5 Reasons TO Revamp Your Website

A while back, we deconstructed 5 really bad reasons for revamping your site, in “5 Reasons NOT To Revamp Your Website.” Now it’s time for a companion piece, where we go into 5 very good reasons TO change your site.

Reason 1: The site doesn’t reflect who you are. If your company has evolved significantly, either in terms of message or in terms of product/service offerings, you have a legitimate, solid reason to revamp your site. Your website is the first extended contact that most of your prospective customers will have with you. If it’s not communicating your core messages, showing customers how you are different (and better) than the competition, and reflecting the best of what you do, you’re losing opportunities. So, when you find yourself explaining to callers that “well, you know, what’s on the site isn’t really what we do anymore,” look at a revamp. Or at least a refresh.

Reason 2: The site isn’t producing sales or leads effectively. How well does your site turn visitors to buyers or leads? Are you getting the kind of sales you’re looking for, or the number of leads you want? Do you know how you compare to other sites in the industry? If your site isn’t designed to lead your visitors down a path to sale or path to lead capture, then again, you’re missing opportunities. Oh–if you aren’t tracking your site statistics all the way through to final sale, or through lead capture, get started now!

Reason 3: Your site is confusing people. Do you get comments via email or on forms from visitors who say, “I can’t find this on your site! Help!” This is a warning sign. The major metric for site satisfaction is how many people are able to find what they’re looking for and accomplish their goals. For more information, deploy an exit survey and see how many people are having trouble. If 50% of your visitors can’t find what they’re looking for, you have a problem–think of all the visitors who aren’t commenting or emailing.

Reason 4: You can’t manage the site yourself. Does changing anything on your site mean a bill from the developer? If so, it’s likely you can’t respond at the speed of your market. Even the most basic sites today should be content-managed–which allows nontechnical personnel to make quick changes on some or all of the site content. Posting up new news items, editing a product listing, updating quantity in stock, or swapping an offer on the home page are examples of things that should be content-managed. And if your developer tells you content-management systems can be confusing, look elsewhere–properly designed content management interfaces are easier to use than Word.

Reason 5: You can’t do what you need to do with your site. Let’s say you need to launch a new self-service offering that requires a stepwise procedure that isn’t supported by your current system. Or you have a committed marketing person who wants to blog, but your site doesn’t support a blog. Or you want to add a quiz with scoring to your site. Or you can’t easily embed video. Or you need to add user accounts, so you can better engage with your customers. Or you have a new product that needs to be configured before you buy it, and the configuration doesn’t work with your e-commerce system. All of these are great reasons to revamp your site.

Remember, this is the first extended introduction a prospect will have with your company–make the most of it!

Posted by August 4th, 2010 | by Jason | Permalink