Click on the next tab to get

ext tab to get started!

How to Use This Resource

Whether youre working with an agency or redesigning inho

thoroughly plan and track the progress of your website red

To help make the many moving pieces of a website redesig

the process into seven stages.

Use the tabs below to navigate to each stage, and be sure

before moving on. (While stages 1 and 2 primarily involve b
answering important questions before you begin your webs
tracking your redesign while it's in progress.)
Stage
Stage
Stage
Stage
Stage
Stage
Stage

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Strategy
Plan
Design
Build
Optimize
Launch
Analyze

edesigning inhouse, this Excel document will help you

ur website redesign.

website redesign a little easier to digest, we've segmented

e, and be sure to thoroughly complete stages 1 and 2

marily involve benchmarking, taking inventory, and
egin your website redesign, the latter stages are for
)

WEBSITE REDESIGN STAGE 1

A) Benchmark Your Current Metrics.
Number of visits/visitors/unique visitors (monthly average)
Bounce rate (monthly average)
Time on site (monthly average)

Top performing keywords (in terms of rank, traffic and lead generat
Number of inbound linking domains
Total number of new leads/form submissions (per month)
Total amount of sales generated (per month)
Total number of total pages indexed
Total number of pages that receive traffic

B) Determine Your Goal(s).

Why are you doing the redesign?

C) Define Your Brand.

What is your business's message/unique value proposition?

Is it (message and/or branding) changing or staying the same?

If it is changing, what about it needs to change?

D) Define Your Buyer Persona.

Do you currently have a clearly defined target audience?

Is this audience changing as part of this redesign?

Does your branding and content currently align with that audience?

E) Analyze the Competition

Are there competitor sites that you really like? If so, which ones?

What are the top 3 most competitive keywords for your industry?

Who are your top-ranked competitors?

TEGY
Your Data

Before you begin planning your r

metrics using the fields to the lef

If you dont have access to this in

Analytics or HubSpots marketing
site performance.

x
x
x

TIP: Keep note of which tools you

youll want to use the same exac
otherwise youll be comparing ap

x
x
x
x
x
Your Answer

Be really clear about why youre

measureable results. Then comm
agency.

Before you begin crafting your co

messaging so that its consistent

Your Answer

A new visitor should immediately

and why they should stay on you

Your Answer

Your website is not just about yo

speak to them in their language

Buyer personas are fictional repr

real data about customer demog
educated speculation about their

Click here to learn more about cr

Your Answer

While we dont recommend obse

how you compare. Take a look at
dont like about them. This is not
can do better.

TIP: Run competitor websites thr

their strengths and weaknesses.

egin planning your redesign, document your current performance

the fields to the left.

ave access to this information, you'll want to add a tool like Google
ubSpots marketing analytics for better tracking and visibility into
nce.

e of which tools you used to determine these benchmarks. Ideally

use the same exact tools when collecting post-design metrics
ull be comparing apples to oranges!

r about why youre doing the redesign in the first place and tie it to
results. Then communicate your goals with your team, designer, or

egin crafting your content, be clear about your branding and

that its consistent across your entire website.

should immediately understand what you do, how it relates to them,

should stay on your website and not flee to your competitors.

s not just about you. When a visitor asks, whats in it for me?,
m in their language by designing content around buyer personas.

as are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on

ut customer demographics and online behavior, along with
culation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.

earn more about creating buyer personas for your business.

t recommend obsessing over your competitors, it helps to know

pare. Take a look at competitor websites, and note what you like and
ut them. This is not meant to copy them, but to uncover what you

petitor websites through our Marketing Grader so you are aware of

s and weaknesses.

ce

ogle
nto

ally

WEBSITE REDESIGN STAGE 2

A) Questions to Consider
What do I currently like and dislike about my website?

What is missing from the current website?

How does my current site compare to your goals?

What's the first impression I want to give my target audience?

Does my site currently convey a feeling of trustworthyness and aut

Will this be a whole new website or are there small changes that ca

Will the domain name change at all?

What platform do I want my new website to be on?

What is a realistic timeline for this redesign? (Define a target date.)

What is our budget for this project?

Can we do this work in-house or do we need to hire someone?

B) Platform Considerations
What platform(s) are you evaluating?

Does the platform have a good reputation? (Look at ratings and rev

Does the platform have good deliverability (e.g. site speed & uptim

Is the platform SEO-friendly (e.g. well-structured URLs)?

C) Taking Inventory of Your Existing Assets

What is your most shared or viewed content?

What are your most trafficked pages?

What are your most ranked pages?

Do you have any duplicate content? (If so, make a note of it here.)

D) Site Architecture
Plan the new site architecture/structure.

Define which pages will be part of your main/secondary navigation.

Put together a draft outline/sitemap of the new website to be desig

E) Hosting, Security, & CDNs

Determine if you need hosting services (no for HubSpot, but yes for

Determine if you need a separate CDN (no for HubSpot, but yes for

F) Planning Out Your URL Mapping / 301 Redirects

Which of the following will apply to your website redesign?

The site structure is changing (which means the URLs will probabl

Site structure is not changing, but you want to update URLs for SE

Some site pages will be merged.

Action item:

Map out your URLs/redirects in a spreadsheet.

G) Define Your Content Plan

Outline which content stays.
Outline which content goes.
Outline which content needs to be rewritten.
Identify what new calls-to-action need to be added.

