Web Strategy

A strong web strategy balances your business goals with your user’s needs and turns them into a focused, visionary roadmap for your site.

We start with defining exactly what you want to achieve with your site, and the priorities and preferences of the people who will use the site or you want to reach.

A custom-made strategy

Just as no website is the same, web strategies require individual attention. One size does not fit all. Shift will work with you to identify what makes your business – and your website – unique. We make the most of our independent position, balancing your users’ needs with your business goals.

A web strategy is an extension of your business, marketing and communication plans. It reinterprets your overarching objectives for the online environment and can facilitate the resolution of complex communication issues.

Understanding your target users is just as important as knowing your business goals. User testing, market research and your organisation’s own intuition help to build a clear picture of your users, and their needs and expectations. A strategy is especially necessary when your site is full of “live” information for the users. Having one authoritative source for your information speeds up knowledge transfer and makes it efficient for the user to access the site.

Shift web strategies define a long-term vision for the site, and identify projects which will deliver this. As in all businesses, the strategy will have goals - things like an increase in return visitor numbers, more online sales, or a higher proportion of overall business transactions online – to be achieved. Effective strategies chart attainable routes to achieving goals, within a set time.

Invest in a focused future

A web strategy is an investment. It adds value by ensuring all efforts support your business goals, and minimises the risk of wasting time and effort on misguided or inappropriate initiatives.

By setting out a detailed work plan the strategy assists with budgeting and business planning, and helps you to keep web projects within scope and to deadline. It also often assists your organisation by reviewing business processes which will be required to support the web strategy.

Many Shift clients have web strategies that have guided the evolution of their sites over several years. We have recently created strategies for the Ministry of Economic Development and the Department of Labour, among others.