Do These 3 Things Now to Future-proof Your Website
A website redesign is a big undertaking, requiring significant time and effort. And when you invest all that time and money into a new site, you want it to last.
So how can you ensure that you won’t need a re-do in a short period of time?
Here’s what to do to ensure longevity.
1. Do the prep work
It should go without saying, but preparing for a website redesign is one of the most crucial steps to set up for success.
Comprehensive preparation includes:
- Knowing your audience (and understanding their needs): This helps determine the site’s structure and flow, which will largely remain the same throughout the life of the site.
- Developing an up-to-date brand guide: Check that colors, typography, and brand voice are current! This ensures the site will be cohesive and prevents the need for piecemeal updates later down the road. (It also ensures your site will perform well with your audience!)
- Curating your content: Before a redesign is the time to take a close look at your content and remove anything that is outdated, update the language, or add missing pieces. Creating a user-friendly site is much easier without extra clutter.
Be sure to answers these questions first, and do your research as needed.
2. Get the fundamentals right
The foundation of a house provides stability and structure, and your site’s foundation is no different.
You want to make sure you are following best practices when it comes to technical needs:
Having a site that runs smoothly means you can go longer between redesigns. You’ll be able to focus on surface-level design updates knowing that, on a foundational level, your site works for your users.
3. Build in flexibility
Building flexibility into your site means you can easily make adjustments to your content. When we build sites, we use modules to put together the pages, which means our clients can hide or add/remove sections to the page as needed. For example, if you have an upcoming event, you can easily add a section to feature that event.
You also need scalability – your content needs to have a place to grow within the structure of the site. That’s why creating a user-friendly sitemap is so critical – and it’s why we often use modules that can help condense heavier areas of content.
Obviously, there will come a time when you are ready for a fresh look and need a new design. But if you put in the prep work and build a site with the right foundation, you may be able to get away with a refresh instead of a full rebrand – making your investment last longer.
Need help with a redesign project? We can help do it right – reach out to us.