 Your Answer

Your Answer

 Your Answer

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Your Answer

yes / no
yes / no

yes / no
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

As you start planning your website redesign, ask

yourself some of the questions listed to the left. Write
your answers in the spaces provided.

Do your research before deciding on a platform or

CMS (content management system) for your new
website.
While you're at it, be sure to check out HubSpot's
CMS, which is mobile-optimized out of the box and
features "Smart Content" for personalizing your site's
content to different types of visitors.

TIP: You may want to track each of the items to the left
in a separate spreadsheet.
You can use a tool like screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
or xenus-link-sleuth.en.softonic.com to crawl all of the

TIP: You may want to track each of the items to the left
in a separate spreadsheet.
You can use a tool like screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
or xenus-link-sleuth.en.softonic.com to crawl all of the
pages of your site and create an exportable inventory.

Owner (who's responsible for this?)

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TIP: Planning out your URL mapping can be as simple

as listing out your old URLs in a spreadsheet and then
noting what the corresponding new URLs will be.
(Someone technical will need to apply the 301s later.)

as listing out your old URLs in a spreadsheet and then

noting what the corresponding new URLs will be.
(Someone technical will need to apply the 301s later.)

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k
Write

or
w

's
nd
site's

the left

spider/
of the

the left

spider/
of the
entory.

mple
d then
.
later.)

d then
.
later.)

WEBSITE REDESIGN STAGE 3

A) Layout

Review & sign-off on wireframes of the new layout (usually no more

B) Mockups

Review design prototypes/mock-ups (usually no more than 2-3 revi

C) Colors
Finalize color scheme to match branding (optional).

D) Visuals
Hand over all visual assets (optional).

------

Blog post: "The 7 Elements of Modern

 Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

mm/dd/yy

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Resources -------------------See what designers are creating on HubSpot.

bSpot.

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WEBSITE REDESIGN STAGE 4

A) Platform
Finalize the new platform (the one you chose in Stage 2).

B) Content
Finalize all web content, written and visual.

C) Staging

Make sure that your staging/development site is set up as no-index

D) Review
Continue to play with the site during this stage, and review overall

------

Blog post: "4 Important Factors That W

of a Website Redesign"

 Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

mm/dd/yy

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Resources --------------------

Learn How to Build a Smarter Website with the HubSp

CMS

Owner (who's responsible for this?)

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with the HubSpot

WEBSITE REDESIGN STAGE 5

A) The Basics

Make sure the new site is multi-browser compatible. (Use browsersh

Make sure you have custom/user-friendly 404 pages.
Run your site through a broken link checker.
Set up and add sitemap.xml and robots.txt files.
Check for common errors like grammar and misspellings.

B) Shareability
Make sure users can easily subscribe to content (e.g. blog, email)
Make sure users can easily share pages, posts, photos, etc.

C) Analytics
Get your analytics tool(s) up and running on your site.

D) Keywords

Are you making clear and meaningful use of keywords throughout y

Do your keywords align with the interests of your buyer personas/ta

Do your calls-to-action/offers align with the topics covered in your s

E) Redirects
Make sure all old pages redirect to appropriate new pages.

F) Navigation
Is there a clear content hierarchy and organization?
Is the site structure intuitive and user friendly?

G) Design & Layout

Perform an HMTL validation test via a CSS validator (like validator.w

Is the site structure intuitive and user-friendly?

H) Mobile

Is your site optimized for mobile viewing? (Check with https://marke

I) Performance

Do your pages load quickly? (Run a test with a tool like http://www.

J) Prepare for Launch.

Get sign-off from key management.
Determine and set launch date.

MIZE
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

 Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

mm/dd/yy

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

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WEBSITE REDESIGN STAGE 6

A) Be Prepared.

On the day of the launch, be prepared for things to go wrong. (All h

B) Announce the Launch:

via email
via social media
via PR
via blog(s)
other?

C) Create an Ongoing Content Strategy.

This is a great time to start (or revamp) your business's blog.

------

Blog post: "Setting Up Your Blog? Use

Start Off on the Right Foot"

 Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

x
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date
mm/dd/yy

Resources -------------------Learn How to Schedule All of Your Social Media

Messages in Advance Using Social Inbox

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l Media
x

WEBSITE REDESIGN STAGE 7

A) One-Week In: Index Check
How many pages are indexed?
Are all of your important pages indexed?

B) One-Week In: Post-Launch Checklist

Confirm that your Robots.tx file(s) is/are set up properly.
Resubmit your .XML sitemaps(s) via (Google and Bing) webmaster
Add a public HTML sitemap (if you haven't already).
Make sure your analytics tool(s) is/are working properly.

C) Benchmark Your Metrics 1, 3, and 6 Months After La

Number of visits/visitors/unique visitors (monthly average)
Bounce rate (monthly average)
Time on site (monthly average)

Top-performing keywords (in terms of rank, traffic and lead generat

Number of inbound linking domains
Total number of new leads/form submissions (per month)
Total amount of sales generated (per month)
Total number of pages indexed.
Total number of pages that receive traffic.

YZE
Your Data

x
yes/no
Progress (TBD, in progress, or complete?)

Due Date

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

mm/dd/yy

Your Data

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Owner (who's responsible for this?)