By 2024, most brands have come to peace with reality (even if not enthusiastically) that websites are mandatory. That’s the good news. The bad news – having a website is not enough by itself. There are a number of elements and ingredients that go into modern website development to help you tackle a successful website redesign strategy.
Website Redesign 101: Keep the Why in Mind
You know websites are essential for brand survival, and in this day and age, it’s easy enough to get a website live. There are many DIY providers that specifically aim to provide a user-friendly website design experience for people who are not naturally website or even necessarily computer literate.
That said, there is a lot to keep in mind when it comes to website design. Your website might be the first point of entry for potential customers, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
As such, your site needs to serve as a comprehensive virtual representation of your brand, values, services, and point of difference. This is your opportunity to clearly establish the driving force behind your company or organization – to define what sets you apart from your competitors.

And it’s never finished. Never, ever, ever. Websites are a constant work in progress, requiring ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and optimization. And yes, eventually, down the line, you’ll find yourself facing another complete and utter overhaul, and for reasons well beyond a cosmetic makeover.
Properly done, website redesign will enhance your user experience, elevate your content, and help drive conversions. Think of it this way: you wouldn’t want a potential customer to walk through your company’s doors, find a mess, and a bunch of people with little to no information about the products or services you offer. Your website should serve as the digital equivalent to an in-person experience.
Research and Strategic Planning
People change. They don’t mean to, they certainly don’t plan on it, and many don’t even realize a change has occurred until well after the fact. What’s fashionable is always in flux, as is how people interact with technology.

Good web design keeps current web trends and best practices front and center, which requires constant research and analysis. As a business leader, you have a solid idea of the demographics your target customer fits. The next step would be understanding your target customer’s preferences, pain points, and browsing behaviors.
A comprehensive audit of your existing website’s performance, with the help of analytical tools like Google Analytics, will provide an invaluable starting point, define clear objectives and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your redesign efforts.
User-Centric Design and Intuitive Navigation
More and more, good web design starts with the mobile experience. There’s a reason pretty much every movie theater begins a screening with a reminder to put devices away. People, all of us, are addicted to our phones. This makes it highly probable that a new customer will first access your website from their smartphone.
Your website, therefore, needs to be responsive on multiple platforms. Regardless of how your customers first interact with your website, the experience should be user-centric.
What does it mean to be user-centric? At its core, simply that your website has an intuitive navigation structure that seamlessly guides visitors through your site. Everything they might possibly need or want to know should be easily found.
Lastly, you want to make sure your website is optimal for all user experiences, which means prioritizing accessibility. You want to make sure no one finds it difficult to do business with you.
Compelling Visuals and Engaging Content
As we’ve already discussed, people are on their smartphones and devices more and more these days. This begs the question, what exactly are they looking at? The answer, of course, is a little bit of everything, but that “everything” usually has one thing in common.
Content. It’s all content. The brands and influencers that do best are those that publish and promote useful, engaging, and yes, entertaining content for customers and followers to absorb. The sort of content brands promote is especially important as it will define your voice and help determine your viability as a leader in your industry.
Content needs to be good. It needs to be relevant. It needs to be visually engaging. It needs to tell a story. And often, it needs to be brief.
Key ingredients include:
- Videos (abouts, how-tos, testimonials, product or project features, etc.)
- High-quality imagery (the more branded the better; stock should be a last resort)
- Engaging copy that informs and doesn’t bore (about, products/services, blogs)
When done right, your content should tell a cohesive story that helps establish emotional connections with your visitors. Getting people invested is key to keep them coming back. And with little exception, nothing engages people quite like a good story, so share yours.
Optimized Conversion Paths and Persuasive CTAs
Every person who visits your website is a potential new customer, so the website design should make it easy and obvious for visitors to take action. This involves optimized conversion paths and clear calls to action (CTAs). Your CTAs should be prominent, visually appealing, contextually relevant, and strategically placed throughout the website.
Everything else should articulately support the CTA, whether the desired action is making a purchase, subscribing to a newsletter, or contacting your team.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Integration for Enhanced Visibility
As we said earlier, a website is never finished, not even when it is. For your website to serve as a conversion point for customers, your customers need to be able to find it. This is where SEO strategies come in.
In-depth keyword research will inform you which words your customers are searching for when they are curious about your industry. But keywords alone are not enough—knowing how to use them, what the competition is, how easy it is to rank for certain words, and how those keywords change over time (sometimes within days) is essential to ensuring your website remains optimized.

SEO rankings are affected by the following:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Headings
- Website body copy
- Frequency of site updates (The older the site, the less reliable it is, as the content might be out of date. Regular updates, such as blogs, will keep search engines from thinking your content is too stale to be reliable)
Careful strategizing with keywords, along with a comprehensive backlinking strategy to enhance your website’s authority and credibility, can amplify your site’s visibility.
Performance Optimization for Seamless User Experience
People have notoriously short attention spans. If your website loads slowly or has inconsistent functionality, potential customers are likely to look elsewhere. To enhance the performance and the user experience, consider employing techniques such as:
- Image compression
- Code minification
- Browser caching
Your site speed should be continuously monitored with performance issues promptly addressed. This isn’t a one-time gig, either. Your site should be regularly tested across different browsers and devices so that potential problems can be quickly addressed.
There’s a Lot to a Website Redesign
There are many, many considerations you need to make in regards to website redesign, from planning to execution and then upkeep. The good news is you don’t have to do it yourself.
ADsmith Marketing & Advertising’s team of Google-certified digital experts can help guide you along the way, from the initial build to ongoing monitoring and optimization.
If you’re uncertain whether your website is doing everything it can for you and your business, or if it’s time to redesign, reach out to us. We’re here to demystify all parts of the web design process.