SEO.fr Agency > Blog > Redesigning a Website: A Comprehensive Summary for B2B Executives

Redesigning a Website: A Comprehensive Summary for B2B Executives

Websites are, nowadays, more than just a showcase. They have become at the center of companies’ business strategies. Did you know that 95% of professionals make an online search before contacting a company? By allowing you to identify new contacts and convert Internet users into potential prospects, your website is thus a necessary tool to develop your business activities.

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As such, in order for you to maintain your website’s effectiveness, the website must be regularly modified and updated. With the rapid evolution of the digital world (SEO, the rise of mobile navigation, the rise of voice search, etc.) and the constant emergence of new expectations from your prospects, your website would not always necessarily remain up-to-date.

What is Website Redesign?

Whether graphic or structural, there are numerous possibilities for website redesigning. 

A website redesign does not necessarily entail creating a new website from scratch, but it is more about the relevance of its existing tool to know whether it meets (or not) the expectations of your target prospects.

There are two main types of redesigns:

  • Graphic Redesign: here, you have to focus on the modernization of your website visual design. This involves not only taking over your graphic charter and your visual identity, but also optimizing the ergonomics of your interface.
  • Structural Redesign: as its name suggests, it includes refreshing the structure of your website design. To do this, you will need to rethink the tree structure and functionality of your website. How is that possible? By relying on a deep analysis of your visitors’ online behavior. This kind of redesign can lead sometimes to a change of CMS (“Content Management System”) to identify the one that best suits your expectations and goals. A structural redesign usually goes hand in hand with SEO optimization of your website.

Of course, a successful and exhaustively deep redesign should encompass these two axes.

How much time does this type of redesign take? Well, if you are seeking good-quality and sustainable results, you will need to substantially invest in this (several months of work). Keep in mind that a major redesign of the website usually takes place every 3 years.

3 years is the average duration a website takes before a substantial redesign is required.

With the rise of new efficient development techniques and accessible platforms, many opportunities for continuous optimization are now available. In fact, your website will be redesigned at regular intervals in order to constantly enhance its layout and commercial efficiency, or even to adapt it to changes in the company (development of a new offer, changes in the team, etc.).

What reasons should lead you to redesign your website?

Low visits, too few generated prospects, low conversion rates, difficulties to use, etc.

  • Your website does not generate enough visits, and you are unable to attract prospects interested in your offers.
    Is your website correctly referenced on search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing…)? Are the challenges of your prospects sufficiently visible? Have you thought about redesigning your value proposition in order to be able to meet the needs of your prospects? If your answer is “No”, it’s highly unlikely that your potential prospects will be able to find you on the web and know that you are capable of meeting their needs. A redesign of your website is therefore necessary!
  • Your conversion rate does not meet your objectives. The online visits to your website may be satisfactory, but you may not be capable of identifying your visitors and converting them into potential prospects. According to a study that was carried out by Capitaine Commerce, the average conversion rate of a website (i.e., the ratio between the number of actions and transactions carried out and the number of unique visitors), all sectors combined, is 3%. There are several reasons that may explain why the conversion rate is low: your offers and added value may not be clear enough and foregrounded, your forms may be too complex or too long to fill in, or you may not have enough landing pages to convert your visitors.
  • Your website is not visually attractive and does not live up to the latest trends in web design.
    It has been proven that 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual and that our brains processes images 60,000 times faster than texts. To achieve your goals, it is therefore essential to pay special attention to the design of your website. Foreground key information, insert attractive visuals, use different font sizes, use spaces to foreground information… In all cases, it is important to respect the visual identity of your company to ensure internal cohesion.
  • The user experience of your website is not optimal.
    Navigation is not easy, and Internet users find it hard to find what they are looking for. For example, if your website does not have a version optimized for mobile browsing, you may end up losing many potential prospects… To improve the UX (“User eXperience”, or “user experience”), and thus maximize your results, you need to rethink the layout and ergonomics of your website’s interface!
  • Your website takes too long to load.
    And this is a major problem! A loading delay of even 1 additional second can reduce the conversion rate by 7%! Easing your website (reduction in the weight of images, implementation of a lazy loading, simplicity of the layout, etc.) ensures leads, and even customers.
  • Your website is not optimized for mobile browsing.
    It is therefore necessary that your interface is optimized for mobiles! Here we talk about “responsive design”, or even about “mobile first” (when your website is primarily designed for mobile browsing). 54% of internet browsing is nowadays done via smartphones.
  • Your website does not include a marketing automation solution, and it takes you so much time to deploy your communication campaigns.
    Marketing automation is a valuable tool for automatically sending your newsletters to interested prospects or set up automated and personalized conversations with your prospects thanks to workflows.
    80% of marketing professionals using marketing automation software generate more leads (HubSpot)
  • Your team is not easily able to update your website, which costs them time and complicates their work with every change no matter how small this change is.
    A website must be ergonomic and efficient not only for visitors, but also for the teams in charge of its management and updating.
  • How can we explain these difficulties? When you launched your digital strategy, did you decide to hire an external member to the team to create your website? Your developer left the company a long time ago without leaving any instructions for managing the website? In this case, it’s time to start redesigning your website and invest in a CMS easy-to-use solution.

