Why redesign your website?
Nowadays, the lifespan of a website rarely exceeds 3 years, especially if it hasn't evolved sufficiently. Web consumption habits are changingWe're not forgetting the evolving cybersecurity risks and the problems of technological obsolescence faced by aging websites.Â
So it's a safe bet that your site needs a facelift, or even a complete overhaul! It's up to you to see this redesign as a business opportunity. and prepare your redesign accordingly: your new site must generate more sales than your current one!
Before redesigning, a preparatory phase is essential
Tracking and analysis of key performance indicators enable us to accurately assess the quality of an online sales site, i.e. its capacity to transform! In this way, you'll be able to identify the adjustments you need to make and the action plan you need to implement. It's an excellent basis on which to work when redesigning a website. These questions help identify the site's strengths (to be retained) and weaknesses (to be corrected).
How much traffic does my website generate compared to my competitors'? What's my bounce rate? What does it say about the quality of my landing pages? Which product categories have the best conversion rate? Is this conversion rate in line with my objectives? Which products do customers who have already ordered come back for? Which call-to-action buttons bring in the most conversions?
- Who are my direct and indirect competitors?
- What do they offer?
- What price range are they positioned in?
- What's their main asset?
- Where are they visible?
- What makes them so special?
Taking the time to methodically scrutinize your competitors' websites will not only highlight your differentiating features, but also help you pick up the right ideas... or, on the contrary, identify where no one else is going! Our tools strategic and competitive audit allow us to delve deeper into this analysis.
A central document, the specifications define your objectives and contextualize the redesign. Exhaustive and strategic, it takes into account your constraints and your scope of action, so as to initiate the design phase in the best possible conditions. It will enable your agency to draw up a detailed proposal that meets your needs as closely as possible.
A key tip for writing your specifications: be concrete! Share references and inspirations to avoid any interpretation that could have a time-consuming effect on your redesign. Avoid general formulas and concentrate on your e-business needs.
To rethink your content tree or product catalog, it's essential to put yourself in your customer's shoes. Being consumer-centric is the key to a good user experience (UX), and the secret to a high-performance site. It's all about anticipating visitor expectations, combining technical parameters with strategic marketing thinking.
The zoning or wireframe determines the architecture of the site's pages. It gives a clear vision of the desired layout, indicating the location of content blocks (text zones, menu, images, etc.). Don't hesitate to seek outside advice to build your UX strategy and zoning.Â
Further information
Download our white paper: 10 tips for redesigning your website.
Choice of CMS, prioritization tips, steps not to forget... it's a tool that will save you precious time! In keeping with the dual expertise of Soledis, a web agency based in Vannes, Nantes and Paris, you'll find both technical and marketing advice. The objective of your website redesign should always be to increase your online sales!
During the redesign
Data is the strategic capital of your business, and lies at the heart of your website. It's all about extracting and cleansing data from your source systems before integrating them into a new tool. It's a complex task, and one that requires careful preparation to prioritize and filter the volume of data to be migrated.
1 - Audit existing data and volumes
2 - Select the data to be migrated
3 - Quality control your data recovery
4 - Migrate selected data to the new tool
5 - Test and control your data migration
The functionalities of online sales sites are constantly evolving according to usage, but also according to CMS, languages and technologies. Let your partner agency find the right modules to meet your functional needs.
By choosing an agency like Soledis, with a real integrated web development studio, you can be sure of being able to fill a module gap with a specific development! An innovative feature can make all the difference in your market! Think about it when you draw up your specifications.
Redesigning is often an opportunity to change your URLs, delete pages or add categories... the risk of generating dead links and error pages (the famous 404 pages) is considerable! It's essential to draw up a redirection plan to avoid losing your SEO assets.
The secrets of a successful redirection plan :
- List all your existing URLs with a crawling tool (Screaming Frog, for example).
- Identify the URLs you want to keep or redirect.
- Use a redirect automation module to save time!
Don't rewrite your entire site! Instead, take the time to identify the content you need to improve in order to gain in SEO. To do this, draw up a list of relevant keywords for your company. Also check their relevance to web users' queries (monthly search volume and level of competition).
Now concentrate your editorial efforts on pages that are positioned or just starting to be positioned on these keywords: enrich them with your target keywords! It's important to avoid duplicate content by using link obfuscation modules, Canonical tags or NoIndex and NoFollow functionalities.Â
Your redesign will undoubtedly provide an opportunity to review your hosting contract. On this point, it's important to remember that hosting a site doesn't necessarily mean backing it up, but rather providing online storage space. It is therefore essential to supplement this offer (OVH's basic package) with backups (up to DRP) and monitoring.
