A well-organized, looking, and responsive website is something that all businesses require. If you’ve been doing online business for a long time with an old website, maybe the website is still active or an archive, but there is still good stuff there. The material you bought, created, and published three, five, ten, or fifteen years ago is still useful. It might even be more relevant now than it was back then. But an old website isn’t perfect. If you’re going to put that old material to good use, you’ll need to revamp it a bit.
In this article, I have shared with you some amazing tips that you can use to revamp any old website and get the most out of it. Revamping an old website is less expensive and easier as compared with making a completely new website. Unlike new website development, here you don’t need to find a DNS domain name or buy server hosting.
Revamping your old website is always a good investment for your online business. Website revamp is a good way to increase your conversions, attract more customers, and improve the user experience. Though, it is not something that you can approach lightly. You should be very careful while revamping your web design, otherwise, it will cost your successful online business. Below I am mentioning some crucial considerations that you must keep in mind while moving forward.
Table of Contents
13 Steps on How To Revamp an Old Website
Define The Goal
If you’re going to rework a website, you need to know what it is you’re shooting for. Your first step is to always define the goal and scope of your project or risk wasting time and effort. Write down all the things you need to accomplish in the whole process of revamping. The goals and objectives can be long-term business goals and short-term operational goals. One thing you must know is that your website is your brand, your overall brand identity and exposure are completely based on your website.
If you’re revamping a big site as a type of rebranding across your company, for example, you will have a significantly greater task load than reworking a website to boost conversions or Google SEO. Your goals should be clearly defined to achieve better results. So, it is very important to define the goal and scope of your revamping a website.
Identify Limitations
Sometimes, despite our best intentions, we simply can’t do it all. If you know that you’re writing skills aren’t very good or that you can’t code yourself out of a box, don’t expect to do very well at those tasks. Being efficient and best at everything is good, but knowing your limitations is also something that can save you from being super confident about your website. Likewise, time, our most precious resource may be so limited that you wind up with a very long timeframe on the revamp simply because you don’t have time to prioritize it. It is far better to know your limitations ahead of time so you can plan accordingly. Bear in mind all of your limitations which can be time, budget, skills, etc.
Isolate The Best Material
Once you start looking at the blog, look first for your best material. What had the best conversions in the past? What was the most popular with readers? The best material should be your focus as you rework the website. Identifying it means more than picking your favorite post. You’ll need to do a bit of digging and checking analytics to find the best overall post. Analyzing your work would help you to understand what works well on your website and keeping this in your mind you can rework your website based on the most effective work you have done previously.
Some characteristics of your website may be working well as compared with others. For example, if you think your current logo is amazing and has received extensive brand awareness, you should better go with this old logo rather than change it. Similarly, don’t change the website’s font choices, color palette, or photographs if they are going well. Depending on data gathered from Google Analytics, you can decide where you need changes and adjust what you need without any changes.
Clarify The Audience
Target audiences change over time. Adding new services or products to your website or new market expansions, you should update the content and make it more relevant to your audience’s interests, who are willing to buy your products and services. Just like when you launched the site first time, you’ll need to identify your audience. To whom you are selling or talking? If you didn’t clearly define your audience last time, identifying your target is a huge advantage this time around – it allows you to make clearer choices and work with a target demographic in mind. A clear picture of your audiences can help you to rebrand your website.
Remember, your target audience should be well-defined, focus on your niches because if you are selling to everyone, you are selling to no one.
Research Your New Market
If you’ve changed your audience, you’re going to need to learn more about them. If you used to talk to business owners, but now you’re talking to educators, it’s time for some studying. Learn the lingo and the key themes your audience is looking for. Look for gaps you can help fill with your material – this will help you select pieces to improve as well. Make good research on your new audiences, to sell your products efficiently to the audiences, you need to know about your audience’s interests and demands. Now depending on your new audience’s interests, you have to recreate your more relevant website content.
Share Your Responsibilities
Speaking of delegating, your next step will be to find the right people for the jobs you need to do. We all know that the people inside your organization (employees) can either make or break your business. While selecting the people to get all the work done you have to be very careful. Many of your tasks might be delegated to employees or split between stakeholders on the website.
Having clear expectations for each requirement makes it easy to explain what is required and the expected timeframe and level of completion. This is also the time to start looking for freelancers or firms who might take on some of the jobs that aren’t in your current skill set. You have to explain the requirements and timeframes for every task. Make it clear to your staff what you expect from them and what are your goals for this new website.
Plan The Project Steps
Now that the initial overview work is done, it’s time to plan the specific steps for reworking the content. Use project management software like Trello to identify the key steps for the process. These steps might include moving the site to a dummy server, checking all of the links, improving or reworking the content of the pages, or adding new graphics. Make your steps as detailed as possible while you are in the planning stages. This will make it easier to execute the steps later as you balance the workload or delegate. Good project planning would save you from a lot of risk and uncertainties in the future.
