You have finally decided to pull the plug on your current website and build a fresh-looking new website. Maybe you have decided to hire an agency to make one for you. Perhaps you’ve decided to use a website builder tool and do it yourself. Either way, there may be some things about the process you haven’t thought about. At Art Unlimited, we have been building websites for several years. We know the process and are here to help you understand what could potentially go wrong. But never fear, as Red Green says, “we’re all in this together.”
To help things go smoothly, we want to share how to prevent certain things from going wrong during the process.
1. Losing Focus
Before you decide to build a new (or first!) website, knowing the purpose it will serve is the first step. If you don’t have a clear direction for your website (what it should do and who it is for), the process of building a new one will be frustrating for all involved. You already know all about your business and what you do. Your customer doesn’t. You will need to make sure they have a clear idea of what you want them to do when they come across your website. Your website content should answer these 3 questions:
- What does your company do? Do you sell something? Offer services? Visitors shouldn’t have to dig for this information or try to figure it out.
- How will your product or service make their lives better? Why do they need them? Tell them about the benefits of your product.
- How do they get your product or get in touch with you?
Knowing and documenting the focus of your website can help keep everyone on track.
2. Communication Hiccups
We often tell people, “building a website is a partnership.” Open communication plays a critical role in the success of your project.
When you work with an agency, there are things they’ll need from you to move the project forward. There are also things you’ll need from the agency. Have a conversation with your website project manager about what is required and timelines upfront.
If a group of people needs to be involved, only one person should be the primary point of contact. It is best to have everyone in any meetings if possible, but the primary contact can communicate with both the project manager and the committee.
It is also crucial to be responsive to emails and phone calls. If you ‘go dark’ at any time, your project will suffer delays; it could even be archived.
3. Adding Stakeholders Mid-Project
This happens many times: Joe Owner decides to build a new website. He is busy running his business, so tasks someone on his team (admin, marketing manager, sales manager, or operations manager) to manage everything concerning the website build. Later, Joe Owner decides to check in on the progress. He joins a meeting and doesn’t like the direction the website is going. Now he’s involved but has changes, which will delay the project.
Being involved in the process from the start will allow you to steer the project in the direction you want it to go. Building a new website is a partnership which works better when all parties are participating from the beginning.
4. Mary Poppins Syndrome
There comes a point where you need to finish one section and move to the next. Arguably, there is only one thing which is practically perfect in every way. Hint: it will never be a website.
Why is this? Let’s walk through it like we’re building a house.
Start with the blueprint; this would be your sitemap. The site map tells your project manager what you’re looking for in your website. Each page is like a room. With the blueprint in hand:
- Your designer can start on the design of your homepage – the exterior of your home.
- Your content team starts working with you on the content (whether you write it or hire someone else).
- Your programmer will know how to build the website, from the framework to the finished construction.
Design and Content
When you’re building a house, nothing can be made without the blueprint, and you can’t order materials until you know how much you’re going to need. After the blueprint is made, any changes affect the supplies you need and the timeline to complete the project. The website design, along with the content, becomes the visual blueprint of your website. It tells the programmer how to build your website.
Just as with building a new house, things are done in a specific order for a reason. The design and content happen first. Starting with the homepage, the designer creates the look and feel of the website. This includes colors, fonts, design elements, and how everything is laid out. Content refers to the words on the website. As the longest part of a website build project, it needs to be started as soon as possible.
Stamp of Approval
At each stage of the build –whether home or website– approvals must happen. It’s like the inspector coming and signing off on the wiring. His stamp of approval gives the builder the ok to proceed with the project. Once the house is built, the inspector doesn’t return to say the wiring needs to be changed. He has signed off on it; that part of the project is complete. I think you get where I am going here.
When you have a design you like, it’s time for you to give your stamp of approval. At this point, you are agreeing to how it looks and feels. The programmers working on your project will use their talent to make your live website look exactly like the design from the graphic designer. (They actually get graded on how closely they came to the design, so you know it’s going to be correct!)
If you ask us to write the content for you, we will ask you to do the same thing. Make the changes you want before approving it. Your approval of the design and content gives us the ok to move the project forward.
Making the Design a Reality
To complete a house, you can’t mud and tape without first putting the sheetrock up. Shingles go on the roof AFTER putting the trusses up. Then once the sheetrock is hung, changing how rooms are wired will cause considerable delays in your project, not to mention the amount of double work to do and supplies to purchase. The same is true with a website build.
Once the home page design and content are approved, the programming team works their magic to build the website from the ground up.
This is the final leg of your project – not the time to be making design or content changes. Never doubt the desire of everyone involved to have a great finished project. But remember, unlike the walls in a house, a website is MEANT to be changed periodically. Google likes fresh content and will index your website more regularly the more often you change it. While we all want a website to be perfect right out of the gate, remember things are meant to be updated over time. Having a great website will give you a head start on others without one.
5. Technical Issues After Launch
When rebuilding a website, there are some technical issues to be aware of and plan for before they happen. You’ll often realize certain pages are no longer needed, so they don’t end up on the new website. When this happens, check for any ads or other pages which could link to the deleted page. Not doing this could harm the user experience by giving errors because the page is gone. It could also take visitors to badly formatted pages or misleading information.
While these pages may not be in the new menu structure, there is a chance search engines may still find them. So what do you do with these pages?
- If you really want to keep the info they contain, put them in draft mode and redirect the page to a correlating page so Google won’t index them.
- If the information isn’t needed, add a redirect for the page and delete it once the information is housed somewhere or on a different page.
Broken links can cause frustration as visitors try to make them work. When they grow tired of not getting the information they need, they will look at a different company, and you’ll have lost a potential customer.
Knowing where the removed pages are linked to will help you prevent technical issues before they happen. It also improves a visitor’s impression of your company.
Are you ready to work on your new website? These tips can help you keep the project moving forward. Connect with us to learn how our team of design, writing, and programming experts can help bring your new website to life.