The 4 benefits of redesigning your website

Increasing conversion rates, brand image modernization, being one step ahead of your competitors.

When results aren’t as you expected, when you can’t effectively reach your customers, when your competitors gain market share, or no matter what your motives will be, you must start redesigning your website!

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This wise decision will bring you many more benefits in the long term:

  1. Increasing your conversion rate and the number of monthly visits. With a better search engine referencing, easier navigation and a more convincing website, no doubt you will finally attract users interested in your offer! And your client portfolio will be richer than ever…
  2. You will be one step ahead of your competitors. Thanks to original layouts and impactful graphics, you will stand out from your competitors, have the attention of your target prospects and generate more contacts.
  3. You will guarantee better communication of your offer to a selected range of audience. Your value proposition is your best weapon for making your products or services widely accessible. When properly thought out, your communication strategy will help you reach prospects that fit your targets and keep only prospects that are relevant as potential clients.
  4. Improving your brand image, including a better user experience and a more uniquely attractive visual identity.

The Beginning: Carrying out an audit of the Status Quo

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Before starting a project to redesign your website, it is necessary and even essential to take a step backwards and analyze the current situation, status quo. An audit of the status quo is therefore necessary!

The Conversion Audit

Starting with a conversion audit means taking an interest in the purchase path of your leads and understanding what leads them to purchase your product or service.

To accompany your contacts until the purchasing act (i.e.; until their “conversion”), the process is as follows:

  • Create content in light of a Content Marketing strategy in order to attract potential prospects to your website. They can be blog articles, videos, eBooks, etc. Nevertheless, your content must always remain close to your business or the services you offer to your customers, and, above all, must bring added value to your target!
  • Integrate a call-to-action (CTA) within your content in order to encourage your website visitors to carry on with their shopping process. CTA, often characterized by a visible button with a snappy message, generally invites users to download a document (eBook, white paper, etc.) or to register for an event or a newsletter. To attract more visitors, redouble your creativity and vary the layouts by presenting your CTAs on an image or by integrating them in a video for instance.
  • Write attractive landing pages, as it is on these pages in particular that users will “land” after clicking on your CTA. The only purpose of these pages is to convert these visitors into contacts, and even into customers, by inviting them to fill in forms. This will help you not only collect data that will enrich your database, but also qualify and prioritize targeted contacts and facilitate the work for your sales team.

Your landing page can take several forms and even include an offer, a free trial proposal, or offer the download of an eBook. It can also propose registration for your webinar or even your newsletter.
During your conversion audit, you will have to question the presence and effectiveness of all these elements in your website. Generally, it is often easier and less expensive to improve your conversion rate rather than to increase your visitors’ traffic in the website. You shouldn’t, therefore, neglect this step!

