Planning and Implementing a Successful Redesign

Every brand, or rather should I say, every successful brand makes changes along the way.  Sometimes these changes are subtle, at times, almost imperceptible.  While at other times, the changes are dramatic.  Thriving companies know that in order to consistently gain and retain market share, their brands must enhance their overall brand perception.  This means embracing changes in their brand based on market shifts and user trending.  Websites are an extension of a brand, and it goes without saying that a company’s website should add value to a company’s overall brand perception.  Therefore, websites must be changed from time to time in order to strategically stay aligned with current market trends and user needs.

Does your site need a redesign?

The reality is, if it doesn’t right now at some point it will, perhaps sooner than you might think.  So, what are the steps involved in planning for and implementing a successful redesign?

Let’s start by defining just what exactly a “redesign” is.  While it doesn’t have to be, at times a redesign is a complete site overhaul.  Essentially, a new concept, layout, colors, content, even brand identity might need to be created from scratch.  More frequently, however, a redesign is really more of a “realign”, where the site content, layout, features, colors and other elements are enhanced to more aesthetically match the company’s brand and meet the current needs of the intended audiences.

So how do you determine if your site needs a major overhaul or simply to be realigned?

Well, let me start by saying if your site contains any clipart at all, blocks of text as images, random sound effects or involves the use of horizontal scroll bars, it’s actually way overdue for a major overhaul, but I digress.   In all fairness, we need to gather a bit more information before we can fully determine the scope of the project.  Much the same as when planning for an initial design, there are a few critical pieces of information that need to be clearly defined before we can create an effective redesign strategy.

If you’ve already begun working with a designer, you will likely collaborate and compare notes from the start, but even if you haven’t yet hired a designer, you can still begin much of the preliminary planning and gather much of the information necessary to create the ultimate redesign strategy.

Step 1.  Define your audience. 

Basically, gather as much information as possible about your target audience and potential users.  Who is your target audience right now?  How has your consumer base changed, if at all, since your last site was developed?  Has it become broader or narrower in any ways?  What are your audience’s demographics?  Just who are they?  How old are they?  What do they do for work and for play?  What appeals to them?  How do they think?  What colors do they like?  How do they use the web?  When do they access the web?  Which devices are they using to access the web?

Step 2.  Define your web objectives. 

Think about your current business goals and how your website can facilitate meeting those goals.  What are your site’s objectives?  How has your business changed since your last site was developed?  Do you offer different products or services now than then?  What should your site provide for your consumers?  How will they use your site?  Why will they visit and revisit your site?  What should your site offer to attract, retain, increase, and convert on traffic to the site?

The next step is probably the most challenging part of the planning stage, so bear with me on this one…

Step 3.  Take an honest look at your current site. 

Pretend you are one of your site’s users.  Ask yourself:  How well is my current site aligned with my web objectives?  Does my site employ the use of any outdated technologies?  What about my site is currently working in connection with my site objectives and what is not?  Most importantly why?  Is my site truly enhancing my brand offering in the eyes of my users?   Could my site be devaluing my brand in any way?

The answers to these questions will essentially determine whether a complete overhaul, a minor realignment, or something in between is necessary in terms of the redesign.  And now that you have a more realistic idea of the scope of the project, you can start to formulate your strategy, which you may have guessed is step 4. 

Granted, the rest of the planning phase should be significantly easier when working with a designer, but still, if you haven’t yet hired a designer, try your best to think of how you will deliver your content to your consumers in the way they will most readily receive it.

Step 4.  Determine your strategy.  

Ask yourself:  What can changes, enhancements or additions can I make to my site to better align my site with my web objective and meet the current needs of my users?  Since we’ve already determined our target audience and our web objectives, and we took that painful, er I mean honest look at our current site, we should have a pretty solid idea of what needs to be modified, added to, or removed from the existing site to enhance our overall brand perception and better meet the needs of our consumers. 

A redesign strategy, regardless of scope, should in theory look something like this:

My site will do this (the site’s objectives as defined in step 2) by delivering this content (the new, redesigned and/or additional content with features, layout, format, accessibility, etc.) to my consumers (the site’s target audience as defined in step 1).

In the real world, a simple example might look something like this:

My site will encourage more in-depth site usage and visitor loyalty and create a more positive overall view of my company’s brand by incorporating the use of more positive colors, streamlining the current layout thus making the site easier to navigate, and incorporating the use of social media channels to encourage user feedback from my target demographic.

