Engage your audience.

So you have an idea for a website or you already have a website that isn’t performing very well. What can you do to make it work?

1. User testing on your current site to see how a user's journey is, this will usually involve watching someone perform tasks and seeing how easy it is for them to navigate through the site. Sites like www.usertesting.com are a great tool to do this sort of investigation.

2. Customise the content of your site to fit the stereotype of your typical site user.

3. Use rich content and potentially video to keep users engaged and willing to explore more of your site.

4. Have a clear vision and calls to action. Don’t overwhelm and confuse the viewer with mixed messages and unclear direction. Make sure you have precise targeted design.

5, Have realistic target and goals so that you can track progress of any changes you do make and work harder on things which work well.

If your results highlight that you will need substantial changes you should be considering a site rebuild. Don’t just try to staple extra parts onto it to solve the problem. All you will probably end up doing is making things more confusing.

To finish I think the most important thing is to stay in touch with your audience and be willing to change and adapt to their requirements this will help you succeed and keep you ahead of the competition.