Whether you are appointing a third party or working with an in-house designer, hire somebody to systematically approve all changes. For contracts of third-party, ensure you clearly define all the expectations from the contract and exactly know what you want. Make a written document of your expectations and goals for the website, the document should include all of the details such as free revisions and the cost of adding new features later. Planning everything before would save you from a lot of trouble in the future.
SEO Targets And Voice Search
Now that work is happening, it’s important to update your keywords. Do some keyword research if you haven’t already, and as the content is improving and updating, work on those new words. Those keywords belong in the page descriptions, page titles, subtitles, articles, and captions. Not to be spammy, but to be thorough as you focus on improving your SEO ranking for particular things.
From your blog to your landing pages, ensure that people can access your content via organic search. Try to use more relevant keywords, make custom meta descriptions, add alternate text to images, and write long-form copy so Google can understand what your content is about.
Serial entrepreneur and famed marketer Gary Vaynerchuk has spoken for more than a year about the importance of voice search and how it is the next big thing. Gary Vee stated that voice and audio are the most natural human interfaces to interact. People like to listen and speak.
You may never notice how people interact with cell phones. If they are busy they prefer to use the voice search tool of Google to search something rather than type out a query. So, keeping the trends in mind, you should also optimize your site for voice search which is also a good website ranking tool, so your audiences can easily find you. For the local businesses, terms like “nearby,” “near me,” and “closest” Can be considered to rank the website.
Plan Your Website Map
Your website map should be clean and easy to follow. Your website map is simply the outline of your pages to be sure your menus are clean and prepared correctly. Creating your map will allow you to see areas where linking might naturally occur within the site and areas where you may be light on content and materials. In the website map, you have to include all the pages, web page design, structure, etc.
Create a Mock-up
As the work comes together, work on a mock-up website. This new version of the site should be live only for your team and should show the up-to-date final product. As you add pages and make changes to keywords, maps, and images, this mock-up should show all of the vested parties what the revised site will look like and give them ideas on what to expect.
A mockup is a full-size model of a device design or scale, used for demonstration, teaching, promotion, design evaluation, and other determinations. A mockup is also said to be a prototype if it offers a minimum part of the system’s functionality and allows design testing. You can say that a Mockup is just a web page design, using a pen on paper or other online tools to create a map or sketch. Using the Mockup, you don’t need to write even a single line of code. It is only there to make sure you are not wasting your time on writing code before getting any approval. The mockup design of a website is a kind of rough draft, it is a prototype or simple layout of the site. It is also used to fulfill the actual customer’s needs. Once the client/customer approves the website revamp design the developer can start writing code for the design.
Revise And Edit
When you feel like you’re getting close to the goal, stop. Take a step back. You are never finished with a website until you have someone read over what you’ve written and created. You should test every link and read every headline and caption. Bring in neutral parties if possible, to be your beta testers. As they discover things to fix them. Find a typo? Fix it. Your website is your visual reputation. A sloppy site indicates a sloppy company. Double-check your website content and functions.
Minor mistakes like a typo and grammatical errors in your content can have a bad impact on your audiences and it also makes your website look unauthentic.
Watch For Creep
As you are approaching the finish line, be wary of overstepping your scope. Check back on that original goal you set. Have you found new projects and goals to add to the original project? This may be okay, or it may be the kind of project creep that makes you feel like you’ll never finish. Look at your original goal and stick to it. Cut the extra projects or put them in a new file for later updates. You want this site finished and live, not lingering in a constant state of “almost there.”
Polish And Publish
Finally, it’s time to polish it up and publish it! Push your new site to your old domain and watch your permalinks in your URL to maintain old traffic where it counts. Check for load times and compress images as needed. Check everything one more time to clean up broken links or oddly formatted content and then relax and enjoy the site’s transformation.
A new website is exciting, and when you revamp an old site, you’re not just launching a new site, you’re rebranding, reworking, and refining what you already know works and turning it into something that should work even better.
Conclusion
In this article, there is a discussion on the revamping of your website and what you should be considering for the whole revamping process. I have shared with you many tips and tricks to make your revamping process smoother and make it a success for your online business. Revamping your old website is always a good investment for your online business. You should be very careful while revamping your web design, otherwise, it will cost your successful online business. One thing you must know is that your website is your brand, your overall brand identity and exposure are completely based on your site. Make good research on your new audiences, to sell your products efficiently to the audiences. Try to make your content as error-free as possible to build trust in your audiences. So, by reading this article, now you can effectively manage your site revamping with any risk.
Umesh Singh
Hi Oleg,
Every point which you have mentioned in this article are important to create a valuable blog post.
Without goals, you can not go in the right direction and will end with nothing.
Thanks,
Umesh Singh
Oleg Calugher
Hi Umesh,
thank you for the comment, good to know that you liked the article,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Donna,
thank you for the comment,
Yeah, delegating is one of my favorite too – especially if you can get multiple people into it, each managing their area of specialization.
Completely agree with you on multi-niche or changing the niche, that becomes a whole lot different with too many factors that comes into play.
thanks,
– Oleg
Osho
Great post,
Loved the tips you have shared here. I must say every blog must use these tips to revamp the old websites so that the loyal reader will get great experience while reading the stuff.