On your new site, make sure you are RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant with a cookie management module like Axeptio for example, a GTC and a privacy policy, as well as a consent box at the bottom of your forms to collect and process your data.
Let's meet to discuss your redesign project
With over 20 years' experience in redesigning e-commerce sites, our team will help you make your redesign a success. Trust us with your project.
Examples of website redesign
After the redesign
Downloading documents, signing up for our newsletter, creating an account, customer service requests, adding to cart, abandoning cart... every action taken by your visitors is interesting data. It enables you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your buying tunnel.
If you don't have marking planTake advantage of your redesign to equip yourself with this analysis! It's an evolving technical document that lists and justifies the metrics to be captured and analyzed. Your developer or your webmarketing consultant will use it to position tracking tags on your site.
Is my site really performing? Which product range works best? How often do my customers return? Which products should I highlight? It's not always easy to make the most of the data accumulated by your website. How can I link this data to my strategic plan?
To help you, we recommend using Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio), the best free datavisualization tool. Soledis can help you create customized dashboards based on your KPIs.
Relieved to have reached the end of this redesign? That's normal... But it's deceptive! In fact, the adventure has only just begun! Now that you've got a beautiful online sales site, you've got to get it up and running and bringing in the sales you've been hoping for. The rest is not a sprint like the redesign, but rather a marathon. Need coaching?
To turn your website into a real business tool, you need to generate traffic and turn these visitors into buyers. That's a very different skill set from building a website. At Soledis, we have this dual expertise, and our webmarketing experts can support you over the long term in SEO, SEA, Tracking,...
Why choose Soledis to redesign your website?
We have a 360° view of your e-commerce business
We think about your redesign from an ROI perspective. Our objective is always your growth. Our e-commerce experts will make recommendations on all aspects of your online sales activity: choice of CMS, hosting, functionalities, graphic design, SEO... From the preliminary analysis of your project, you will benefit from this global vision. Your redesign will be all the more relevant for it!
What are the advantages of a site redesign?
A website redesign has a number of advantages for companies. It can improve their online visibility and give them a better web presence. It's an effective way of maintaining a good image and building brand awareness. First and foremost, a website redesign enables a company to update its content and present more up-to-date, relevant information. In addition, it can be used to add extra functionality to enhance the user experience. Thanks to this, a company will be able to more easily attract web surfers looking for specific information on its products or services.
In addition, a website redesign can help improve ranking in search engine results such as Google, which will increase traffic to the website. In addition, a redesign can enable a website to comply with current data security and privacy standards. This step is crucial to protect user data and ensure the safety of transactions carried out on the site. It also enables companies to remain compliant with applicable national and international laws and regulatory guidelines.
Finally, a website redesign can be used to adapt the site's appearance to new graphic and technological trends. The majority of users navigate on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, which has considerably altered web standards. A redesign will help to adapt the site's content and appearance to these uses, so that visitors can easily access the information they are looking for.
To sum up, it's clear that website redesign offers a number of advantages for companies wishing to improve their online presence and increase their visibility on the web. It enables companies to keep up to date with current technologies, improve the quality of the content present on their digital platform, and protect their confidential data from any external threat.
What are the reasons behind a redesign project?
Website redesign is a complex process that can prove highly beneficial to online retailers. It requires careful planning and significant investment, which is why we often wonder whether it's worth the effort. So it's important to understand the reasons that can trigger a redesign project.
The main reasons are as follows: the first is a question of aesthetics. A redesign can give your website a more modern and attractive appearance for visitors. If your current site looks outdated, it may be a good idea to redesign it to make it more attractive and engaging for users. Next, consider the website's navigation. Navigation is one of the key features of a good website, and it needs to be clear and intuitive so that visitors can easily find what they're looking for. Poor navigation can be very frustrating for the user, and can have a major negative impact on the conversion rate from potential to actual customers. Redesigning the site can therefore improve navigation and offer a better user experience.
Another common reason for redesigning a website is the lack of modern, useful functionality. Many e-commerce websites don't offer the functionality expected by modern web users. A redesign can therefore add these expected features, which can have a positive effect on user traffic and conversion rates.
Last but not least, a redesign will also enable your company to keep up with constantly evolving technologies. Current technologies such as HTML5 or CSS3 offer web developers infinite possibilities for creating sites that are rich in functionality and adaptable to the various mobile and tablet devices available on the market. A redesign therefore makes it possible to adopt these technologies in order to remain competitive in the digital marketplace.
In short, there are many reasons to justify a redesign project: aesthetics, improved navigation, the addition of modern functionalities and the adoption of new technologies. Good planning is essential to the success of this type of complex and costly project, but one which can prove highly beneficial to your business in the long term.
