Behind the Scenes of a Website Designer’s Redesign: Why I'm Starting Fresh & Rebranding
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I’ve always been fascinated watching other people’s processes and getting all the behind-the-scenes peeks at their strategies, thought processes and the steps they take to achieve big things.
Whether it’s Ruth Ridgeway’s $100k Experiment or her BTS Club, Dama Jue’s Confessions of an Affiliate Marketer or Elizabeth Goddard’s ‘Lizzy’s Week’ and debriefs, I love seeing how people make decisions and bring their vision to life.
It’s inspiring and oh-so-helpful to see the real, unpolished moments that don’t make the business highlight reels. There’s something about it that makes you feel like you’re not alone since no one has their *ish together 24/7, right?
So, with that, I decided to share my own rebrand and website redesign process for you to get a peek behind-the-scenes of my process. Not only will it hold me accountable (since redesigning has been on my to-do list for YEARS!), but it’ll provide valuable insights for anyone considering a rebrand or redesign of their own.
I’ll be sharing occasional updates and sneak peeks here on the blog, but if you want to get ALLLLL the juicy insights, strategic decisions I’m making, things I mess up (and there’s already been a few!) and more, you’ll want to check out Website Redesign Real-Talk.
Why I decided to Rebrand
I’ve been in business for just over 6 years now, and in that time, a lot has changed. My services have shifted, my ideal client has evolved, my messaging has grown, I now offer courses around SEO, blogging, writing your website copy and strategic website updates to make, and I’ve learned whole lot more about design, websites, SEO, marketing, copywriting and about a million other things.
On the personal front, I now have a second little kiddo, I’m juggling daycare, school, and specialist appointments, plus I’ve changed a lot as well. That’s left things feeling like they no longer *fit* anymore and I’ve been itching for a change for a while.
But it goes deeper than things not feeling like “me” anymore.
My website wasn’t easy to update anymore.
I was on Squarespace 7.0, which is an older version of Squarespace, and with the countless index pages and custom code, making updates became such a drag. While 7.0 is still supported, it doesn’t get all the fun, new features, which leads me into…I *wanted* all the fun, new design features for myself.
Most of the client sites I’ve been working with for years are on Squarespace 7.1, and I love that it gets all the new features like scrolling text, shaped blocks, borders for sections, design details for text and more. Plus, a lot of things that I used to have to code are now built-in, so it saves me a HUUUUGGGGGEE amount of time designing!
Click here to check out Squarespace for yourself, and save 10% off your first year using the code JHDBlogging became a hassle.
I really enjoy blogging and it’s always been a great way to attract new people into my world, but knowing that more content on my website would create more work for myself when I redesigned had me resisting writing for waaayyyy to long. It was really stalling my marketing and visibility.It’s been YEARS since I’ve really changed much.
I haven’t really made any big changes to my website apart from occasional new pages since before I was pregnant (and Little Miss will be 3 soon!). It stopped being a priority while juggling some health challenges and motherhood, since I was still getting referrals and clients through bundles, but now it’s time to tackle things.
And the big one… A podcast reminded me “embody what you help your ideal clients achieve,” and oooft did that hit hard!
I’m helping my clients to level up their branding, strategy, content, and website, and it’s time I do the same for myself!
After all, our website is more than just a digital business card, it’s really our online home, and if we give it the love and attention it deserves, it will pay us back by working as a 24/7 marketing and sales person (the one that attracts new people to us from Google and turns them into subscribers and clients effortlessly!)
For anyone thinking about rebranding, there’s no right or wrong reason to dive in, this is just why it made sense for me.
My Brand & Website Currently
While most of my website copy has changed over time, I’m still using the same branding and photos I threw together in a weekend when I first started my business, and I’m definitely feeling a bit over it.
Text-wise, I’m no longer in love with the Madina script font I chose since I’m seeing it everywhere these days, plus I never even bothered to install it on my website because it’s a bit too hard to read on screens for more than a few words at a time. The Proxima Nova font I’m using for all other text is also feeling a bit too masculine for my linking as well.
As for my brand colours, I’ve always struggled to use the teal colour in my designs, the “peach” colour I chose seems pinker every time I look at it, and the grey that I use for copy is a little too light in some designs, which isn’t the best for contrast and readability.
I’m also feeling a little limited design-wise since I don’t really have any fun design elements, textures, or patterns, and since I’ve never actually had a brand photoshoot, I’ve been using the same handful of stock photos and DIY photos for way too long!
What I’ve done so far
I knew from that start that I’m way too close to my own brand and website to really think of things objectively, so I knew that I wanted to enlist my website A team to help!
