10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites

10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites
review by Andrew Grinaker, VP, Business Development

I recently came across a fantastic article in Smashing Magazine published on February 10th by Paul Boag, titled "10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites." Please give it a read, it is an excellent article.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/10/10-harsh-truths-about-corporate-websites/
But because our company has built approximately 200-250 full website projects in the past, I thought I would comment on a few of the 10 Harsh Truths and how that pertains to our experience.

1) You Need A Separate Web Division
2) Managing Your Website Is A Full-Time Job

I completely agree and one way of achieving this is setting expectations and requirements for your marketing and IT teams for who is responsible for managing which portions of the site. Technical, content, marketing and strategy updates all need to be assigned to a team that is experienced and reliable to execute on a regular basis.

3) Periodic Redesign is Not Enough

Boag mentions in his article that website are often neglected for long periods of time which require a massive redesign, causing a drain on time and budget. I agree with this, but I disagree that effective periodic redesign cannot be effective. If an appropriate strategy is drafted and followed, periodic redesign (say every 12-18 months) can be sufficient.

4) Your Website Cannot Appeal to Everyone
5) You Are Wasting Money on Social Networking

On the surface, this is easy to argue with. Social networking and communities have and will continue to shape the internet landscape, so ignoring them when establishing a web presence strategy would be foolish. However, I agree with Boag when he states that people are jumping into the social networking world uneducated and expected immediate results. Research the tools, find out what the competition is doing and take it slow when utilize this Web 2.0 function.

6) Your Website is Not All About You
7) You're Not Getting Value from Your Web Team

This will forever be the case with clients. They hire an agency and don't utilize them to full capacity because they believe they can cut budget. Trust the people that you hire. You hire them for a reason. If after you have asked for solutions from your agency and they have not delivered, then it is time to revaluate.

8) Design by Committee Brings Death

I cannot agree more about this. Too many times when multiple people are involved, a consensus is rarely met. I don't see an issue with a different pair of eyes or a team working on a design, but that team must have a dynamic individual who can acquire all feedback and then provide a final decision that the team is happy with. Too many cooks in the kitchen will result in a longer project timeline and ultimately more budget because of additional revisions and concept reviews.

9) A CMS Is Not A Silver Bullet
10) You Have Too Much Content