For example, consider a website that generates 1,200 visits per month and has a conversion rate of 0.5%, or 6 identified contacts per month. By reworking website discourse, the location of CTAs, and creating new landing pages, this rate can easily reach 1.5%, which represents 18 new contacts per month, which means an increase of 200%… So, are you convinced of the importance of the conversion rate of your website?

Here is a non-exhaustive list of questions to ask for your conversion audit on:

  • Content: “does the content I am offering on my website have an impact?” “Does it add real value?” , “Does it address my targeted audience’s issues?” , “Is it different from the content offered by my competitors?”…
  • Call-to-action (CTAs): “Are my CTAs visible enough?”, “Is their colour bright enough?” , “Are they located in strategic locations on the website?” , “Are my CTA messages correctly written and sufficiently explicit?”…
  • Landing pages: “Are my landing pages attractive?” , “Are my forms fields clear enough?” , “Is the interest in completing the landing pages clearly stated?”…

User Experience audit (UX design)

According to ISO 9241-210, UX design refers to “a person’s responses and perceptions that result from the use or anticipation of the use of a product, service or system”. In other words, it is the experience that your website offers to the users who visit it.

Below are some issues to consider for your UX design audit:

  • Your navigation menu must be “user friendly”. What do we mean by that? This means that the Internet user should not feel lost, without knowing how to go back, or how to find the information he/ she is looking for. You must therefore answer the following questions: “Does my visitor know where he/ she is when navigating?”, “Is my navigation menu visible enough?”, “Are my drop-down menus clear?”, etc. If you included an internal search engine into your website, make sure it is foregrounded enough and easy to use for the visitor. Consider a specific menu for mobile navigation and small screen display.
  • Your homepage should attract the users and make them want to stay on and navigate your website. For this to happen, you need to ask yourself whether your value proposition is clearly stated, and whether your content elements are finely crafted to grab the attention of your targets. User experience requires a good understanding of your offer, and it therefore has an impact on your conversion rate. 

Keep in mind that you only have 3 or 4 seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your website. An optimized design and user experience are therefore essential to grab the users’ attention and foreground your website while strengthening your brand image.

The Technical audit

The technical audit is an in-depth analysis of the technical devices used to access your website. You should therefore mind the technologies used, loading time, or the multi-device compatibility of your interface.

  • Loading time is essential: As you know, Internet users are increasingly impatient, and 60% of them leave a page if the loading time exceeds only 3 seconds of wait! There are several reasons for which your pages may take too long to load: too “heavy” or too “big” images (over 100 KB), too many videos, or too complex a source code. There are many tools to diagnose the loading speed of your website, such as Dareboost, Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix.
  • The technologies used” refers to your CMS (or “Content Management System”), or the software with which you decided to build your website. Some CMSs use codes that are too heavy and can, therefore, increase the loading time of your website, leading to a negative impact. So, it must be clear now; every second you lose affects the user experience, and users are too demanding… To test your technologies, or find the ones your competitors are using, we recommend using BuiltWith, a free and user-friendly software.
  • Multi-device compatibility is nowadays a MUST. Mobile navigation has surpassed computer browsing. It is estimated that nearly 75% of the online research done around the world is now carried out via smartphones! To attract more leads and, therefore, increase your conversion rate, you must undoubtedly optimize your website for all types of devices, and especially for mobile devices if this is not yet the case.

Search Engine Optimization audit (SEO)

SEO refers to the ability of a website to position itself in the first search engine results following questions typed by Internet users. Nowadays, it’s all about being properly referenced by Google, which owns more than 90% of market shares in the world. During this audit, you have to be interested in the visibility of your website on search engines, the promotion of your visuals, and the relevance of your content. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of questions to ask yourself to be better referenced. For more details, do not hesitate to consult our article on SEO referencing!

