Question

Topic: E-Marketing

How Often Should You Update Or Change Your Site?

Posted by Anonymous on 10/27/2005 at 10:07 AM ET 50 Points
How often should a company update or completely make-over their Web site?

The company I work for has had the same look for probably close to a year and a half to two years. It was a trial site for our web guy, who is no longer with the company. But we had extremely low sales last month and I'm afraid part of this decrease had to do with our site.

How often can you change your site without confusing customers and how often should you change your site??

Erika
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by lambert.terry on 10/27/2005 at 10:23 AM Accepted
    Without seeing your site it's difficult to say if a major redesign is in order or if you should make many small incremental changes over time.
    Generally, unless the site is butt ugly, incremental is the best approach. It takes less resource and is less disruptive for visitors.
    So my suggestion is to pick the worst thing about the site and address that. I recently did just that. A reference manual was often needed but was not at all easy to find. So I added a "highlight box" in the right navigation. nothing fancy, just a title and text links. Bingo, views went from 50 a day to 130. We then redesigned the information so specific pieces could be viewed. That took it from 130 to 488 per day for the most popular piece.
    The point is to think through what your clients or potential clients need then bring that into the high attention spots (upper right and upper left typically). Measure each change so you can tell what works and what doesn't.

    One more thing. if the site has a lot of graphics, take a few off and update some others to freshen the look. If it has gaudy colors, tone it down a bit. That's all easy stuff that brings life to the sight but doesn't disrupt repeat visitors.
  • Posted by michael on 10/27/2005 at 10:24 AM Accepted
    Change it monthly if you want until you get a decent spike in sales. Once you have the basics down, don't change it too much. Enhance, yes..with a large campaign announcing the enhancement.

    Michael
  • Posted on 6/8/2008 at 2:02 AM Member
    Hi there,

    There is a great book "don't make me think" which gives great navigation advice. You can also go to omniture.com and download their webinar on 'bringing visitors through the sales funnel'. I love their stuff and use it all the time.
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