By OCI

Websites should be looked at as living, breathing entities. They should evolve and change over time, adapting to their environments – especially their users behaviors. The method of change can vary from frequent, minor adjustments or larger, more sweeping changes and upgrades less frequently. Recently we made some major changes to one of our client’s websites and I’d like to walk you through some of the benefits of this web redesign and how a commitment to keeping your website evolving can benefit your business and its presence on the web.

Take a look at the before and after and then read my notes on what changed, what didn’t, and why.

Previous GAPA Site, 2007

The New GAPA Site

1. Consistency
When doing a major website update, it can be tempting to scrap everything you’ve done before and start from scratch. However, unless the branding, messaging or identity for the company has changed dramatically, this is usually not a good idea. Remember that many users come to your website and have become accustomed to where certain buttons are and how the site is organized. They usually know, or have a rough idea, where the information that they want is located and you don’t want to needlessly confuse them or make things difficult.  To keep consistency, we kept the same basic structure of the organization of the site and kept the menu system exactly the same and close to the same placement. We made the buttons larger and easier to see, but people who are looking for them in a certain location will easily find them.

2. Update Colors & Graphics
Updating a website is the perfect time for new colors and graphics for the site. If you have a budget for new photography or stock photos – terrific! If not, maybe figure out new ways of using the photos you’ve used before. One of the main focuses of this redesign was the color scheme. We wanted a much lighter, warmer feeling on the site so we revamped nearly all the colors. The logo stayed the same, and we used the red from the logo to indicate links.  We kept the cream color very close to the same and replaced the olive green with a nice soft blue.  It still looks brand consistent though as we made sure that the new blue “matched” or fit in the same color family as the original green. It makes it look less like a dramatic change and instead like a natural progression.

3. Make What’s Popular Convenient
I can’t overstate the importance of website analytics and if you have them running on your site, a website redesign is a great time to really get the most out of them. We found that some very popular content was buried a few levels deep within the site causing people to have to click multiple times from the homepage to get to what they wanted.  Since we didn’t want to restructure the organization of the entire site, we decided to design four large blue buttons on the homepage as quick jumps to those sections of the website.

4. Promote
While assessing the redesign we also realized the importance of promoting some of the events for the client so we built a section into the sidebar that will always showcase the upcoming events with links to register for the events and sign up for more information.

5. Update Framework
Since we were going in for a major redesign anyway, we decided to update the framework on the back end as well. The site had relied heavily on HTML and that was about it. During the redesign we updated all the HTML to be W3C compliant as well as utilized PHP and CSS to their fullest so that future updates and changes will be very efficient and ensure that the site appears properly on all modern browsers.

6. Clean Up
After years of having the same design, it’s easy to just keep adding things to the homepage or elsewhere until things begin to look a little cluttered and disorganized. We found that in the redesign, we were able to create a “News” section where we could post lots of updates and promote new items.  We also took the intro copy that had grown quite lengthy and edited that down quite a bit.

7. New Features
It’s always great to add some bells and whistles during a major redesign as well to really make people excited about it. These can be small things, like adding a “Back to Top” button to the bottom of long pages. Or something more noticeable like our big rotating promotional graphic that we added to the homepage. This adds some movement and interest for the visitor as well as a promotional venue for our client to promote their agendas.

8. Integrate Social Media
Since the previous website was created before the Social Media craze, it was time to get it integrated into the new site.  To keep people connected to the client we added links to their Facebook, Twitter and Email Newsletter to the sidebar of every page.  Also, to encourage social sharing of the website’s content, we also added an “Add This” widget to every page so that visitors could easily share what they find.

9. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
While upgrading the rest of the site, we had to take a look at the SEO work that had been done up to that point. Of course, SEO should be an ongoing commitment, but a big redesign is the prefect time to make some big changes.

10. Revive Forgotten Features
A redesign also is a perfect opportunity to turn your focus on some forgotten or hidden features of your site. Maybe you have an events calendar that no one visits or a forum that no one uses.  During the redesign, be sure to identify those items and promote them strongly to create interest and activity. Maybe people weren’t going to some pages because they couldn’t find them!

These are just some of the many benefits you can receive from performing timely and thoughtful website redesigns. Take a look at our final project and let us know what you think in the comments!

Visit www.gapa.net now!

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Tags: GAPA, SEO, social media, Website Design, Website Redesign, Website Upgrade

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