Ok, I’m going to hold my hands up high here – Ours currently isn’t.
Why? Well a number of reasons but one of the most important factors is freshness. Our site just isn’t “fresh†anymore. It’s been up in it’s current format for about 18months now. We’ve added a few bits and bobs along the way. Some things that were added worked others haven’t – anyhow it’s time for a refresh of the site. But that’s the nature of the web beast. It’s rather like running along side a whippet. It’s always streaking ahead and you’ve just got to keep up! It’s that simple.
So, what to do when you site needs freshening up?
There are a few key areas you have to look at, and I know it’ll probably cause a major hernia in some folk, but the most important parts for me are:
Design. Get this right the rest just seems to flow. Period. The key to a good website design is simplicity. Stop with the flash and rolling headers at the top. I really have a head ache with all the constant movement. Clear, bright simple. That’s what makes an attractive site in my very humble opinion. Next is…
Features. Ok this is kind of linked to design but I’m putting it here as point number 1.5! Think about what you are going to have on there. If you are starting from scratch this is hard to do, but if you are refreshing a tired site this is simple…look at your web stats and they will show you where people go from your landing page (not always the homepage btw) how long they stay on each page.
What their path is around your site. So say the pages are numbered 1-8 and the general pattern of movement on you current site is. Page, 1-2-4-6-3-5-7-8…then why are they jumping around in that order? Clearly if a pattern emerges that folk are following this footpath then go with the flow and accommodate the users desire to follow that route. They could be classed as meander paths, and if that’s the route most taken then surely common sense says to offer it. In short look at your stats and use them for future planning.
Copy. This is key. No really…it’s not just hype by clever wordsmiths trying to get you to buy their services, there really is an art to using words on the net. I promise you! Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who using Google Adsense. Changing one single word can dramatically change for better or worse, the click through rate for your ad. One single word. That’s serious stuff. For this reason I’d highly recommend that you get a skilled and knowledgeable copywriter onto the case.
Web words are usually shorter and snappier than the ones we use in brochures and off line promotions. You need to be aware of such factors as internet attention span – i.e. that it’s nearly zero. People will make their minds up about you and your site within seconds flat of landing at your door. It’s literally like someone coming to your front door and finding an appealing, fresh and zippy red door with a nice polished brass knocker and swept door step, or coming and finding broken woodwork, cracked glass in the window, a sticky handle and a great big streak of bird poo down the door knocker. Ok, which door will you go for? Not hard is it?
It’s the same with the words you use. They must match your bright clean sparkly image.
Function. Ok this is my final one, but it’s no less important than the others. Basically when I say function, I mean does it do what you set out to do? Is your site there only to inform people of something; is it a collection of information gathered by individuals on a voluntary basis? Or is it there as a sales tool for your company? Think about what you want out of the site.
If you want sales, then make it easy for the public to buy on line…don’t put barriers in the way. (Or if like us and you were looking to slow sales a bit, in order to allow the admin side of the company to grow and settle before taking on too much work, then this may be a deliberate ploy to measure your company growth!) But if you only want to use the site to inform the public, then you’ll probably need lots of sign posts from your site to others, but always before letting your readers leave it could be a good idea to remind them to bookmark you site first – so they keep coming back like the proverbial boomerang!
A redesign is a great idea for a site at least every 18 months. The web is a dynamic media, and trends come and go every day. Why feel that you have to keep the same appearance and site functionality, or even site focus for a day longer.
In reality if you want to make money online you should be changing the look and placement of site elements constantly and statistically measuring the changes in order to evolve the most effective site for the purpose that you designed for it. I have more info on this topic over at my blog if anyone is interested
A redesign every 18 months may be a good idea, but I think you need a “re-tweaking” more often. Change out a major graphic or upgrade the look every couple of months. Would you wear the same suit to work every day for 18 months? If you have a website that you want people to repeatedly visit, then “change clothes” every so often.
Hi Steve, thanks for the comment and I’ll nip over and hae a look at your site later. Ta!
Jay…good point about the clothes and changing on a more regular basis. The thinking behind the post was for a more “major” re-shuffle which you wouldn’t want to be doing on too regular a basis. (too much like hard work for you and too confusing for your audience if you keep changing chameleon like!!:-) )
However…I do agree with you about keeping it retweaked and a great way of doing that and making it “sticky” is to have you own content management system so you can go back and forth to your site and change things like latest news or your articles etc, keeping folk coming back to the site for more advice as well as “changing” the site without actually changing the design etc too much!
Good point you’ve raised there though Jay…perhaps I should have called the article…”Who wants a smelly sweat suit of a website?” (no please with that BO can you put your hands down now?!! lol!) :-)Thanks for the comment.
We decide on the refresh of our site on the web stats reports. We dont have any time defined for this, but we have defined a level on the traffic on our site, once the stats go down to the level we start working on refreshing the website.
We have been using GoStats.com who provide comprehensive reports which we are using to define the revamping process on the website.
The website visitors are the king and we let them decide whether we need to revamp or not.
There is a great book called Don’t Make Me Think that is an excellent guide to web page design. It’s simple & clear, easy to understand among all levels of web design experience.
Eight-teen months seems about the right time to change it up a little. And I’d like to offer a caution to those who may want a redo after just a few months or even a year, though.
Sometimes we think that everyone else is just as tired as seeing our “same old site” as we are. And often that’s not the case. Many of our visitors have grown familiar with it. Then – what about those that just began logging on last week? How does change affect them?
I once launched a great campaign for a daily newspaper, getting attention (mostly positive). It was the “Don’t YOU want it every morning?” campaign with direct mail, radio and billboards. After three months I changed it up a little and moved on to another catch phrase after that. Then one of the executive leaders of the organization told me the campaign was great but that I didn’t leave it out there long enough for everybody to “get it.” After thinking about what he said I realized he was right.
The same principle applies in how a website brands your business or organization. Be very careful about frequent change. And make sure a good design is developed to begin with.
Of course, the last one I designed, http://www.ez2camp.com, went through 5 changes in the first week. But now, it’s here to stay … for about 18 months… just allowing a few tweaks here and there…
Change is good – but use it wisely.