Updating Your Web Presence – Part 2

Two weeks ago I posted part 1 of Updating Your Web Presence. In it I described what I am doing to update my blog layout and promised to describe the project that helped me get past my mental block on my site. Here in part 2, I will describe the website review that I did for my new client that helped “get the juices flowing” on my own upgrades.

First let me say, never underestimate the connections you make networking. I stumbled into this recent job because of one of my local jewelry customers. While she knew of me first through local contacts, she had since signed up for my newsletter, seen my blog and shops, as well as a website that I had updated for a local organization. She had a friend that was in the process of redefining his career and suggested to him that I might be able to help him figure out how best to utilize his current web assets.

Her friend, my new client John E Dosher, has always been involved with music, mostly as a performer but also for several years as owner of a music store. After deciding to close his shop and focus more on recording and performing again (he has a new single), he needed to retool his web presence, but where to begin? That is where I came in. I did an initial consultation with him after reviewing what I could find on the web. I found one site that he had pretty much forgotten in addition to others that needed differing levels of updating and connecting. We brainstormed, based on what his current online contractual agreements and future growth needs were.

This brainstorming session concluded with my client still needing to mull over a couple of options about how to fairly easily update his main web presence with current content since it was paid up for approximately the next year. This would give him time to investigate other hosting sites to see if they would be a better fit for the long term. Other things were discussed including making sure that his different sites link to each other where appropriate and making sure that e-mail information is easy for people to access from all browsers.

Once my client figured out how he wanted to retool his main website, he sent me a link for me to review. I wrote out a page of notes to go over with him and we scheduled a conference call to do so. The new site did a great job of including all of his current career goals. My suggestions included some editorial and design ideas to polish the look, some navigation suggestions so that people wouldn’t get lost while investigating the site and its links as well as some ideas to help the site’s SEO. After the consultation, I wrote up a summary of the items that he had agreed would be helpful changes so that he had something concrete to work from when he had time to implement them.

I definitely credit my thinking about how all of the pieces of my client’s web presence fit together with helping me take a good look at my own web presence and seeing where I could improve visitors’ interactions with it. I have gotten a good start on updating it, however it is still a work in progress. You should give a good look at yours too at least once a year to make sure everything is up to date, easy to navigate and coherent. Contact me if you are interested in an objective consultation.