Early last month I released a redesign of my website.
You won't notice much has changed because I kept the look but replaced the platform it runs on. That let me keep most of my benefits (e.g. style, CRO work, SEO, content organization) while making it easier to operate, faster page speeds, and the ability to add more powerful custom features.
This concept of keeping everything the same except for one thing is my favorite technique to manage change.
Oftentimes you'll hear about redesigns where everything changes at once. The design, navigation, urls, content… Everything is different.
While those can be fun, often they sacrifice a lot of the good a site has built up. For example, it's considered “normal” for a redesign like that to lose SEO traffic for at least six months and for conversion rates to suffer as well.
That's why redesigns are one of the riskiest projects for an ecommerce store. Switching platforms are even riskier.
An incremental approach to redesigns where only change one thing at a time is much safer. They're slower to get to the final stage but you keep your benefits the entire time.
By analyzing your customers, orders, and products, Repeat Customer Insights can help find which marketing tactics attract the best customers.
Eric Davis
