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Apr
21

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7 areas of successful web management

Category: Internet Strategy Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

I am the kind of person who needs clarity as much as possible when working towards any goal or mission, so I like things in neat, concise packages.

In my 14 years of working on the Internet, website initiatives are much more successful when we connect the dots and create clarity around the processes and structure that get us there.

With that said, I have found that this is the most natural and effective way I have found to explain the elements of a solid web infrastructure.

  1. Strategy. Includes site goals and measurements, SEO tactics, social media strategies, content strategy, etc. This strategy is in direct alignment with the overall organizational strategy. Thinking through audiences, goals around customer interactions, content delivery, and visibility are all part of this area. This becomes the blueprint that drives criteria for all other decisions.
  2. Content development & management. As an outcome of the overall strategy, content is developed and maintained, with editorial guidelines and process in place. It is essential to have appropriate resources dedicated to this area – without great content, your website will be just a pretty picture!
  3. Design/usability. Once you understand the overall strategy (which includes your content strategy) it is time to get to work. A good web designer understands best practices for web design, usability, Information Architecture, Audience-specific design, as well as site optimization, etc. A good designer takes in to consideration the long-term approach for site management, maintenance etc., in order to produce something that your organization can support.
  4. Front-end Development. Building efficient and effective templates using best practices is critical. An efficient, optimized site will not only make visitors happy, but help to increase your organic search rankings as well as reduce overall support resources and costs. A savvy front-end developer or ‘webmaster’ must be extremely knowledgeable about CSS, Xhtml, HTML, and Javascript, as well as a rich understanding of how open API’s work in order to integrate third party widgets, feeds, and other items to make the user experience even more valuable. This person will turn a smart web design in to a highly-functional masterpiece – and also acts as a liaison when developing heavy-hitting back-end functionality.
  5. Back-end Development. Programmers make complex functionality happen on your website. Typically these applications have some sort of database on the back-end, and are riddled with complex logic. This stuff makes my head spin – my hats off to those programmers who can take my ideas and work their magic to create flawless functionality on the web.
  6. Hosting/Infrastructure. Having a hosting infrastructure that includes both a development and live server is paramount for ongoing site success. All changes, upgrades, additions are completed on a development server which should mirror the production server – then approved and deployed. Using some sort of source control where site managers and developers are required to check out files prior to making changes works well. This way, versions of the site are kept in a database (this is also great fro disaster recovery) and can be rolled back if need be. Finally, the hosting environment must take into consideration the overall strategy of the site, the expected traffic, and type of activity going on – in order to accommodate with bandwidth, processing power, and support resources.
  7. Site ownership and ongoing management (non-technical). It is my opinion that every successful web initiative must have a champion – an inspired individual to oversee its success, measure activity against goals, write annual plans, and make sure the support structure is working effectively.

Apr
1

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5 Internet-related phrases I love to loathe

Category: Internet Strategy, Social Media Tags: , , , 1 Comment

For me, these are like nails on a chalkboard. Unfortunately, I am forced to use some of these from time-to-time.

  1. Virtual Tradeshow: Tradeshows are meant for in-person networking, idea-sharing, collaboration.. Folks who want a virtual tradeshow online really want a very visual product directory, which is fine – just don’t call it a tradeshow.
  2. Portal: My mental picture on this is a dumping ground for links to other places. Del.icio.us is much more effective, if this is what you want.
  3. Social Media: This is the term I love to hate. Isn’t all media social? The problem is I have yet to find another way to describe what it is that I am doing to my colleagues. Perhaps we need to make up a word, or borrow one from Tolkien’s elvish dictionary.
  4. Web 2.0: I guess I am just really tired of this one. Isn’t the web always evolving?
  5. Sticky eyeballs: The concept behind this rubs against the importance of community and collaboration online. Not to mention it sounds like a disease.