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A redesigned website can increase brand awareness and sales

Know when it's time to deconstruct and rebuild your website
Redesigning of your website is all about understanding your audience and your medium in order to improve your Internet presence.

There are several compelling reasons to redesign your website. A website redesign is most commonly needed for the following reasons:

a. A change in your brick and mortar business and/or your online business model.
b. Growth and expansion into new areas.
c. Updating for Internet technology such as new browsers, increasing screen sizes and faster connection speeds.
d. To increase your search engine presence
e. To replace an out-of-date or unprofessional looking website.

Whatever the reason, a redesign is an extraordinary opportunity to redefine your online business presence and propel your website forward, ahead of your online competitors.

Break Down the Functional Parts of Your Website
The best method for examining all the parts of your website is to create a sitemap. A sitemap is a visual diagram of all the links and pages of your website. Let’s take a look at an example for a property development company's sitemap.

In the sitemap illustration above we have sectioned the property development website into 5 parts.

1. Administrative Links
2. Hot Links
3. Global Links
4. Sub Links
5. Footer Links

Your Administrative links should contain the general information for your business. You want to keep these links separated from your Products or Services links so your visitors won't have to browse through your administrative company links such as Mission Statement when looking for your products or services.

Hot links are the visual cues that act as hot points or your important Call-to-Action areas. These are essentially mini-advertisements that call attention to specific areas of your website. In the illustration above there are hot links for Inquiries, News, and Events. Our website client wanted to generate sales leads and provide news and events regarding new developments for retail and sales related real estate.

The naming of your links is also an important factor. If you are a medical office or a lawyer, you may want to name your Inquiry link as Confidential Inquiries, whereas a contractor would use the link term Free No-Obligation Inquiries.

Global Links are the primary links for your services and products. This is where you should place information for what you do, how you do it, what you provide, what you sell and so on. These are your bread and butter links. Bread and butter links are the hyperlinks and information that generate your leads and business income.

Sub Links are where you will want to prioritize this information. Think of additional ways to support your products and/or services. Here are some great ideas for doing this.

a. Create Case Studies pages
b. Create pages for Testimonials or Accolades
c. Create pages for your Associations or Certifications
d. Create a Client List or Client Industries Served list
e. Create Photo or Project Gallery pages
f. Create a repository page for Media. This provides you a place in your website to post links, video, audio, articles, Word documents and PDF files for any news or information relating to you or your business.
g. Define what makes your business unique.

Footer Links can be an extremely important area of your website and are often overlooked. This is where you can insert jump links to your locations pages, post phone numbers, fax numbers, emails, and address information.

* Note: If you are a local business and want local exposure on Google and other major search engines, it is important that you list your full local business address in the footer of your website.

Challenge, Focus Test and Question each Part
Once you complete your sitemap you should research similar websites for your business. Compare your navigation tabs and the names for these tabs to other websites.

Ask yourself the following questions. Have I covered all my navigation bases? Have I created opportunities for developing specific pages?

If you were a home remodeling contractor you might want to consider multiple galleries for your project photos versus displaying all your construction projects in one gallery page. Multiple pages provide you more chances for visitors to find your website in search engines. Every page in your website is an opportunity to tell search engines what your website is about.

Ask your web developer to use different and unique title and description meta-data in the code of your individual pages. In the case of a home remodeling contractor website, there are opportunities to have multiple gallery pages for kitchens, sunrooms, room additions, decks and so on.

Using Meaningful Content
Whether you are a lawyer, baker or candle stick maker there are two extremely important reasons for your website to contain meaningful text or copy.

1. Great copy supports and defines the essence of your website. Great copy can be defined as well formed sentences that convey your ideas and information in a meaningful way to your online visitors.

2. Great copy (website content) will earn you back-links and heightened attention from search engines. Do not write copy specifically for search engines; rather write copy for human visitors, but be judicious in the way you form your sentences. Also ask your web designer to place interior links within your pages where appropriate.

Here's an example using two short paragraphs of home page content.

THIS COPY IS OK
a. Our product line seamlessly combines function and elegance, and includes: home and office furniture, accent chairs and pieces.

THIS COPY IS BETTER
b. The Williamson extensive product line seamlessly combines function and elegance, and includes: home entertainment furniture, home office furniture, accent chairs and accent pieces.

In the second example they mention their company name and use complete phrasing for their products.

Instead of "home and office furniture" they used more descriptive phrases like "home entertainment furniture" and "home office furniture". These two phrases could also be linked to any relevant interior pages to improve user navigation and also compliment your website’s search engine optimization.

Put all these Parts Back Together in a Meaningful Way
Now that your sitemap is complete, the next phase is to incorporate this information into a website redesign. Consider the following points before you finalize your website design.

1. Consider whether a vertical navigation or horizontal navigation schema works best for your website (some websites have both).

2. Be sure your most important information is placed above-the-fold.

Above-the-fold is a newspaper advertising term that refers to strategically placed images and text in the upper most section on the front of the newspaper page.

Think for a moment about the T. V. style box, newspaper dispensers pioneered by Al Neuhart, Founder of USA Today. When the newspaper is folded and placed in the front-facing box you can be sure that the editor will place the most attention grabbing photos and compelling headlines above-the-fold'. This directly impacts how many papers will be sold.

This same methodology applies to your website redesign. If your website does not capture your online visitors in the first few seconds after landing on your website, then they will simply move on to another website.

3. Humans read information left to right and down the page. Be sure there is an orderly flow of images and information on your home page and interior pages.

4. Be sure there is good use of white space or black space. Don’t insist that your website designers cram text, graphics or visuals in every nook and cranny of your web page.

A professional graphic design person or web designer can help you develop a good look and feel for your new website, but don’t leave this task completely in their hands. Ask questions along the way and do your research. If they suggest a vertical navigation using red links instead of blue… then ask them why.

At the end of this process you will have done your necessary due diligence for having a successful redesign that will carry you forward over the next few years!

About the Author
Rick Vidallon is President of Visionefx, a Web design company based in Virginia Beach, Va. They provide services to national companies as well as small to medium businesses throughout the United States.
Rick can be reached at (757) 619-6456 or rick@visionefx.net.