There’s no denying it; consumers judge a brand by its advertising, a book by its cover, and a website by its design. A Consumer Web Watch study concluded that consumers “judge on aesthetics” when it comes to websites. It’s why web designers focus their efforts on making sure the sites they design are pleasing to the eye and make the right first impression.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has set the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 to go into effect in 2018. With less than a year left until the enforcement begins, businesses are looking at ways to make their sites WCAG website compliant. If you’re already planning to update your existing website — or build a new one — be sure that these guidelines are implemented in the design.

Design or Credibility – which one is more important to you when you are working on a website redesign project plan?

If you answered credibility, you are in the majority — and according to a study from Stanford University, you are not telling the truth.

The steps to optimizing your website redesign involve strategy that is geared toward reducing the level of risk to your already-existing organic search engine rankings and profits. If the redesign project is not constructed in a manner that is SEO-friendly, the redesign can result in an unforeseen drop in site traffic and rankings. Taking these key factors into consideration during the redesign process will drastically reduce those risks.