As part of my ongoing research into website redesign for the Science of Website Redesign webinar , I asked hundreds of marketers for their insider tips that they would give to their best friends based on their experience with a recent website redesign project.

Here are the best tips that they gave me in their comments:
- Find someone to advise you on SEO, social media and marketing, in addition to the actual design.
- Know the basics to have an intelligent conversation with a designer and ask good questions.
- You really need to be able to commit to the website redesign process fully.
- Get referrals for agencies from companies who have websites you like.
- Do it for the right reason: that you want to improve performance.
- Don’t do a redesign because it's been a while and you want a new look.
- Don't do a website redesign for redesign's sake.
- Know who your buyer personas are, and know your current stats so you have a benchmark.
- Don't think you know what your customers want... Ask them!
- Understand what your website is doing (or not doing) for you now. Then think about how to improve.
- Make sure to measure existing stats so you have a benchmark for post redesign
- Plan for it to take longer than expected.
- Do your research to find how an average user behaves and interacts with websites.
- Get a copywriter involved in the project.
- Plan, plan, plan. These redesigns need to be planned down to the wire or they will never maintain the initial launch dates and project milestones.
- Combine marketing, social web activities and overall business goals. Make the site "conversational", don't do a static, electronic brochure.
- If you change web page URLs, use a 301 redirect for each page!
- Get input from as many people informed of the user experience. What Marketing thinks people will do is often not what happens.
- Get your objectives, priorities in order & don't forget to add ways in leading more people to your website by lead generation.
- Do usability testing before and afterwords.
- Assure that all stakeholders are on board and that the vision is unquestionably clear.
- Don't get bogged down by internal opinions of the site - at the end of the day, only the opinions of your customers and prospects matters.
- Make sure it is easy to navigate through and offer high value content for download.
- Focus on the user experience.
- Be sure you understand the limited effects of redesigning an already well-designed site.
- Your site will / should never be "done", so start small and iterate.
- It's not a "release and forget it model." Websites should be organic, iterative.
- Take your time - but don't take so much time that your "look" is already dated
- Measure before and after
- Have more reasons than "want a new look".
- Whatever you think you know, you don't. To reorder your universe, redesign the web site.
- Establish metrics up front and measure them at the back
- Test, test, test!
- Test the new website thoroughly to ensure a successful user experience
- State specific goals. Phase the project. Designate a re-design team from within your company, be sure to include sales, marketing and technical representatives.
- Have a realistic web strategy and solid content generators.
- Do not use flash.
- Understand that the majority of the work will be done before the first line of code or graphic layout is begun: it's all about content!
- Know what you're getting into.
- Make it easy to navigate.
- Perform usability testing and get feedback from real users, not employees or agencies.
- Don't just focus on aesthetics, remember your pages already have SEO juice and not to change the URL.
- Keep an open mind to change.
- Set the objectives up front and constantly refer to them to prevent straying off-course.
- Prepare for it to take several months.
- Use testing to see how easy it is for your users to achieve their goals.
- Host several planning meetings in advance.
- Find out if it is necessary. Sometimes, the website may just need some items rearranged for best results as well as lead generation featured added in.
- Get the strategy right first.
- Be sure to work with a vendor that is good at project management, or have someone extremely competent on your side lead the project. don't forget all the little things.
- It takes longer, and costs more, than planned.
- Launch it and then fix the holes.
- Always plan for more review cycles than you think will actually happen.
- Begin at the end - be GOAL oriented.
- Focus on the desired business results and work back.
- Have deadlines for smaller, broken down goals as you start the website redesign.
- Plan well, communicate well, make adjustments as needed (because change happens).
- Consider all those affected. Not just the end user. Marketing, Sales and other departments may have valuable input and have not shared it.
- Design for optimization and for leads!
- Align website redesign goals with business goals prior to a website redesign.
- Set realistic goals and plan, plan, plan.
- Be aware of what your ultimate goals for the website are before you start your redesign.
- Review contractor progress daily or weekly; monthly is not enough.
- Research your web site designers carefully! Think outside of the box when choosing one. The one with the most experience in your industry is not always the best choice.
- Find a good developer, never pay up front, ensure that they work across timezones if you need to, and that they implement every change, every time.
- Do as much internal as possible and still have a good looking, functional site.
- Be realistic about how long it will take.
- Know your audience and the message in order to drive an effective strategy.
- You'd better have your ducks in a row before starting. Know what you expect the outcome of the project to be before you engage with a firm.
- Plan SEO in advance.
- Call to actions are key! Eliminate any extraneous content that does not serve purpose of furthering next step toward sale.
Topics:
Website Redesign