And now that we know what we need to do, it’s simply a matter now of putting the pieces together to do it.  Exciting, isn’t it???  We’re almost there!  Before we jump in headfirst though, we need to complete a couple more preliminary steps.

Step 5.  Plan for SEO, SES and optimization. 

Any new content as well as new design needs to be measured and optimized.  Be consumer-minded as you begin thinking about key word data and top entrance paths (the pages your users will likely search for and visit first).  Plan for multiple landing pages and A/B testing before the actual design work begins.  In this way, from the project inception, you will be prepared to respond to user feedback and adapt your content, designs or layout in order to effectively meet your goals.  If you are already employing the use of sitemaps, plan to incorporate additions to the existing documents rather than completely redesigning them. 

Step 6.  Gather and organize content. 

The amount of content a site will contain determines much about the structure and layout.  Define the site structure and hierarchy with as much detail as possible.  How much content and what type of content will you have?  Will you have active content?  How often will the content change?  You can use a site planning tool, a spreadsheet, a wireframe or just start scribbling on a piece of scratch paper.  The important thing is that you be as detailed as possible and make sure that the flow of content is relevant and logical.  Take your time and give your content a lot of thought.  As you organize the site content, be sure to keep your audience in mind and refine content as necessary in order to plan to deliver the best value to your consumers.

Step 7.  Visit competitor’s sites. 

Try to be as objective as possible.  Visit the sites as if you were a consumer.  How intuitive are the sites from a user’s perspective?  What about the design, colors, layouts, features and content do you feel works?  What doesn’t work?  Learn as much as you can from your competitors’ successes and their missed opportunities and don’t forget to take notes.

At this point you are ready to bring all of your research, notes and goals together with your strategy so that design iterations can begin for your new site.  Remember, the more careful planning you do in advance of the actual redesign, the more successful the implementation of your redesign will be.  And now, let the redesign begin. 

5 Ways to Organically Drive Traffic to Your Site

Web launches are so exciting.  In spite of, or rather maybe because of, the intense adrenaline rush from all the tension and anxiety as the files are uploaded to the server and final testing is being completed, it’s the launch that brings the greatest satisfaction.  The hours, days, weeks, and months of work involved in building an amazing site finally comes to fruition and the whole world can access it.  The question, however, is can the whole world find it?  Can anybody find it???

Often times, small business clients make a sizable investment in the design and development of their website, only to find that at the launch they are not prepared to spend more funds to aggressively market the site.  And yet, no one seems to be visiting the website in spite of just how amazing the site is and how much money was spent to build and deploy it.  Talk about let down.  “Where’s my return on investment?”  Naturally, this is when I get the call.

Given the current economy, even medium and large size businesses are trimming budgets, including marketing and looking for creative ways to market alternatively.  Thankfully, there are several things that can be done without spending a lot of money to organically drive traffic to your site.  They may seem obvious but they are good reminders, and incidentally can be implemented and reimplemented to help boost traffic throughout the life cycle of a design.  And while the actual methods may not all apply specifically to medium or larger sized businesses, in principle they most certainly apply to any size business.

Let’s focus on just five organic ways to drive traffic to your site, shall we?

1. Use Your Web Address

I must admit it’s surprising to me how often I am asked by a client whether or not a web address should be on a business card or letterhead.  Perhaps for small business clients that are newly entering the web arena and don’t regularly access the web themselves, the thought of having their web address on collateral seems optional.  It’s not.

Use your web address everywhere.  Use it on your business cards, letterhead, envelopes, ad slicks, data sheets, business checks, labels, promotional items and client gifts like pens, t-shirts and shopping bags…tattoo it on your chest, ok, well maybe not but you get the point. (no pun intended, of course)  Simply put, use your web address in all of your print collateral.

And don’t forget to talk about your website.  Tell your entire network you have a website.  Tell them how great it is.  After all, you paid good money to make your site great, so you have every right to sing its praises.  Tell everyone with whom you converse why they should visit your site and why they should tell others to visit your site as well.

The bottom line is: promote your website in print and verbally.  Stop and think about ways that you can incorporate your web in your existing print collateral and daily conversation and make a conscious effort to promote it.

