Establishing a website redesign checklist can go a long ways to helping you address all of the SEO needs for your website, to ensure that your website remains search engine friendly and becomes the effective lead gen tool that you would like it to be.

The fact of the matter is, doing it right the first time can save you a lot if time and effort in the long run. We have had site owners come to us saying that they have recently undergone yet another redesign and are experiencing limited if any SEO results. If you perform a website redesign methodically, you will not need to redesign your site again for years if at all ever.

Timing plays a key role with website redesigns as well. In the Web 2.0 world, new technologies are poping up faster than the site owners, Webmasters, search engine marketers and even the search engines can keep up with. As a result taking the time to plan out your site redesign carefully will allow you to address the needs of the Web 2.0 world.

Tips for Planning A Web 2.0 Website Redesign

1. Web 2.0 vs. Search Engine Friendliness - while the search engines are continuing to grow and develop, they are still months away from being able to crawl and index a number of Web 2.0 features. The good news is that the search engines are aware of the need to be able to crawl and index Rich Internet applications (RIAs). Examples of Rich Internet Applications include the use of Ajax or Flash-based Web pages. In 2008, when planning a website redesign for Web 2.0, you need to understand that currently Web 2.0 is not search engine friendly. You’ll have to ask yourself, "Do I want to redesign my site for SEO and to improve traffic and search engine rankings?" or "Do I want to redesign my site solely for aesthetics and Web 2.0?" The easy answer: In 2008 you need to plan your site redesign so that it does both.
    
2. Consider the Needs of Your Audience - Ah, your audience or consumer if you will. They are the reason that you are in business. Without an audience, you simply cannot perform. They are the ones who are coming to your website looking for information, whitepapers, solutions for their pains etc. Your site needs to be relevant to and for your audience. Depending on your line of business, does your site need to be visually stimulating? If you are an organization like Disney then your answer is "yes". However, you still need to understand the needs of your audience. When planning a site redesign for Web 2.0, you need to have a firm grasp of the type of content and experience your audience is looking for. Are they looking for blogs, wikis, mashups, RSS feeds? Are they looking to interact with AJAX or Flash presentations? (Do they even know what AJAX is?). Prior to any website redesign you need to understand the needs of your audience, Web 2.0 or otherwise. There have been well documented cases where some site owners have actually reverted from heavy FLASH sites back to more static HTML sites.
    
3. Relevancy - Planning a website redesign for Web 2.0 means creating an environment that is relevant to those who will frequent (or visit) that environment. Whether it is a search engines spider or human visitor, your redesign needs to consider the relevancy factor. Will the Web 2.0 features have an impact on the relevancy of your site?
    
4. Content - Part of Web 2.0 is the syndication of your content. When planning a website redesign you need to map out your content and provide methods of syndication for users to access your content. RSS feeds make it easy for users to do just that. So does XML. Content is King now when it comes to SEO and content will remain important in the Web 2.0 world.
    
5. Test, testing and more testing - if you have the capabilities be sure to test various elements of your redesign, both from an SEO perspective and more importantly from a user perspective. Consider using multivariate or A/B testing with mockups to see which ones elicit more engagement. Consider using eye tracking to test of website usability issues. It’s better to address issues prior to site redesign launch then to try and correct post launch. You can lose some or all of your traffic with any site redesign, let alone a site redesign gearing towards Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is all about adding layers to the Web and to your website. It is important to understand that SEO needs to be a part of this. Meaning that if you are going to resdesign your site to consist of heavy use of AJAX or Flash, be sure to have statuc html for the search engines in the background. Most importantly think of the end user. Make your website the best that it can be for the user. Keep in mind that without SEO and having a well optimized website, users may not even get to find your site. Developing a Web 2.0 website is great if the user can find your site in the search engines. If your site is nowhere to be found in the search engines, due to technical or Web 2.0 issues, the coolest, Flashiest site in the World is not going to drive traffic to your website. Finding a balance between SEO, usability and Web 2.0 features is the key.

Thinking about a website redesign? Contact Enquiro to find out more about our website redesign solutions.


Copyright 2008 - Enquiro Search Solutions.