  • Firstly, ask yourself about the infrastructural elements of your website: “Are URLs properly written (no underscore, no punctuation, no accent and no special characters)?”, “Does the meta-description respect Google codes?”, “Is the title of my website less than 70 characters?”, “Are the internal and external links consistent?”, etc.
  • Your visuals also play a key role in your SEO optimization. You should be interested in the size of your images as well as their alt-text attribute. An alt-text is a way for Google to “read” your images. In fact, the search engine is “blind” and it can only reference your images thanks to the titles you give them. For example, the image below could have the alt-text “flower-rose-petal” (be careful not to insert any apostrophes, as Google doesn’t understand them!).
  • Your content must be relevant! Insert keywords in a reasonable amount, and give priority to a defined semantic field. Since the average word count of the first Google results is 2,000 words, there’s no point in dragging out the length by providing irrelevant content. Always focus on quality content, responding to your prospects’ questions. That is content which is airy and dotted with well-chosen statistics. Storytelling also proves to be an extremely powerful weapon to grab the attention of Internet users and make them want to consult new contents of your website.

Now, you have a better idea of the results of your website, its weaknesses and areas for improvement to think about. Nonetheless, if you are still not at ease with the notions of SEO, keep in mind that the most important thing is to speak the same language as your targets, propose content that will further interest them in your offers, and make them want to stay on your page!

It is time now to start writing your terms of reference in order to present them to freelancers or web agencies that will be able to support and advise you.

How to build your terms of reference?

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A specification, or the terms of reference, is a central document which allows the service provider companies or freelancers to identify your project, know your operational challenges, and your objectives before starting the implementation of the project. It is important to precisely and clearly define your expectations and specifications in order to facilitate the work of the owner and to avoid any future disputes.

To maximize the efficiency of your search, you can start by defining a list of features that your new website will undoubtedly have to meet. All these requirements will be then grouped into the terms of reference. Here are the 5 steps to follow to write a good specification!

Introduce your business

The document must necessarily begin with a presentation of your company, activity, results, and an audit of the status quo (good news, it’s already done!) of your current website. This presentation stage is crucial as it will allow the service provider to analyze your situation and propose a solution adapted to your needs.

Your terms of reference must include:

  • Your activity history that synthesizes the general evolution of your company since its creation. This includes your past performance, number of employees, and major activities. Do not hesitate to insert all the data that seems relevant to you. The service provider will be able to propose a strategy that suits you!
  • The presentation of your company and its current results gives an overview of your situation and your issues. Include in your terms of reference an organization chart of your company as well as all accounting documents showing its financial situation (balance sheet, income statement, etc.). Don’t forget to present your activity and include a book of products or services that you offer. Once again, this will allow the agency or the freelancers to better understand your objectives and challenges.
  • The audit of your website will allow the service provider in charge of your project to know where to start from and what remains to be done. Don’t forget the points mentioned above: conversion audit, the UX design audit, the technical audit and the SEO audit. Be as precise as possible and add factual data (conversion rate, click rate, number of visitors, number of pages on your website, etc.).

Present your project

It is now time to define your project and explain the reasons that push you to make a website redesign.

To start, it is essential to define your SMART objectives:

  • S stands for Specific: your objectives must be clearly defined. Don’t be tempted by vague and broadly defined objectives such as “attract customers”. You have to be precise and always keep in mind the exact purpose of your redesign: «Attract B2B business leaders from the tertiary sector and increase my conversion rate».
  • M for Measurable: Your goals must be quantifiable. You need to precisely know your budget, your quantitative objectives (conversion rate, number of visits, etc.) and the final cost of your project. Without measurable objectives, it will be impossible to conduct a posteriori analysis in order to identify your strengths and your areas for improvement.
  • A for Achievable: Your goals must be realistic. Do you have the appropriate budget to achieve your dream website? Isn’t your project too ambitious? Does your market offer enough potential for you to meet your traffic objectives?
  • R for Realistic: your objectives must be feasible and realistic in terms of the time you give yourself or the means you have at your disposal. Reaching 500,000 monthly visits in 2 months when you have only 500 is probably too ambitious…
  • T for Time-based: your objectives must be anchored within a time frame. To set deadlines is to set a time limit to avoid procrastinating!

