Its time to revamp your website... OH NO! Not again. Dont worry, you need not abandon what you have, instead think of it as a garden... But understand some basics. Fresh content (fertilizer) drives growth. Failure to weed and feed, leads to death. Every month, add a little, clean a little. Don't ignore it, but dont throw the baby out with the bathwater... Tend to it so it remains vital.
Yes, Websites die. They die because your customers/ clients stop visiting once they realize you're not offering new content. They also die when they're too hard to navigate or have too complex of an architecture.
Some simple rules to make it easy below this example from my recent past:
1. The human eye responds to movement- Add a gif, or rotating backgrounds on the home page to keep peoples' attention. Just a little motion is all you need, not static, but not too much going on that it becomes a distraction
2. Anticipate- Consider what the biggest reasons people will have for visiting your site. Make those links the most prominent. INFORM. Realistically, clients visit your site because theyre looking for something. Your product, your service, your location (at least). Don't make people search for those things, make them "...obvious on their face".
3. Facilitate Quick- Consider the "rule of three clicks" in your architecture. Most people will leave your site if they don't find what they're looking for in the first three pages they click thru. Make sure your architecture supports the effort-less search.
4. Speak to varied audiences- People are wired differently, yet we frequently speak to others in a style that only we connect with. Is my audience the engineering community or might their occasionally be a purchasing agent in there? Recognize that you might be better served by creating simple messages at the onset (a summary of sorts) and then provide more depth for those who seek richer detail and understanding. Test your copy on your spouse, or your nephew. Is it plain to understand or is it jargon filled and overly technical?
5. Use third party endorsements- People don't trust advertisers... Its because they're bombarded by messaging about "getting the perfect body" or "becoming rich overnight". They do trust their peers though. So if you have satisfied users, let them tell your story. If you don't have satisfied users you can refer to, your website isn't going to be your biggest priority.
6. Less is more- The vast majority of users SURF. Think of surfing as skimming over the surface of a deep body of water (information). Make your buttons obvious, so people know exactly what they'll find when they click thru. Don't clutter your opening pages with excessive copy or ego shots about how much your company values its employees. Remember, the surfer will only read the headline to see if the content is relevant to their search. If the copy takes more than 10 seconds to read, you've lost your audience already
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