Web Design Tip #1 of 7: Do it For the Right Reasons
This is the first installment of a 7-part series on how to make your next website re-design project pay. Although produced for our customers in Reading, PA and the surrounding areas of Philadelphia, Lancaster, York, Allentown, and Harrisburg, these web design principles apply everywhere.
Think it Through
There are lots of reasons to overhaul your website. By doing it for the right reasons, you will positively affect the direction of your project and increase your chances for success.
Do you clearly know what you are trying to achieve by creating or redesigning your website? At the end of the project will you be left with a site that looks great but fails to achieve results?
A Continuous Process
Website redesign is a continuous process. Your website should adapt to your evolving business needs while providing current, relevant, and helpful information to your prospects, leads, and customers. Achieving that goal requires proper functionality, not just attractive design.
The excitement of a new website will be short-lived if the site fails to grow traffic, leads, and sales. Planning and designing with that goal in mind is key to driving the project in the right direction. Instead of rolling the dice, start with a candid assessment of the motives driving your project.
Weak Reasons for a Website Overhaul or New Design:
- We want our website to reflect our new corporate look and feel
- It’s been awhile since we’ve updated our site and it’s beginning to look outdated
- The CEO wants to do it
Strong Reasons:
- We want to get found by more prospects
- We want to grow sales by converting more prospects into leads, and more leads into customers
- We want to improve our branding/positioning (appropriate if combined with one or both of the above reasons)
Misguided reasons for a website redesign are often driven by a desire for a “wow factor” to build excitement. A beautiful website, although of some value, should be secondary to designing a website that draws more traffic and converts prospects into leads, and leads into customers. In other words, put functionality first and beauty second. Plan for both, but with the proper emphasis on each!
To download our free white paper, Website Design: 7 Ways to Make it Pay, click the image below.
