Architecture Firm Website Redesign - 10 Things You Need To Know
Sooner or later, you get to the point where you’ve been staring at the same pages for years, and you realize that your website’s user experience is embarrassingly outdated.
The navigation is confusing, the content is stale, the color scheme is stuck in 2014, and the design doesn’t come close to representing your firm’s capabilities.
Yep, it’s time for a new website.
Architecture firm website redesign is more than changing your site’s template and updating your team bios and project portfolios.
The truth is modern website design technology is innovating at such a pace, that it’s difficult to keep up. But every architecture firm website needs a refresh at some point, and the redesign process does not have to be complicated.
At Archmark, we have studied more than 550 architecture firm websites, and we are recognized web design experts. Our goal is to make the redesign of your website as painless as we can.
So keep reading to learn the ten things you need to know to ensure you are as prepared as possible for your website redesign project!
1 - Hiring a professional is probably worth it
When trying to take on their website development themselves, the problem for many firms is that they don’t take key points into consideration. And this isn’t their fault – they just don’t know or are swamped with client work.
The fear is that you might spend money on the redesign, with little real improvement to show for it. The reality of doing your website redesign yourself is that you’ll keep putting off your website, because you and your team have higher priorities (i.e. paying clients) to attend to.
You may believe that in-house website design projects are easier than working with an outside agency, but you may not fully understand what’s actually involved in the redesign process, or what you need to consider to ensure that you engage users to create a site that supports your business development strategies.
2 - Learn what you like and don’t like about your current website
Before making any changes to your site, it’s vital that you have a clear understanding of the content and features you’d like to keep, remove, add, and improve.
First, review and evaluate what works and what doesn’t work on your current site. This will make it easier to communicate to your development team what you’d like your new website to look like and how you’d like it to function.
Take time to review everything, including the actual content, the navigation, load time, design scheme and much more.
Look at other websites to see if they have features or design elements you’d like to add.
Consider using an app like Milanote to create a digital mood or vision board to track your preferences.
If you have Google Analytics set up, be sure to review what the data says about your current website, especially when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), which helps you get found online.
In fact, you can connect Google Analytics to Google Search Console to see the precise search criteria and user intent that helps prospects find your site. This can help guide your content strategy for your new site.
You might also want to consider surveying current clients, and your list of relevant emails to see what people like or dislike about your website.
Knowing this information will help guide your website design agency to create a new site that is focused on clear marketing goals.
3 - Perform audience & competitor research
Your target audience has likely changed over the years and may not include the same prospects you’re trying to attract now. Change is good, but your ideal customer may want different information, different types of content, and your new architecture firm website design needs to reflect those needs in order to resonate with them.
Maybe your architecture firm has pivoted to serve a new audience segment. Knowing what your prospects want from your architecture firm and what engages them is key to a successful modern web design.
With that in mind, this is a great time to carry out competitor research. Analyze their websites and SEO to see where you stand in comparison.
You want your website design to stand out from those competitors, and understanding what they’re doing online is a key factor in a successful digital marketing strategy.
4 - Set clear marketing goals
You’ve done the audience research, checked out your competitors, and worked out what you like, don’t like, and want to improve about your current website.
Now it’s time to take all of that information and create your marketing goals for your redesign project. What specific and measurable goals do you want your new website to achieve?
- Do you want to capture more prospects using your contact forms?
- Do you want to present your portfolio in a more engaging way?
- Do you want more traffic to your website from internet searches?
It’s essential for your marketing agency or design team to clearly understand the motivation and purpose behind each element of your new website.
5 - (Re)-consider your domain name
Your domain name is the main URL of your website. For example, ours is
www.archmark.co.
In many cases, the same company that hosts your website may also provide you with a domain name for an additional charge. It must be unique from every other website on the internet.
Many architecture firms don’t consider when they’re redesigning their website that changing their domain name isn’t straightforward. It can result in a negative impact to your search engine optimization if it’s not done correctly.
However, there are times when changing your domain name is necessary.
One example is when you go through a merger and need to combine two websites. Another is when your firm goes through a rebranding and renaming process.
