7 Strategic Steps for Associations and Non-Profits to Prepare for a Website Redesign
An association website redesign that skips the preparation phase will reproduce the same problems in a newer template. The seven steps below are not a checklist — they’re a sequencing argument. Do them in order. The content audit comes before the design brief because the design brief has to reflect what you’re actually working with, not what you wish you had published.
Thinking about your association website redesign? Consider that a website is more than just a digital presence; it’s a dynamic interface between your brand and your audience.
In today’s digital landscape, a well-designed website is crucial for associations and non-profits, serving as a cornerstone of their online identity and engagement. This guide explores seven strategic steps to prepare effectively for a website redesign, ensuring your digital transformation aligns with your mission and resonates with your audience.
1. Content Health Assessment
According to a study by HubSpot, updating and repurposing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%.
Hubsport
A content inventory is fundamental in identifying outdated or irrelevant content. This process ensures that the redesign focuses on current, valuable content, eliminating redundancies and aligning with your mission and goals. It also allows for a strategic view of your content architecture, helping to identify gaps in information and opportunities for new content development. User Experience (UX) designers often advocate for “Content-First Design” leading to better design outcomes.
For example, try using Google Search Console to locate content that is getting lots of impressions but no clicks. Then using Detailed.com’s Chrome extension review your content, then Google the top results. Review those pages and compare the results in Detailed. Is your content the best?
Why: To ensure relevance and accuracy in your redesign.
How: Review each page for sites under 500 pages, or use tools like Screaming Frog and Google Search Console for larger sites.
Resources: Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Moz’s Guide to How to do a content audit, Optimizely’s Content Marketing Tools, Google Search Console
2. Defining Your Core User: Audience Understanding
Knowing the user, and understanding their needs and behaviors, is the key to any successful design project.
Don Norman – Founder, Norman Nielsen Group
Understanding your audience shapes the redesign to be user-centric. This step ensures the new design resonates with your audience, enhancing user experience and engagement. Knowing the audience’s demographics, interests, and online behaviors allows you to tailor the design, content, and functionality to their preferences. We always recommend spending time with your audiences both internal and external to get to the root of usability challenges, points of friction, and overlapping digital tools. Audience understanding via interviews, and usability studies helps guide priorities too. User sentiment is often eye-opening for decision-makers.
Why: To ensure the redesign meets audience expectations and needs.
How: Analyze existing audience data from various channels.
Resources: Google Analytics, and Hootsuite for social media insights.
3. Association Website Redesign: Addressing Website Challenges
73% of companies identify website performance as a significant challenge impacting user satisfaction and engagement.
A survey by GoodFirms
Identifying key issues helps focus the redesign on solving real problems. This understanding allows for a targeted approach, ensuring the new design addresses these challenges effectively. One of the more common challenges of digital strategy is setting priorities. In other words “shopping while hungry” can lead to feature request bloat. Seeking clarity early on what matters and cutting through the “nice to haves” leads to better products down the road. We’ll often guide clients through exercises like “Bang for Your Buck” budgeting to help locate the highest-impact features that address usability issues.
Why: To prioritize redesign efforts for maximum impact.
How: Conduct interviews with team members engaged with your website.
Resources: User Interview Guides, DigitalGov’s Web Improvement Process.
4. Analytics Review
Analytics-driven design changes resulted in a 30% increase in conversions for an e-commerce site.
Kissmetrics
Analytics review provides a clear picture of current site performance. This informs which areas of the site are effective and which need improvement, guiding the redesign process strategically. Starting with data/analytics early in the redesign project helps to promote the idea of “Data-Driven” from the start of the project. Data is often a key tool for prioritizing features. For example, if your data shows that very few members are using certain features you can dig deeper and investigate if the reason is usability, feature discovery (do they know about the feature), or relevance (members know the feature exists but it is not relevant).
Why: To guide the redesign with data-driven insights.
How: Review key website metrics.
Resources: Google Analytics, Kissmetrics Blog on Website Analytics.
5. Competitive Analysis
Understanding what competitors do well provides a benchmark for your redesign. This comparison helps in identifying opportunities to differentiate your site and improve upon industry norms. Keep in mind you are competing for attention in a very crowded digital space.
Why: To inform your strategy with industry standards.
How: Evaluate competitors on various aspects.
Resources: SEMrush, Detailed.com Chrome Extension.
6. Stakeholder Engagement – Managing an Association Website Redesign
Engaging stakeholders effectively ensures that the redesign aligns with organizational goals. It helps in clarifying expectations and responsibilities and facilitating smooth decision-making processes. We have a more extensive guide to stakeholder management.
Why: To ensure alignment and project success.
How: Establish clear roles using a RACI matrix.
Resources: PMI Resources, RACI matrix templates.
7. Budgeting an Association Website Rebuild
Budgeting an association website rebuilt is a big job. There are many considerations, that’s why we wrote a guide that covers the major areas of consideration for a rebuild. Everything from pricing a modern CMS like Umbraco, Optimizely, or WordPress, to UX and accessibility considerations. Our key insights are to avoid shopping while hungry. Or, in other words, don’t just throw things in the cart because your current digital experiences are weak. Prioritize user needs. Consider your budget and approach. We recommend moving toward thinking of digital as an operational expense rather than a once a decade capital expense.
Association Website Redesign
By comprehensively addressing each of these areas, your website redesign will not only refresh the site’s appearance but also significantly enhance its functionality, relevance, and alignment with your strategic objectives.
Association Website Redesign: Common Questions
How long does an association website redesign take?
A realistic timeline for a mid-sized association redesign — 100 to 500 pages, AMS integration, custom UX work — is 9 to 14 months from kickoff to launch. Projects that rush past the content audit and stakeholder alignment phases in the first 60 days almost always pay for it in the final 60 days of rework.
How much does an association website redesign cost?
Agency-led redesigns for associations typically range from $80,000 to $350,000, depending on scope, AMS complexity, accessibility requirements, and content migration. The number that surprises most organizations isn’t the agency fee — it’s the internal staff time. A full redesign requires 15 to 25% of at least one FTE’s attention for the duration of the project. Budget for that before you sign a statement of work.
When should an association redesign rather than optimize its existing site?
Redesign when the architecture is wrong — when the navigation, content model, or underlying CMS can’t support what you need to do without workarounds stacked on workarounds. Optimize when the structure is sound but the execution is weak. I’ve written a full framework for this decision in the association website redesign vs. optimization guide.
What are the most common mistakes in association website redesigns?
Three, in order of frequency: starting with design before completing the content audit; underestimating AMS integration complexity; and treating stakeholder alignment as a kickoff meeting rather than an ongoing process. The third one kills more redesigns than the first two combined. Stakeholder expectations set in January do not survive a July launch delay without management.
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