2. Register with Local Groups and Directories

Another simple, organic way to get noticed by others, including search engines, which translate to driving traffic to your site, is to register your business with online groups and directories.  These are sites that allow you to list your business and pertinent information about your business in relevant categories.  Consumers, aka your potential clients, can then browse and search for businesses by category, business name, industry, specialty, location or recommendation.

These listings also rank quickly with search engines, so that often a new website can be found via a directory before the actual site has even been ranked directly by search engine crawlers.

A few good places to start:

Yahoo Local Business Directory

Google Local Business Directory

Yelp Business Directory

There may likely be other local or industry specific groups and directories with exclusive audiences that include your consumers.  Spend a little time researching to find them.  The more lists in which your business name and website appear, the greater the exposure and subsequent traffic to your site.

3. Post Ads on Craigslist

Craigslist is a really great platform for small business owners to gain leverage online without spending dollars for advertising.  Of course, Craigslist does have its limitations and is not necessarily an automatic fit for every business, but it should at least be considered before ruled out.  Why?  Well, for one thing, it’s FREE.  It’s also very easy to use and in certain markets, it’s extremely effective as a traffic generator.

Let’s say, for example, you’re the owner of a small business daycare.  If you, as a daycare owner, notice many individuals offering childcare services and listing such services in your local Craigslist directory it is likely that many individuals shopping for childcare in your locale are using Craigslist to find local providers.  If you include a listing, or better yet, multiple listings without spamming, of course, using catchy headlines in your local markets, your FREE ad(s) will be among those perused by all those shopping for childcare in your region.

Some of the possible types of businesses which may benefit by utilizing Craigslist ads (depending on business locale and corresponding Craigslist usage) include childcare and related services, pet related services, electronic repair services, property management and real estate services, coaching, tutoring, gardening and landscape maintenance, personal estate and financial planning services, residential construction and maintenance services along with artisan services, photography, catering and event coordination services just to name a few.

Important Tip:  Always include a direct link to your site using the proper syntax i.e. http://… in your Craigslist ads so that users can click directly from the ad to your site.  Ideally, include a direct link to the landing page on your site that is most relevant to your ad viewers and voila!  Watch the traffic flow.

4. Utilize Social Media

There’s quite a bit of controversy surrounding social media these days.  However, social media is by no means going anywhere.  That’s not to say that there are not some very important rules to follow when it comes to social media, whether for personal use or small business marketing.  But that is entirely another story and shall be saved for a future blog post.  (hint, hint ) For now, let’s just consider how social media can benefit small businesses.

Social media is free and relatively simply to use.

From the end-users perspective, social media provides a convenient means to receive updates from multiple sources through a single channel, i.e. Twitter or Facebook.  And, with the advent of integration of Twitter and Facebook, you, as the business owner, can provide updates, value added information and site links to your consumers and potential clients from one channel as well.

Each time you post a relevant update, you are building your credibility as a legitimate player in your specific business market.  Those who either “follow” you or “like” you have opted in to receive your updates, which means they want to hear from you.  If you provide value in the updates that you post, your followers are likely to click the links (ahem to your site or related to your site).  Plus, if your followers think that others would benefit from viewing your content, they will share your updates with their friends and followers, who may visit your site as well.  If these, in turn, opt in to receive your updates via social media channels, then they will likely share your updates to their friends and followers and thus increase your potential network exposure exponentially.

5. Write Useful Blog Articles

Ok, well, even less than useful blog articles might possibly drive some traffic to your site.  The problem, however, with writing articles that are less than useful and thereby irrelevant, is such articles will definitely diminish your credibility.  The only clicks your sight might get will be from users who want a good look at who not to do business with.  So let’s stick with useful, relevant content.

Blogging is not difficult learn and there are many free blogging platforms available for use, such as WordPress or Google’s Blogger.

It’s important to remember that free blogging sites will not drive traffic to your site automatically as they are often not indexed by search engine robots, and understandably so, as there is an absolute glut of information being posted to the internet via blogs each day.  Free blogging can drive traffic to your site, however, if you use your blog in conjunction with another medium such as social media.  Reenter Twitter and Facebook.

Blogging, like social media, has some rules in order to be an effective marketing tool for small businesses.  But, if you learn how to write quality content about subjects that interest your consumers, you will boost your business credibility with your clients.  And if your clients find your content useful, they will share your articles with their networks thus further marketing your business from an organic perspective.

Of course, always be sure to link your blog directly to your website.