New Year's To-Do: Fix Your Aging Web Site
New sales, and thus new profits, are usually produced by, well, new stuff. But businesses often get distracted thinking up the Next Big Thing, to the point that they lose sight of (or interest in) the core of what they already have.
David Armano delivers a wise message in this regard. Instead of figuring out the next Zhu Zhu Pets, spend time cleaning up your aging Web site, sharpening and increasing your blogging, and making your Intranet deliver what it should be delivering.
Here is Armano on Web sites:
"Websites haven't been bright and shiny for years now; they're more de rigeur. But is yours really as good as it could be? Do search engines find it effortlessly? Is it usable? Does it even serve a purpose (is it useful)? Can you rapidly re-design it without it causing major upheaval within the departments of your organization? After reading how American Airlines struggles with the all too common problem of "design by committee" (which exists within many large organizations), I have to conclude that getting your website to completely satisfy business, brand and user goals is still elusive for many companies."Taking stock of the assets you already use and figuring out ways to make them better is a great project to start 2010. For more ideas, read Armano's HBR.org post, Stop Looking for the Next Twitter.
What have you neglected that could use a little polish?
(Oh, and one other thing. Have a merry Christmas, happy holidays and a great new year!)