Once these objectives are defined, it will be easier to manage your website over the redesigning period.

Once you define your objectives, you need to know who you want to talk to. The definition of a target is therefore essential to refine your speech and build impactful and adapted content to increase:

  • Your number of visits
  • Your conversion rate.

An example of a target for a company performing inbound marketing services would be B2B business leaders who want to modernize their image and increase their conversion rate.

Finally, add the device information that you think is relevant: would you like to translate your website into several languages? Do you want to optimize it for different types of devices (mobile, tablets)? How do you want to organize the hosting of your website?

Describe the Graphics of your Website

To ensure that the results are visually as faithful as possible to your expectations, you must not forget to add graphic recommendations to your terms of reference:

  • The graphic chart is the document containing all the graphic elements of your company and their rules of use in each situation (logos, colors, typographies, layers, etc.). During a website redesign, companies generally take the opportunity to review their visual identity and modernize it to meet new standards (more spaced, non-linear fonts, flashy colors like ultraviolet, etc.). Including a new graphic charter or recommendations on a new visual identity will definitely help your service provider to identify your expectations and therefore meet them better.
  • The design of the website is an important part of your graphic recommendations, because there are many different designs! For several years, the “flat” design has been fashionable, and most companies prefer minimalism to detailed graphics. You can also opt for a “parallax scrolling” design, which is animated once the user goes down on your page.

Example: The restaurant and cocktail bar “Bliss” chose to animate the background of its website as the user scrolls down on the page. This makes the interface more attractive and optimizes the user experience!

  • A graphic model to describe the organization of your website as you imagine it to be. This last point is not essential, but it can become essential if you already have in mind a specific model for your website. Practically speaking, it is often the provider who takes care of this. However, nothing prevents you from offering your own model! Don’t panic! You don’t need design or coding skills to design a model. You simply have to include the main elements and their location on a Word or PowerPoint document. If you have the soul of a graphic designer, you can even try Photoshop!

Specify the features and the mitigated technical elements

By now, you should be interested in the technical aspect of your website. Do you remember what it is? Quite simply, it is to optimize the user experience so that the navigation on your interface is as pleasant and user-friendly as possible. By doing so, you will improve your conversion rate for sure!

  • Determine the structural layout of your website. You must define the sections, headings and main pages that you want to see on your website. For example: “Our history”, “Our products”, “Contact us” …
  • Define the features your interface will need. There are many possible ways that can allow you to convert your visitors more easily: an online shop, an internal search engine, a blog, a subscription to the newsletter, etc.
  • Indicate your content preferences as well as your SEO standards, if there are any. Do you want to become able to create blog posts? (I believe this is necessary today and if you are still not convinced about this, I invite you to read this article by Nathalie). Do you want to publish videos or photos? Will you leave these tasks to your service provider?
  • Anticipate the future evolution of your website by providing a back-office that will allow you to gradually optimize your website and create new pages with templates; all without any specific technical knowledge.

Finally, you can also specify which browsers you are compatible with (Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) as well as the chosen hosting provider (Ex2, Nuxit, 1&1, etc.).

Insert expected benefits and selection models

In the last part of your terms of reference, you must mention the selection methods and the performance conditions of the contract. To do this, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What services do you expect from your service provider? A digital agency or a freelance consultant can provide a large number of services, and it is important to define in advance the services that interest you: development, design, integration, update, maintenance, training in the management of the website, content production …
  • What is the project implementation plan? By what date do you want your website to be operational and online? Consider the challenges required to move the project forward and the required investment of time and resources.  Consider as well the fact that creating a website from scratch in less than 3 months is simply impossible.
  • How will the progress of the project be followed up? It is essential to set several dates in advance with your service provider to monitor the progress of the project. You should also determine how you will achieve your follow-up (physical appointments, phone calls, email exchanges, etc). It is equally important to select an internal manager to be in charge of monitoring the project.

