<1/ Ignoring what already exists without analyzing it

Performing an audit enables you to carry out a complete check-up of the state of the website: technical performance, SEO, user experience... This gives you an overview of the elements that need to be improved, which will be of great help when you come to redesign! As a general rule, it's advisable to carry out a website audit every quarter, or at least every six months, in order to detect any anomalies. You can carry out the audit yourself using free websites. However, the report will be limited in depth and detail. A digital agency can also carry out the audit and make recommendations.

2/ Designing a site without precise objectives

The aspirations of a website are often multiple, but they must be clear. Defining precise objectives facilitates marketing analysis. After all, everything is measurable on the Internet. That's why, faced with the vast amount of data available, it makes sense to define objectives in order to save time and money. The most common objectives are:

• Acquiring new customers or prospects
• Improving visibility
• Building customer loyalty
• Promoting or selling products or a service

3/ Addressing a vague audience

Once you've defined your objectives, you'll be able to refine who you want to address. Age, geographical location, sector of activity, BtoB... Creating detailed personas will give you a better understanding of your audience's needs, so you can make the choices that will enable you to reach them effectively. You'll be able to define the editorial content, graphic line and information to be gathered with greater precision. It's important to define precise targets, because trying to address everyone ultimately means addressing no one!

4/ Neglecting to integrate social networks

Social networks enable you to create a link between your company and your community. They'll be able to share your content with their friends and family, and you'll gain notoriety in the process. This is what we call earn media: your audience becomes ambassadors for your brand of their own free will, using their social networks among other means (The dream, right?). That's why it's important to integrate CTAs from different social platforms to facilitate sharing and highlight your content. The most common are Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. You may also decide to include Youtube if you have a channel, or Whatsapp to enable your target audience to share your articles with their friends and family.

5/ Underestimating CTAs

The purpose of CTAs (Call-to-action) is to enable an action from your audience. They will help increase your website's conversion rate by prompting your prospect along their buying journey. So don't neglect them! This element must be designed to be visible, clear and in keeping with the design spirit of your digital environment. It must appear logical to the visitor. Don't include too many CTAs, either, as this could lead to confusion and create a messy site. Less is more.

6/ Put together a crack team!

It's important for your redesign to have a competent team in place to oversee the project. Depending on the size of the website, your team should be made up of members from different departments (marketing, communications, design, development...) to benefit from multiple points of view. Short daily or weekly meetings will help orchestrate everyone's tasks.

7/ Planning an unrealistic budget and schedule

One of the most common mistakes when creating or redesigning a website is underestimating the budget needed to complete the project. In fact, if you want a complete site that's viable over the long term and achieves your objectives, you'll need to put your hand in your pocket. Free online site builders are a major temptation, but the quality of the finished product can sometimes leave something to be desired, so don't overlook the investment you're putting into your website. Planning should also be considered realistically. With the back and forth of creation, collaborative workshops, development and acceptance, you need to be patient!

8/ Carry out your online launch in the greatest secrecy

The online launch of the site is an important stage in your redesign. So it's important to communicate about it, to mobilize your community. You can consider a physical event, a newsletter to celebrate and inform, a special promo code... You can also include the launch in your content strategy on social networks with teasing and a press release. These activations inform your audience of the change and strengthen your relationship with them.

9/ Choosing unsuitable technology

Doing an initial audit will first enable you to analyze what wasn't working optimally before, so you can correct it during the redesign. It's important to be well-informed about the technology you're going to use! The risk? More time-consuming maintenance and upgrades. By taking into account the site's objectives and your long-term vision of it, you'll find it easier to determine which technology should be used for the redesign. Technology is often chosen on the basis of the functionalities to be developed and the skills of the technical team. Some examples of frequently used technologies: Symfony, Drupal, Wordpress, Laravel... Some criteria to consider when making your choice: which plugins are you going to use? Is the community engaged and collaborative? Is the back-office easy to learn? What are the native functionalities?

10/ Think container, not content

It's essential that you know what type of content will be integrated into the site to design it properly. Will it be mainly photos? videos? blog posts? product sheets? infographics? While it's not necessary to have the content in its final form before the redesign, it's a good idea to know the quantity and type of content in advance, so as to plan a coherent site architecture. This will allow the content to come to the fore while offering an optimal user experience.

Finally, many mistakes are frequently made when redesigning a website. That's why you need to be careful when preparing your redesign to be protected from potential problems in the long term. These pitfalls can be avoided with rigor and preparation. Working with the right partner is also a guarantee of quality, as you'll be surrounded by digital experts. Our list is not exhaustive, and you can go and read the rest of the mistakes not to be made during a redesign!!!