Decide by the end of January what the website must do better, who will look after it, and what it will cost for the year. Then put dates on the work so it finishes before your busy season.

A vague intention at year's end

Many businesses close today until the new year, and plenty of owners will go into the long weekend meaning to do something about the website at last.

The intention has usually been around for a while. It surfaces when a competitor launches a new site or a customer mentions a broken link, then sinks again once the busy months arrive.

What turns it into a plan is not a project. It is three decisions made by a date: what the site must do better, who will look after it, and what it will cost.

Made in January, they leave time for the work before spring. Left until spring, they tend to wait another year.

What a vague intention sounds like

The first is heard most often and helps least. Nobody can quote for it, schedule it or say when it is finished, so it never really starts.

Why the deadline is February

Even modest website work takes weeks once it involves new text, new photographs and the owner's approval at each stage.

For businesses that get busy in spring, decisions made in January leave February, March and April for the work. Decisions made in April collide with the season.

For businesses busy at other times the logic is the same: decide at the start of the quiet months, and finish before the busy ones.

Decision one: what it must do better

Write down one or two things the website must do better next year, as results rather than features. More quote requests from the next town is a decision; a new look is not.

Base it on this year. Look at the enquiries that came through the site, the questions customers asked that the site should have answered, and the work you wanted more of.

Then decide how you will know. A simple record of where enquiries come from turns a hope into something you can check in the fall.

Decision two: who will look after it

Every website needs someone responsible for updates and security, for content, for renewals and for noticing when something breaks.

That might be a web company on a monthly arrangement, someone inside the business, or both, with the jobs divided in writing. What fails is everyone assuming it is someone else.

Check access while deciding. Whoever does the work, the business should hold the logins for the site, the hosting, the domain, Analytics and the Google listing.

Decision three: what it will cost

Put a figure on the whole year, not just a project: hosting and the domain, maintenance, any repair or redesign, photographs, and any advertising that points at the site.

Spread it by month. A plan that needs a large sum in April, when the business is paying for stock and seasonal staff, tends to slip.

A rough figure set now is worth more than a precise one set in June. It lets you ask for quotes that fit, rather than reacting to whichever arrives first.

A worked example

A lavender farm in the Fraser Valley opens its rows to visitors in July, when the fields bloom, and runs a farm shop from May to September. Its website takes bookings for summer workshops and sells dried bundles and oils.

For three winters the owners meant to improve the site, which a relative built when the farm opened. Each spring it slid, because planting and the shop came first.

This month they made the three decisions on one page. The site must take workshop bookings online instead of by email, and show bloom dates and opening hours on the first screen.

A web company will handle updates and the booking system on a monthly arrangement, and one of the owners will post photographs and dates. The farm now holds every login, which took two phone calls to the relative.

The yearly figure covers the monthly arrangement, the booking work and a day of photographs in July, when the fields look their best.

The work is booked for February and March, with bookings open by the start of April, weeks before workshop enquiries usually begin.

Put dates on it

A decision without a date is still an intention. Give each of the three a date to decide by, then give the work that follows a start and a finish.

One page holds it all: the decisions, who owns each, and the dates. Keep it where you will see it, and share it with whoever does the work.

If the choice between repairing and redesigning is still open, settle it in January as well. It decides the size of everything else.

What can wait

Not everything needs deciding now. The colour of a button, which plugin to use and how the gallery should look are questions for whoever does the work, once the three decisions are made.

Waiting on those is fine. Waiting on the three decisions is what turns a plan for February into a plan for next winter.

The counter-case

A business whose website works well, is looked after and has a settled budget may only need to confirm the three answers, which takes an hour.

A business in its first year, with no records to go on, will have rougher answers, and that is fine. A rough decision with a date beats a careful one that never comes.

And for some the honest answer to the first question is a few small repairs. That is still a decision, and it still deserves a date and a budget.

For everyone else: make the three decisions in January, and give the work dates that finish before the busy season.

Before February

  1. Write down what the site must do better.
  2. Look at this year's enquiries for evidence.
  3. Name who looks after updates, content and renewals.
  4. Confirm the business holds every login.
  5. Set a yearly figure and spread it by month.
  6. Decide repair or redesign before getting quotes.
  7. Put a date on every decision and task.

Step three keeps the plan going after February. Work with a named owner gets done; work that belongs to everyone waits for the next quiet season.

Whether the site needs repairs or a full rebuild is the subject of choosing between a redesign and a repair.

Frequently asked questions

What three website decisions should I make?

What the website must do better next year, who will look after it, and what it will cost for the whole year, each with a date to decide by.

Why decide before February?

Website work takes weeks, and the owner's input often sets the pace. Decisions made in January leave the late winter for the work, before spring gets busy.

How specific should the first decision be?

Specific enough to check. Write it as a result, such as more quote requests from the next town, rather than a feature or a new look.

Who should look after the website?

A named person or company for each job: updates and security, content, renewals and noticing problems. Write the jobs down so nobody assumes someone else is doing them.

What should the website budget include?

Hosting and the domain, maintenance, any repair or redesign, photographs and advertising that points at the site, totalled for the year and spread by month.

What if I am not sure what the site needs?

Then the first job is an assessment of what is sound and what is not. It answers the repair or redesign question, which sets the size of everything else.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Meaning to fix the website next year?

Send us the site address and your busy months. We will help you make the three decisions and date the work.

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