Name: How data can be used to avoid web design disasters
Uploaded: 2022-06-16T09:13:39.171Z
Duration: 544.1
Description: To keep up with customer expectations, websites need regular redesign. But website design and development is time-consuming, and how can you be sure you are getting it right? Brian Piper shares his 20 years of experience in managing digital projects to help you avoid mistakes in web design.

Teaser 01.mp4

Use data to avoid web design disasters.vtt

English

{{00:00:06}}
Today I'm going to be talking about
using data to optimize your website,

{{00:00:22}}
particularly during a redesign.

{{00:00:24}}
But as we all know, the beautiful thing
about websites is that we don't have

{{00:00:28}}
to wait for a redesign to optimize our
website and optimize our performance.

{{00:00:33}}
So the problem is if you own a
website, manage one, write content

{{00:00:37}}
for one, at some point that site
is going to need a redesign.

{{00:00:40}}
Right.

{{00:00:41}}
Business 2 Community says every one
and a half to two and a half years,

{{00:00:44}}
your site is going to need a redesign.

{{00:00:46}}
So if you do the redesign without looking
at the data that I'm going to talk

{{00:00:50}}
about today, it could be a disaster.

{{00:00:53}}
So the way to address this problem
is by doing five audits, right?

{{00:00:57}}
There are four core audits,
analytics, performance, information

{{00:01:02}}
architecture, and search.

{{00:01:05}}
And then the fifth audit, which I call the
encompassing audit is the strategic audit.

{{00:01:10}}
So let's talk about these audits.

{{00:01:17}}
The first audit we're going to talk
about is the analytics audit, because

{{00:01:20}}
it's the first one that you should do.

{{00:01:22}}
The analytics audit is going to
tell you two very important things.

{{00:01:26}}
Do you have the right
accounts on your site?

{{00:01:29}}
Right.

{{00:01:29}}
Google analytics, Google tag manager,
and Google search console as a minimum.

{{00:01:35}}
And are those sites set up properly?

{{00:01:37}}
Do you have the right
views and properties?

{{00:01:39}}
Are you tracking the
right events and goals?

{{00:01:42}}
And then if they already are set
up properly, you can get all sorts

{{00:01:46}}
of other information that can
help with your decision-making.

{{00:01:49}}
So then once you know how the
analytics are set up, then you can

{{00:01:52}}
actually start getting the data.

{{00:01:59}}
Now we're going to talk
about the performance audit.

{{00:02:01}}
So you know what content people
are looking at on your website, the

{{00:02:06}}
performance audit is going to tell you
how your site is actually functioning for

{{00:02:10}}
your users and for the search engines.

{{00:02:14}}
So in May of 2020, Google announced
that in 2021, they were going to

{{00:02:18}}
release the page experience update.

{{00:02:22}}
So the page experience update is
entirely focused around performance.

{{00:02:27}}
So the performance of your website will
directly impact your search rankings.

{{00:02:31}}
We want our sites to be
a good user experience.

{{00:02:34}}
We want them to function well.

{{00:02:36}}
Google is just giving us some
added incentive to do that,

{{00:02:39}}
but they're also giving us some
great tools to help with that.

{{00:02:42}}
Right.

{{00:02:42}}
You can go to Google page speed
insights, put in a URL, and it will

{{00:02:46}}
tell you step-by-step what things
you can improve in your code.

{{00:02:50}}
What your developers can work on
to make your site function better.

{{00:02:59}}
The next thing we're going to talk about
is your actual site content, how it's

{{00:03:02}}
currently organized and arranged, and
that's the information architecture audit.

{{00:03:07}}
So there's lots of ways to do an
information architecture audit.

{{00:03:10}}
There are software tools out there
that can automate it for you.

{{00:03:13}}
They'll crawl your site.

{{00:03:15}}
They'll generate force directed
diagrams like this, or a tree diagrams.

{{00:03:21}}
Then, once you have all that information,
then you can start actually looking

{{00:03:24}}
at how your content is organized.

{{00:03:26}}
Look for your largest clusters of content.

{{00:03:29}}
Look to see how many layers deep your
site currently is and see if your

{{00:03:34}}
current navigation allows the users
to get to all that content easily.

{{00:03:40}}
Another thing that the information
architecture audit will reveal is

{{00:03:43}}
the current flow of your traffic.

{{00:03:51}}
The search audit will tell you
what keywords people are currently

{{00:03:56}}
using to get to your site.

{{00:03:59}}
And you also know from
analytics, hopefully what

{{00:04:02}}
terms users are searching on.

{{00:04:03}}
Once they get into your site.

{{00:04:06}}
The search audit will also tell
you what keywords your content is

{{00:04:10}}
currently ranking for in Google.

{{00:04:18}}
Then we get to the encompassing
audit, the strategic audit.

