If you’re a regular visitor to weidert.com, you’ve witnessed a dramatic change to our website. Last week we unveiled a whole new look and, more importantly, a new way of delivering the information prospects and clients are looking for. (Shout out to the talented Justin Harrison, who designed and built the site, and Jessica Janda, whose tireless enthusiasm and dog-with-a-bone attitude made it all happen — in just 6 weeks! You guys rock or are da bomb or whatever it is you kids say these days.)
Here’s a little overview of what you’re seeing.
It was time. We last updated the site a few years ago (the average lifespan of a website, according to a calculation based on Alexa and the Wayback Machine, is about 2 years, 7 months) and it was beginning to get stale. Websites are big investments that need to be updated based on factors like evolving trends, new information, modified company positioning, user experience/usability, mobile-friendliness, emerging industry keywords and a number of others. Our reasons for updating were many, but the most important was that we wanted to start fresh so we could practice what we preach: growth-driven design (GDD).
The GDD approach to maintaining a website that attracts leads begins with a launch pad site – a sort of “good enough” site – that’s continually improved at regular intervals, based on user data. During the process of creating our launch pad, we had a running list of items we wanted to have on our wish list, things we would like on our site but just didn’t have time to complete in the six weeks it took to get the launchpad site up. A few of these things are cosmetic, and others are intended to expand some content topic areas. Because we won’t have a lot of user data to evaluate after just two weeks of performance, these changes are things we determined as a team, but once we get analytics showing how people are using the site, we’ll have a better idea of what they’re interested in (and not interested in) and will begin making those regular modifications based on data.
Taking a GDD approach to your website means it will always be “the latest,” most optimal site it can be – no waiting 2 years 7 months to do a major, much-needed overhaul. That, in a nutshell, is why GDD is so cool.
We’re introducing what’s called “pillar pages” to our site – pages that provide a range of resources based on specific topics that we know to be important to our prospects (they’re all under our Resources page). All of this information is available in one page, so finding what you’re looking for will be easier and more productive. In the coming weeks you’ll find additional content topics and resources related to web design, social media, content strategy and other topics that are important to our prospects.
The most important feature of our new site is that it boldly showcases the agency’s expertise supporting industrial manufacturers and the industries serving them. We slammed this right between visitors’ eyes because manufacturing is what Weidert Group does best. Whether you’re a small job shop or a large multinational manufacturer, you’re facing some of the same challenges – like labor shortages, supply chain inefficiencies, growing technology gaps, and foreign competition, to name a few – and we can demonstrate that we’ve helped solve these by leveraging the power of inbound marketing and sales.
We’re also keenly aware of how those companies serving manufacturers (like our clients in the insurance, financial and software industries) approach and work with them, and all the ways they can help manufacturers reach or beat their performance and profitability goals every year.
Stay tuned, if you come back regularly, you’ll see that things will continue to change. Who knows what you’ll find the next time you’re here – it could be data-driven changes to content, design updates, new functionality…it’ll all depend on what visitors like you show interest in!
Topics: Website Design
