Does your website serve the needs of your readers today? What criteria would you use to recognize if it is stuck in the past?
People do not consume news and information the same way they did five years ago. Heck, we don’t communicate the way we did two years ago!
Take the time to reevaluate your priorities and the demands of your readers. If you decide you need to update your website to meet today’s readers’ expectations, avoid these four common mistakes:
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Filtering your approach through the lens of what worked last time: What you need now is different. Build a new set of priorities based on this reality.
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Limiting your vendor selection team to just IT: Get more people involved to give you a holistic view of what you actually need for your website. This includes customer service, editors and ad salespeople, who usually talk to readers more than anyone.
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Restricting your technology options: Think beyond “we have always built our website on X.” Does your digital director have a platform they love working on, which has always worked well in the past? Yellow flag! That could mean they are stuck in a comfort zone and have made their choice before reviewing all of the options.
- Making data an afterthought. Data will be the linchpin of your business going forward. How will you gather it? Will all your data uses and vendors be integrated? How will your data be actionable in ways it was not in the past? Integrated data will help you communicate better with your audience – and increase how often they respond on your site.
Your business should always be evolving. Make sure you partner with a vendor that knows the publishing industry and has integrated easy-to-add features and functionality that your peers are already profiting from.