{{00:04:22}}
This is when you meet with your
stakeholders, you get them to clearly

{{00:04:26}}
outline their goals, their business
goals, as well as what purpose

{{00:04:31}}
they need the website to serve.

{{00:04:33}}
This is critical information to have
so that you can make sure that in the

{{00:04:37}}
redesign, you set up your analytics
to track against the key performance

{{00:04:41}}
indicators that will let them see
that all of their goals are being met.

{{00:04:50}}
So now you have the complete picture.

{{00:04:53}}
Once you've added in the bullseye
of the website optimization

{{00:04:57}}
model, which is your users.

{{00:04:59}}
The most important thing is
to know who you're talking to.

{{00:05:03}}
You need to know your customer, whether
you do that by generating personas, or

{{00:05:07}}
just looking at demographic information,
you need to know the pain points of the

{{00:05:12}}
people who are going to be consuming
your content so that you know what

{{00:05:15}}
questions they're asking so that you
can be the one to give them the answers.

{{00:05:20}}
Once you have all of this information.

{{00:05:22}}
Now you can start creating your
site, doing your redesign, making

{{00:05:26}}
the decisions, you know, what content
your users are looking for from your

{{00:05:31}}
search and your analytics audit, you
know, that you want the structure of

{{00:05:35}}
your website to be highly performing
and,  from your performance audit.

{{00:05:40}}
And then, you know how you're going
to start rearranging your content from

{{00:05:44}}
the information architecture audit.

{{00:05:50}}
The first thing you need to do is
come up with your new navigation

{{00:05:52}}
structure, put in your top 25 performing
pages you put in your top 25 organic

{{00:05:58}}
pages you put in your top converting
pages, your high search volume pages.

{{00:06:05}}
And then I like to include the current
navigation for the site as well.

{{00:06:10}}
Then you start marrying all those items
together because you're going to have

{{00:06:13}}
a lot of crossover in there, right?

{{00:06:14}}
Hopefully your top organic pages are also
some of your high search volume pages.

{{00:06:19}}
So then you're going to,  you
know, combine that list down.

{{00:06:22}}
Then you're going to fill
in all the data holes.

{{00:06:24}}
Now you can really start
making those decisions.

{{00:06:26}}
You're going to have all the pages that
your users are interested in, all the

{{00:06:30}}
content that they're currently consuming.

{{00:06:33}}
And all the content that's currently
converting users for,  to meet your goals.

{{00:06:38}}
And the key is to focus on your users.

{{00:06:41}}
If your users are a very
segmented population, you have

{{00:06:43}}
very specific user groups.

{{00:06:45}}
You'll probably want to separate your
navigation out by your user groups.

{{00:06:49}}
There's lots of different ways to do that.

{{00:06:51}}
Once your stakeholders have approved
your new navigation, then you need

{{00:06:55}}
to start figuring out how you're
going to migrate your existing

{{00:06:58}}
content into your new structure.

{{00:07:01}}
And this one you just put in the first
column, you put your top level of

{{00:07:04}}
navigation in the second column, you
put your next level of navigation.

{{00:07:08}}
And then you go across and you just
map what content you're taking from

{{00:07:12}}
your old, old site and where you're
putting that into the new site.

{{00:07:15}}
Every one of your landing pages for your
navigation should be focused on particular

{{00:07:20}}
keywords for your audience, those keywords
that you're optimizing that page for

{{00:07:25}}
feed your URL creation, your URL should
include those keywords if possible.

{{00:07:30}}
And then every one of these pages
should also have a call to action.

{{00:07:35}}
Each one of these pages should
lead the user somewhere, whether

{{00:07:38}}
it's to consume the next piece of
content or whether it's to take some

{{00:07:41}}
action to complete a goal or event.

{{00:07:43}}
So now you have all your new navigation,
you have the framework for all your pages.

{{00:07:47}}
You have the content that's going to
be migrated into each of those pages.

{{00:07:51}}
If there are holes in your strategy
and   in your search terms or in your

{{00:07:57}}
user journey, you're going to create
new content to fill those holes.

{{00:08:01}}
And then at that point, you're going
to get your designers and developers.

{{00:08:05}}
And hopefully you're working with
talented designers and developers, or

{{00:08:08}}
you are going to find some talented
designers and developers to work with.

{{00:08:13}}
They're going to start creating the
shell, migrating that content over.

{{00:08:17}}
While they're doing that that's when
you go in and you start optimizing

{{00:08:20}}
those pages, you start marrying that
content together, making it flow,

{{00:08:24}}
make sure it's targeting your right
keywords, focusing for the answers to

{{00:08:29}}
the questions that users are asking.

{{00:08:32}}
This is also when you look at
accessibility and think about

{{00:08:35}}
future-proofing your content.

