Website Redesign Article Review

I was reading an article in the WebsiteServices.com publication about planning for a redesign.� There is a lot of great information written about what to take into consideration when starting such a venture.� Hightlights from the article include:

>> Make a Checklist. Whether you are managing your redesign in-house or working with a company who specializes in industrial web design� be sure to understand clearly what your goals are and what you need to do to achieve those goals.

>> Compile Information. Review your site for outdated information and make modfications promptly.� Have all your resources together before the project begins, and that will eliminate a painful process.

>> Adding a shopping cart? Ecommerce is vital for business online (or for industrial companies RFQ carts) but there are so many options – know what features you are looking for before purchasing a solution.� Payment system, product photos, search engine friendly structure are all important elements.

>> Update Problems. If you’re working with a company who have been doing redesigns for a long time, this shouldn’t be an issue.� But when interviewing with company ask them if they will be doing any of the following:

• Renaming pages – if you have good SEO results – do not rename pages!
• Redesign Sites in Flash – For some companies who have a strong brand awareness, you can create a site completely in Flash as you are not depending on the search engines to drive traffic.� But for the vast majority of us out there, we need to use Flash in moderation and make sure the search engines can still gain access to crucial information.
• Session Strings. How do you know if there are sessions strings on your site? If there are urls like: www.example.com/cart/widgets.php?id=fa9c455lk67%8900_%grU9 you have a session string.� Try to avoid those.

Overall the article was a great resource.� However, there were a view points that are important to include:

• Search engine optimization.� When going through the work of a redesign, make sure the company or person you are using is optimizing the site.� This is especially important for industrial companies.� The competition is fierce and you need to utilize everything you can!
• Keyword Research.� When redesigning your site, make sure you understand what key phrases people are typing into the search engines.� You can use this for your title tags, and as part of your internal linking structure.� (for more information in linking, view the post: Linking Methods.
• Ongoing maintenance.� Just because you have a fancy new site doesn’t mean that everyone will know about it.� Try to find an ongoing maintenance plan that will help you promote your search and get you great results in the search engines.� After all, your website is your best sales tool.

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