different aspects and calling the process done. While appearance is important, there’s more to a redesign than that. A real glow up is what you need.
Website Redesign Goals
A developer may choose to redesign a site for many reasons; however, if there are no goals or plans, the process will be a messy failure. For instance, if a site’s traffic isn’t where a company wants it to be, then a redesign can help. However, how can it be done unless there’s a benchmark of current performance and goal to achieve with the redesign?
In this case, a specific goal might be to increase traffic by 25% by a specific date. This is a goal that’s measurable and specific.
Other website goals may include improving site performance, improving SEO, and more. No matter the goals, it helps to define and document them before the redesign.
Improved Website Functionality & Performance
Successful web redesign projects add and/or improve features and functionality. These are done to make the site more user-friendly. The redesign isn’t only about the site’s visual aspect but also deals with the site’s functionality and performance.
Improving the functionality and performance may include adding accessibility features, improving site navigation, and more. But it’s not only about the site user. Redesigns also affect the team and the functionality they require.
A website redesign, for instance, may streamline processes for updating images, building new pages, and more. When increasing the functionality for the backend, it may be necessary to consider the platform that’s in use and other aspects.
A true website glow-up needs to address the functionality and performance of a website, including loading times, responsiveness, security vulnerabilities, and more.
SEO Strategy
A good website glow-up also requires a plan and a benchmark to determine current performance. The goal is to ensure SEO is considered and optimised through the redesign process.
Before the process starts, it’s a good idea to create a benchmark of the site’s performance. With this data, you can track the changes and how they affect SEO on the redesigned site. Track these metrics before and after a glow-up:
- Organic traffic
- Backlinks
- Domain rating
- Bounce rate
- Ranking keywords
It’s also important to avoid unnecessary changes that could negatively affect performance. And remember to set up 301 redirects for all links that are outdated. You want people to find the redesigned site! Be sure that Google can crawl and index all pages, so they show up in the search.
One last note, make sure the new site has a simple method to manage SEO. You want an easy way to add meta descriptions and other SEO elements.
A Current Style Guide
A current style guide is also necessary for website glow-ups. The style guide sets the standards for the site’s branding and appearance. The guide is an excellent reference for the team when it comes to branding the specific colour, shaping the button correctly, and more. The style guide should be “living” in that it is used and regularly updated.
The style guide ensures all pages are updated and matched. For this process, it can be helpful to create design templates, which allow the team to fill in fields and publish pages with the correct branding elements and colours.
Understand the Target Audience
You might have the best redesign in town; however, if the UI is poor, the website will not set well with site users. Their insights are needed to create the best glow-up ever.
Take time to consider who the target audience is, and their preferences are. Then use these insights to guide the changes to the UI during the redesign process.
We’re pretty sure you and your site users will be happy with the results!
Decrease the Load-time
A website glow-up is the right opportunity to also consider how fast (or slow) site pages load. Slow loading pages not only make visitors unhappy, but Google may also lower the site in the search rankings.
As you go through the redesign, consider all new elements that optimise page loading speeds. These new elements should work across a wide range of devices and browsers.
Keep It Simple
Some designers tend to put too much in the design, making it cluttered and confusing for the site user. A glow-up is a good time to take a less is more approach with the site’s design. So, try to keep it simple.
A minimalist design is less cluttered and can allow you to feature special elements. Keeping things simple means choosing only a few fonts and using them in different sizes for great effect. Other details include keeping colour palettes minimalistic, as well as highlights, shadows, and more.
Make It Mobile-Friendly
With so many site users accessing the website on mobile devices, it’s essential to ensure the site is mobile-friendly. Plus, Google ranks mobile-friendly sites higher in the search engine rankings.
Making the site more mobile-friendly also ensures site visitors are comfortable and not overwhelmed. It’s also a great way to increase site traffic!
Restructuring Content
Content is what brings traffic and gets site visitors to stay longer on the site. The goal here is to ensure the content is fresh and contains a combination of animation, professional images, and more to keep site visitors interested.
So, don’t hesitate to restructure site content if necessary; this is another essential part of the website glow-up process, which is often overlooked.
Summing It Up
If you’re going after a true website redesign, then aim for a website glow-up. A glow-up means changes are made from the bottom up and should take all aspects of the website into consideration.
Having a strategic plan is a great way to ensure you have a successful glow-up and that site users have a great experience on the redesigned site!
