Which website page deserves attention first?

A website often grows faster than there is time for maintenance. A service gets added, a campaign gets its own page and old explanations stay in place. When results fall behind, it is tempting to refresh everything at once.

First determine where an improvement delivers the most. Look at the role a page plays in the customer's choice and at what visitors and colleagues show about that page.

Start with your customer's choices

Which information does someone use to judge whether your offer fits? Think of a service page, an explanation of costs, a case example or a page about execution.

Ask sales which pages they send to customers and which explanation is missing. Then look at the usage data. A page with little traffic can be important for a small group of serious buyers. A busy page often serves a general information need. Both have value, each in its own way.

Name the problem before choosing a solution

Write down, per page, which decision it should support and what goes wrong there. Is the content outdated? Is an answer missing? Do people find the next step? Do visitors arrive with a need your offer does not cover?

Keep observation and explanation apart. "We get a lot of questions about delivery time" is an observation. "The page is too long" is an explanation you still need to test. First check whether delivery time is clearly explained and whether visitors can find that explanation.

Weigh importance, evidence and feasibility

Give priority to improvements that affect an important customer decision and for which you can point to a concrete problem. Also look at the work required and at dependencies. An incorrect claim about availability gets fixed right away. A new pricing structure first needs a decision within the organisation.

A technical error that makes contact impossible gets fixed immediately. For less clear bottlenecks, a short investigation or a conversation with sales is a good next step. A simple ranking with a short note works better here than an exact score.

Example

Say you are weighing a new general article against adding to an existing project page. In sales conversations, questions about preparation and lead time keep coming back. That explanation is missing on your project page.

You add to that page first, have the planning checked by the execution team and ask sales whether the information helps in the next conversations. The new article stays on the list.

Choose the fix that matches the problem

Improve an existing page if its purpose and topic still hold. Merge pages if they answer the same question and leave visitors with too little guidance. Create a new page for an information need that is currently not handled well anywhere.

Merging or removing pages also involves technical work. Decide which URL stays in place, where old links go and set up redirects, so visitors keep finding their information.

Agree when to check again

Note in advance what you are changing and which change you expect. Later, check whether the page is used better and whether customer conversations change. Take campaigns, seasons and other changes in the same period into account in your assessment.

If the change helps, move on to the next page. If the explanation stays unclear, examine the page again. Agree who takes on that step.

Discuss which page deserves priority for you