Trend watch: Exploring the potential of chatbot banking
With the appearance of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) in the early 1980s, numerous websites and applications finally reached a wider audience. This became possible thanks to user-friendly GUI elements, such as icons, windows, menus, buttons, scrollbars and more. Nevertheless, the golden age of GUI-based applications seems to be gradually receding.
Whether you’re embarking on a full website refresh or only updating a page or two, it’s tempting to assume that your site copy can move directly over to a new design with little or no editing. In cases of small sites or well-curated site content, that can work out just fine. For larger websites that have not been tended to over time, or in cases of major design changes, it’s worth budgeting time specifically to refresh your content.
- Revisit Business and Website Goals
- Know What Works…and What Doesn’t
- Style Matters
- Edit, edit…then edit some more.
- How does it look?
Over time, business goals and marketing priorities shift. It’s likely that you’ve grown and expanded since your current site was built. You might need to include new products that didn’t exist during your last design. Or, you might want to refine your pages to cut services you no longer offer.
Take time to review your current analytics before deciding what to port over to your new site. If a page or topic is popular, make sure you don’t lose it in the transition.
Does your business have an online style guide? If not, undergoing a site refresh is a good time to create one. Users remember strong brands, and content is a key ingredient in UX. Applying the same UX principles and best practices to copy that you do to design can drastically improve user experience.
As a copywriter I hate to admit it, but even I know that people don’t read. In fact, there’s so much information to consume these days that I include myself amongst the many users who scan. We’re inundated with content; so, the more succinctly you can deliver your message, the more likely users are to digest it.
Finally, take a step back and consider how your content actually looks on your site. I mentioned earlier that content is a design element. You want to draw the eye for good reasons, not bad. So, your copy must work with the overall look and feel of your site.
