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
-
Best review sites for SaaS vendor
My client is a SaaS developer and I would like to begin some review acquisition activity. Just wondering if there is any knowledge out there with regards to what review sites google scrapes or uses as an indicator for such products (Yelp and Yellow pages not too helpful in this scenario). I have narrowed down Capterra, G2 Crowd and GetApp as having a good following - but any insights would be much appreciated.
Branding | | P.Myers0 -
How can I claim authorship for a doctor using their title "MD" on Google Plus?
Hi Everyone, I am wondering how to claim authorship for doctors while still using their title "MD." Adding MD to Google Plus profiles goes against Google name policy, but in order to comply with the FTC we need to include "MD" to our doctor's name in our article by-lines. I have sent in many appeals with evidence that they have a degree. I also considered creating a "Google Page," but had the impression that you cannot claim authorship with rel=author tags with a "Google Page," only rel=publish. Can anyone help me figure out how to claim authorship for a doctor using (first name last name), MD ?
Branding | | dirigodev0 -
Can anything be done for a single brand page on a corporate site?
I was asked by a friend if there was anyway I could help promote the watch brand that they are responsible for. The brand has only one page on the corporate site. http://gevrilgroup.com/fortis-watches/ My first reaction is that this is impossible to do without creating a stand alone web site and then doing some super cool marketing to get your brand noticed out of the sea of watch manufacturers. My second gut reaction is to stand clear of this request and not get myself tangled in something that will require a lot of resources for someone on a low budget. Any suggestions?
Branding | | irvingw0 -
One writer, multiple brands - optimizing rel=author across several blogs
Our company has a few different brands, each with their own domain and site. These are not microsites intended to drive traffic to a main site; they all have independent e-commerce functions, full product lines, etc. Imagine we run Plumbing Widgets Inc, Kitchen Remodeling Company, and Springfield Countertops. It's not immediately obvious to surfers that one parent company operates all of these brands, and we're fine with that. Considering that it enables us to own a lot of SERP real estate for some money KWs, we're more than fine with it. We'd like to create a blog for each of these sites/brands. Here's where it gets tricky. After doing some reading, I am persuaded that using rel=author will help us with SERP CTR and possibly rankings themselves. I am going to be writing all of the blog content, at least to start. I don't think I want to rel=author myself on all of these discrete blogs, do I? And surface the fact that one person is the head writer for the blogs of all these brands? Creating blogging pseudonyms doesn't seem like a good idea, since part of the value of rel=author is genuine social engagement, and creating social personas that seem genuine is probably more trouble than it's worth. (Not to mention icky and dishonest.) Should I choose a customer service rep or manager for each brand and use their names and social identities (with their permission, obviously)? It seems like that would involve challenges of its own. I've ghostwritten for one business owner before, but this is on a larger, more complex scale. Any insights are appreciated!
Branding | | CMC-SD0 -
How does link juice work? My site structure is wrong? [HELP PLEASE]
Hi guys, I sell cartridges for printers and i'm struggerling to rank a lot of printers. I've been told it's all about domain authority and it'll pass down to these pages, however I can't see it happening, nor can I wait for it to happen. Should I rethink my categorys? I've got subcategorys in subcategorys in subcategorys - probably not advised because of link juice right? e.g Epson Stylus SX130 Ink would be located below. Epson > Epson Stylus Series>Epson Stylus SX Series>Epson Stylus SX130 Ink
Branding | | Superinks0 -
Is Google having trouble determining between two of my brand sites
I have a couple brand sites that our company uses and a couple of weeks ago one started to suddenly show up in the #1 position while searching for the other site via its brand. If I search for "collegexpress" our other site careersandcolleges.com is in the #1 possition. If I search for "collegexpress.com" it shows carrersandcolleges.com's title and description but links to www.collegexpress.com Could I have something messed up or is google confused with our two sites? In the past I am told that CollegeXpress referred to the careersandcolleges.com page but that has been there for many many years and this SERP change only started to show the first week in march of this year. I looked and there are a handfull of anchor text links from external sites using some form of the "CollegeXpress" brand linking to www.careersandcolleges.com but not that many, and they are not new. If I do a search the other way for "careersandcolleges" I see it correctly return is own site #1 but www.collegexpress.com is shown to me as #3. I checked and we dont have any redirects or mod rewrites between the two sites. They are on two different IPs Any help that can point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Branding | | GeorgeLaRochelle0 -
New Social Media Site + META Tags for User Profiles
I'm currently in the process of building a social media site and was deciding whether or not to add META descriptions/keywords for individual user profiles. After reviewing Facebook, I noticed that in the META Description field, user profile pages just inherited the values for Facebook (there were no META keywords); and, when I reviewed LinkedIn, there was no META description/keywords at all. After this investigation, I figured it might be a question best addressed to the SEO community. With that, what do you guys think? If you were building a social media site, would you have META description + META keywords for each user's profile? If so, what would be the best way to optimize the individual profiles so they rank highly within the search engines?
Branding | | NiallSmith0