How to choose your tools and service providers?

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Now that your objectives are defined and your terms of reference are written, all you have to do is select your service provider. The selection process is a key factor for success and it depends on your needs as well as your budget. Below, you find our advice to choose a web agency or freelance that best suits you!

Which service provider should I select?

When choosing your service provider, many questions will arise, and they have to be answered carefully.

  • What budget should I allocate for a web agency? For a basic website, expect to pay between €2,000 and €5,000. If, on the contrary, you are considering a complete website with many advanced features and a larger size, expect to pay between €5,000 and €20,000. These figures may sound exorbitant at first but note that you will have a complete team with varied skills to work on your project.
  • Do I have to choose a freelance advisor or a digital agency? You may either choose to contact a freelance consultant to work on your project or you can also choose to work with a specialized agency. Both alternatives have their own advantages as well as their disadvantages. A freelancer can deliver the service you need in exchange for a lower budget, and still give you flexibility that web agencies may not have. An agency may ask you for higher fees, but it is made up of a skilled team of experts who cater for your needs and optimize the management of your resources. It’s up to you to choose the alternative that best fits your expectations.
  • Should I deal with more than one service provider? Keep in mind that a freelancer usually has fewer skills than a specialized team set up by a web agency. However, the team set up by the agency will certainly be imposed upon you. So why not compose your own team of experts? You can select several competent freelancers on special platforms (Malt, XXE, etc.) and build your own team which would be adapted to your needs and requirements! Still, managing a group of several service providers can be difficult, especially if the project manager does not have the required skills to guide each of the service providers.

So, is it going to be a freelancer or web agency? Or both? Making up your mind will get you closer to your goal! Now, you should navigate through this vast array of professionals and self-employed workers. To do this, you need to ask yourself several questions like:

  • What is the service provider’s attitude towards my terms of reference?” Will he/she respect your choices and constraints? Or he/she will just seek to impose his/her style without taking into account your needs?
  • Is the presentation of his/her service standard and non-personalized, or it is really personalized according to my challenges?” Did he make a presentation based on the information you provided him/her or is he/she using a one-size-fits-all PowerPoint?
  • Are his/her choices and arguments clearly stated?” If instances of disagreement emerge, does he/she logically and reasonably present his/her point of view, or does he/she impose his/her choices without justifying them?
  • Does he/she conduct backward-planning in a realistic way according to the workload my project requires?” Does he/she promise an incredible result in just 2 months? Does he/she draw up a schedule of deadlines and set realistic objectives while taking into account the availability of your teams?
  • “Does he/she see the project in the same way that I do?” Is the way you see things the same as his/hers? If not, is it possible to find common ground between the two perspectives?

Finally, take an interest in the seniority and achievements of the agency or the freelancer. A company with only one year of experience will, by no means, have the same means and resources as a company with 3 years of experience in the field.

SEO.fr advice: Do not forget to ask for a detailed estimate from the service provider you selected, or even from several service providers if you have not made up your mind yet. Check whether it is realistic, complete, correctly meets your challenges, and is not excessive!

Do it Yourself: not such a good idea?

Are you planning to embark on this journey all by yourself? Why not? It’s a perfectly plausible option but you need to be aware of several things before you embark on this ambitious project.

  • This is an exercise that requires a vast array of skills like web design, website development, design and writing of impacting content, referencing and SEO optimization, marketing and sales, website hosting management, HTTPS management, etc. To be able to do this, make sure you have a team which brings together all this knowledge to make the launch of your project successful.
  • You will have to manage your website after its creation, which requires considerable time (regular creation of content, tracking of referencing, monitoring of performance indicators, security management, etc.). By opting for externalizing the redesign of your website, you can agree with the selected service provider so that he/she would manage your website in the long term, thereby relieving you of this task..
  • Legal and administrative formalities will be at your expense. It is up to you to write the general conditions of sale, to bring your website into compliance with the GDPR, and to write the legal notices.
  • Redesigning a website is a project that can take an enormous amount of time. A TPE or SME manager does not necessarily have such time, and that is why we advise you to subcontract the project to a service provider who will provide you with high-quality work with respect to a deadline.