Thanks
Oleg Calugher
Hi Osho,
thank you for the comment,
Glad you liked the article
regards,
– Oleg
Ryan Biddulph
Hi Oleg,
#2 is awesome. See where you need help, pay for it. Or develop a mutually beneficial partnership to prosper both parties. My web design skills are….um…..OK ;)….but my wed designer and developer knows this stuff inside out. He did a complete redesign of my blog last month, speeding it up, I paid for a CDN and now my blog is lightning fast. All because I handed off jobs to folks who had the talents to handle the job, and to do it darn well.
Ryan
Oleg Calugher
Hi Ryan,
thank you for the comment,
Yeah completely agree with you, we are for most part jack of all trades but masters of only a few – say writing, designing or marketing. We can’t do it all, and if we try to – it won’t be as good.
I am a big fan of Brum design and your theme, good to know that you have moved on a CDN. Always good to keep speeding up the sites load time,
thanks,
– Oleg
Joy Healey
Hi Oleg,
A very helpful guide, thanks. I’m almost wishing I hadn’t just binned some old blogs 🙂
I agree with Ryan, it’s better to out-source jobs you;re not very good at and that are one-off. It probably makes more sense for the business owner to can spend time better on content-related tasks.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Oleg Calugher
Hi Joy,
thank you for the comment,
glad you liked the article,
Yeah, best to focus on what we are best at and let other handle what they are good at,
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Calugher
Hi Raj Kumar,
welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Yeah, surely updating old content and adding more information to them will not only boost their ranking but help the end user further.
thanks,
– Oleg
Sue Bride
I’m in the process of updating a few old but popular posts on my site. Some of the info was out of date, the images were small compared to now, and I wanted to add internal links to newer posts. I’m considering changing the publish date to make it a recent post rather than 4 years old. The permalinks won’t change so I don’t think there’s an SEO issue?
Oleg Calugher
Hi Sue,
thank you for the comment,
Changing publish date is a good idea, especially if you add more data to the article and make it better. If anything, it will improve SEO and rankings. Most search engines value current articles, so a recent publish date will help the article rank.
thanks,
– Oleg
Shubhanshi
Hi Oleg,
You have touched the point. I am a big believer of old content and I like to update my old content with new information.
Also, it takes less time to upgrade content that creating a new one.
Thanks for reminding us about the it.
– Shubhanshi
Oleg Calugher
Hi Shubhanshi,
welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Yeah, updating old content with latest information and trends is always helpful. Surely, it takes less time and effort than creating a new article.
thanks,
– Oleg
Marbella
Hey oleg,
Thanks for the information. I happen to have a website and I think I could use these tips to rebuild it. Thanks again. Enjoyed the read.
AbelPardo
Hi Oleg,
Identify goals could be the most important thing for a digital marketer. If you don’t know what you want to achieve it’s impossible to get it.
A big salute!
Oleg Calugher
Hi Abel,
thank you for the comment,
Good to know that you liked the article,
thanks,
– Oleg
Lisa Sicard
Oleg, great tips. I’ve been toying with the idea of redoing mine in the coming year. It’s hard to come to a decision for me on this one. I know it will take a lot of focus and some outsourcing to get it done right. I’ve updated mine from time to time but have not done a revamp in 5 years now. Thanks for all these tips!
Oleg Calugher
Hi Lisa,
thank you for the comment,
Yeah, Revamp isn’t an easy thing to do, there’s so many factors involved from design to coding – much of it has to be outsourced.
Thanks,
– Oleg
Sandipan
While we are revamping an old website what should be our approach with posts that are no longer relevant. Should be delete those posts?
Oleg Calugher
Hi Sandipan,
welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Don’t delete old posts, those links carry a lot of weight. If you think they are totally ir-relevant and re-writing them won’t make much sense, you can delete the content but make sure to re-direct the link of the old post to a new post which is somewhat related.
thanks,
– Oleg
Sandipan
Thanks Oleg for the help!
Oleg Calugher
Hey Abhilash,
Thank you for the comment,
That is totally correct, it is surely a lot of work – too many things to consider and plan. But the end result is always good.
thanks,
– Oleg
Kristy
I have a blog that I started with a partner, who is not actively involved anymore. I am trying to decide should I invest in starting over with a new blog, getting new business and all new social media accounts and trying to get followers on all those, or should I revamp my current blog site. If I revamp the current site, it would let me take advantage of all the followers I already have. My social media has been doing better but my actual blog site is kind of stale. Is it worth trying revive.
Oleg Calugher
Hey Kristy,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Yes, it is always better to try revive, rather than going a total fresh. Your site might be stale for the moment, but it will still have a lot more authority compared to a new site. Just start adding content again and make a content schedule for it – and stick to it.
Good to know that your social media profiles are doing good – just keep building up more followers and keep them engaged.
thanks,
– Oleg
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Dipesh,
Welcome to Temok and thank you for the comment,
Surely, move to Temok web host and let our team handle your revamp!
Check out our web development options here – https://www.temok.com/web-development
thanks,
– Oleg