Reinvent Your Site and Get Hits
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If your site is satisfying all your needs, and you are getting the number of hits you want or more, and your visitors are doing what you want them to do (subscribing, ordering your product, reading content, etc), then do you need to reinvent your site? “If it isn’t broke, don't fix it” goes the old saying. Keep reading to see why this old saw doesn't hold when it comes to web site design.
“Anything that works is obsolete.”
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The need for reinvention
Yahoo! reinvents itself, moving things around on its home page periodically to reflect new offers and give a fresh look. Google's tinkering with its search algorithm is anticipated with trepidation by most SEOs, and let's not forget how often it refreshes its graphical themes (every common holiday and some of the more unusual ones as well). These are the big players; as a “small” player, reinventing the right way may very well be the little effort you need to become a bigger, more trafficked site.
If your site is not reaching our expectations, you must redesign. Even if it is “on target,” you should periodically redesign and add new content and technology, or you run the risk of falling behind, or worse, being rated low on search engines such as MSN which rate frequently updated “fresh” sites higher than sites which are not.
Site essentials
Sites are designed by looking at several basic factors. These include aesthetics (how good it looks), content (what it offers), usability (how easy it is to get around and use) and finally site/search engine optimization (how easy it is to find). Web designers are generally quite proficient at aesthetics and usability; it is in the areas of content and site optimization that they mainly fail to meet the objectives of the site owners.
These are the two aspects that we will look at in the question of site reinvention.
Stop the presses
If you have a template site, your site definitely needs a redesign. There is no way a template site can reflect a site's unique identity. All it does is make the site look generic. A site that stands out for its unique design and layout will not necessarily get repeat visitors, but it will definitely be remembered for being unique.
Another issue that faces template sites is that there is no way of assuring that it is usable by the market the site owner is targeting. It may be a site for senior citizens, or for children. These two markets have different attention spans and require different approaches; for example, the official site for Harry Potter is crammed full of animations. Sites targeted to senior citizens, on the other hand, may be based on multimedia content and large text sizes.
When purpose meets design
When redesigning your site, you cannot simply redesign without concentrating on the purpose of your site. You must redesign with a purpose. Music artists change stage names with due consideration to their fan base; if you redesign your site, you run the risk of alienating your current users. This risk is unavoidable; however, it can be ameliorated by considering the primary purpose of your site. The exception is when you want to totally re-focus your site.
Next: Your desired outcome >>
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