Should You Redesign Your Website?: 5 Signs That It May Be the Right Time
You thought your site was working fine. You were in love with the original colors. Man, that bright yellow text on a black background was eye-popping. Back in the 90’s, that is. Okay, that’s an exaggeration.
But have you been wondering lately if your website is pulling its weight? Bringing you leads (and sales), getting visitors interested in your other cool stuff, like your blog or e-newsletter?
Maybe you know that something is not quite right. But you can’t put your finger on it. Your business might have changed. Or you might be trying to attract a different kind of client. The copy may be stale and unappealing. Or you don’t feel like the real you is showing up online.
5 Signs It May Be the Right Time for a Website Redesign
- You have changed the focus of your business. Could be that you have added or deleted products or services. Or maybe you are laser-focused on a new kind of client. If your site doesn’t represent what you do anymore, it’s time for a change.
- Your site traffic numbers have gone down. Are people landing on your home page but not going any deeper? If Google Analytics or another traffic measurement service is showing a decrease in viewer engagement, you may need a site fix
- Your content is stale. Your tracking data may show that you are not getting repeat visitors. If you provide fresh content (changing testimonials in and out, announcing workshops and other events, providing new rich content, etc.), your visitors will keep returning. And it’s easier to do that with a WordPress design.
- You don’t have a unique online identity. Your “About Us” page is normally one of the top two most viewed pages on your site. That’s because your online visitors are craving to know who you really are. Because people do like to do business with people, not robots. How many visitors are going to your “About Us” page and how long are they staying?
- Your website is out of synch with your other marketing materials. Your website should be consistent in look and feel to your blog, your e-newsletter, your business card, and your other offline marketing and sales materials. It should get an immediate reaction from your reader, “Oh, yeah, I know these guys.” Having a personal brand and staying consistent builds customer trust
A website redesign is all about giving some thought to what your visitor sees the instant they land, what you want them to do next and how you are going to get them to do it.
And it’s not as expensive as you think. If you need a fairly simple site without e-commerce and other complex components, WordPress is an easy solution. You’ll be able to create new content anytime, add widgets and plug-ins for more fun, and-best of all-not have to be at the mercy of your webmaster when you need changes.
This post is a previous Marketing Hotspots – our weekly e-tip. Click here to sign up now!
Tweet This Post 
Delicious 
Digg This Post 
Ping This Post 
Stumble This Post
A Peek at Some WordPress Beta 2.8 Features
WordPress Beta 2.8 has been out for a bit and I have finally taken some time to look at the new features. There’s some good stuff there! I won’t take the time to go through them all, but here are some that are worth highlighting.
THEMES
Now you can upload themes through the admin panel. In 2.7 and older, you needed to use FTP clients. And since there are a lot of WordPress users out there that don’t get “ftp” they limited themselves to the preinstalled themes. And an added benefit: now you can browse themes and search via keywords, and also apply filters too based on width, colours and columns. In addition the management of themes has improved. Before, you had to select the theme you wanted, and then either press activate or close after viewing a preview of the theme. Now you get options to activate immediately if you want, and also to delete the theme if you want as well.
WIDGETS AND PLUGINS
Although there isn’t any major change to the widget view, it it a lot cleaner and easier to use. As far as plugins, you can now edit them from within your editor. If a plugin is not working well, and you have the know how in coding, you can tweak it in order to get it working correctly.
COMMENTS
The new option to edit individual comments from the edit post selection saves a bit of time to do the standard delete, spam and reply to comments.
DASHBOARD
Again, just a bit making things a bit easier, you can now change the look of your dashboard and can set the number of columns that you want to be shown. Anything from one to four columns is allowed.
NOTE: If you are on the free WordPress.com, some of the features are not available.
So that’s just a quick preview. There is a whole bunch of other changes and improvements, but for most WordPress users, these are the one’s that will be more obvious. Not sure when we are looking at for the full release, but the Beta version does seem pretty stable. In any case, it’s just around the corner.
Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Stumble This Post
Our Typepad, Wanna Be WordPress Blog
When we set up our first blog, we were inspired by the book Blog Wild by Andy Wibbels. It was short, sweet and to the point. And he really liked and recommended the platform Typepad. So as a result, that is what we used and what our marketing blog is still run on. Although it has its limitations, setup and posting are pretty damn intuitive. It’s done us well!
Now I have become a WordPress Nazi, similar to the Soup Nazi in Seinfield.
You should use WordPress! It’s a fantastic platform! No Typepad for you!
In fact, we are now doing all of our website development in the WordPress platform, which is working out great. It’s good to specialize. But sometimes I look over at our other blog and let out a sigh. I so much want to move it to WordPress, but heck, I know the work it will take. And the fact that we use images in all of our posts, well, that just seems overwhelming. Yes, I long to add widgets and plugins to the Typepad blog. Yes, I grunt heavily when I see another great widget and find it is “created for Wordpress”.
As I write this post, I’m still considering making the switch. When I wake up at 3 am I mull over this idea. When I’m taking a shower, and my best ideas pop into my head, the “move our Typepad blog to WordPress” crops up now and then. So who knows? Maybe I’ll muster up the courage and go for it. If I do, I will share my trials and tribulations with you.
Tweet This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Stumble This Post
