The process of redesigning a website can be costly and time-consuming. Business objectives have to be carefully considered, the needs of your existing clients need to be addressed, and you want to make your website more attractive to potential customers to increase your sales and turnover.

When website redesign works, the rewards speak for themselves. However, when you misjudge your brand and implement a new design that doesn’t appeal to your audience, you can suffer from a loss of reputation, and you could struggle to regain that trust and build ground.

For web designers and brand experts, focusing on the visitor’s experience is essential. Therefore, you need to focus on making your website responsive, informative and adaptable – and you need to be able to do so in a way that guarantees, or at least suggests, an improvement on your current design.

Before blazing ahead and launching a new design to the public, testing your website is a great way to reduce the chances of its failure. Things such as colour schemes, layouts, and usability are important features that you need to consider before hitting the ‘live’ button, so we’ve put together five user experience tests you can do when undertaking the process of a website redesign.

Competitor analysis

Most businesses are likely to have competitors to which they can compare their services to, so taking inspiration from their current website is a great way to get one step ahead.

Taking time to analyse each of your competitors’ websites can offer a unique insight into best industry practices, search engine metrics and also help with finding link building opportunities. Not all of your competitors’ websites will be great – and that’s useful, too.

Whether you create a spreadsheet to analyse websites side by side, or you just take notes and present your findings to your web development team, starting with a competitor analysis is a sure-fire way to boost your chances of web design success.

Self-analysis

Now you’ve analysed your competitors, reviewing your current website can give you an insight into your user experience. Relying on your analytics and finding errors, areas of improvement and important pages that continue to generate leads can give you inspiration for your redesign.

High bounce rates, short time on pages and broken links are all indicators that your website isn’t delivering – but delving deeper into the analytics will offer you the tools you need to fix such issues.

User testing

As soon as you have a basic wireframe of your new website, you should consider testing it with colleagues, valuable customers and industry friends. Whether that involves a face-to-face meetup or asking individuals to record their experience using a camera and screen-capture technology, watching how others interact with your website can be one of the most useful insights. By addressing every concern and criticism within your website design, you’ll be ready when you launch.

Beta testing

When you think you are ready to roll out your new website, a beta test can offer a safety net. Whether you select a group of customers to beta test your website or you feature an ‘opt-in’ on your current website, a beta test can provide valuable analytics and feedback that you can use to make final tweaks before your website officially launches.

A/B testing

The process of web development doesn’t end when your redesigned website goes live. In fact, that day is when the hard work really begins, as you should be continually improving and tweaking your website to maximise your engagement levels and search engine optimisation.

A/B testing, which is also known as split testing, allows you to compare two versions of a web page and determine which of them offers the best performance. The technique is particularly useful for landing pages or sign-up forms where you want to maximise your conversion rates but can be used across any aspect of your website if you want to continue tweaking and improving after launch.

Don’t forget to utilise the experience of professional web development agencies, such as the team at Disruptor Media, to maximise the success of your website’s redesign. Discover our full range of web design services, and don’t hesitate to contact us to find out more about how we can help you.