Post-Mortem of a Website

January 31, 2009 9:22 pm admin Website Strategy

It’s a sad day when one has to write a post-mortem for the website of an ex-client but today is that day.

This client (who will remain anonymous, obviously), always had a weak website and there was always an understanding that however much traffic we sent to the website, the conversion rates would not be as high as wished, due to the weakness of the website strategy.

The patient (the website) had corrective action through some sticking plaster enhancements but ultimately, required full surgery if it was to compete in an ever-competitive world. 

In the early days, traffic generated to the website also generated a reasonable level of business but the constant message to the client each month was “you really do need to invest in a full website redevelopment”.  Clients get busy and websites become less of a priority to most small businesses that get too busy. 

By mid 2008, the website, which had the online equivalent of lung cancer eating away at it, was operating in a PPC market that required expensive clicks (£2+) to get traffic but it soon became clear that the visitors to the site were looking at other websites that had more to impress them.  As the economic downturn took more of a grip, competition in PPC increased and so click costs rose further, meaning that clicks had to count for more than ever before. 

The client decided to get a new website but didn’t involve us in the process.  That was a costly mistake because the project took too long, was supposed to give the client good search engine visibility, and the client, thinking all would be well, stopped using PPC in October 2008.    To cut a long-story short, the economic downturn was like a room full of smokers breathing 24-7 on a patient that already had lung cancer, and the patient died in January 2008.

The post-mortem on this website would read along the following lines …

The patient was reasonably healthy for a period of time but became ill through neglect.  Attempts were made to make the patient healthier through plasters (minor website fixes) and medicine (PPC clicks) but ultimately they required surgery at a much earlier stage.

The reality is that the website wasn’t wholly responsible for the demise of this business and there was always going to be trouble in this business sector if an economic downturn took a grip.  However, there’s no doubt at all that, if the business owner had invested in a professional full website redevelopment back in early 2008 (or even as late as June), then a significant-enough boost in business would have been possible so that the revenues of the business were higher and it would have been in a much healthier state to weather the storm ahead.

The lesson here to any company with a website is: the answer to a downturn in business is not purely to get lots of traffic sent to the website, but is in having the foresight to invest in website redevelopment at a much earlier stage than any unforeseen business problems.  Any businesses facing a downturn now, but still in reasonable health, will find that, as long as they use experts and not amateurs, and invest what is a comparatively small amount of money, that they will weather the storm.