Written by: Vickie Sullivan | April 04, 2017
Think Like a Visitor
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After a year of stops and starts, I finally rebuilt my website. (My noble excuse: Clients come first.) Just in case you’re curious, here is it: www.vickiesullivan.com
As usual, getting this thing live was an adventure. What I learned on the journey:
- Love is not enough. I was absolutely crazy for my previous homepage. It was innovative and unique; I thought it demonstrated my brand beautifully. The problem: It was not effective. Very few folks clicked on my fabulous client stories. The bounce rate from the home page was so high that I hesitated to drive traffic there. So, my head had to step in and overrule my heart. When our innovation creates confusion, ya gotta pull back and be clear.
Listen: How to tell if content is obsolete
- Declutter your content. I had over 15 years of content on my previous site. The story that kept me hanging on: “It’s still good stuff!” No matter. Buried content doesn’t benefit anyone. So, I cut out some of my favorite things. Instead, I’ll repurpose the best material for future blog posts or a future video series (maybe).
Big changes test our ability to let go of what we think is important. Sometimes letting go of what we love paves the way for new things we can enjoy just as much. I’m so excited to see what comes next!
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Author : Vickie Sullivan
Published: 2017-04-04 10:29:09
That's a great question Joan. For now, I've kept the blog posts but plan on more "pruning" in phase two. I'm also looking at older content; about 50% of that is evergreen. So I'll re-purpose that first, then go from there.
Author : Joan Stewart
Published: 2017-04-04 06:46:01
Vickie, thanks for the tip. I'm redoing my website too. I'm curious. Did you leave old blog posts on your site? Why not just update the info if it's still relevant?