Web sites need continuous improvement. It is no longer good enough to offer a web site which doesn't change to reflect your audience's needs and changing perceptions. Your web site must capture attention, have new information regularly and engage the visitor so they want to return.
You don't have to take our word for it. Simply spend five minutes browsing the Internet and you will quickly discover sites that are beginning to look old, obsolete, and ...boring.
It's inevitable that at some point you will notice your own web site starting to fall into this category and you'll begin to think about a site re-design. When you reach that decision, use the following ten tasks to evaluate your existing web site and guide you in creating a fresh, "new" web site which meets your target audiences' needs.
1. Evaluate your existing web site.
Take some time to discover the successes and failures of your web site. Get feedback from people to get an honest evaluation of your site (remember to let go of all ego during this process!) Note the successes and failures you and the people you have asked to evaluate your site have discovered. Next write down your goals for a new site.
2. Brainstorm.
Look at your existing site. Are new and fresh ideas missing from it? What about your re-design plan? Is it more of the same? Or is it new and exciting? Gather a group of people from your organization to discuss the web site and get fresh ideas. Record the ideas generated during the brainstorming session. It isn't necessary to implement every new idea introduced, but you may have some unique ideas you hadn't before considered.
3. Find out why people visit your site.
Why are visitors going to your site? List all the reasons you think people visit your site. Then look at your existing site. Does your existing web site support all of those reasons or is there room for improvement?
4. Does the site grab peoples attention?
Do you think visitors remember your site? Do they bookmark it so they can easily return? Give your visitors something to remember so they can find their way back to your site. Write down the one thing you would like visitors to remember about your site.
5. Research competitors.
You can learn a lot from looking at what your competitors are doing. Get ideas about the latest web design trends and communications concepts by looking analytically at your competitors sites. This isn't a suggestion to copy exactly what they've done, rather to see what works and what doesn't work and apply those lessons to your own re-design. Write down what you liked and didn't like about your competitors site.
6. Plan with your target audience in mind.
Who is your target audience? What are their needs and interests? How can you better serve them? List the top three categories of people you expect to visit your site. Write a one sentence description for each of them. Then write a few words that might interest these groups and cause them to respond to your site.
7. Determine your "theme".
Is there a mood or emotion you wish to convey with your site? For example, professional, academic, family-oriented, technical, fun. Write down three adjectives to describe how you want your site to "feel".
8. Edit your content.
Forget colorful, artful sites. People are most likely coming to your web site to read clear, well written and fresh content. Have an independent party edit your content to see if it is clear, up-to-date, accurate and communicates what it is supposed to.
9. Analyze your existing site.
Look at your site statistics and examine the popularity of pages. If the pages you want visited are not the most popular you may want to examine your navigation to determine how you can make those pages the most popular. How much time are visitors spending on your site? If your visitors are not returning to the site or spending only a few moments then something is wrong.
10. Hire the right people to assist in your re-design.
Be careful when selecting who designs your site. Make sure they not only have the right mix of experience and talent, but also that they are willing to understand and work toward the goals you have for your site. In today's market, your web site says much about your organization. It is your signature and your success depends on the quality of your web site.
After completing these tasks, you will be surprised about how much you have learned from the process, and how many ideas you have generated. Hopefully, you will have begun to develop a clear vision for your web site. Most important, when you are ready to sit down with your designer, you will have many of the answers to their questions and be able to take an active part in empowering your web site.
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