Now you have all the instructions to help you choose the service provider which suits you best: a web agency, a freelancer, or even yourself!

Which CMS should l choose for my project?

Now it’s time to select a CMS (Content Management System) that best works for you and allows you to efficiently manage your website. Many redesigns are often launched because the CMS is either obsolete or too complex for daily use. This leads to a significant waste of time, frustration, demotivation in your teams, and reduced revenue.

Now it’s time to take charge and invest in a CMS worthy of the name! In this part, we will introduce you to two of the most well-known platforms in the field: HubSpot and WordPress.

Let’s start with HubSpot:

  • Thanks to HubSpot’s smooth design, using the platform is very intuitive and allows you to directly manage all your inbound marketing tools. Via this platform, you will not only be able to create your own landing pages and forms, but also keep up with the behavior and evolution of your community through the tracking of KPIs rates.
  • You will also have access to all SEO optimization tools and to measure the effectiveness of each element of your content (views, generated backlinks, conversion rates, etc.). The major advantage of HubSpot is that it naturally integrates many features, and you won’t even need to use ancillary applications to simplify your work. For example, you will have direct access to the results of all your campaigns conducted on social networks, directly on the platform!
  • As for the price, it varies depending on your needs and the size of your database (between 185 and 3000 euros per month). For most companies, the cost varies between 1000 and 1100 euros for a database ranging from 5000 to 10000 contacts.

Let’s move now to WordPress:

“A very flexible tool”, “massively appreciated”, WordPress has been adopted by nearly 74.6 million sites worldwide. This CMS offers many useful qualities.

  • It is free and customizable: installing WordPress does not require any registration fee. The system offers hundreds of free themes, and some users even offer theirs for affordable fees. It is therefore perfect for small budgets!
  • It is easy to use: the platform opted for a very simple ergonomics. You won’t need a diploma in web development to be able to handle the tool; it’s accessible to all! You can add your text blocks, images, links and organize your menus with just a few clicks.
  • It has a simplified search engine referencing (Google, Yahoo, Bing…). WordPress is well known for being one of the best tools to boost your SEO referencing.

Regular updates ensure the security of your website and the protection of your company’s data.

How to optimize the redesign of your website on a long-term basis?

Learn how to boost the ROI of your website redesign project.

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That’s it! Your website is published and optimized for SEO. It is GDPR compliant and it can now attract its first online visits. Congrats! But don’t rest on your laurels, your job doesn’t end here.

You probably know well that when you have just planted a seed in soil, it must be watered and watched regularly to ensure its coming to fruition. The same goes for your website: Water it regularly with content, and monitor its KPIs and competitive environment in order to ensure the growth of your business. As such, we will provide you with some tips to sustain and manage your website in the long term.

Growth-driven design for a website that stands out from the rest:

The digital world is constantly changing, and it is increasingly becoming more difficult to keep up with. Static websites become obsolete in just a few years, and you need to constantly review the design, content and layout of your platform or you will risk quickly getting sidelined by your competitors. This is when growth-driven design comes to the rescue!

Growth-driven design (GDD) is the means through which you constantly evolve your website without having to wait for a global and complete redesign. The idea is to be effective and efficient in making changes regularly within your platform. To do this, you need to regularly analyze your performance and build strategies based on this.

