We’re often asked how to effectively rebrand an existing website. The biggest—and most common—oversight we see is that organizations begin their redesign without clear goals for the initiative. Most sites are redesigned for purely cosmetic reasons, overlooking the more crucial areas, and those that visitors actually interact with: content, site navigation, page layout, and of course search engine optimization. After all, your site has to be found, right?

Following are seven steps that can help ensure that the site you design today will be an effective investment for years to come.

1. Start with a plan. A properly executed wireframe—like a blueprint in architecture—shows you how the new Web site will function. Like building a house where it is far easier to move a wall’s placement during the planning stage than an actual wall during the construction phase, the same is true when designing a website's structure.
2. Don’t be sidetracked by the latest fads in gadgetry. A Web site that is well-thought-out and easily navigable will always outperform one that features the latest wiz-bang Flash element in the long run. Flash or other technological features should be integrated only if they serve the needs of the site's audience.
3. Get buy-in from all team members. If you fail to get buy-in from Ted in your accounting department, be prepared for Ted to unravel your plan in the eleven hour. Anyone worth getting feedback from should be involved during the planning stage.
4. Seek advice from people who will use your site. Seek feedback from clients about what is and is not working on your existing site. You can contact them by phone for a quick interview or prepare a web form that you email an invitation to them to visit and complete. Offer a drawing for all who complete the form for tickets to a movie … whatever it takes. You should hear what the people who use the site are saying.
5. Relavancy and freshness. Pull feeds from your blog into your home page and designate areas that can be updated often with news. Give visitors a reason to visit often or RSS your feeds.
6. Get top ranking on Google. Popular sites make effective use of search engine optimization practices.This vital component of any successful site is something that should be planned from the outset.
7. Hire a professional. Since your Web site will likely be your most important marketing tool, you should find the most qualified team to lead this initiative. The best way to evaluate various teams’ work is to review their sites and speak to their clients.

Following these steps will ensure that your investment of time and money is successful, generating traffic to your site and delivering valuable content to your audience.

Twitter is being discussed everywhere today it seems. New users are joining Twitter in droves. Many of these new Twitter users are convinced that getting as many followers as possible, as quickly as possible if of utmost importance. As you may have surmised by now, I don't agree with that point of view. Conversely if you really want Twitter to work for you, you’ll take a step back and follow some simple guidelines.

Slow Ride
Unless you are Oprah or Ashton or Usher, and you just joined Twitter a week ago and you already follow dozens of people. you may doing it wrong. Slow down. Twitter is not a race, and following hundreds of people is meaningless unless your goal is simply to amass a huge list of people you follow. Community-building takes time and patience. Follow people based on their interests. Talk to them. See who they talk to and if you're so moved, follow those people. Be patient. By being more selective about who you follow, you will create a stronger network around yourself, and that is the key to building brand loyalty.

Respect
Did you read a great blog post today? Give the writer a mention on Twitter. Did someone in your Twitter stream write something amusing? Re-tweet it. Did a fellow Twitterer help you out with a project or question? Thank them by name in your Twitter stream. Be generous with giving praise to others and crediting someone else for a great link. The internet culture celebrates sharing, collaboration, and mutual respect. You are a truly good netizen for pointing out the strengths of others.

You’re So Vain
Twitter is not your own personal soapbox or advertising space. It is a place where people congregate, collaborate, and share ideas. If all you are doing is pushing your own agenda, that list of followers you worked so hard to build will quickly begin to drift away. You might not realize they’ve left your stream but believe it, they’re not listening any more.

There’s nothing wrong with mentioning your brand, or your company, or even your personal agenda, but be balanced. What are you reading about? Did you learn something new worth tweeting about today? Can you recommend a great read? Be human, be interesting, and be friendly. You don’t have to sell yourself or your product with every tweet. You don’t even have to do it every day. If people like you, if they find you interesting, intelligent, creative, or even controversial at times, they’ll find out who you are and what you have to offer.

Help!
Read your Twitter stream. Pay attention to what people are saying. Offer help, encouragement, advice, and your expertise whenever possible. Make time every day to contribute to the Twitter community. Offer up some good links, funny Tweets, responses to requests for help, whatever it might be. Participate. Leave the site better than you found it!