Why Redesigning Your Wix Website Matters
If you’re searching for how to redesign a website with Wix, here’s a quick overview of the process:
- Analyze current site performance using Wix Analytics and Google Analytics
- Set clear redesign goals based on your business objectives
- Create a sitemap and wireframes for your new structure
- Duplicate your site to create a safe testing environment
- Choose and customize a suitable Wix template
- Optimize for mobile using Wix’s Mobile Editor
- Update content and SEO elements, including meta tags and alt text
- Set up 301 redirects to preserve SEO value
- Test thoroughly before launching
- Monitor performance after relaunch
Your website often gives potential customers the first impression of your business. In today’s digital marketplace, that first impression matters more than ever. Many business owners ask how to redesign their website on Wix when they notice declining performance, outdated visuals, or poor mobile experiences.
A website redesign differs significantly from a simple refresh. A redesign involves major layout, structure, content, and functionality changes, while a refresh focuses on minor updates to colors, images, or content. Most businesses typically redesign their Wix sites every two to three years to keep pace with evolving brand needs and user expectations.
The good news is that Wix makes redesigning your website straightforward with its intuitive editor, built-in tools, and extensive template library. Whether you want to improve conversions, update your brand identity, or improve the user experience, a methodical approach to your Wix website redesign will help you achieve your goals.
How to Redesign a Website with Wix: Planning Like a Pro
Proper planning is crucial for a successful website redesign before diving into the Wix Editor. At Perfect Afternoon, we’ve guided countless Michigan businesses through this process, and we’ve found that the planning phase often determines the ultimate success of your redesign.
The first step in redesigning your Wix website is to audit it thoroughly. This means analyzing its performance using tools like Wix Analytics and Google Analytics to understand what’s working and what’s not.
Analyze Current Performance Before You Touch the Editor
Before making any changes, you must understand how your current site performs. This data-driven approach will help you make informed decisions rather than guessing what might work better.
Start by checking these key metrics:
- Bounce Rate: If it’s above 40%, visitors might leave quickly due to poor design, slow loading times, or irrelevant content.
- Average Session Duration: How long are users staying on your site? Longer is generally better.
- Page Load Time: Use the Wix Site Speed Dashboard to identify slow-loading pages. 40% of users will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
- Conversion Rate: Are visitors taking the desired actions (purchases, form submissions, etc.)?
- Traffic Sources: Where are your visitors coming from? This can help you understand which marketing channels are most effective.
You can also use heatmap tools to see how users interact with your pages. These visual representations show where users click, how far they scroll, and which elements attract the most attention. This information is invaluable when deciding what to keep, change, and eliminate in your redesign.
Another crucial aspect of your analysis should include competitor research. Tools like SimilarWeb can help you understand what’s working for other businesses in your industry.
Look at their:
- Site structure and navigation
- Content organization
- Call-to-action placement
- Mobile responsiveness
- Loading speed
- Overall user experience
This competitive analysis will give you insights into industry standards and help you identify opportunities to differentiate your business.
Set SMART Goals for Your Wix Redesign
With a clear understanding of your current performance, it’s time to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for your redesign. Your goals should align with your overall business objectives and address the issues identified in your analysis.
Common redesign goals include:
- Improving user experience: Make navigation more intuitive, simplify complex processes, or improve mobile responsiveness.
- Increasing conversions: Optimize call-to-action buttons, streamline checkout processes, or improve form designs.
- Enhancing brand identity: Update visual elements to reflect your current brand positioning.
- Boosting SEO performance: Improve site structure, speed, and content to rank higher in search results.
- Expanding functionality: Add features like online booking, e-commerce capabilities, or interactive elements.
A typical website redesign takes four to eight months, depending on the size and complexity of your site. Plan your timeline accordingly, and be realistic about what you can achieve within your budget scope.
When to Act: Signs It’s Time to “How to Redesign Website Wix”
Not sure if you need a full redesign? Here are eight clear signs that it’s time to redesign your Wix website:
- High bounce rate: If visitors leave your site quickly, your design might not engage them effectively.
- Slow page loading: If your pages take more than 3 seconds, you’re likely losing visitors and search engine ranking.
- Poor mobile experience: If your site doesn’t look good or function well on smartphones, you’re missing out on over half of potential traffic.
- Outdated design: Visual trends change quickly, and an outdated design can make your business appear unprofessional.
- Not meeting KPIs: If your website isn’t helping you achieve your business goals, it’s time to change.
- Customer complaints: If users provide negative feedback about their experience, listen to them.
- Rebranding: If your business has undergone a rebrand, your website should reflect your new identity.
- New business offerings: If you’ve added new products or services, your current site structure might not effectively showcase them.
Enterprise-level Wix users typically redesign their sites every two to three years to stay current with design trends and functionality improvements. However, the right timing depends on your specific business needs and the performance of your current site.
From Blank Canvas to Launch: Step-by-Step in Wix Editor
Now that your planning phase is complete, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and bring your vision to life with the Wix Editor. Don’t worry if you’re not a design whiz; this powerful tool makes changing your website surprisingly straightforward, even for beginners.
Pick & Customize a Wix Template That Scales
The first practical step in redesigning your Wix website is finding the perfect template match. Wix offers a treasure trove of professionally designed templates across countless industries. Explore options that align with your brand personality and business goals.
