Amazing Website Redesign Tools Every Developer Should Know

Website redesign tools are numerous these days. Since website redesign consists of multiple stages, we want to collect information about the instruments that can help you during most of them. Here is our list of the most popular and useful tools that can help you redesign!

Website Redesign Tools for Analytics

The first step of redesign is to analyze the existing website and figure out what can be improved about it. In addition, analytics will help to fine-tune the redesigned website. Website redesign tools that can assist you in analysis are crucial for redesign.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an extremely useful tool for redesign or, frankly, any activity that involves analyzing a website. It has a free version, which is called Google Analytics 4. It is sufficient for most tasks, but a particularly large organization might need the paid version, Google Analytics 360. If you get 500 million hits per month, you will need to pay for the 360 option. 

Some of the features of Google Analytics 4 include the following.

• Tracking traffic: where it comes from.
• Analyzing audience: who they are and what they are interested in.
• Studying user behavior: what users do once on your website.
• Tracking goals: you can set up to 20 goals, for example, conversion. Use them to see if your business objectives are being met.

Naturally, all this information is critical for redesign. You need to be familiar with your audience, as well as traffic, to understand what works and what does not. Tracking goals is particularly important and helps you get the information that you can use to create benchmarks. It will assist in evaluating your redesign and determining if it was successful.

If you are a website redesigner, you most likely use Google Analytics 4. If you do not, you really should start working with it. It is free, and it is a source of incredible knowledge. Google Analytics 360 requires an investment of at least $150,000 per year.

Google Search Console

Another critical service by Google is Google Search Console. It is free, and it exists to show you how your website looks from the perspective of Google search. In other words, you can monitor the presence of your website in search results. Google explains that the Console is not necessary to appear in the search results, but you probably need it to understand and improve them. 

Some of the key features of the Console include the following.

• Learning whether Google crawls your website.
• Understanding search traffic, including the frequency of your website appearing in Google Search and the queries Google Search receives concerning your website.
• Requesting re-indexing after changes and updates.
• Fixing any problems that might happen with indexing. 
• Finding out which sites link back to your website.
• Receiving alerts for any issues.

This information is important both to analyze the website that already exists and the redesigned version. It is also critical for the SEO part of redesign. Additionally, redesign warrants requesting re-indexing. Overall, it is a very useful tool. 

Google PageSpeed Insights

One more Google tool, which is free, is Google PageSpeed Insights. It focuses on page performance and offers recommendations on how to improve it both for desktop and mobile devices. It produces two types of data.

• Lab data refers to the page’s performance in a controlled environment, where user experience is simulated.
• Field data refers to the performance in real life situations.

Both of these are helpful, with the former being used for debugging, and the latter for insights on how a page actually performs.

Hotjar

Hotjar offers numerous analytics services.

• Heatmaps. Probably the most desired feature of Hotjar is the heatmaps. Using colors, they show what users do on your website. It is particularly important to know where they click and scroll. The warmer the color on a heatmap, the more users interact with that particular part of the website. In other words, it is a good way to figure out the popular elements of the website.
• Recordings. Hotjar offers real recordings of site usage. Those can help in understanding user behavior better.
• Feedback, surveys and interviews. Hotjar prides itself on paying attention to user voices, which is achieved through these methods.

Hotjar offers a free plan that allows tracking 35 daily sessions. You can also choose a paid plan or customize your access to Hotjar’s functions. For example, you can choose to only use heatmaps and recordings but increase the number of daily sessions you track. Hotjar is very useful in understanding your user, which is crucial for redesign.

Website Redesign Tools for Design and Prototyping

Since the appearance and navigation are crucial for a website, design and prototyping are major parts of redesign. They can be made easier with the right website redesign tools. Here, we want to consider two of them.

Figma

Figma is a very popular tool that helps with redesign, as well as anything design-related. Its key feature is that it enables collaboration. It lets a team of developers work on designs and prototypes in real time and leave comments if necessary.

The following can be done with the help of Figma.

• Figma Design allows the design of webpages, Figma Draw lets the users draw vector images, and Dev Mode offers the ability to translate designs into code. 
• FigJam is an online whiteboard for brainstorming as a team.
• Figma Sites allows users to publish the results of their work.
• Nowadays, Figma also offers an AI (Figma Make), which makes design easier. You can use prompts to design with Figma now.