Brand Strategy & Design
I’ve enlisted the help of Jacqui from White Deer Creative to help me get some clarity on my brand strategy and to give me a fresh design perspective for my rebrand. Since I’m a designer myself and I’m capable of doing the design side of things, I’ve joined her Co+Creation Club so she can help me refine things and get me unstuck when I’m getting too caught up in my head or struggling to detach from my own preferences.
Jacqui has a great free series on creating a brand that stands out here, or if you’re considering DIYing your brand, she has a great DIY brand design course here to help you out.
Messaging & Copy
I’m going through the Audience Success Formula with my friend Nadine from CanDo Content, to get some extra clarity on my ideal client, since that’s shifted A LOT in the last few years, and I know I haven’t really been hitting the mark with my messaging lately. This will really help me narrow down and refine my messaging, which will make writing my website copy soooo much easier!
Once my messaging is on point, I’ll dive back into Copywriting for Creatives to write my website copy. I’ve decided to stick with writing my own copy because I enjoy writing and I know that I write way too much in my business to not hone this skill even more.
Once my copy starts coming together, I’m going to back to Nadine to help me zhuzh everything up and make sure I haven’t missed anything. She’s a pro at audience-focused copy and all things customer experience, so I can’t wait for her strategic insights!
Nadine has a fabulous membership called the Copy Confidence Collective where she gives weekly copy critiques to her members, and having had her feedback on things before, I know just how juicy it will be! Plus, she’s one of my favourite people around, so this was an easy choice!
Brand Photoshoot
I’m envisioning a light, bright photoshoot with fun pops of my new brand colours. I’ve already set up a Pinterest board with photo inspiration and have a fairly decent shot list in mind, although I’m setting up a Notion board to really help me refine things.
I’ve enlisted my sister to join me in a brand photoshoot since she wants some photos for her business as well, so now we need to narrow down a photographer and a location. I’ve also been making notes about the props I want to use in my photoshoot (most of which will decorate my office when I move spaces later this year!), although I still have no idea what I’m going to wear.
Upgraded to Squarespace 7.1
I ended up getting frustrated by my website and upgraded to Squarespace 7.1 on a whim a few months ago. I’ve kept the design pretty much as it was before, but here are a few things that I have done so far:
Screenshotted every page of my old website for reference (I use the GoFullPage Chrome extension for this)
Deleted a heap of pages and blog posts that I know I won’t use (I had over 100 pages along with over 70 blog posts!)
Created a spreadsheet of EVERY page on my website along with the links and redirects I need to set up. This makes it easy to keep track of where I’m at and make some SEO updates as I go
I used the Squarespace upgrade process here to upgrade my website. I decided to do it this way instead of starting a fresh new website so that my analytics and backend settings would stay in place.
I was a bit worried about how it would go since my website is too big to duplicate as a backup first, but the process went smoothly. It took me about a week to check over everything after and fix the little things that looked different or broke in the process (the perks of having such a massive website 😂).
Mostly, I had to fix the sections that had custom code attached previously, since the code didn’t always work after the switch. I was able to design most of those sections natively in Squarespace 7.1 though, so I didn’t need anywhere near as much code.
If you’ve been on Squarespace 7.0 for a while, it will be a bit of a learning curve if you upgrade. The new features are totally worth it, but keep this in mind when you start so you make sure you have an hour or 2 set aside to play around and figure it out. You likely won’t need as much time as I did to look everything over though, since most coaching and consulting websites are significantly smaller than mine!
What’s Next?
I touched on this a bit above, but my plan of attack moving forward is:
Create a mood board, choose brand fonts and colours, create my new logo suite, and refine the elements I want to use for my branding
Play around with these in Canva to create some social media and Pinterest graphics to test everything works cohesively together
Start an audience survey and jump on some market research calls to help me refine my messaging
Write my copy and get some help zhuzhing it up
Start updating my lead magnets and email marketing templates so they’re ready to go when I get to my website
Redesign my whole website. I’ll likely pop it all behind a coming soon page and get it done over a couple of weeks
Roll out all the other details over time, such as course updates, workbooks, social media graphics, etc
I’ll be sharing the entire process, including strategic insights, sneak peaks, lessons learned, what it’s like collaborating with other experts, and more, in Website Redesign Real Talk, along with occasional updates here.
I really want to demystify what it takes to create a website that truly works to market your business, since pretty designs are only part of it.
If you’re considering a rebrand or redesign, I’d love for you to follow along! Whether you DIY or work with me to bring things to life, it’ll be packed full of insights to help you create a website that reflects your brand and attracts your dream clients.
Keep a look out for my updates and sneak peeks along the way!
