Certain conversations I have with clients every week. There are some basic principles and ideas that apply to all websites and one of the key ones is every 6 months review your website. Never leave it more than a year and if you are able to we recommend casting an objective eye over your site every month.
Not only can websites feel stale very quickly but due to the fast-paced nature of the internet new innovation and design movements are commonplace on a weekly basis.
Visitors will rarely return to your site if the content never changes and the design doesn’t go through periodic updates and redesigns. On the second visit, if everything looks the same they might not come back a third time and you have then lost them forever.
You might well say that your business doesn’t need or justify constant updates to your website. Or that you aren’t running an online community so why do you need to cater for repeat visits?
Both are valid points but you have to take into account not only changes in your business model but also the length of time the decision making process may take for potential candidates. Its not uncommon for me to prepare a proposal and then out of the blue get the go-ahead a year later.
The simple fact is that any cold prospect will look at your website and those of the competition. The whittling down process can take months (especially in larger companies with a chain of approval) and before making a final decision there is a very high likelihood that your site will be looked at again. So put yourself in their position. The competition’s sites look fresh and clearly have new content – this makes them look proactive, on the pulse and like they genuinely want to encourage two-way interaction. Sound like the people you want to deal with don’t they? And then there is your site…
Anyway, where am I heading with this I hear you ask?
Since joining Purple Frog in 2001 we have constantly updated our sites and have gone through numerous overhauls and redesigns to make the most of new technology, new client and visitor trends and changes in the focus of the company. Nowadays we use WordPress for our main site. It’s a wonderful tool to develop with and once up and running allows everyone at Purple Frog to contribute no matter their level of technical expertise. Thus freeing my hands up to spend even more time to concentrate on client projects.
It’s also a nice safe testing ground. We can afford to take chances and try new approaches. If it works then that’s great and we can then offer even more to our clients. If it fails then we can change it and chalk it up as a bad idea that we can then advise clients against. Yes it has cost us time but surely that’s a better spend than your precious budget?
For a few years now we have run a second website focusing purely on our web services. We realised that areas like advertising and design for print really do have a limited amount you can write (from a new sales point of view) but that the online world covers so many areas that justify further clarification that you end up in an awkward position – either we write as much about webby stuff as we do our other areas of expertise; in which case we do our online offerings a dis-service, or we write as much as we want on the subject and create more pages on the subject than the entire rest of the site put together.
So we split it off, leaving only an overview mention on the main site that then redirected people to Purple Frog Online. The added bonus of another site showing in Google’s rankings is also not to be ignored. This worked well and the site was drawing approximately 20,000 visitors each year and a noticeable amount of new enquiries came in while the main site happily carried on doing its thing.
Showcasing work has always been a real struggle for companies like Purple Frog. After all how can you effectively show on a monitor a piece of work that by its very nature requires the tactile experience that only holding it in front of you can bring? Also at what point do you stop writing? Too little and you look vague and are perhaps not the expert you claim to be. Too much and you answer all the questions and potentially negate the need for the visitor to phone up for more information (face to face contact is crucial in this industry).
After a complete rethink we took a drastic step and took both sites offline and replaced them with this single site. In order to express our knowledge, experience and passion for design, marketing, new media and so much more we now use social commentary.
If something relevant breaks in the news we are able to comment immediately and provide our take on it. If one of us feels passionate about new innovation then we have a forum ready to gobble up our words. If we originate new and exciting work and services then we can spread the message immediately without being confined to the equivalent of an online brochure.
By re-positioning ourselves as authorities within our field we are able to let our visitors and readers further spread news worthy content for us. We encourage people to re-tweet our articles, or post them on Facebook, or rate them on Digg and so on. And so far it seems to be working. The new site gets more visitors than both previous sites put together and the level and type of new enquiries is significant.
Obviously this approach doesn’t work for all businesses. If you produce sausages then stick to talking about the sausages you produce. Sadly not many people will be that interested in the perceived benefits of a Cumberland rather than a Lincolnshire.
The point I am trying to make is don’t be afraid to change. Be daring and throw caution to the wind occasionally. It might not work (in which case no-one is stopping you making further changes) but it will re-invigorate your company and make your customers look on you in a new light.
The old PF Online site is still tucked away on the web so if you fancy a nostalgic trip back in time then visit www.purplefrogonline.co.uk/webservices – a lot of the info there is still relevant and may help clear up a few questions you have, or you can give us a call and enjoy face to face contact with us because we like working that way!
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I will keep the old site updated for a while but due to the nature of the web don’t be too surprised if some of the examples shown are no longer correct or if you find any broken links.