How To Rebrand Your Old-Fashioned Website

October 21, 2020 by guest writer

It’s crucial to create a good first impression for visitors coming to your website. If your website has been around for a while and you haven’t changed a thing, there’s a good chance it’s outdated.

Now is the right time to start rebranding your website. In this article, we’ll explain why a website rebranding is necessary and the steps you need to do it.

When could a website rebranding be necessary?

As listed by AYTM, rebranding can be done for a variety of reasons.

You could be looking to expand your business to include more products and services and reach new audiences. As you’re getting into a new market, a new look is needed to define your new brand identity, including your website look.

You may also rebrand to make yourself relevant once more. Maybe your website used to get a lot of traffic but is starting to lose visitors. Maybe you haven’t made updates to your website in years and feel that it needs a little touch-up.

Steps to successfully rebrand your website

Expanding to new regions, including new products and services, and bringing back relevance are all valid reasons why you should rebrand your site.

Here, we’ll explain to you the steps you can take to rebrand your website.

1. Take advantage of this opportunity to move to a better platform

When creating a website, it’s essential to choose a platform that allows you to maximize your site’s potential. However, you might feel that your current platform won’t do enough and you need to move it to another platform.

Perhaps you made your website by hand-coding it. To give a more dynamic and interactive feel to your site, you may want to rebrand it by using a website builder. Website builders provide all the functionality of a dynamic website while still easy for beginners to operate.

Maybe you’re planning to regularly add more content to your site to gain traffic. In that case, you may want to look into Content Management Systems (CMS), like WordPress or Joomla.

2. Backup your old website

Rebranding will require you to make quite a number of changes to your website. If you’re also planning to move the site to a different platform, it’s recommended that you make a backup.

As you will be updating the content and design of your website, there’s always a chance of issues popping up. In case anything goes wrong, the backup will be your safeguard to make sure you don’t lose any content in the process.

Depending on which control panel you use for your website, some have the option to generate backups automatically. If you use WordPress for your website, you can try installing a plugin to automatically backup your old website before updating its content.

3. Define your new branding strategy and image

It’s important to define which aspects of branding you need to cover to speak better to your audience.

An essential part of rebranding is to define what sets your brand apart from its competitors. Defining your brand positioning, delivering your USP to the audience, and finding your niche are all necessary to make sure your brand is unique and memorable.

After setting your brand’s positioning, next you need to create a cohesive image, voice, tone, and values to share on all your online channels. Be sure to make the rebranding consistent not only on the company website but also through all its social media.

Lastly, choose which color and element resonates best with your brand and audience, and implement it in all your branding design to give your brand a clear identity.

4. Make a list of the most important and urgent problems with your old website

Before changing anything on your website, first, you need to note which problems need to be addressed in this rebranding process.

From a branding perspective, you may want to see if the current elements and content on your website matches the new USP and brand positioning. Your priority should be how the audience views your brand and how it resonates with them.

You’ll also want to look into the UX of your website and make sure it matches your brand positioning. For example, if you want to position your new products as luxurious and high-end, make sure it reflects on your website through its design elements.

You may also be having problems with traffic, and want to increase the conversion rate of visitors.

5. Plan and design the solutions to those issues

After you’ve finished listing the priorities that need to be covered in the rebranding, it’s time to design the solutions to these issues.

If your main problem is with marketing and branding, after defining your new positioning and niche, create guidelines for design and communication to match your new brand. Take inspiration from brands like Mailchimp or Spotify, who made their style guides public.

To make sure your website’s UX also fits the new brand, thoroughly review the UX and navigation of your website, and ask for input from others. Adjust the flow of your new website accordingly.

Lastly, if you want to increase conversion, you should first increase the traffic to your website. This can be done by optimizing your site to make sure that it’s easier to find by your audience, from its speed to its SEO.

6. Implement all new changes

With the solutions list in hand, you’re ready to implement the new changes on your website.

If you’re planning to move your website to another platform, look for a new platform that fits your needs best. Start by moving your files and database, configuring applications, then test the new site.

Make sure you also update all content and design of your website according to the new guideline.

7. Update your social media profiles and other marketing channels

Though separate from your company website, your social media profiles and other marketing channels is an integral part of your brand.

Implement the new positioning strategy consistently through the voice, image, design, and elements in all your marketing channels.