When should you redesign your website?
Redesigning a site involves a comprehensive process that includes planning, development, design and content optimization.
It's essential to understand when a website redesign may be necessary and what benefits it can bring to your business. First of all, it's important to determine whether you need a complete redesign or a simple graphic "facelift". A complete redesign is generally recommended if your site no longer meets modern standards in terms of ergonomics, navigation and design. A graphic redesign, on the other hand, may be sufficient if your site is fairly well designed but lacks a number of minor improvements such as graphic updates or user experience adjustments. If your site doesn't meet current security standards or isn't optimized for mobile devices, then you'll need to consider a complete redesign. Security is extremely important, as it protects your data and that of your users against cyber-attacks and theft of sensitive information.
What's more, given that traffic on mobile devices accounts for over half of all Internet traffic, it's imperative that your site is optimized for mobile devices. Another reason why a website redesign may be necessary is when you want to integrate additional functionality such as e-commerce or advanced marketing tools such as automated marketing or integration with third-party services such as Google Analytics or MailChimp. These features can help you dramatically improve your online presence and increase sales and conversions.
In addition, they can make your site easier to manage for you and your marketing team. Finally, a website redesign can be beneficial if you want to improve the quality of the content on your site. Your content needs to be relevant, informative and consistent so that it can serve your users effectively. Regularly updated content also helps maintain good search engine rankings, which can lead to increased traffic to your website.
Redesigning a website can be very beneficial for your business, if done correctly and at the right time. It allows you to significantly improve the design and quality of the content, so as to increase traffic to the site and the conversions it achieves. Finally, a good redesign also allows you to add additional functionalities that facilitate management and maximize overall website performance.
How to successfully redesign a website?
Redesigning a website is a crucial step for any company wishing to improve its image and performance. It's a highly original way of communicating with customers and offering them an optimal experience, which requires design and implementation tailored to your objectives. In this section, you'll discover the steps to follow for a successful website redesign.
First of all, it's essential to define your objectives precisely. You need to take the time to think about what you want to achieve with your redesign. Set SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, attainable and time-bound). Once you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your redesign, you can move on to the next step.
The second step is to gather information about your target audience. Understanding your target audience's needs and preferences can help you design a website that's just right for them. Once you know your audience well, you can begin to develop a strategy to achieve your redesign goals.
The third important point is website design. Make sure that the site's structure and functionality are consistent with your strategy and designed to facilitate interaction between your company and website visitors. When usability is good, visitors can easily find what they're looking for and spend more time on the website, which can lead to more engagement and increased conversions.
Once the website design is complete, the fourth step is to choose the right hosting for your website. There are several types of hosting available on the market, and it's important to choose the one that best meets the specific needs of your business. Your hosting provider must be able to provide sufficient bandwidth and fast loading times to ensure a smooth and pleasant experience for site visitors.
Finally, the fifth step is to test the new website before it goes live. Once you've implemented the changes to the website's design and functionality, carry out a full test to check that everything is working properly before it goes live. This will ensure that the new website provides an optimal user experience for visitors and fully meets the objectives set at the start of the project.
Here's how to go about a successful website redesign: define SMART objectives; gather information about your target audience; design a user-friendly website; choose suitable hosting; test the new website before it goes live. By following these guidelines, you'll be able to ensure the success of your redesign and effectively achieve the goals you set at the outset.
Why entrust your redesign project to a specialist agency?
Companies considering a website redesign have a wide range of options at their disposal. They can choose to work on their own, recruit developers working remotely, or outsource their project to a specialist agency. While each of these options has its advantages and disadvantages, we believe that the best solution is to opt for a specialized agency.
First of all, agencies that specialize in website redesign are able to provide more comprehensive and in-depth services than those offered by an individual developer or a group of developers working remotely. Agencies have a full team of qualified professionals, whose skills cover all aspects of web development, including graphic design, HTML / CSS coding and back-end development. This means they can meet the complex and varied needs of companies looking to modernize their website.
What's more, by opting for a specialized agency to redesign its website, a company benefits from personalized support and follow-up throughout the process. A project manager will be assigned to your project, responsible for project management and follow-up. He or she will be available to answer questions and provide regular updates on project progress.
What's more, when you work with a specialized agency, they can advise you on best practices in web design and development, and help you achieve your performance and user experience (UX) objectives. Last but not least, entrusting your project to a specialized agency enables companies to achieve a better return on investment (ROI). The qualified professionals who make up the agency are able to understand companies' business objectives, and can therefore create an optimized website that contributes to overall business growth and success. As a result, sites designed through a specialized agency are likely to attract more traffic and generate more revenue than those created by individual or remote developers.