3 Key steps to optimize the ROI of your actions:

  • Follow your key performance indicators (conversion rate, number of visitors, click-through rate, etc.) and analyze them to determine your weaknesses and areas for improvement.
  • Identify the obstacles that prospects face in their purchasing process. The A/B testing method is a very effective analytical tool to differentiate between strategies that work and those that do not generate conversion. How does this method work? It simply consists in testing, in parallel, two versions of the same conversion content where one version is subject to a slight modification and analyzing the one that will give the best results, and then finally replicating this optimization modification.
  • Apply the results of your experiments:  A download page converts 3 times less than another? Remove it or change its content! Constantly questioning oneself means ensuring a permanent and effective evolution.

Marketing Automation to generate qualified prospects

To promote the ROI of your website redesign, relying on “marketing automation” is a good wager. While many solutions are at your disposal, all of them allow you to set up tools for conversion (from users to prospects) and maturation (from prospects to customers). HubSpot is one of the most effective platforms in the field and it will save you an incredible time and facilitate your lead nurturing campaigns. Now what does that mean? We’ll explain everything to you!

As you know, to improve your conversion rate, you need to take care of your prospects (and this is called lead nurturing), and help them grow by offering them customized content. Thus, instead of wasting a lot of time managing your email campaigns and targeting the right prospects, use marketing automation instead! This great tool will do all the work for you by allowing you to set up:

  • Workflows: the implementation of workflows (or “scenarios”) will allow you to accompany your prospects throughout the purchase process. Depending on their choices and their experience on your website, visitors will be redirected to certain types of adapted content, depending on their “maturity”. Below is an example of a scenario tree.
  • Lead scoring: this practice consists of giving different “scores” to the identified contacts in order to know their level of maturity. These scores are determined by the actions the contacts perform on your website. For example, a contact who downloads several eBooks and white papers will have a score of 150 points, whereas a prospect who only subscribes to your newsletter will have a score of 50 points. Generally, this concept goes hand in hand with the implementation of a scenario tree.
  • Sending targeted content: some marketing automation software (Sendinblue, Plezi, HubSpot, etc.) offer to send targeted content directly to interested prospects and thus considerably reduce your prospecting time.

Customer Relationship Management

CRM (or Customer Relationship Management) software are customer relationship management solutions that promote understanding the behaviors and needs of your clients. CRM is now an essential tool for many companies, as it contributes to a significant increase in conversion rate by conducting an effective loyalty program. Here’s why:

  • In B2B, a customer (generally) represents more value than a B2C customer. Although they are fewer in number, they have a larger budget. Managing and monitoring your relationship with them is therefore essential in contributing to generating more sales and boosting your results.
  • Thanks to your CRM software, you will have an overview of all lead shares on your website: downloads of brochures and white papers, newsletter subscriptions, etc.
  • CRMs create personalized relationships with database customers. By using marketing automation, it is very simple for these software programs to target the needs of each contact and send them adapted content.
  • You would also be saving your sales team a significant amount of time by making it easier to organize, track and develop your sales funnel.

Convinced? All you have to do now is choose your CRM software. The important thing is that it suits your needs, and that it is adapted to the specificities of your business. Think of a software that is easy to use and adaptable to respond to changes in your organization. HubSpot offers a very nice CRM, in the sense that it is complete and intuitive. it will make your company and your employees happy!

Bonus: Make your website alive!

Finally, your website must never become obsolete. How can you do that? By publishing content of course! Keep your blog alive by regularly writing articles that bring real added value to your targets. On SEO.fr for example, we included tips to set up an effective inbound marketing strategy within your company to support SMEs and ETIs in their digital transformation, or to master the different tools of digital marketing.

When you publish articles, don’t forget to post something about it on different social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in order to attract more leads. Be careful, however, because you need to adapt your posts, as each network has its own codes. Do not hesitate to check our various articles explaining how this works and the rules to be respected on each social network.

There you go! You are ready to launch the redesign of your website, but don’t forget! It must not be frozen in time; It has to be constantly evolving and growing! Due to the constant changes in the digital world and consumer expectations, your website must allow your teams to easily adapt themselves to changes in algorithms.

Go ahead, throw yourself into it! You will see, you won’t regret it.

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