{{00:08:37}}
Looking at your data has helped you
avoid the fatal flaws of website redesign

{{00:08:43}}
and it's ended up with a site that is
not only much more functional, but also

{{00:08:49}}
allows you to report and directly see
the impact of your work and it'll make

{{00:08:53}}
your stakeholders happy and hopefully
it will keep you out of the trees.

Today I'm going to be talking about
using data to optimize your website,

But as we all know, the beautiful thing
about websites is that we don't have

to wait for a redesign to optimize our
website and optimize our performance.

So the problem is if you own a
website, manage one, write content

for one, at some point that site
is going to need a redesign.

Business 2 Community says every one
and a half to two and a half years,

So if you do the redesign without looking
at the data that I'm going to talk

So the way to address this problem
is by doing five audits, right?

There are four core audits,
analytics, performance, information

And then the fifth audit, which I call the
encompassing audit is the strategic audit.

The first audit we're going to talk
about is the analytics audit, because

The analytics audit is going to
tell you two very important things.

Do you have the right
accounts on your site?

Google analytics, Google tag manager,
and Google search console as a minimum.

Do you have the right
views and properties?

Are you tracking the
right events and goals?

And then if they already are set
up properly, you can get all sorts

of other information that can
help with your decision-making.

So then once you know how the
analytics are set up, then you can

Now we're going to talk
about the performance audit.

So you know what content people
are looking at on your website, the

performance audit is going to tell you
how your site is actually functioning for

So in May of 2020, Google announced
that in 2021, they were going to

So the page experience update is
entirely focused around performance.

So the performance of your website will
directly impact your search rankings.

We want our sites to be
a good user experience.

Google is just giving us some
added incentive to do that,

but they're also giving us some
great tools to help with that.

You can go to Google page speed
insights, put in a URL, and it will

tell you step-by-step what things
you can improve in your code.

What your developers can work on
to make your site function better.

The next thing we're going to talk about
is your actual site content, how it's

currently organized and arranged, and
that's the information architecture audit.

So there's lots of ways to do an
information architecture audit.

There are software tools out there
that can automate it for you.

They'll generate force directed
diagrams like this, or a tree diagrams.

Then, once you have all that information,
then you can start actually looking

Look for your largest clusters of content.

Look to see how many layers deep your
site currently is and see if your

current navigation allows the users
to get to all that content easily.

Another thing that the information
architecture audit will reveal is

The search audit will tell you
what keywords people are currently

And you also know from
analytics, hopefully what

The search audit will also tell
you what keywords your content is

Then we get to the encompassing
audit, the strategic audit.

This is when you meet with your
stakeholders, you get them to clearly

outline their goals, their business
goals, as well as what purpose

This is critical information to have
so that you can make sure that in the

redesign, you set up your analytics
to track against the key performance

indicators that will let them see
that all of their goals are being met.

Once you've added in the bullseye
of the website optimization

The most important thing is
to know who you're talking to.

You need to know your customer, whether
you do that by generating personas, or

just looking at demographic information,
you need to know the pain points of the

people who are going to be consuming
your content so that you know what

questions they're asking so that you
can be the one to give them the answers.

Now you can start creating your
site, doing your redesign, making

the decisions, you know, what content
your users are looking for from your

search and your analytics audit, you
know, that you want the structure of

your website to be highly performing
and,  from your performance audit.

And then, you know how you're going
to start rearranging your content from

The first thing you need to do is
come up with your new navigation

structure, put in your top 25 performing
pages you put in your top 25 organic

pages you put in your top converting
pages, your high search volume pages.

And then I like to include the current
navigation for the site as well.

Then you start marrying all those items
together because you're going to have

Hopefully your top organic pages are also
some of your high search volume pages.

So then you're going to,  you
know, combine that list down.

Then you're going to fill
in all the data holes.

Now you can really start
making those decisions.

You're going to have all the pages that
your users are interested in, all the

content that they're currently consuming.

And all the content that's currently
converting users for,  to meet your goals.

Best Practice

To keep up with customer expectations, websites need regular redesign. But website design and development is time-consuming, and how can you be sure you are getting it right? Brian Piper shares his 20 years of experience in managing digital projects to help you avoid mistakes in web design.

Data

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xsmall_2017-11-17_Brian_Piper_013.jpg

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Brian Piper

Director of Content Strategy and Assessment

Redesigning a website without performing proper audits on your data can be fatal to your product or brand.

Introduction

Five core audits need to be conducted in Piper's guide to an optimised web redesign. Assessing user experience, which is the heart of these audits, is essential before launching the new design.

Audits for data-driven redesign

Piper explains how to migrate your existing content into your brand-new design once you've completed your audit and have shareholder approval for your navigation. 