How to avoid common corporate website mistakes: a project manager’s cheat sheet
Be it redesigning or rebuilding a website; it is a new process. Creating a new website is a provocation that many organizations take to go through once in years. Whereas a project manager’s involvement in redesigning technicalities is limited, the essential project management knowledge always works in favor. From spotting bugs to get them fixed before they become a costly affair, project managers need to understand how the technical team operates. Implementing the best project management tools is the solution to the required participation needed to deliver the project goals.
Whether redesigning the pages for rebranding, moving a corporate website to a new URL, or incorporating a significant change to the content, the issues can quickly arise if not addressed immediately. The best part is website projects can be a win-win if you know the mistakes and the ways to avoid them.
Let’s take a project manager’s cheat sheet with proven strategies to avoid possible mistakes while working on a corporate website project.
Weak navigation and hierarchy: The common mistake that occurs when working on corporate website projects is the management’s lack of attention to the whole website’s structure. The design could be aesthetically pleasing, but the hierarchy and navigation aren’t user-friendly.
The best practice is to follow a site-map to avoid such errors and build a straightforward navigation design from on-papers to implementing on the website for easy maneuver. To get the best SEO results and elevate the user experience, plan the corporate site navigational structure and create a URL structure for the site map.
Missing out on proper usability testing: It’s crucial to conduct usability testing whenever a change is made to the functionality and design. To evade users’ restraints while accessing the site, it is vital to verify that significant changes translated into an improvised solution for website visitors.
There are great methods to conduct testing, be it splitting testing teams with different options, using heat maps, or running a survey by bringing in other people into your office. The method you opt for depends on the project specifications.
Avoid using the organization’s employees for testing as they are too familiar with the website or working style. Best to get the right group of people!
Wrong use of HTTPS redirection: A security certificate to encrypt traffic is said HTTPS. HTTPS redirection is an essential tool used to protect and access the corporate website properly. Not only this, it is used for making sure that the user is redirected to the HTTPS version automatically and prevents data theft.
What needs to be avoided is to have HTTP and HTTPS, both versions of the website. Having both versions can cause a negative effect on SEO as it showcases content duplicacy. You need all the traffic to be secured; it is better to use the rewrite rule to change HTTP requests automatically.
DNS problems: Domain Name System (DNS) updates are signed with the domain registrar to avoid fixing a corporate website. These domain registrars provide domain owners the tools that are required to manage specific name servers.
While fixing the site, you need access to change the server’s name to redirect users to your site. Later you need to change the DNS to your web host’s name server.
Security glitches: Correctly setting up a security certificate is highly recommended. To make the website page secure and keep the users away from the security warnings.
Hardcoded links and JavaScript are generally referenced by unsecured URLs and point to HTTP files. Best to view the source of the page and search for HTTP while ensuring all the links are secure URLs be it internal or external.
Conclusion
If you are gazing to complete your corporate website project successfully; you need to avoid these common mistakes. Taking care of things like updating the DNS, conducting usability tests, implementing HTTPS redirection, and building proper navigation and hierarchy can help you launch a new site effectively.