We all know that creating a new website for your business is no joke. Gathering content, images, what you want to go where, etc. etc. It can be a big headache.
To aid you in this process, we’ve put together a checklist below to make sure you’ve got your bases covered. Have a look, and let us know if we forgot anything!
1. Site map
This should happen very early in the process. Determining your site map will give you the exact pages you’ll have, therefore helping you organize content for each page necessary.
Start with the basics of: Home, About, and Contact. Those three are the pillar pages for just about every website. Beyond that, you’ll get into specifics of your business, such as the services you offer, show off your portfolio of work, etc.
2. Branding
Having your website represent you and your brand should be of the utmost importance. If you’re looking to get a new logo design, do that first so that you can utilize the logo in your new website, as well as have the new brand colors implemented into the website itself to match.
Additionally, having your brand fonts embedded with your web design is not something you want to forget.
3. Content
Content is key, as they say. When it comes to writing your content, be sure that it’s not over-stuffed with jargon that your visitors won’t really care about. At the same time, for SEO reasons, you don’t want to simplify it so much that Google doesn’t even know what you do.
When it comes to organizing all your content, we highly recommend Dropbox. Create folders for each page you’re working on, and drop in the copy and images for those pages. This keeps it extremely easy to locate your files, and know what’s been done.
4. Goals
With every website, you have a goal or purpose for creating it. Whether you want to promote your services, sell a product, or raise money for your nonprofit — there’s always a reason. When mapping out your website, always be sure that your goal is at top of mind. Making it easy for your visitor to recognize the purpose of your website will make it more of a success once complete.
5. Quality
For your website, images play a huge role. If you don’t have any, get some. Hire a photographer to take professional photos that will be high quality and represent you to the fullest.
Sure, it may cost a bit extra, but you gain so much from it on your website, such as: business credibility, personal touch, better design quality, and it’s unique to you.
Additionally, hire a web designer that will design a new website for you that is up-to-date, mobile friendly, and showcases your business in the best possible way. We may be bias, but we would recommend Adam Wright Design for that 😉
Here’s the list!
Alas, here’s the list you can feel free to copy and paste for your own use. Although this is a shortened, simplified list to get you started, you can adapt it to your own process and add to it as you go.
- Site map
- Page titles
- Navigation layout (how will this be shown on my website?)
- Branding
- Fonts
- Colors
- Logos
- Content
- Images for each page
- Copy for each page
- Goals
- Am I keeping my business goals in mind?
- Quality
- Get quality images
- Hire a quality web designer
We hope this simple, yet effective checklist will help you with your website redesign!
