While it is possible to fix broken elements after launch, it is always best to try and get it right first time, so here are a few tips to ensure a smooth transition from your current website to your new shiny one.
- Plan, plan, plan
While this may seem obvious to some of you, good planning is probably about 80% of the success of any update. if you know what needs to be done, by whom and in which time frame, the chances of getting it wrong are drastically reduced. So invest in a good project management tool like Microsoft Project and start documenting each step of the process. If you lead a team, make sure they are all aware of the tasks - Content
When writing copy for your site, think about users first. Whatever you write needs to make sense to them, so keep it clear, concise and web friendly (write around 300 words per page, use bullet points). For SEO purposes, avoid duplicate content as it could be considered as spam and get you banned from search engine results pages. Remember, for users and search engines alike, content is king. - Know your keywords
Make sure you do some keyword research to target the most relevant keywords for your market. Once you have them, integrate them within your content, titles, descriptions and keyword tags, in your URLs, ALT text, H Tags and anchor links (links within the content to other pages of your site). Again, one basic principle is to use keywords cleverly so that your page is not only built for search engines but also for visitors.
Doing some keyword mapping can help you focus the content of your site by matching unique keywords to unique pages. - Technical requirements
List all of your technical requirements for the build as early as possible during the process so that your web developer or technical team can start the work. Communication is key here if you want to deliver your project on time.
Keep your javascript and css files clean and outside of the code for each page and limit page load time as search engines are likely to take it into consideration in their algorithms this year. - Navigation / Site map
Having a clear idea of the structure of your site and the navigation early on will allow you to focus your efforts in the right areas. Draw your sitemap and basic navigation to ensure that things are as clear and easy as possible. Try and keep navigation to a maximum of 3 levels so that visitors can find the content they want within a few clicks. - Usability / accessibility
In competitive environments, websites need to be as usable as possible as you only have a few seconds to impress your visitors. As mentioned above, good navigation will help you achieve good usability. Think about your design elements, position of your calls to action, words you use.
Don't forget to think about accessibility too for visually impaired users by allowing your site's fonts to resize properly and by making the code as clean as possible. Complying to W3C standards is a good starting point for accessibility. - 301 redirects
Search engines like consistency, so when relaunching, make it as easy as possible for them to understand what's going on. To ensure your new pages benefit from your current site's history and link popularity, implement page by page 301 redirects. This simply means permanently redirecting each page of your site to a new page on the new site. - Domain name, site URL
If your current domain has been in use for a few years, make sure to continue using it as search engines consider domain history for rankings. If using a new domain, it may take you longer to achieve good rankings again. - Testing, testing, testing
Finally, test your site at every step of the build to make sure it matches your requirements. organise some usability testing sessions and analyse results carefully to refine everything.
once live, continue testing so that you get the best performance on an ongoing basis.
There are a lot of elements to consider when updating a website, but the items above should be a good starting point and will hoepfully put you on the right tracks.