When browsing templates, consider what matters for your specific business needs. Is the template designed for businesses in your industry? Does the layout naturally support your content requirements? How customizable is it? Always check how the template performs on mobile devices; this isn’t optional anymore, it’s essential. Also, pay attention to loading speed, as templates with fancy animations might look great, but they can slow down your site.
Once you’ve found “the one,” it’s customization time! Create a clear design hierarchy that guides visitors’ eyes exactly where you want them to look first. Your color palette should reflect your brand consistently; stick to 3-5 colors to keep things clean and professional. Choose typography that’s both readable and matches your brand personality (limiting yourself to 2-3 font families prevents your site from looking chaotic).
Great design is for everyone. Build accessibility into your site from the ground up with proper color contrast, alt text for images, and intuitive navigation. As you add your creative touches, keep an eye on performance optimization by compressing images and avoiding too many heavy animations or cluttered pages.
Here’s a pro tip we always share with our Michigan clients: Create a duplicate “sandbox” site before making significant changes. This gives you a safe playground to experiment without affecting your live site. Go to your Dashboard, click Home, then Site Actions, select Duplicate Site, name it, and click Duplicate. Now you can redesign with confidence!
Optimize Content & SEO on the Fly
Your beautiful new design deserves equally impressive content. As you rebuild your site structure, your content strategy needs equal attention. Start with a thorough content audit. Identify your high-performing content worth keeping, underperforming pages that need improvement, and anything irrelevant that can be removed.
Update your keyword research based on current search trends in your industry. What terms are your potential customers searching for today? Tools like Google Keyword Planner can help you find relevant keywords with good search volume and reasonable competition.
Your meta tags are like your site’s handshake with search engines. Craft compelling title tags (aim for around 60 characters) and meta descriptions (about 155 characters) that include your target keywords naturally. Wix’s SEO Wiz makes this process much easier with personalized recommendations.
Don’t forget about your images! Image optimization means compressing files for faster loading without sacrificing quality, plus adding descriptive alt text that helps both search engines and visitors using screen readers understand what they’re looking at.
Create a logical internal linking structure that connects related content across your site. This helps visitors find more of what interests them while distributing “link equity” throughout your pages. Keep your URL structure short, descriptive, and keyword-rich. And if you’re feeling ambitious, consider adding schema markup to help search engines better understand your content.
Wix offers several built-in tools to make content creation and optimization smoother. The Wix SEO Wiz provides personalized SEO recommendations based on your specific business. Feeling writer’s block? The Wix Text Generator can help create initial content drafts to get you started. And don’t forget to explore the Wix App Market for additional SEO tools that might give you an edge.
Test, Launch, and Monitor: The Final Stretch of How to Redesign Website Wix
Congratulations on designing and optimizing your new Wix site. But before popping the champagne, thorough testing is essential. Think of it as quality control that separates good and great websites.
Start by checking your site on different browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. You’d be surprised how differently your site might appear. Use Wix’s Mobile Editor to fine-tune your site’s appearance on smartphones and tablets. Test every single link to make sure they all work properly; nothing frustrates visitors more than broken links! Submit test entries to all your forms and verify that you receive the notifications correctly.
Check your site speed using Wix’s Site Speed dashboard and fix any performance issues. Give your content one more careful proofread (or better yet, have someone else do it). Test all interactive elements, including buttons, menus, and widgets. Finally, verify that all pages have appropriate meta tags, headings, and alt text for SEO.
When it’s finally launch time, you’ll need to decide whether to replace your current site entirely (best for major redesigns) or update your existing site based on your sandbox changes (better for smaller revisions). Creating a comprehensive 301 redirect map is crucial if you’re replacing your site. This ensures all your old URLs point to their corresponding new pages, preserving SEO value and preventing visitors from encountering frustrating 404 errors.
Setting up 301 redirects in Wix is straightforward: go to your SEO Dashboard, open the URL Redirect Manager, click “New Redirect,” enter both the old and new URL paths, and save your changes. For detailed instructions, check out Setting Up a 301 Redirect.
Consider a “soft launch” approach. Make the site live, but hold off on the big announcement for a few days. This gives you time to catch any issues that might have slipped through testing.
After launch, monitoring becomes your new best friend. Check your analytics daily for the first week to spot any unusual patterns. Watch for crawl errors in Google Search Console. Actively collect feedback from real users. Track key metrics like bounce and conversion rates compared to your pre-redesign baseline. You might even want to try A/B testing different versions of important pages to optimize performance continuously.
A website redesign isn’t a one-and-done project. It’s the beginning of an ongoing improvement process. For more comprehensive guidance, check out our Essential Guide to Website Redesign.
Redesigning your Wix website isn’t just about making it look prettier. It’s about creating a powerful digital asset that works harder for your business. By following our approach, you can transform an underperforming website into one that genuinely connects with visitors and turns them into customers.
Ready to breathe new life into your online presence with a professional Wix website redesign? We’d love to collaborate with you to create a site that truly captures your brand essence and resonates with your ideal customers. Our collaborative approach ensures your vision comes to life while incorporating proven best practices in design, functionality, and search optimization.
