Integrate, consolidate, or silo? Managing website channels for a coherent visitor experience

Integrate, consolidate,
or silo?
Managing website channels for
a coherent visitor experience

@jdavidhobbs · https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 2

@jdavidhobbs · https://davidhobbsconsulting.com
Blog disconnected
4
Effort spent here
But that doesn’t help
people who start on this
page

Center islands
5

So if a visitor happens to start on
a page within a center (when
they may not specifically be
interested in the center), then
clicks from there trap them on
that island

Let’s say
someone
already
knew me
and is
interested in
my IA
Summit
2016
workshop
7

This one looks
promising….
8

Yes that’s
David
9

But no way to
directly click
to the
workshop
10

Huh? Why do I
need to search
again?
http://bit.ly/hobbs-types-near

oops
14http://bit.ly/hobbs-types-near

The many problems of a
disjointed digital presence
• Site visitor bouncing from site even when you
have resources they would be interested in
• Site visitor getting frustrated when they know
you have information that they cannot find
• Site visitor having to do work that the site
should be doing for them
• Problem duplication
• Inconsistent branding
• Poor search
• Inefficiency (can’t leverage common tools, etc)
15

@jdavidhobbs · https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 16http://bit.ly/hobbs-coherent

Consistent
http://bit.ly/hobbs-coherent

Connected
http://bit.ly/hobbs-coherent

Fixing a disjointed site
Stop digging yourself
into a deeper hole
19
Make stronger big
changes

Not digging yourself
into a deeper hole
• Streamlining the right
things
• The right kind of
standardizing
• Good responses to
day-to-day requests
• Stop microsites
20
Making stronger big
changes
• Start early strategy
before talking with
implementors
• Getting
organizational buy-
in to break silos
• Reframing problems

Examples of problem behaviors
that lead to a more disjointed site
• One-offs and microsites
• Exceptions to standards
• Publishing too much or poor quality
• Reacting too quickly to things that should take
time
21

Use a ”Should
we implement
this
microsite?”
checklist
http://hobbs.link/report-microsite-checklist

Create a
standing
approach to
better deal with
change (and
give yourself a
buffer)
23http://bit.ly/hobbs-change-flowchart

@jdavidhobbs · https://davidhobbsconsulting.com 24http://bit.ly/lemurs-lions

http://bit.ly/lemurs-lions

The backend options
28
• Integrate
• Consolidate
• Stay silo’d

Examples of things that could be
integrated
• Properties
• Blog
• Corporate site
• Department, center, group, division site
• Product sites
• Topic / sector
• Campaign sites
• Systems
• Document management
• Projects database
• Products database
• (Multiple) CMS
• Custom apps and mobile apps
29

Incoherence
(for site
visitor)
Difficulty to
keep in sync
with non-web
biz processes
One-time
implementati
on effort (to
move from
silo’d)
Ongoing
maintenance
effort
Integrate Medium to
low
Low Medium High
Consolidate Low High High Low
Stay silo’d High High None Medium
30

Incoherence
(for site
visitor)
Difficulty to
keep in sync
with non-web
biz processes
One-time
implementati
on effort (to
move from
silo’d)
Ongoing
maintenance
effort
Integrate Medium to
low
Low Medium High
Consolidate Low High High Low
Stay silo’d High High None Medium
31
Integrating with existing document management system
Merging blog into main site’s platform
Keeping the reseller site totally separate from the B2C site

Think bigger!
Key take-aways
• Consider the broad
view of your digital
presence
• Don’t dig yourself
into deeper
incoherence
• Make more
effective big
changes
32
Read more
• “How to deal with
that change
request” flowchart
• Microsite checklist
• Vision checklist
• Website Product
Management

Integrate, consolidate, or silo? Managing website channels for a coherent visitor experience

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Integrate, consolidate, or silo? Managing website channels for a coherent visitor experience