The Path to Website Re-Design Success

For various reasons, sooner or later companies get an itch to re-design their web sites. The process most commonly begins with requests for quotes from a slew of web design companies found on the first pages of a Google search. If this is the approach you and your company are taking, know that you’re heading in the wrong direction.

It’s simply not enough to request a website design without providing any direction. The critical information that defines your company is in your hands. It is crucial to provide this information to the web design company before they start on any creative design. For favourable results that save time and money and for a website design that is sure to earn you praise, we recommend that you assemble the following details.

1. List your business goals and objectives. List the goals and objectives for your website. Do your business and website goals and objectives align with each other? They should. Have they changed since your last web design? Does your current website fulfill your goals and objectives? If not, why?
2. Who is your target market? Has this changed?
3. List your competitive advantages. Have they changed? Does your current website play up these advantages? If not, why?
4. Has your brand changed? Would you like to change your brand?
5. What’s the feedback on your existing website? What is working, what needs reworking?
6. Examine your top competitors. What are they up too? Are they doing anything that you would like to try yourself?

Considering your goals and organizing your information will instigate a more strategic decision making process. Details of this nature are extremely helpful in determining which changes to your current website will be most effective. Based on the details provided by you, the web design company you’ve partnered with will be in a much better position to suggestion solutions you may not have considered. It may even turn out that a complete website re-design will not be necessary.

The right website can improve your company’s efficiency, profitability, and provide you with a leading advantage over your competitors. More than just a clever image with a means for business contact, a website is the first opportunity a company has to make a lasting impression. Take your time and take it seriously.

Comments

• Your words could not be more true!
  Thank you for your Blog, it is very informative.

  Comment by Robert — June 18th, 2008