The only constant in life is change. Was Heraclitus referring to the seemingly never-ending and constantly necessary website relaunches? Probably not, but the quote still fits the topic well. A website relaunch is sometimes bitterly necessary to maintain a professional and competent internet presence. Factors such as outdated technology, poor images, unclear design, poor customer guidance or an unsatisfactory user experience provide the impetus to modernize the website. 
But many people are faced with the question: Where do I start? What should I pay attention to? And how can you achieve successful and efficient results?" The following article provides answers to precisely these questions.
When is it worth doing a relaunch
Before we dive into the topic, it's helpful to start with a brief definition. In contrast to a website redesign, a website relaunch is merely an optimization of the website. In this context, the term "website redesign" may also appear. The distinction between the two terms is controversial. A pure website relaunch often refers to the technical optimization of the website, while website redesign focuses on the aesthetic aspects. However, both technical optimization and aesthetic redesign should go hand in hand for efficient and successful website optimization.
For this reason, the following article covers both areas. The basic concept and page strategy are usually retained. Why this is an advantage will be explained later in the text. A relaunch is usually appropriate when technology and the world in general evolve. Your website is the digital shop window of your company and is largely responsible for the first impression that visitors gain. It is of course your aim to present a competent, contemporary and aesthetic appearance here. It is also extremely important that searchers can find you quickly and easily. With an outdated website, it is most likely difficult to achieve these goals.
This is exactly what the website relaunch is for
Packing list for the website relaunch hike
In order to climb an effective path with the website relaunch, it is important to already have some basic knowledge in your luggage. The goals are a must-have. What exactly do you want to achieve with the relaunch? Where do you want to go? Do you perhaps have inspiration from other websites or competitors? What do you want to change?
You can only achieve a goal if you know what it looks like. That's why a clear definition is essential. Take another exact look at your target group and incorporate knowledge about their needs and wishes into the website relaunch. What does the target group respond well to and what appeals to them? What makes your customers tick? Finally, it is important to have a comprehensive knowledge of the current website. What is each individual customer journey like? Which landing page leads where Once you've wrapped up this information, the journey can begin.
7 tips for your website relaunch
Tip 1: Customers are king
This brings us to a point mentioned earlier. A relaunch is not a complete redesign or redesign of the website, but rather a targeted optimization. This distinction is particularly important. Because just as the change means a change for you, it also applies to your customers. By not drastically changing the site structure and basic layout from the previous version, you create familiarity and continuity for your existing customer base. After all, the aim of a website relaunch is to gain more customers and not to lose existing customers. It is therefore crucial to ensure that your former customers can also find their way around the optimized website without any problems.
An effective way to ensure that the transition is seamless for your customers is to inform them in advance. Make your announcement enticing by pointing out that exciting changes are coming soon. Show that your company is continuously evolving and moving with the times. In this way, you are not only relaunching your website, but also promoting your dynamic and contemporary company
at the same time.Tip 2: Show yourself!
Of course, search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in the optimization of a website to ensure that the new website is found. It is therefore advisable to use SEO-optimized content and techniques. If you have not given SEO much thought, we recommend that you educate yourself in this area - there is an informative article. You often hear warnings about losing your current ranking position when relaunching your website. However, this is usually not the case.
This point refers to the reassessment of the website by the Google algorithm, especially when new designs or content are added or changed. There may be a temporary drop in page views after the relaunch, as the algorithm needs time to re-evaluate the page. As a rule, however, a relaunch does not lead to a loss of ranking positions. However, it is advisable to keep an eye on the ranking and SEO analysis, especially when making extensive changes to the content.
Tip 3: Strengthen your strengths
Let's stick to the topic of SEO. Although this article does not describe exact SEO optimization for your website, there is a useful approach to quickly improve your SEO performance. Base your relaunch on topics or graphics that rank well for you in terms of SEO. This way, you can focus on what makes you stand out and communicate this not only to your potential customers, but also to the Google algorithm. And it will reward you for it. So do an SEO analysis and draw useful information from it.
Tip 4: If you want to be beautiful, you have to suffer
Is that really the case? For the practitioners among you, this point may cause you to roll your eyes, but it is nevertheless crucial for a successful website relaunch. Namely the corporate design. Before the relaunch, it is advisable to create a uniform style guide for your website. You may already have one, but if not, it will take a little extra time. A corporate design is the visual design of a company, which makes the personality, i.e. the corporate identity visible.
A uniform web presence gives your company recognition value, ensures more attention and gives your customer base orientation within the website. So make sure that your corporate design is reflected in your modernized website.
Tip 5: Make It Easy
Especially when it comes to optimal user guidance and user experience, you should get help. Designers approach this topic with a lot of structure. To do this, they use wireframing. This process is used to create an overview of interactive products and to show ways in which the structure and flow of potential design solutions can be defined. The resulting sketches are a mirror image of the needs of both the users and the company. Presented both on paper and in digital wireframes, they are instrumental in helping teams and stakeholders create best-in-class prototypes and products that are aligned with user needs.
Tip 6: The proof of the pudding is in the eating
Once you have made all the desired changes, it is important to test the website before the actual website relaunch. Staging Site offers great support here when converting larger information networks or websites. The staging site is a website replication that is created for testing functions, add-ons, plug-ins, themes or source codes. It shows you exactly what you would find in the live version. Here you can test everything again in detail and carry out a quality check.
Does it look exactly as you imagined? Does the technology work smoothly? The creation of these pages is essentially dependent on the CMS system or the store software. At this point, take another close look at your current CMS (content management system) to ensure that it still offers you the desired functions.
Tip 7: Go Live
So, now that you're done with everything, everything can finally go live. Yes, it always sounds like it's done with one click, but plan enough time to go live. After all, you ideally don't want any downtime for your website. If you have already carried out successful testing in the prefield and consistently followed your structure plan, going live should go smoothly. Nevertheless, it may happen that something does not work as planned or that adjustments are still necessary.
Immediately after the relaunch, you should run the Google crawler over your website. This is done with a simple click in the Google Search Console to request reindexing. This way, you will be up to date in no time at all.
Website relaunch is a feasible change
Yes and no. A website relaunch always involves work, so it is advisable to get support, and your CMS system can be your best ally. Sometimes a customization in the content management system, such as switching to our highly rated HubSpot, can be the fastest route to success. So it's safe to say that a website relaunch always brings a breath of fresh air to your business, and these 7 steps can give you a tangible boost.
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