24 NEWS & INSIGHTS

Website designs do not last forever. Or, rather, they shouldn’t last forever but instead should be updated and redesigned as businesses grow and develop, as marketing shifts take place, and as digital technology creates more opportunities.

A 10-year-old website design, for example, could be missing important search engine optimization foundations, responsive designs needed for mobile users, up-to-date ecommerce platforms or integrated video, blogs and social media platforms. The copy may be outdated, or lacking keyword strength in content, tags and page titles that improves search results. Or, for some businesses, even a 3-year-old site is behind the curve.

Whatever your missing elements may be, if your website is underperforming, it’s time to consider a redesign.

The motivation for your new website development shouldn’t necessarily be because you want a new look. The key is to make a change because you want to improve performance and functionality. Depending on the complexity of your website design, the step-by-step process will vary. But these three elements are consistent for all:

Get input from your audiences

Who is using your current website? Get input from your customers, your team, your vendors, your members or anyone else for a better understanding of what your website is doing that’s working, and what it’s doing that isn’t working. From this input, begin to identify how your website can be improved.

Determine your goals

In what specific areas do you want to see improvement? More traffic? More registrations? More purchases? In what ways would you like to see your website better serve your marketing, sales, membership efforts? It’s important to align your website development with your marketing strategies as well as your overall business goals.

Create your plan

Create a website development plan, including project milestones and launch dates. Remember, SEO should be part of the upfront development, not an afterthought, and your audiences and messages are central to your plan.

We’re 24 Communications, an advertising agency in Montgomery, Alabama. Whether you need a new website, or a renewed website, let us know. We can help you identify your goals, your audience and your messages, then create your plan and, from there, work with you every step of the way.