Streamlining your website strategy for 2023

As the year draws to a close, brands need to look at and plan how to maximize the performance of their websites and apps in order to best meet their customers in 2023. In this article, we’ll go through 5 key areas of a website/digital strategy you should focus on; let’s get started.

 

Data strategy

Data is the driving force behind exceptional digital experiences, but there is a big conflict between the need for more and better data on the one hand, and privacy concerns and regulations on the other.

One of the ways tech giants are tackling this problem is to rely less and less on the use of third-party cookies, which Google plans to phase out in 2024. This means it’s high time businesses start to implement other strategies for learning about their customers’ preferences, and the best approach here is to develop a first-party data strategy.

First-party data is freely given by your users/customers (through surveys, contact forms, social media interactions, etc.), and it can often be much more informative than third-party data, especially if you’re able to use it well. Best of all, it allows you to keep creating relevant customer experiences while also respecting the customers’ privacy.

Another priority for your 2023 data strategy should be revisiting your data analytics platforms, i.e.:

• Have you already upgraded from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4? From July 2023, UA will no longer be processing new hits, so you’ll need to upgrade to GA4 by then if you wish to continue getting relevant data from Google Analytics.
• Are you using a CRM/CDP for collecting and managing customer data? Make sure whichever ones you’re using are kept up to date and well connected with your other platforms to prevent data siloing.

 

Content audit

Of course, data’s key role is fueling the most essential part of digital experiences – content. As you prepare your content strategy for the new year, it’s wise to do a content audit to best gauge what has and hasn’t worked this past year, and how to streamline your content for the next.

Here you should cover two aspects:

• Content strategy: revisit your content strategy to determine where your focus should be in the year ahead. Review (un)successful content types, check your best performing pieces of content, reflect on the most memorable customer interactions and what kind of content resonated with them – here you can also check if your audiences and/or their habits have changed.
• SEO strategy: since search engine optimization is a constant race, you should refresh it at least once a year, and what better time to do it than at the beginning of the year. Redo competitor analysis, review your keywords and combine all that with efforts covered in the previous point to maximize the search engine performance of your content going into 2023.

 

UX audit

Sure, having great content is important, but how much can it really benefit you if your customers can’t access it, or are having a frustrating experience accessing it? To prevent such scenarios as much as possible, take the time to do a user experience audit now – if you’ll be adding out new content types and trying out new strategies, chances are high in any case that you’ll run into additional UX challenges, so a UX audit will be pretty much unavoidable.

The three primary considerations here should be:

• Core Web Vitals: these are Google’s most important factor for determining the quality of a webpage’s UX, which also heavily affects search engine rankings – meaning you should also keep this top of mind for the SEO part of the audit discussed above. 
• Accessibility: by now you’ve already had to take care of your website’s accessibility, and if you do a thorough UX audit you’ll have uncovered most of the outstanding accessibility issues. Still, it’s an essential aspect of a website’s usability, and so it’s wise to double check for any potential issues you might have missed, especially when it comes to page elements such as forms, which are key for any B2B site but also very prone to a11y issues.
• Mobile: more and more people are not only accessing content on their mobile phones, but also purchasing products directly through the smartphone. So, having your website function optimally on mobile is no longer a nice to have, but a must have. If you’re performing any other software and/or content updates, you’ll particularly need to check if any of these affect the experience on mobile and ensure your design stays responsive.

 

Software updates

Another important step in ensuring your website stays performant throughout 2023 is checking for any new software updates or, even more importantly, potential deprecations. 

For example, version 7 of the PHP programming language reached its end of life on November 28, making now the perfect time for owners of websites built on PHP or a PHP-based CMS such as Drupal to plan how and when to upgrade.

Determine what it would take to have your website stay up to date with its core technologies:

• Is there a new software version available? If your website runs on Drupal, check if it’s eligible for an upgrade to the recently released version 10 which also has full support for PHP 8.x.
• (When) do you need to upgrade? If the latest version doesn’t bring any new features you intend to use and/or staying on the current one poses no security risks, you can safely prioritize other aspects of your website strategy before committing to an upgrade, especially if you know it will be a complex one.
• Will you need custom development? If you determine that upgrading should be a top priority, check how much you can automate versus what will require custom development. In case you need some extra development capacity, check out how our team can help you out.

 

Channel strategy

This final point isn’t focused exclusively on the website, but rather treats it as a central content hub for your digital strategy. As such, a crucial step in streamlining your website for 2023 is also determining how it can best serve this overarching digital strategy by having its content reach your target audience however and wherever it resonates with them the most.

Review your current channels together with the relevant customer data to determine:

• What channels have been on the rise among your target audience and how can you tap into them? For example, have you noticed an uptick in engagement on a social media platform you haven’t yet focused on? Or perhaps so many of your customers access your B2C website on mobile that you’ve decided you need a mobile app? This part of the audit will help you plan how to customize your site and its content management processes to best fit any new channel you prioritize in 2023.
• Are there any channels that are no longer working for you? If so, review how much it still makes sense to focus on them and whether a better move would be to invest in the new channels you’ve uncovered instead.

 

Conclusion

The digital world moves so fast that it’s become a must to regularly refresh your website in order to keep it relevant to your customers. We hope this article helps you plan the best way ahead for your website going into 2023. We’re wishing you all the best in the new year!