The first question you need to ask yourself is "why do I need to change my website ?". Is the function and appearance of the website pleasing my customers. If you think that a makeover is what you need then there are some great tips out there for you and your web developer.
Joe Griffin has served as the co-founder and CEO of a digital marketing firm and he shared some great tips in the article that he wrote.
Re-launching a website is a massive, multi-layered task for any business.
You have make decisions not only about design and branding — a
re-launch requires a seemingly endless checklist of tasks: benchmarking,
content strategy, audience research, SEO, back-end hosting … the list
goes on. Plus, as a business every decision is hinged on
ROI: What impact will the remodeled website have on your business’ traffic, engagement, and conversion?
Your business’s flaws and weak links are often exposed when it comes time to reinvigorate your
web presence.
Whether this comes in tandem with an organizational restructure, a
change in services or products, a reinvigorated brand strategy, or
simply after realizing that your current website is not converting
customers at the level you’d like, every business should re-convene on
their web strategy at least every few years.
These tips can serve as a blueprint, checklist, and guide for your enterprise’s future website remodeling plans.
1.Get everyone on the same page
Talk to each and every stakeholder about the impending re-launch.
Meet with colleagues (within your department and cross-functionally),
shareholders, clients, board members, industry mentors, and other key
parties as you embark on your re-launch planning.
Ask each group similar questions:
- What is missing?
- What do you like about the current site?
- Do you think it’s the right time to re-launch?
- Do we have the capacity to do this as a company?
- Do you think we will come out better afterwards?
- Do we want a re-skin, which impacts the overall design aesthetic of the website, or a re-launch, a total overhaul?
Answering these questions early on – and getting buy in and feedback
from all parties — will help you in the long run. When
relaunching iAcquire.com, for example, multiple departments within our
agency combined forces to create a vision for the website. Doing this
helped us define scope, high-level direction, budget, requirements, and
most importantly goals — all essential for the beginning strategy
documents of a website redesign.
2. Allocate a budget and bandwidth
Your overall budget for your website redesign will frame your
bandwidth. If your budget is in the tens of thousands of dollars, you
have the budget to utilize a big agency to create a new website for your
enterprise. If your budget is smaller ($7,500-$15,000) you may be able
to utilize outside help on a consulting basis.
Either way, a large chunk of change will be needed for a website
redesign. Hosting isn’t free either, so even if you do everything
in-house you’ll need a budget.
Also, consider the project scope and if your in-house team has the
capacity to complete such a large-scale project. Creative, content,
promotion, SEO, and developers will all need to commit a large part of
their workload to the project. For example, our marketing and strategy
team dedicated a good solid three month to the project.
CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, and legal need to be engaged from the beginning as
well. And project status should be communicated at least one time per
week to high-level stakeholders.
3. Ensure benchmarks are in place
Create benchmarking documents to track the current website’s design
and content, layout, as well as audience targeting and current website
analytics (visitor interaction and conversion) so you can accurately
measure success after the new site launches. Define your current and
future KPIs and keep track of them. Keep in mind that these may change
as your organization grows, so be inclusive and collect as much as you
can.
For iAcquire, we use the following key performance indicators:
- Leads
- Time on site
- Share of voice
- Number of links
- Organic search rankings
- Impressions
- Traffic
4. Define or redefine your key audience personas
Consumers are getting savvier and savvier by the minute and modern technology allows users to tune out various messages. With that being said, it is crucial to craft your remodeled website around your converting, engaged personas.
Once you define audience personas, you can better direct:
- The tone of the copy
- The website’s overall design/look
- What type of content (images, copy, videos) resonates best
- Calls to action – where the are placed, what copy to use, user path
Creating audience personas helps all creative, content, and allows
marketing stakeholders to maintain uniformity. Leverage audience market
data, survey results, and need states to create personas and user
stories. Use this template and create your own three to five
personas. Utilize market research tools like Experian, Nielsen, Facebook
data, and even Google Analytics to get to the core of your visitor
base.
5. Plan as much as you execute
Draft a creative brief that includes all project requirements – from
copy and SEO to technical hosting and color scheme requirements. This
brief will serve as the blueprint for all parties working on the
redesign. The plan can be as long as 30 pages, though the length is not
important; the content is the important part. If it helps you, then
delegate specific sections to different leaders within your team. Come
together and review the plan, and then from there start executing your
strategy.
6. Consider your copy
A shiny, well-designed site is great, but like your looks it’s the
first thing to go with age. If your content isn’t great, neither is your
site. And it’s not just about well-written prose; it all has to be
planned out, persona-driven content, created by understanding your key
audiences and how they behave online. Develop a roadmap for content
strategy and your copy will fall into place.
Within iAcquire, we know that governance and establishing an
editorial calendar is just as important as setting up the content
framework. Without structural guidance organizations can fall into
content paralysis. These processes defines the players, topics, and
requirements necessary to curate and publish content.
7. Keep the bot in mind
Within your re-launch two key “audiences” need to be kept in mind:
your visitors and the search engine spiders. Search engines have a very
detailed algorithm for ranking pages, and with your re-launch you want
to make sure that you stay even or above in your rankings. Here are
three key considerations you should have for SEO:
- Redirects
If specific URLs are no longer active, or you are changing the site
architecture, make sure 301s redirects are in place. Non-existent
redirects can lead to a “docked” search position.
- Conversion end-points
Your re-designed website will probably not have the same conversion
funnel or path as your last site, so make sure someone is dedicated to
checking the conversion points on your redesigned sites to make sure
they are a) working, b) properly migrated, and c) tracked.
- On-page keyword analysis
Target two to three keywords per page and intertwine them
organically throughout the copy and metadata. If your organization
previously targeted a list of keywords, look at them again as
competition and volume changes from year to year and even month to
month.
8. Who’s your host?
Consider where you are going to host your site.
Is it going to sit on a server that your enterprise owns and
maintains, or will it live with a hosting company? Is your hosting
bandwidth enough? Consider what frameworks you will use on the front
end, and what Javascript libraries you will use, such as MooTools or
jQuery. PHP, .Net, or Rails? WordPress or Drupal?
All of these decisions need to be made early on.
9. Utilize Google Webmaster Tools
Once your website is in development, have your organization set up a
Google account (if you don’t already have one) and get acquainted with
Google Webmaster Tools. This free Google tool can tell you any problems
with site/page indexing and even click-through rates. If the content is
being rearranged on your new site, it could be buried deeper, making it
harder for search engines to crawl, which leads to a non-indexed area.
10. Strategize a post-launch plan
Your job isn’t over when your redesigned site launches. Create a plan
to promote the new site on social media, PR outreach, and blog
announcements. Plan on pushing marketing messages through these channels
for at least two weeks past the launch. Connect with key influencers on
social who can push your message further.
Then create a plan to organize, develop, curate, and publish new
content so you keep luring new visitors in: inbound marketing at its
finest. On an internal communications front, make sure that your
organization is kept in the loop as well. Inform all departments of the
re-launch. Be clear on what has changed and how they can utilize your
“2.0” or “3.0″ website to optimally conduct their respective jobs.
While every organization has needs, adopting a process is a crucial
element. Use this list as a guide, and customize it to meet your
organization’s unique challenges, and develop a website that reflects
your company
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/07/10-essential-tips-for-your-companys-web-design-project/