Tip: Whether you’re keeping your domain name or switching to a new one, make sure you have your logins handy well before you complete the development phase.
There is nothing worse than getting ready to launch a site, and realizing you can’t find your passwords.
6 - Evaluate your website hosting provider
Every website has to be hosted on a server, and often, architecture firm owners don’t realize they’re paying for hosting, let alone understand the importance their hosting platform plays in their site’s performance and security.
During the website redesign process, you’ll need to decide if you want to stay with the same website platform and hosting environment or move your site elsewhere.
When evaluating your current hosting provider, you’ll want to consider some key factors, including:
- Average uptime
- Load time
- Support
- Cost
- Bandwidth and storage
- Security and site access
- Maintenance services
- And much more.
And there are big differences between self-hosted and managed services, typically used for Wordpress, and online website builders, like Squarespace.
Often, clients find that sites on Squarespace are cheaper to operate, easier to update, and less work to manage, but Wordpress websites offer greater options for customization, and more precise control over design scheme and performance aspects.
Make sure you understand the pros and cons of these different approaches before you get too far in your development phase.
7 - Assess your email options
In most cases, your architecture firm’s email platform is closely connected with your website. Your contact forms should be set up to capture relevant emails, and may be connected to automated email marketing campaigns running via an integration.
Be sure to evaluate whether you want to keep using your current email provider or switch to something new. Maybe there are cheaper options available that weren’t around a few years ago, or maybe you want a better level of service than your current provider offers.
Doing some research during the development phase will ensure you select an email system that supports your business development strategies.
8 - Choose your CMS
Content management systems (CMS) help you create, manage, and change your website’s content without the need to learn coding or have special knowledge.
There are thousands of CMS available. With so many to choose from, it can be tough to know what platform is right for your budget and your architecture firm.
It’s a good idea to evaluate what you want from your CMS. Maybe you’re happy with your current option or want your redesign to use new software. As an architect, you’re already incredibly busy, so we recommend going with something easy to use and quick to update.
In our experience, Squarespace and WordPress are the website platforms used by most architecture firms. However, both of these platforms have disadvantages, especially when it comes to search engine optimization, and page load time.
At Archmark we use our own modern website design platform based on the popular Duda website builder CMS.
We created this platform to specifically address the unique needs of architecture firms. It’s flexible, very fast, you don’t need to code anything or worry about plugins - and it follows SEO best practices to help your firm get found in search results.
9 - Evaluate your SEO
One of the fears clients have about a website redesign is the unfounded concern that they’ll lose the benefits of any SEO work they’ve built over the years when launching their new website.
An experienced website design agency understands how to maintain your search engine optimization results.
At Archmark, we follow a clear process to ensure your redesign doesn’t negatively impact your SEO, but instead, actually improves it. This starts with an in-depth content audit of your current website.
We’ll review the actual content on your site to ensure your existing pages are properly redirected to the new website so they aren’t lost in Google search
We’ll identify the factors that form user intent, a key element in the search criteria that supports your ideal customer journey.
We’ll also research and identify new keywords to help you attract new, potential customers, and we will evaluate the performance of each page.
Redesigning your website is an opportunity to enhance your content strategy and improve your site’s ability to attract your ideal future clients.
10 - Update your content
Finally, let’s talk about content. We’re talking specifically about the written text and the portfolio images on your website.
In many cases, architects do not invest enough time and effort in developing these two important elements of their website.
If you are considering a site redesign, it’s likely that your content needs an update. This means new portfolio images, and professionally written content.
Written text is often overlooked on firm websites. Architects seem to assume that images are more important, but images cannot explain what you do, nor can they communicate the value of your expertise.
For written content on your website, it’s also important to understand that visitors to your site do not want to read large blocks of text. Copy needs to be properly formatted to be easily scanned so that users can find relevant information.
When it comes to photography, hire a professional photographer and or videographer to document your projects. At the very least, learn how to use your smartphone to create your own quality images and video clips.
Visuals supported by great written content will help your potential clients better understand how you can help them. Don’t skimp on these important aspects of your website redesign.
Archmark, a leading marketing agency for architects, has helped more than 3,000 architects use branding and marketing to attract, find and connect with better clients & projects.
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