Q & A with Peter Kay
A reader asks, “We’re redesigning our site, what is your advice on best practices?”
Unless your current Web site is so awful that you would rather not have anything at all, my strong suggestion is that you incrementally redesign your site. Building a brand new site from scratch with the idea of replacing the old with the new overnight is an extremely risky and probably unnecessary move. Instead, map out a plan of incremental changes over time while you closely monitor the effects, customer behavior and feedback of each new change.
The result is a Web site that has a high probability of delivering far better results than you might get from a Web site redesign from scratch. The best way to redesign your existing site is to list out all the new features or visual changes you would like to make. Prioritize this list according to impact on revenues and budget.
Group the changes into “versions” (e.g. 1.1, 1.2). Before you begin any changes, make sure you have good site metrics that tell you how you’re doing. If possible, develop some metrics on conversions, for example, measure how many closed sales you get on the Web versus visitors to the product/service information section of your site. Do not move forward with any changes until you have statistics on how your site is doing.
Begin implementing your versions one at a time. Pay close attention to the statistics and/or customer comments after each release. Use this valuable (priceless!) feedback to re-evaluate and adjust the next planned version release. Keep to the release-review-adjust-release cycle for every version. By using an incremental redesign approach, you maximize ROI by keeping your revisions small and rapid. And because you have good site metrics, you get quick feedback on how the last small revision worked. Follow this approach and you will get a better site in the fastest, most cost-effective way.
Send me your toughest e-business questions and if the topic is of general interest, I’ll happily post your question and the answer.
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