5 Basic Questions to Ask When Revamping Your Business Website

Revamping your business’ site may seem simple. However, the redesign of a project can be a difficult task. There are often multiple factors that need to be considered. Besides that, the entire team involved in UI UX design firms in the revamp has opinions on what will lead to success. There is also the fact that internal pressure might force you to get started before you have fully achieved your goals. Here are five crucial questions that we at Sketch Corp Branding Agency believe you should ask yourself before you decide to begin the redesign process.5-Basic-Questions-to-Ask-When-Revamping-Your-Business-Website

1. Why are you redesigning the site?

It sounds like a simple question but you need to have a specific set of reasons why you feel the redesign of the site is important. While it is important to revamp a site that is beginning to look like a relic, you need to have specific reasons why you feel the redesign matters.

For the redesign project, it is recommended that you have at list three goals. This way, when it comes time to make hard decisions during the revamp, you can follow the roadmap you set forth at the beginning. The goals should follow the SMART model of decision-making.

2. What are Your Values?

Before any work begins, you need to ask yourself what your organization stands for. In short, you need to understand the values that define your organization. For instance, you can ask yourself what you do best than others. You can then ask yourself how you hope to evolve in the near future. If you are not able to define your values, your audience cannot also do it.

When you can agree with people involved with the project what your identity is as an organization, you will be able to utilize a focused approach to the website redesign. This will mean that you can pick the right colors, images, and other graphics that are unique to you. An authentic site fosters real connections with users, which can ensure better growth for the organization.

3. What are the Competitors doing?

The main aim you have a site is because you want to compete with the competitors online and offline. You will thus need to research the competition. Find out how ahead they in terms of visual design, messaging, and the functionality.

The design team needs to perform competitive analysis. By checking out the competition, you will identify various audience needs that might not exist on your site. You may also find that there are various functions, which have become standard but you do not offer on your site. Besides that, you might find that users in your space are frustrated by the competition. As a result, this might create an opportunity for you to get far ahead of them.

4. What is Your Target Audience?

When designing your site, it is crucial that you have a user-centered focus. You might have a beautiful and elegant site but if it is not targeted at your users, it will not succeed. Before you even start the design process, you need to ensure that you understand how it will affect the user experience. This can be done via the use of AB testing. As a result, you will be able to know what they need from you.

When you have designed what your users want and why they come to the site, you can then compare that to the goals of your business. This will help you to refine the content on your site in a manner that helps your site become more effective. To understand your audience, you can conduct interviews, audience mapping, and surveys.

5. What Resources Do You Have to Support the Revamped Site?

When you create the new site, it will still need a lot of support once it goes live and during the design phase. You will need to prepare to support various things such as:

  • Decision Making

Before you begin work, ensure that you have a clear structure on who will make decisions in the design phase. This will determine how fast you can get through the design phase. In general, the more complex the decision-making process, the longer it will take to make even simple tweaks.

  • Content

The main draw to any site is content. If the revamp will require that you update the content, ensure you have the resources to do so. Besides that, you will need to have a plan to add more content over time. This is because search engines rank a site based on how much new content they add to the site. If you are not adding content internally, you will need to have a budget to purchase high-quality content.

  • Technical Maintenance

To ensure that the site continues to operate as normal, you will need to ensure that you make the latest updates as soon as they are released. If you do not have the skills in-house, you need to ensure that you have a budget to make the updates when they arrive.

  • Marketing

Once you launch the site, it needs to integrate with any digital marketing efforts you are carrying out. For instance, if you are doing social media marketing and email marketing, the site needs to work with those efforts with ease. Ensure that you consider what resources you will need for this effort and that you have them. While you can still get traffic organically, paid traffic can help to boost the quality of traffic to your site.

Summary

Whether you are planning to make a total overhaul of the site or you just wish to revamp the site, there are many uncertainties you will face. However, you can ease the process by answering the above five questions before you start the process. This will save you time and resources. It will also give you peace of mind once the site launches since you will know that it was money well spent. In short, a bit of preparedness will give you more of a band for your buck.

Related:
SEO Check List to Go Through Before Launching Your First Website

The Best Tasting Lazy Chocolate Cookies

Cake-Mix-Chocolate-Cookies
Cake Mix Chocolate Cookies

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This is the easiest chocolate cookie recipe I have ever made. Wish we had Pinterest when my kids were growing up, they would have been baking every day, but my kids would talk their older sister into making cookies for them almost every day. She learned early to make recipes and became a great baker, loved it, still does and she is a great cook.

