Posted by Tom Krengel
on 06/17/09
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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