Figma allows for responsive layouts, making it possible to design a page that would look good on any screen. It does offer a free plan, but it is mostly for those working on personal tasks. For those needing access to crucial features, the cheapest Figma plan starts at $3 per month per seat.

Justinmind

Justinmind is mostly meant for apps, including web and mobile ones. A web app is more interactive than a webpage. However, the tool can still be used for webpages, so it is worth mentioning when discussing website redesign. 

Justinmind allows creating high-fidelity prototypes without writing code, all with the goal of creating a great user experience. It also enables collaboration and testing. In addition, Justinmind prides itself on its user interface design capabilities. It offers design templates and the option to export to HTML.

There is a free tier to Justinmind subscription, but for unlimited projects you have to pay at least $9 per seat every month. 

Website Redesign Tools for Content Management Systems

Content management systems or CMS are really useful website redesign tools because every website needs content. CMSs help to create and manage it: for example, edit or publish. CMS usually allows non-developers to work with content, which is why most clients want one used. This way, they can keep adding content to their websites without a developer.

WordPress

WordPress is an extremely popular CMS, which offers everything you need. Some of the key features are the following. 

• The ability to create and manage content through a user-friendly interface. That includes media like pictures and videos that are easy to integrate.
• Numerous customization features, including templates and themes, which can be adjusted.
• SEO. WordPress has an inbuilt search engine optimization guidance for those creating the content. WordPress helps to make it more SEO-friendly.
• Numerous plugins help to make WordPress even more versatile. For example, the WooCommerce plugin assists in building an online store with WordPress. 
• Mobile responsiveness. WordPress allows you to create websites that look good on desktop and mobile. 

WordPress is generally considered relatively easy to onboard and use. It is a massive CMS, and it does offer its core services for free. However, hosting and a lot of premium themes and templates need payments. The cheapest plan on WordPress requires $5 per month, but only if billed annually. 

Joomla!

Joomla! describes itself as both free and open-source. It also claims that it is one of the most popular options in the market and can be used for a variety of purposes — from e-commerce to online newspapers. According to Joomla!, there is a learning curve to it, but it is not extreme. Here is what Joomla! offers.

• Joomla!, naturally, allows you to create and manage content with a What You See Is What You Get editor. 
• Joomla! supports media and allows you to easily upload it and move it within the piece of content you want to enhance.
• There are many free templates, although some templates are paid. The templates can be customized with colors and layouts, and this process does not require coding.
• Just like WordPress, Joomla! tries to help its users with SEO using metadata and keywords.
• Joomla! supports responsive design. 
• Joomla! also offers third-party extensions, which results in even more features.
• Joomla! Framework, which is also free and open-source, can be used by developers. 
• Joomla! is available in more than 70 languages.

Joomla! is free, but you can help by contributing your time and effort as an educator, translator, developer, or in other ways.

Drupal

Another open-source and absolutely free CMS Drupal.

• Drupal CMS is the no-code (or low-code) option that enables people with no development experience to create websites and manage content.
• On the other hand, Drupal Core is the version for developers.

Drupal core is the open source foundation you need to build powerful digital experiences.

Drupal

The CMS has the following features.

• Creation and management of content and various media types.
• Ready-to-use features (themes, templates) that are customizable.
• A modular architecture, which allows adding new features to Drupal.
• SEO optimization tools.
• Compliance with the law (for example, the General Data Protection Regulation).
• Multilingual support.
• Accessibility testing to make content available to people with disabilities.

Drupal is completely free, but it accepts donations, as well as other contributions like code and translations. It is also more complicated to master than Joomla!, but it offers a lot of guidance and documentation. 

Website Redesign Tools: In Conclusion

Redesign is a complicated process, but with the right tools, a lot can be achieved. We presented you with analytics, design and prototyping, and CMS solutions that are very popular. Google produces a lot of analytics website redesign tools. You can also contribute to free and open-source CMS if you do not want to use WordPress. We hope that this list helps you find the tools you need for your next redesign!