A company—or even personal—website is our presence to the world, the cyber face by which we are judged as professionals and companies alike. But how do we know when our public appearance is turning visitors off and it’s time to redesign?
Jessica Melhorn, Director of Client Solutions at JPL in Harrisburg, PA, says this: Consider what frustrates you as a visitor when using a website, and put it to work when developing—or revamping—your site. Are the contents and graphics up to date? Does it load quickly? Does it use Flash? Is it easily navigable? Does it focus on the user and their needs?
Adobe’s Irina Guseva says that there are five traits of engaging customer website experiences:
1. Personalized: Customers want you to know their browsing or buying habits and make suggestions based on those habits.
2. Useful and contextually relevant: Customers want you to understand their needs at every step of the journey.
3. Timely: Customers want the right experience at the right time.
4. Omni channel: Seamless experiences across all touch points, digital or physical, make happy customers.
5. Social: Social connects customers with each other and allows brand advocates to vouch for you.
The truth is, your website is only one part of the customer experience. There are many other factors that can influence the need to update your site’s content, appearance and functionality.
Foremost, Melhorn encourages, consider your business and business model. Has your position on industry perceptions or trends changed? Who is your target audience? Are you B2B or B2C? Is your audience primary or secondary, and are they influencers or decision makers?
Also, keep an eye on the competition. Is your business facing new competitors? Do they offer new or updated applications or tools that you don’t, or do they offer what you have, only different? Better yet, have you merged with or acquired any new businesses, or integrated new products or solutions that enhance your service?
Several years ago, my own employer became a victim of this circumstance through a business acquisition. The business that we acquired had a similar philosophy, different geographic reach and unique client base that didn’t conflict with our own, making it a perfect complement to our firm. We updated our website to include the newly acquired business practices with the markets we served as a singe company identity. But executive management chose to keep the former firm’s name as a “doing business as” brand through revamped printed collateral and business cards with a modified logo (against the marketing department’s advice). This created a marketing and identity nightmare. The executive and business development teams visited each of the merged firm’s key clients, explaining that the merged company was the same group of professionals, just working under a new business name. Visitors came to our website expecting to see the former company’s name, but it wasn’t prominently stated. Mention of the merger existed only in news posts and in the newly-added business areas of the site. Their clients were confused and frustrated. Who were they working with? What happened to the business they knew? After a year, executive management finally dissolved the “dba” identity and merged the newer business under our corporate name as a united marketing front.
But a website isn’t just about who you are, it’s also how people interact with you. With the increasing number of users accessing websites on devices other than a desktop computer, it’s vital that your site include responsive design for compatible viewing on mobile and laptop devices. Newer trends are also seeing more searches done by voice activation through applications like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and others. Website updates don’t always have to be visible in the front end user experience. Corporate website updates can also be the result of changes in back end technology.
With the number of corporate site highjackings and malware attacks popping up in the news, you need to make sure that your site host, plug-ins and content management system are up to date. If you are introducing a new product or functionality that will attract a larger number of users to your site, make sure that your site is scalable and can handle the increased guest flow. If not, you may face an overload that will crash your site.
As in the case noted above, make your content (and site in general) compatible with current search algorithms so that your clients can find what—and who—they’re looking for. To enhance your user’s experience, make sure that your marketing automation is up to date for streamlined inbound marketing and social efforts. Perhaps what may be the most important back end update of all, make sure that your site is accessible to all users in compliance with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Section 508 for those with disabilities.
Your website is your virtual presence, representing who you are and what you do. Make sure that it not only reflects current content, but also functions to meet your user’s needs and makes their experience enjoyable to make them want to return.
Interested in learning more? Contact me today at bmccoy@mccoycommunications.com to discuss how I can help!