HP’s HR Communications group knew it had to overhaul its Web site when the number of pages reached over 10,000—many attracting few visitors. Chris Gee, managing director of Splendid Communications, has engineered his share of Web redos for clients. Here’s his tell-tale signs that your site needs work.
1. Your site looks and behaves like a brochure: Back in the dot com days, the emphasis was for brands to simple establish a “Web presence.” They literally moved their print assets onto the web and created “brochureware” sites. In 2011 that simply does not cut it.
2. There is no clear call to action: You have driven your target audience to your site. Now what? It needs to be crystal clear what they should do next or you will lose them. Should they fill out a form to receive an offer? Should they sign up to be the first to try your new product? Your site’s information hierarchy should make this clear within 3 seconds of a visit.
3. Search is the most commonly used feature on your site: Unless your site is like Amazon and you offer hundreds of products and services, most users should be able to find the information they need via your site navigation and without needing to use site search.
4. Your site is not mobile-optimized: According to Gartner, by the end of 2011, more users will connect to the Web via devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) than with personal computers. Simply put, if your site is not optimized for mobile, you are not servicing your audience of today and it is causing you to miss opportunities.
PR News Subscribers can read more about HP's Web efforts in the case study: "PR Goes All Marketing in Reconnecting Employees of IT Giant HP with Human Resources Communications."