Website Design Issues?
Do you have a website – of sorts? Is it letting you down? Did you get a web developer to do it but you find that it has no clear goal or direction? Is your current sites maximising online potential? The fact is that it may not be, and we will now show you why! Your website would likely be greatly improved with Strategic Planning to inform Website Design, Content, Navigation, SEO, Social Media Integration and more.
Strategic Planning
Web developers ideally need to sit with company management to get a clear grasp of planning and marketing strategies, along with target audiences.
Websites must start with guiding strategies that closely aligns to company’s strategic planning and marketing strategies. For example, here’s a general draft of your possible Strategic Planning:
o Establish business in Suburb/City
- Set up shop
- Attract Professionals
- Attract support staff
o Grow profits by xxx% in xxx months
- Increase customer base
- Increase service offerings
- Increase quality of service
- Sales campaign
o Promote business as ‘the place to go for xxx service/products in Suburb/City’
- Marketing
- Off line strategies
- Advertising
- Signage
- More here
- Online strategies
- Websites for each centre and SBU
- Social Media
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Smart phone & Tablet optimisation
- More here
- Public Relations
- Physical Buildings & Locations
- More here
- Off line strategies
Website Design
o Match to company aesthetics – that is, the look and feel, colours, logo, culture, and style. Do your current sites match your real-world image?
o Match to company marketing goals – promotion, easy online shopping, easily accessible from smart phones and tablets, etc. Does your current sites do a great job of this? Or do they lack:
- Effective landing page
- Clear goals
- Engaging headlines
- ‘Call to Action’
- Persuasive messages
- Tight copy
o Match to target audience expectations and usage patterns. Web developers who design for your industry need to be immersed in and understand the industry to be able to do this effectively. Target audiences seek information, contact numbers, instant booking, assurance of quality, etc. (See Content in next article)
o Easy to update – Platform that is able to be updated & (opt) designated company staff may be trained to use it.
o Navigation – Is it easy for target audience to find their way and ‘get what they want’ quickly? (see Navigation in next article)