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
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
-
Which site as main site? B2C or B2B?
We're currently running two separate sites, one being the "main" page for B2B customers and the other being an online shop targeting B2C customers. Site structure looks like this: <code>[sonnenschirme.at](sonnenschirme.at) = main page / B2B</code> <code>sonnenschirme.at/shop = shop / B2C</code> We're also building a new shop with Shopify which will replace the current shop and it's going to provide a really great user experience (AR models of products etc). Naturally, there are a lot more B2C customers than there are B2B customers (we sell sun umbrellas). The B2C customer type spends around 150€ typically, whereas a B2B customer needs consulting and will spend upwards 10k. B2B is responsible for about 90% of revenue. Both customer types seem to search for the term "sonnenschirme" which is basically just "sun umbrella". Before the shop was accessible at a subdirectory (/shop), it was available on a different domain (not even subdomain), which was really bad for SEO. Once we consolidated both websites into one we've seen a big spike in traffic, due to products etc. of the shop ranking well. As pretty much all competing companies are B2C companies who fight for a share of the "sonnenschirme" keyword, we've been unsure if it wasn't better to have the shop as the main page and the B2B page in a subdirectory. So basically: <code>sonnenschirme.at/subdirname = B2B page
Branding | | agctyz
sonnenschirme.at = main page / B2C</code> But then again B2B generates much more revenue (at least right now). What do you guys think? I'm anxious about "just trying" because it could hurt traffic badly.0 -
Does anyone has experience with Q&A Sites in terms of SEO value?
I would like to increase mentions to my site and brand. I thought the Q&A sites might be useful here (like Yahoo Answers). Can anyone give me some tips where to go and what to do? I would be very happy about that 🙂
Branding | | MichaelJanik0 -
Optimizing for a person with two variations of their first name.
Hello, I am wondering if there is best practices or ideas when doing SEO work for someone's personal name and that name has two variations. So for instance, if someone's formal first name is "James" but they go by "Jim" or "Richard" and "Rick." I thought it might be easy as choosing one and going for it, but this person has a lot of info about them indexed and google and for the most part it is two completely different set of SERP's depending on which variation of the named is searched.
Branding | | kevgrand0 -
Site Disappeared For Exact Match Search?
Can anyone help me figure out what is happening to a site I recently set up? The site is http://intervalmanagementgroup.com/ and it completely fell off for an exact match brand name search of "Interval Management Group". It had been climbing to the top spot on page one shortly after launch and has now disappeared from Google while Bing and Yahoo seem to have no problem with it. . . Any insight is much appreciated!
Branding | | TroyAIE0 -
Site Architecture for Sub-Brands
I am working on launching a few industry specific sub-brands for our marketing agency and am trying to figure out the best way to deliver a tailored user experience using subfolders instead of subdomains, if this is indeed the best option... Since I am trying to provide separate experiences, I looking at housing microsites in sub-folders - say /technology or /medical. Each with its own navigation, home page, and industry specific content/blog/portfolio. A couple things I am considering: Will my microsite "home pages" and site pages rank as well in a sub-folder versus if they were actually the primary pages on their own sub-domain? Will separate Wordpress and theme installs and separate primary navigations have any affect on SEO if they are in sub-folders of the same site? Thanks in advance for any input. I really appreciate it!
Branding | | Alaniz0 -
Impact on Global SEO of Losing One Regional Site
Hi, Plans are in place to have an affiliate company take over the marketing, sale, and distribution of our products in one region of the 35 that we currently operate in. The regional site is responsible for 10% of our overall global traffic. 26% of the revenue to that specific site comes from organic search traffic. The question is whether the loss of this traffic and these pages will have any negative impact on our global SEO status?
Branding | | Corel0 -
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 -
Do cuss words on social media sites affect ranking?
This is a hard one, I'm sure. In regards to search, I've read that Facebook pays close attention to verbs and that Google takes into account related words close to anchor text and search terms. Now I have the unique opportunity to work as the internet sales and marketing consultant for a company in serious need of brand reputation repair. The company has experienced a terrible fallout from a recent product recall. Unfortunately in this case, the company site has really strong reach, which means that our blog posts, product descriptions, and twitter comments can be found copied on hundreds of websites hours after they are posted. The most recent incident has associated our brand name with words like cheaters, scam, phoney, copycat, and other words that will certainly get filtered here. All my attempts to assure unconditional refunds and offer phone support get labeled as a desperate attempt to save the brand. No doubt, the company has issues but will surely overcome them in time. SEO Question: Should I close the Facebook page and set strong filters on a new page to delete the onslaught of negative comments or should we spend the time to clean up the current page? This is a difficult decision, as I know many companies like Hubspot, Mailchimp, and Rackspace actually look at Facebook pages to qualify business leads (no fans, go home). Damage control suggestions also welcome, but the crux of this issue here is how our brand name and product names will be associated with cuss words or negative terms and how this will affect our ranking in SERPs.
Branding | | kwoolf1