But with this kind of recipe, I would have been buying baskets full of cake mixes since almost everything you need, except fresh eggs and oil. And any variation you would like to add; coconut, nuts, (there yummy) chocolate chips, or chocolate sprinkles to roll cookies in. Use your imagination, let me know what you decide.

So grab a large bowl and spoon, no need to break out the Kitchenaid mixer for this recipe.

In that large bowl, mix cake mix, oil, vanilla and eggs with spoon until dough forms. Hum, to easy, yep just like that. I’m sure you have seen some of these recipes using boxed cake mixes, so many things you can do with them. Dump cakes are great too, many a time I made these.

Now the only time-consuming part is waiting for the dough to chill so you can roll tablespoons of dough to roll in some sugar. I had some fancy gold sugar crystals to roll them around to coat.

Refrigerate dough 15 to 30 minutes or as needed for easier handling. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar. On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls about 2 inches apart.  I have used powdered sugar with one of my batches during the holidays.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute on pan; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Store tightly covered in a large container or Ziplock bags. Enjoy!!

Another way to use this cake mix is to stir up the ingredients, measure out cookies in a heaping tablespoon and wrap the dough around a Rolo candy, flatten slightly and bake, You will have caramel and a bit more chocolate in every bite!!

Let me know what recipes you have tried making with boxed cake mixes.
Some of My Other Recipes:
Peek-a-Boo Cookies
Cherry Slice Bars Recipe
Cranberry and Pistachio Bars-Copy Cat Starbucks

This post has affiliate links, which means I might earn some cash if you click on a link, with no cost to you.
Shop luxury dinnerware, flatware, glassware and more www.belleandjune.com

How to Teach Your Children the Value of Saving Money

 Have you ever thought of the best way to teach
kids how and why to save money, even a little?

How to Teach Your Children the Value of Saving Money
Source: www.kidstart.co.uk

There are so many lessons your children will learn from you, but few are as important as the value of saving money. They say that money doesn’t equate to happiness, but it can be difficult to find happiness when you’re sitting on top of a pile of debt.

And in reality, if your children don’t learn the value of saving money, they’re likely to end up at the top of that debt pile. If you’ve ever been there yourself, you realize it’s a terrible fate.

So without further ado, let’s cover a few ways you can teach children the value of saving money.

  1. Talk about wants and needs

When your kids are young, start with the basics. When your child asks for something, talk about whether they want or need that item. Wants are items you can do without. Needs are items you need to survive. Talk about how it’s okay to want something, but a want indicates a decision. Once you have identified that an item is a want, you must decide whether you’ll get it or save the money instead.

  1. Create money-making opportunities

Whether you pay your kids for household chores or other jobs around the house, give them an opportunity to make money for themselves. This will teach them what it’s like to work for money. Just be sure that the pay is appropriate for the job. Avoid overpaying your kids for small jobs, or they may not learn what it’s like to work for real money.

  1. Set savings goals

In order to get kids excited about saving, you have to make it fun. You can do this by setting savings goals and allowing them to watch their money grow. Task your kids with saving 25-percent of their allowance every week. If they get a $10 allowance, they’ll save at least $2.50 each week. It’s up to you whether you want to allow them to spend the extra $7.50. At the end of the year, your child will have $130 in the bank. Fifteen years later and your child may be entering college with nearly $2,000 that they can put in an emergency fund or towards buying a car.

  1. Open a bank account

If you want to prepare your child for adulthood, open a bank account and get him or her used to the idea of banking. This is where he or she will store money in the future, so it’s a good idea to get kids their own savings accounts. At the end of each month, sit together and look at statements.

  1. Put your child in the driver’s seat

When your child is old and mature enough, put him or her in the driver’s seat. Give your child control over their own finances – with some guidance. Before you get to this point, you’ll control your child’s finances, but you’ll share all the knowledge with your kids along the way. After you give your child control, schedule regular meetings to review and discuss what’s going on.

  1. Expect mistakes

We’ve all made mistakes when it comes to finances. So it would be silly to expect your kids to be perfect. Even if you’ve given them all the tools and knowledge, your kids will make mistakes. They’ll spend when they shouldn’t or not save enough. When this happens, don’t overreact. Simply review the mistake and talk about the consequences of making that mistake repeatedly.

There are ways to make saving money fun for your kids, but there will be times that it’s a struggle. Even though your kids may not always appreciate it in the moment, they will definitely thank you when they’re adults with healthy savings accounts.

Related:
Making Financial Freedom an Attainable Resolution for 2019
Saving Money When on A Family Budget
7 Fun Money Apps for Kids

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