Redesigning a Site - What Optimizations are "Must Haves"?
-
I'm psyched - a client has just approved a complete redesign of their site! Feel like a have a little bag of gold in my hand, and want to spend it wisely.
My question to you, fellow Mozzers, is what elements would you make sure to include a site to make it as optimized as possible?
A few details about the site:
1. It is an informational site, designed to generate leads for a medical product. No products for sale, no e-commerce functionality needed.
2. The site has approximately 250 pages. Last site update was in 2009.
3. Videos are an important part of their marketing strategy.
In addition to shortening their URL structure (some URLs have 6-7 folders, ugh), I plan to utilize schemas and incorporate mobile responsive design.
What other areas would you prioritize for optimization?
Thanks,
Allie
-
Thanks Simon, agree analyzing site analytics is critical to understanding where and what to improve.
-
Hi Robert,
Thank you, excellent suggestions! Will definitely utilize visitor flow in GA and give extra attention to using structured markups.
Thanks!
-
If you have access to the site analytics I would advise that you take a look at the habits of users coming to the site. Have a look at the reasons they are coming to the site, what pages are they visiting, and what pages are they exiting on. Only by knowing what the user intentions are can you truly ensure that the site is designed with the user in mind.
Make sure that you make accessible as possible the very things that visitors are wanting to see. Of course making a site responsive will pay dividends, but you still have to make sure that the site infrastructure makes it easy for users to find the very things they are seeking.
-
Allie,
Schema and responsive design are very good overalls. I think something that you have to be aware of is what are the urls now and what will they be after the redesign. I suggest making sure you have a list of where you start and where you are going to do 301's, etc.
When we do new sites, we start as if it is a new domain and begin with KWA, sitemap, wireframe. That helps us know what will be needed for the client to achieve their goals. I would think of every way you can use the structured markup to improve outcomes.Also, when you are setting up the sitemap and wireframe I would suggest you really get clear on what the UI/UX improvements you need for the new site. A way to start is the visitor flow in GA. You may see contact forms that do not work, etc.
Hope that gives you a bit of extra ammo and Great Luck to you!
Robert
-
I came here to vote for responsive design and you're already all over it. This means you will succeed in my book!
Have fun, I'm kinda jealous
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Really, what are the benefits of creating a Google Brand page for an e-commerce site?
We have a jewellery store client who already have a Google My Business page set up for its store front business. Should we also create a Google Brand page for its e-commerce site (which has a different business name to the jewellery store)? This client already has a pretty robust Facebook profile. Is it worth it maintaining a Brand page then - since it targets Google plus users?
Branding | | Gavo
And what are the chances of a Brand page appearing on search results when you're not a Nike or a Calvin Klein? Thanks heaps in anticipation of your response.0 -
Shopping Experience Review Sites UK Market
Hi Have any UK members have experience of the various shopping review sites. I have an ecommerce site I would like to build trust in. I am aware of shopzilla, trustpilot, pricegrabber, Are there any more? Is any one recommended over oters? I checked out Trustpilot and it looks like it costs about £1600 per year basic which I thought was a bit pricey. Curious what experience promotors think and would recommend Thanks Steve
Branding | | StephenCallaghan0 -
Is duplicating video across several sites a bad thing?
Hi, We have a fairly successful YouTube Channel where we create unique and helpful videos that are related to our core business activity. When we create these videos would you consider it a bad thing to not only post them on YouTube but also a couple of the smaller sites such as Metacafe and Dailymotion? Sending to multiple sites would possibly achieve more total views but would this kind of duplication potentially be harmful to the overall success of the video and have a knock on effect when it comes to how it ranks in Google? Thanks for your help.
Branding | | ChrisHolgate0 -
Will new site have any effect on main site ?
Hi, We have a successful ecommerce site at www.printerbase.co.uk but we are now branching out and will soon be offering services which we are going to do through a different website with a possible URL of something like www.printerbasesolutions.co.uk so my question is, will having two websites containing the word printerbase have any negative effect on the ranking of www.printerbase.co.uk or would we be better having a completely different URL? The new site is not going to have any ecommerce functionality it is going to be more about offering the services we can give to clients and encouraging them to get in contact with us. Thanks BigJoe
Branding | | BigJoe0 -
Should I host my blog on-site or off-site?
