Do you need to rebuild your website ? Sure, a few years ago your website had all the bells and whistles that your Calgary Web designer could offer . But now, the site is beginning to show its age . The Internet lives in dog years more than it does in human years, things change quickly, evolution and revolution go hand in hand .

What can be done when your site needs a redesign ? Scrap it and start again ? Well, it depends . Redesigning your Website is the perfect opportunity to look over your entire process online . It is time to look at how your needs have evolved, how the Web has changed in culture and technology and how these forces affect your goals online . If you need to look further than that, you will be considering your business model, your business niche, your marketing strategy and budget and your corporate identity . These need to be secured before you move into any new or revitalized Web project . Having confidence in the core areas of your business will carry over to your Web updates . When you do get to reviewing your current web presence, look at everthing, from domains, to hosting, the version of your platform (for scripts and database), W3C validity, and website functionality.

Here are the top ten advantages of Web redesign:

1. Domains & Web and email Hosting  - is your domain effective for your niche? Is it easy to remember and market? How is your Web hosting? Is there issues with server downtime or slow loading pages?
2. Review and Refresh the look and style - Have you changed your print media or corporate identity since the last time your site was updated? Does your current website have design elements that date it to a certain design style of a few years ago? Cleaner designs can avoid these design traps.
3. Expand your Web site design - many older sites were built to the past standard of 800px wide screens. Now the standard is 1024, which will make narrow screens feel constrained.
4. Update and reorganize content - A redesign gives you permission to turf old news, or at least move it to an archives area, and rewrite your content with content that is freshly enriched with up-to-date search terms and keywords.
5. Navigation and Menu improvement - A key aspect of redesign is a full review of the menu systems and supporting navigation.
6. Review all Web imagery (Photos, illustrations, etc.) - Lose those old stock photos and replace them with custom photos of your own, or source new, higher quality (and less seen) stock photos.
7. Update your website’s platform to a CMS. If you have a CMS already, make sure it gets updated to the latest version to ensure compatibility, security and functionality.
8. Check Your SEO techniques - first off, do you have any Search Engine Optimization tools on hand? How often do you review and update your content and search terms? It makes the most of your time developing written content for your site, if it is also built on proven keywords and search terms. At least take a look through Googles external keyword tool to see how popular your chosen keywords are. After SEO, look to Search Engine Marketing, where you can attract more target traffic by advertising and promoting your site through more aggressive and direct methods .
9. Media checkin - What type of media do you have on your site? Adding video, PDF documents and interactive Flash animations can help improve site retention and viral marketing.
10. Are you Linked in? - Social media brings people together, and people are the reason for the Web, so it makes sense to integrate tools like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Just be prepared to keep them updated and also that the tone for each channel is as business-like or as casual as needed to be accepted by your “friends”.

 A redesigned website can be even more powerful than a new website. When done correctly, your Web designer can make sure that the momentum carried by the old site fuels the redesigned site - even if this means a new domain or updated web page addresses.

A final reason for Web site redesign, whether you are in Calgary, Alberta or anywhere else in the world, is to spread the news to clients, friends and everyone else! A Web redesign will get people talking and re-ignite their interest in your company and services.

Looking for a creative solution for your Calgary graphic design and Calgary Web redesign needs?
You can find it all at www.blinddrop.com.

Tags: calgary web design website redesign web site calgary alberta

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2011 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Video Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.