STILL BE ON THE 'HIGH' OF TURKEY
You had fun, and for good reason, you survived the renewal of the Mayan calendar long enough to celebrate the New Year! Midnight strikes and you promise yourself to hold yourself straight in 2013, and to offer the best of yourself. You wake up on January 1 in the morning (or in the afternoon) and unfortunately you have only a vague memory of your beautiful words of the day before. You remember a few terms that don't mean much to you: AtAwAd , SoLoMo , ToDaClo , rococo… Definitely, you need a helping hand to bring you back to order! Here are the 7 good intentions that you must not forget throughout the year in your web strategy.
FOR YOUR WEBSITE
MY SITE WILL MEET THE NEEDS OF MY USERS/CUSTOMERS
We come back from vacation, and all the employees of the company have been struck by the same epiphany: “You don't see enough of my department and me on the company's website! ". Except that the “website” is actually an intranet or extranet module, it is your job to bring these do-gooders to order. The information architecture shouldn't be modeled after the organizational chart in many cases, and the content on the pages shouldn't be there to cater to the whims of every internal clientele . It should often be remembered that the website is a powerful tool that is more effective if it effectively serves the needs of its users, as you will have noted them during your analysis.
Another thought to implement on this aspect is not to neglect the content in favor of the “flashy” . We can always ask ourselves if we should put more effort in writing or rather in design? In fact, both aspects are important, and both must deliver the intended message in accordance with the site's objectives. These days, it seems more reasonable to find a good balance on the website than to try to flash too much when you have nothing good to say. And as the saying goes so well: “if you have nothing intelligent to say…”
I WILL ADAPT MY CONTENT TO BE EASILY SEARCHABLE ON THE WEB
…no matter the platform! This resolution applies as much to the paper format archives that you want to put online and modernize, as to the accessibility of your site on all the platforms through which it can be reached. First, any content that hasn't been written with the web in mind should be reviewed and optimized , not just for organic SEO purposes, but also to make it readable for web users who favor skimming and the catchphrase of the subtitles.
Secondly, the number of viewing platforms continues to increase:
- Desktop
- Smartphones (any size)
- Tablets (any size)
- Pocket readers (e.g. Kindle )
- Video game consoles
- Smart TVs
We now hear about the importance of adopting reactive and adaptive design ( responsive design ) when creating or redesigning a site. This trend will continue to spread as platforms diversify, so this point should not be overlooked and kept in mind. If the time for the redesign is still far off, perhaps we should adapt certain elements of our assets according to their priority and the current use made of them on the various devices (is your newsletter adapted to be consulted on mobile?).
I WILL LEARN HOW TO MEASURE THE PERFORMANCE OF MY SITE AND OPTIMIZE IT CONTINUOUSLY
Again, if you haven't already, get started! Data collection is not the only step in the measurement process: it is nothing without the analysis and use of said data. More and more tools now allow you to aggregate web data with your other business data (such as Google Universal Analytics) in order to make an amalgam where you can dig in order to follow your user from the newsletter to the site. web until the purchase in a store for example.
For those who feel little concern for this resolution, you can take the next step: spreading the culture of measurement in your company. You certainly know of your colleagues who would make good use of all this information. So why not simplify access to relevant data for them? Create new dashboards or personalized reports that will allow less knowledgeable people not to deprive themselves of the ultimate knowledge!
FOR YOUR STRATEGY IN GENERAL
I WILL MANAGE MY RESOURCES EFFICIENTLY ON THE PLATFORMS I WANT TO USE
“Ah, a new social network! Well, I'm going to put a whole lot of effort into it. I will be the first brand to be there. Logic holds up, doesn't it? So answer this: how many of you used Google+ more (and more effectively) in 2012 than in 2011?
In fact, you don't have to answer it. The point to remember before putting anything on Pinterest is to see if it's worth doing. Unless you're a big company with almost infinite resources, it's a safe bet that what you can devote to new platforms is limited, both in time and in personnel. It is therefore necessary to analyze the business value that our actions will have on a new platform by evaluating the necessary efforts and the expected benefits. And this does not only hold for social networks, the same type of reflection is necessary if we ask ourselves a question such as “Should I port my iOS application to WP8 and BB10?”.
MY SITE WILL BE FIRST ON SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS
Admittedly, this resolution is very ambitious, if not too much. On the one hand, if we are very active in terms of optimization for organic referencing, we can even find it a bit absurd by the effort that is necessary to see the positive effects of our actions. On the other hand, this kind of objective can allow us to give ourselves a guideline for the constant optimization of our site. Without going into too much detail, Google's ever-changing algorithm exists to deliver the most relevant results and those that provide the best possible experience based on user searches. Sticking to it to climb the ranks of the search results pages means that our site should follow common rules of good web usage (at least for anything on-site white hat related ).
At least, giving yourself the objective of improving your ranking on local searches (if relevant) is a step in the right direction, especially since Google is putting more emphasis on it than before. In this case, it is no longer just a question of giving importance to your site, but also of optimizing all the platforms (Google+ Local, Yelp, TripAdvisor) which allow the various search engines and online mapping services to highlight yourself.
I WILL OPEN MY WAKING HORIZONS
How many of you observe the smallest actions of your direct competitors in order to compare your web actions? I bet there are several of you, and that is quite normal. Now, do you limit yourself to your direct and local competitors? If you answer in the affirmative, it is time to review your methods. When you're looking for inspiration, don't put on blinders. Although you don't have the same marketing budgets as Facebook or Apple, why not take inspiration from them even if they are not part of your industry? Being innovative in this case will be seeing how you can adapt the effective tactics of the big guys to your market and your resources.
I WILL WEIGH THE PROS AND CONS OF EVERY WEB DECISION
If we do not have data allowing us to properly assess the potential of an idea, we must still ask ourselves questions to know if what our instinct tells us holds up. Sometimes you can be blinded by a flash of genius which, deep down, is not one. Asking the opinion of your colleagues or people in the industry can help guide you on the merits of your ideas so that, in the end, you are not faced with looking low like the rejected candidates of Dragon's Den . after working hard on a project that has very little chance of success.
IN SUMMARY
To try to sum it up in a few words, here are some tips you should always keep in mind:
- Don't stop analyzing
- Break the status quo
- Above all, try to meet the needs of your personas.
Now take two Advils, take a deep breath and presto, get to work!
