New website for 2017? Here’s what you need to know

Perhaps one of your biggest marketing aims this year as a company is to redesign your website. A good website is one of the greatest online marketing tools you can have as a business, so preparing in advance for the migration process is key to ensuring that your website is a success. If you have had a previous website, you have generated a certain level of interest and SEO benefits, so what can you make sure to include in your website migration in order to carry over your existing website rankings to build upon?

Staff engagement is key

You might be completing the migration using your in-house team or through an external specialist company. However you are completing the project, it’s important to make sure that your team are aware of the change and ready to take responsibility for the things that they need to. This could be acting as a point of contact for the external company, providing current website details and content in order to transfer the necessary information, providing design or content ideas, or simply being aware of the switch in order to be sharing only content that will be carried across to the new site.

What is necessary?

The first stage to any migration is picking a template, theme or design that you want. Once you have this, you must establish if there is anything you want to keep from the old site. This is likely to include contact information, branding (unless you are completing the migration as part of a complete rebrand), and key services that you offer. It’s important to also establish your rankings for each page of your site – pages that are highly ranking for SEO should be carried across where possible.

The migration process

Part of the migration process is transferring content; however there are things that also go on behind the scenes. Webforms need to be set up, content optimised both visually and for SEO purposes, imagery improved and implemented, meta tags setup correctly, clean URLs implemented and more. All site information must be set up correctly so that your website will display and function as it should. Meta data is also something that you should carry across or begin to implement as this will benefit your SEO and direct people to your website in Google should they search for relevant terms.

Making improvements to your website

Creating a new site is a prime opportunity to make significant improvements. Optimising for mobile is one way that many businesses are choosing to address the fact that a growing number of users are now searching on tablets and mobile devices, meaning that standard websites are not easy to read or use. This is something to consider when completing your website migration, to future proof your site. The migration process also gives you the chance to completely renew any sections of your site, create entirely new pages or really optimise the content that you have.

Handing over control

If you are relying on an outsourced provider to complete your site, there will be a point of handover, where they provide you with login details and often training to be able to use the site internally. They should always be on hand to help, should you need assistance or further changes made.

Find out more about our website design services or give us a call today to discuss your requirements on 020 7100 0726.