Website to Wonderful: Makeover Edition

It’s November! I love November.   Three years ago, I did Naniwrimo in November (National Novel Writing Month). This year, I thought I’d direct all my November energy into making stuff for the website.

And so I give you:

Website to Wonderful. A website makeover guide for the rest of us.

This is going to be a series of blog posts intended to help you make over your website presence. They will run twice a week through November, or until we’re done!

Who is it for?

Well, it’s for you if you have a business or other organisational site which you think needs a little love. If:

• you’re not getting the customers or the transactions that you need
• you’re not expressing yourself in the way that you want
• you suspect it could be a lot better

and

• you don’t particularly want to approach a designer yet, because it’s not just about the design

Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at websites inside-out and upside-down and bottom-up. I’m going to lead you through the process of creating a site that is more authentic and more persuasive. I’ll post useful resources and checklists as we go. And if you have a question, feel free to ask it in the comments below or over on my Facebook page.

So let’s get started.

Who are you and what do you have?

I’m guessing that you have:

• a business, or some kind of online offer (selling physical stuff, consulting, education, charity, whatever)

• an audience of some kind (readers, buyers, prospects, job-hunters, colleagues, naysayers)

aaand

• a website.

So the fundamental question is this:

What part does your website play in your business?

(Or in your work, maybe, if it’s not exactly a business that you’re involved in.)

Here are three scenarios to help you get to grips with that question.

1. The designer

Brian is a freelance graphic designer. His website is pretty much a portfolio – a place where prospective employers can come and check out his work before they give him a contract. Brian wants to build a name for himself in his industry, so he also writes irregular posts on design issues. His site needs to convince people of his skills and talent. Most of his readers will be his peers, but the most important viewers are his prospective clients.

2. The marketing manager

Melissa is the marketing manager for a regional science museum. Her organisation’s website serves many different needs: it provides basic information on opening hours and facilities, and it showcases the museum’s permanent and temporary exhibits. For the marketing team, the website is one more link in a chain of promotional activities, providing information that will help persuade people to visit.

3. The online coach

Liz is a business coach for women entrepreneurs. Liz’s site IS her business: her writing and video pieces attract a loyal readership who like her style and who sign up for training programmes. Liz’s site has to attract, keep and convert visitors on a daily basis. An interesting thing to notice is that Liz’s site converts visitors over an extended period of time. Brian’s visitors may hire him after noodling around for 20 minutes; Liz’s might take 2 months or more before they pick up the phone.

Different businesses, different goals.

What about you? Where does your website fit with your work?

Let’s find out. Take a nice blank piece of paper and divide it into two columns.

On the left hand side, write ‘What my website has to do,’ and in the right hand column write ‘How my site currently does it.’

I’ll fill some of it out for Melissa’s up-and-coming museum.

We could go on, but that’s a good start. Try it for yourself. Brainstorm what your goals are, and whether the current design and content of your site supports you. What could you change quickly and easily to support your work better? Pick one activity for the next few days and let me know how you get on.

In the next piece, I’m going to introduce you to the evil science of usability. In the meantime, feel free to sign up for my updates in the box over there, leave me a comment below (I love questions) or over on Facebook. I will see you soon.

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