In conclusion, it's clear that there are many advantages to entrusting your redesign project to a specialized agency rather than a freelance developer. Agencies offer more comprehensive services and can help companies achieve their business objectives through high-performance websites that enhance the user experience and generate more revenue.
Which CMS is best suited to my website redesign project?
Redesigning a website is a complex project that requires the right tools to guarantee its success. It is therefore essential to choose the content management system or CMS best suited to the situation. The main CMS on the market are PrestaShop, Shopify, WordPress (Woocommerce), Joomla and Drupal. In this section, we'll detail the advantages and disadvantages of some of these solutions to help you determine which CMS is best suited to your redesign project.
WordPress (and its Woocommerce extension for online sales) is considered the most popular CMS solution on the market. Its intuitive interface and straightforward functionality make it an ideal platform for small site owners and beginners alike. The flexibility offered by WordPress in terms of customization is also remarkable, meaning you can easily create a website that matches your needs and image.
In addition, WordPress offers an excellent online community, giving users access to tutorials and practical advice to quickly solve any problems they may encounter throughout the redesign process. However, it's important to note that WordPress isn't always the optimal solution for more complex websites requiring advanced functionality.
PrestaShop is considered one of the most robust CMS solutions on the market, thanks to its impressive range of extensions and exceptional power. Indeed, PrestaShop offers an incredible variety of possibilities in terms of customization and integration with other third-party systems, making it the ideal option for more complex or demanding websites. There's also a large, dynamic community behind PrestaShop, able to provide technical support if required.
However, it's also worth noting that PrestaShop can be quite complicated to configure and manage if you're not familiar with modern web technologies, or if you don't have the technical knowledge to fully exploit its advanced capabilities. It's a CMS that requires the support of a partner agency like Soledis, a web agency in Vannes.
Shopify is an interesting CMS because it offers both a wealth of features and an ease of use that means you can launch your site yourself without any technical web knowledge. On the other hand, it's not an open source CMS, and you won't have control over the hosting of your website, which will be hosted in the United States by Shopify. Last but not least, you'll pay a monthly subscription fee (rather high), whereas with a traditional CMS, you'll pay a website creation fee at start-up, followed by a monthly hosting fee (rather moderate).
In conclusion, each of the solutions mentioned above can be considered as an option for your redesign project, but it's important to take the time to carefully examine your specific needs before making your final choice. Once this analysis has been carried out, you will then be in a position to make an informed decision as to the best CMS for your specific project, so that you can begin your redesign successfully!
How long does it take to redesign a website?
Redesigning a website takes varying amounts of time, depending on whether it's a graphical update or a complete restructuring. If you're changing CMS, you'll need more time to learn the new tool, but you may save time by starting with a blank sheet of paper rather than an outdated website. Data recovery can also be a time-consuming stage... In any case, remember that the more you prepare a redesign in advance, the more likely it is to be carried out quickly and efficiently!
The type of redesign can have an impact on the duration of the project. A partial redesign will involve less work and a shorter turnaround time than a complete site redesign. In addition, the number of pages to be modified and the technologies used can also affect the time required to complete the redesign. Small-scale sites can be updated in a matter of hours, whereas complex projects with thousands of pages could take weeks or months. Similarly, some computer languages and web frameworks may take longer than others. Finally, the level of quality and availability of stakeholders are essential to the successful completion of a project. Don't forget to factor this dimension into your choice of partner agency.
The various phases of your redesign must therefore be carefully planned and precisely executed to ensure optimum results. If stakeholders are often absent or unavailable, the project will be considerably delayed.
In summary, it's difficult to give an exact estimate of how long it will take to complete a website redesign, since each task is unique and has different factors influencing its turnaround time. However, by carefully planning each step and taking into account the factors mentioned above, you can roughly estimate how long it will take to complete your redesign successfully.
What's the first step in a website redesign project?
The first step in a website redesign project is the analysis of the existing site. This involves examining the current website to determine its strengths and weaknesses. It's also important to identify any areas that aren't working and that need to be corrected or improved. Once the analysis is complete, it's time to define the project strategy and objectives.
Redesigning a website is a complex and painstaking process, requiring careful planning and good communication between customer and service provider. Before starting work on the project, it's important to understand the site's objectives and have a clear vision of the expected end result.
Redesigning a website is an important step in a company's development. Not only does it enable you to adapt to market and technological demands, it also strengthens your online presence and enhances the user experience. To succeed in this task, it's essential to call on qualified professionals who can guide you through the process and ensure the quality of your project.