I'm working on a personal project at the moment...basically the blog will be active before the website - it's one of those things where the blog is the journey to the finished website kinda thing (picture it sort of like an adventure traveller who plans to write a book about his travels, and also blogs about his experiences as they happen - eventually leading up to the launch of the book). Ideally the blog would be a part of the website, so all the links the blog gets help your website to rank (and it's the website I'm interested in ranking obviously, not the blog). But there are two problems: 1. I don't really want people using my website before it's completed. 2. I'd kinda like to have a different design and theme to the blog, and for it to have it's own domain and branding. I also don't want to clog up my website with random blog posts - and I'd like the freedom of an independent platform to do things that my website is not designed for. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem? Is there a way to let Google know that the blog is a part of my site even though it's on a different domain? How would I funnel all of the link-juice from the blog most effectively?
Branding | | makeshiftyy0 -
Converting Site Content to Different Niche and in Different Language
Background STORY: I'm a wordpress theme designer, and i have a 3 years old wordpress-based site in english language with more than 100 post. Let's just called this site "olddomain.com" (generic brand name, didn't have keyword on it) Almost all of content are just showcase post and download link for my Free Wordpress Theme Download. So the site is lacking in terms of quality article content. I never doing any SEO work (keyword targeting,etc) for this "olddomain.com ", but the site backlinks is growing viral since the beginning, perhaps due to the nature of a "freebie" site. Using the OSE, it showed 12,850 Total Links from 349 Linking Root domain. Back when Y! Site Explorer still exist the number of linked domain is around 64,000+ links, and google webmaster tools show the number of 655,000+ Links. It's now has PageRank 5 (for almost a year) , with Home Page Authority 62/100 and Domain Authority 55/100. But in terms of traffic and revenue, the site is doing pretty bad. I only got less than 3000 visit per month. Revenue less than $10/month from adsense, and generated less than $1000 over the last 2 years from premium wordpress theme affiliate program. Some people told me that i have to add more article to attract traffic. but the thing is, i don't really good on writing english article, It's not my native language, so i can't really express my thought. I know i can outsource article writing, but i feel more comfortable and affordable if i write from my own mind. RECENT STORY: For the last 3 months i also learn more about SEO and internet marketing , and recently doing some local keyword research in my native language (Indonesian) with google keyword tools combine with SEOmoz keywords analysis. I found more than 100+ of Indonesian keywords in multi-niche with more than 3000+ Exact local search/month. And after using SEOmoz keyword analysis, almost all of them are in relatively low competition level under 40% . So The Potential is HUGE. MY IDEA: I want to create a new multi-niche informational content-rich website based on the keywords i found on my language. Something like about.com, squidoo, or hubpages. My question is : 1. Should i completely start that site in a "newdomain.com" completely from scratch (No Pagerank, Backlinks, PA, DA) ? or I just use my existing "olddomain.com" which already got the link advantage (Pagerank 5 with thousands of backlinks) and just recreate the site-structure and put the new article content on it, although it's on different niche and different language . 2. What's the effect for search engine if you changing your site content to different niche (from wordpress theme to Multi-niche Informational website) and also to a different language (english to indonesian) Best Regards,
Branding | | thefaizal
Faizal0 -
Tracking traffic referrals between 2 sites we own?
I'm working on two sites, with seperate Google Analytics, both referring to each other. Am I able to easily find out which keywords/pages referrals are being generated from each site? e.g. http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk - targets home consumers, and refers trade enquires to... http://www.seedpotatomerchants.co.uk - which targets bulk orders, and refers home growers back to jbaseedpotatoes. Question is, how can we track which keywords/pages are sending traffic between each site, quickly? Is it simply a case of trawling through each site's analytics to find out, or does anyone have any tips? Ultimately, we'd like to find out which keywords & pages are picking up traffic from the wrong target audiences. Thanks
Branding | | JamesMio0 -
One big site or lots of little sites? Which is better for SEO and my business in general?
I realize there are some aspects of what I'm asking that only I can answer. With that said, I'm looking for some discussion about the pros / cons of each, and what are the most important factors that will push me one way or another. Let's say I have a company that has three products. One big brand, three little brands. Each of the little brands is focused on a particular sub-niche, all of which are in the general health & wellness niche. Either, I could create a large site for the big brand, with subsections for each product, and work hard on turning that domain into a goto site, with lots of articles, etc. The domain name for this one would be a made up word so I can fully control the search results. Or, another strategy would be to create smaller, "sniper" sites for each product, maybe even sites for each major search term that is interested in that product. These sites would have fewer articles. Descriptive, exact match domain names. Which is the best strategy? #1, #2, or a mixture of both? #1 seems legitimate, #2 seems a bit spammy. What are the pros and cons to each? Can anyone speak from experience about both these practices?
Branding | | monetize-2660060