Upgrading to a new website can often seem like a daunting challenge, particularly if you are an SME owner with limited resources and funds. However, knowing what the challenges are can help ensure a smooth transition. AIB provide you with a comprehensive, step by step guide on how to successfully plan your company's website upgrade.

1. How To Plan Your Website
Upgrade
February 2015

2. 1. Purpose
Deciding what purpose your website will serve will
determine what you need to do to build your site. Will
you be selling online? Will you be showcasing your
products or services on the website? Will your site be
purely informational in nature? Are you looking to
capture customer data? Asking yourself these questions
will help to create a clear picture of the website that is
right for your business.

3. 2. Design
How do you want your website to look? In general,
straightforward navigation and simple layouts work best
online. It can help to take a look at competitor websites
to benchmark and inform your design decisions.

4. 3. Platform
There is a huge array of free and paid-for Content
Management Systems (CMS) out there such as
WordPress, Magento, Blogger etc. When choosing
a CMS, it is important to choose one that will
work for your business. You should be able to
update content on the website when you want to,
no matter what your level of technical ability.
Choose a CMS that does what it says – one that
allows you to effectively manage the content on
your website.

5. 4. Responsiveness
It is vitally important that your website’s visitors
can access your website from whatever device
they choose – desktop computer, laptop, mobile
or tablet. A responsive site automatically adjusts
how your website displays, based on what device
a visitor is using. It is crucial to factor this into the
planning and development of your website.

6. 5. Legality
You should ensure that your website complies
with all the rules and regulations that govern
websites. For example, you should display a
cookie policy notifying visitors that your site uses
cookies. It is also good practice to publish
information on your policies regarding data
capturing, website use and privacy etc.

7. 6. Analysis
Make sure that you have a system in place that
tracks and analyses the traffic coming to your
website. The most popular (and free) solution is
Google Analytics. In order to create a successful
website, it is important to know your customer
behaviour. What pages are they visiting? Where
are they visiting from? What time of day do they
visit? All of your analytics can be used to help you
implement positive changes on your website.

8. 7. Test
Prior to launching a website, it is very important
to test the website as thoroughly as possible. Put
yourself in your customers’ shoes – detail what
journeys they can take on the website and go
through the steps yourself. Is there a technical
blockage that will stop them completing a
purchase? Is your phone number correct? Is the
most up-to-date information available to your
customer?

9. Written by: David Curtin, CEO, IEDR – an independent not-for-profit organisation that
manages the .ie country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) namespace (i.e. all domain
names ending in ‘.ie’) in the public interest of the Irish and global Internet communities.