A lot of businesses procrastinate when it’s time to redesign their website. They know they need to, but they don’t want to do it, why? I’ll tell you why, FEAR. Everyone is scared of the unknown. Will my rankings drop? How will my new site look? What if the search engines reject it? What if my customers hate it? What if I hate it? What if my boss hates it? Lol, never fear, these are all very natural reactions to such a scary and involved project; however, the reward of having a kick ass site is amazing.
One thing I recommend doing is having a checklist. This list will act as your project management document that you can share with your team and agency. I also recommend using a Google doc that will allow for real time edits and note to take place, as well as easy sharability among all stakeholders.
Where Do It Start?
Think of your metrics. Ask yourself, What am I trying to accomplish? Is it more subscribers signing up? Is it more calls? Conversions? Leads? Form fills? Opt-ins? We can sit here all day listing every metric in the world, but the only ones that matter are the ones that are going to make you money. At the end of the day generating more, viable traffic to your site that encourages calls and converts is a win-win. Form fills aren’t bad, but calls usually convert better. One of the ways you can figure that out is test it. Try removing your form from the homepage and bolding your 800 number. Heck, put your 800 number all over the dang page. If people don’t have a hard time seeing it,chances are they’ll pick up the hone and call!
Do you know your brand? Well if you don’t, you better start identifying one. Get in a room with your team and start white boarding! Be cohesive, simple and direct. Customers don’t like complex. Make sure your website matches your collateral and messaging across the board. Remember, wishy-washy doesn’t work either.
Incorporate a user-friendly navigation with top functionality and SEO in mind. Your customers need to have a good user experience, and so do the search engines.
Forget Pretty, Be Practical! Don’t worry how pretty your site will look, just get the content down and the rest will fall into place.
Get Your Shit Together! Organize your information and don’t use too much text. Customers don’t like to read novels when they land on a homepage, they just want quick and easy.
Use clear calls-to-action! You must grab consumers’ attention and convert them!
Don’t forget mobile. Yes! You need a mobile site and it must be optimized for all devices.
Timeliness is key. You can roll your website launch out in phases, it doesn’t have to all be done in fell swoop.
Don’t forget your analytics! Be sure sure to connect your analytics to your website so you can continue to track your data and progress.
Be dynamic! Make sure you have moving parts. Consumers love dynamic sites, not flat, static, boring ones. Remember, you should aim to keep them engaged and help them find the info they need in only a few seconds.
Don’t panic. Websites are fun projects and they are exciting when you see the increase in your web traffic and leads flooding in.
Let us know how we can help you at WRM.