Website design and redesign projects can be exhausting.
Many times they’re not. It depends on how much you know about the process, how much you prepare and know what you want and it also depends on who your designer is (obviously).
Most of the time, when a business owner or manager is exhausted after a website redesign it’s a result of expectations. The process involves more than just telling a designer to show you something.
A major factor is the initial content, the design inspiration, the sales process and more.
But once you do get through the process it can feel great to let out a sigh of relief and think:
Whew…this site is DONE!
Except I have news for you…your website is never done.
Ongoing Management Of Your Website
The good news with your new website is that a lot of the work is done. You don’t have to worry about a big launch anymore. You have a site that will work to bring you new customers.
So it’s all good as far as that’s concerned.
The one requirement once the site is “done”, however, is to focus on managing the site. There are a couple different items that come into play as far as the ongoing management of the site.
The first is determining who will be responsible for the site and what the goals are for the website. The person in charge will be there to make sure the website is working the way it needs to in order to accomplish the goals.
The Manager
The manager role for the website doesn’t necessarily need to be a full-time job. It can be someone within your organization or it could be someone that you outsource. Some web design firms offer website management. Some freelancers also offer website management services.
What’s involved with “website management”?
It includes:
- Software Updates
- Fresh Content (blogging, calendar (events), photos, etc.
- Analytics
- And potential other items
Just about every website today runs on what’s called a Content Management System (CMS). This is where you login to your website and can manage all the content from behind the scenes. This software often requires ongoing updates. The creators of the software often update things to make sure all is secure and to make the software faster and more powerful. The reason it’s good to have someone in charge is updates is so they can make sure the update doesn’t break anything on the site.
Fresh content is important for just about all websites today. Your site can work well on its own, but the more content you add to the site the more up-to-date it will be and the more content you’ll have to attract potential customers. A restaurant, for example, would want to make sure its menu is updated on the website as well as a list of events being held at the restaurant. Customers are looking for this information. And new customers might be searching for content like, What does American-Japanese Fusion mean? – That’s a potential question you could answer with a blog post or even a video as a way to help potential customers, earn their trust and earn their business.
Analytics tell you what’s happening on your website. You don’t need to get too crazy with the analytics. The basics, like traffic and others, can tell you a lot, but you need someone to look at the analytics regularly so decisions can be made regarding website changes.
And that brings us to the second item that’s involved with ongoing website management…
Regular Content Audits
A content audit is simply analyzing the content on your website and determining if changes need to be made to make it better as it relates to your website’s goals.
The typical goal for many websites is to sell a potential customer on making a purchase. In the case of a restaurant website, the goal is to get someone that’s interested in eating to eat at the restaurant. For repeat customers that might mean having the hours listed, any potential events listed and the menu listed. The same content is necessary for completely new customers along with some content that might be needed to convince a totally new customer like reviews, an about page, etc.
Remember all that content you created for your website’s launch?
It’s great, but over time you’ll learn more about your business and its sales process. You’ll interact with customers in person and from those interactions you’ll want to make tweaks to your website.
I like to think of a website as a salesperson. The website needs to take a potential customer through the sales process.
What you’ll find with content audits is that you might need to remove some confusing content or add content to address a common question that previously wasn’t addressed on the site.
The manager in charge can be the one to perform the audits.
I recommend doing an audit every six months.
It’s important to remember that you’re not changing the website for the sake of change. You’re simply looking at if your website is doing the best job possible of being a salesperson.
Conclusion
Your website is never “done”.
That can be depressing especially if you’re coming off a big redesign. But it’s not as daunting as you think. And it’s important to remember that you’re investing a lot in your website and that it needs ongoing management in order to succeed. You want to do what you can to make sure the site is paying off for your investment.
Take on the mindset laid out above. Figure out who will be the manager for your website and assign them the basic roles above. Share the goal of your website and have them schedule regular audits.
Do that and you’ll be setting your website and your business up for success.
