A website redesign doesn’t mean that everything old has to be thrown out. Just because something is published, doesn’t mean it can’t be revisited. The beauty of a standardised CMS such as WordPress means that websites can be built to grow and adapt as businesses gain focus.
An ongoing process
Over the past year, Typeface has been working alongside Partisan. Working with a business like Partisan as they start their journey is rewarding, because the design process becomes a conversation that adapts and becomes real as the company grows in to its own.
Last summer, Partisan started with a single page website. Now we’ve entered its second phase with a focused home page, a beautiful articles template and an even tighter mobile experience. Nothing has been thrown away, only refined and built on.
Over the past year, Partisan has produced more creative and the brand has been allowed to breathe. This visual conversation has permiated into the look of the website. Resulting in a tangible maturity and a truly organic branding process.
Adding to and refining
Typeface spent this past month working with Stuart Holiday, performance coach at Focused Mind Coaching, to get his website in shape ready for the launch of his new podcast. Building on top of the current website; Typeface refined and focused the homepage, added a section for press articles and blog posts, and created custom taxonomies and page templates for the new case studies and the podcast sections. There was also a bit of polish added to the mobile experience as well as a full width video on the desktop version of the website.
Because of the platform, Stuart was able to edit his existing content in WordPress while new features were seamlessly added in to the back end and a new bespoke theme applied.
The result is refined, feature rich, and familiar. A solid phase two.
The argument for staging your online presence
Your website is a window in to your company. It’s especially important for smaller companies to show what they do, and to make everything accessible to clients while staying on budget and retaining control. Invest your budget wisely instead of stretching it thin. Treating your website as an ongoing project and setting clear goals that align with your business growth is a solid, agile way of approach that can get you some serious value for money.
Work with an agency to create a plan that reflects the way you want your business to grow. Will a single page website work while you spend six months creating articles to share on LinkedIn and twitter? Do you need a case studies section building if you only have one case study to show? Do you already have content to share, or in six months time will the only news story on your blog be ‘welcome to our new website‘?
There’s already so much to do and to think about when starting a business, so don’t box yourself in and make unnecessary work for yourself, and don’t over commit yourself. Get something out there that explains your value proposition, your credentials, who you are and provides a clear call to action. Then you can take your time to gather content, build client relationships and cement your brand. When your website enters phase two, you’ll have a solid idea of the direction of your company and you’ll have an audience to share it with.
