DRG Blog

Are you thinking it’s time to update the look of your website?

When it comes time to update your website, don’t just look at the surface or graphic appearance of your site, take care in learning as much as possible about what might not be working before you start making changes. It’s easy for a website owner to tire of the graphics or look of their website while overlooking critical navigational issues or missing content that could have a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of their website.

As website owners we become very familiar with the look and the navigation of our own websites. As we grow tired of seeing the same stuff everyday, its easy to focus site re-designs on the look more so than the functionality or effectiveness of your website as it pertains to your marketing program. Don’t fall victim to change just for the sake of changing. Instead take a closer look at how your website has been performing and what those site stats can tell you before starting a re-design effort.

3 Key Statistics that can Lead to a More Successful Website Update

One of the quickest ways to gather some very useful information about how well your website is working - gather the statistics on your website traffic for the past six months and spend an afternoon reviewing them carefully. Yes, there is usually tons of information there, but I would encourage you to start with three primary areas that can have a significant impact on your website updating process and its overall effectiveness, let’s just look at three major statistics that should have an impact on your website update process:

1. Bounce Rate
   Take a close look at the bounce rate (how many one page visitors) - if it’s greater than 30% then you may be driving the wrong audience to your website, or the message on the page doesn’t match what the visitor was looking for.
2. Most Popular Pages
   Look at the pages that are getting the most traffic - if your primary marketing pages (products/services) are not getting the traffic then it may be time to look more closely at the navigational structure of your site. Is it easy to follow - does it intuitively take the visitor to the most important pages?
3. Call to Action Elements
   When a visitor lands on a page in your website what action to you hope to see this visitor take - call the office - fill out a request for quote - download a brochure/report - fill out the contact form - visit your locations page - look at other services or products - buy something? Do your most popular pages have prominent “Call to Action” elements on each page driving visitors to these next steps?

Starting with the basics tends to lead to more productive results. Armed with this information you can then ask your web design firm to provide you with a much more meaningful proposal. Tell them the areas of concern, ask for recommendations on how to improve these things.

The bottom line - when giving your site a face lift - remember a well constructed site that properly positions display your brand, positions your company and engages your audience will drive more sales.