Understanding Your Website Changes
Technology. Yes – it can be truly amazing and can make even the most non-technical person excited about the possibilities it can offer. The internet and websites aren’t any different. There are so many things you can put on a website – so many features – so many options. The possibilities are endless. Here’s the trouble: When you’re making changes to your website, how do you know if the changes you’re making are having an impact on your target audience?
Let me illustrate the scenario for you…
You’re a small business. Your website is about 6 months old and your content is starting to get stale. Business has been going well for the last 6 months and your marketing/advertising/website dollars have been increased so you can start thinking about making changes to your site. Through a fellow business owner, you’ve been turned on to a design firm that is “guaranteed to take your website to a new level”. The design company sends you a proposed portfolio of suggested changes with things like flash modules, new graphics, new look and feel, and all sorts of pie-in-the-sky ideas. You get excited and you decide to let them take the lead in the creative efforts. After you’ve plopped down hundreds (potentially thousands) of dollars, and the design firm is finished with their end of the bargain… you may find yourself asking, “How can I tell if these changes actually did anything?”
This can easily happen to anyone. In today’s ever-changing society, businesses are constantly thinking about how they can “one-up” their competition. Trouble is, without knowing the impacts of your “one-ups” – you can potentially find yourself spending unnecessary dollars on unnecessary changes. Here are some things that can help prevent that from happening:
1.) Before you begin making changes to your site, analyze your website reporting. If you have a website designer, have them run a report in Google Analytics (or similar reporting platforms) and really work on understanding the data.
2.) Once you have a good understanding, determine what your goals are going to be for the changes you want to make. For example – do you want to increase site traffic, increase conversion rates, have more requests to be added to a mailing list?
3.) When you’ve figured out the goal – write a short list of ideas that you think will achieve the goal. For example – if your goal is to increase conversion rates, maybe one idea is to promote a particular service/product you offer with an exclusive coupon.
4.) Finally – get your creative team involved (whether its a graphic design group, web design group, etc.) Make sure you share the findings in the first 3 steps so they are completely clear on your goals and objectives.
Following these guidelines will ensure you’re spending your money on the right things to accomplish your business goals.
MKB
