Write one sentence saying what the website must do in 2019, such as bring quote requests for one kind of work, then choose the single change that would help it most and book it for January.

The last working day

On the first working day of this year, the suggestion here was to find the sentence your website was built around: the one job it was supposed to do.

On the last working day, the same question looks forward. What must the site do next year, and what single change would help it most?

A lot happened around websites this year: a browser warning, new privacy pages, Facebook posts reaching fewer people, a new editor for WordPress.

None of that changes the method. One sentence, then one change.

What a good sentence names

The second is what most sentences leave out. Bring in more enquiries is a hope; bring in quote requests for commercial work in the Fraser Valley is a job a page can be judged against.

This year's sentence, checked

If you wrote a sentence in January, read it again before writing the next one. Ask whether the site did that job, and how you know.

The answer is in whatever was counted: calls noted by the phone, form submissions by month, bookings in the system. If nothing was counted, that is the year's first finding.

Then ask whether the job still fits. A business that needed volume a year ago may now be turning work away, and want the right customers rather than more of them.

Choosing next year's job

Choose by asking where the business needs to be in twelve months, and what the website can do about it.

If the diary is full but with the wrong kind of work, the job is attracting the right kind. If the phone is busy with the same questions every day, the job may be answering them before anyone calls.

If hiring is what holds the business back, the job may be job applications for a few months, which is a perfectly good job for a website.

Write it on one line. If it needs two, choose the half that matters more and let the other wait.

One change, not a list

Then choose one change: the single thing that would help the site do that job more than anything else.

Usually it is on a page that already exists: the page most visitors arrive on, the contact page, the main service page, or the form itself.

A list of twelve improvements gets half done by March and forgotten by May. One change, finished in January, is a change that happened.

The rest of the list is not wasted. It becomes the order of work for the rest of the year, once the first change is done.

Finding the change

The pages that brought enquiries this year, and the ones where visitors gave up, point to it.

Look at where most visitors arrive, read that page on a phone, and ask what stops somebody doing the one thing the sentence asks for.

The usual answers are ordinary: a phone number that cannot be tapped, a form asking for twelve things, a service page that never names the towns you cover, a booking system that only works on a computer.

Whichever stands most in the way of the job is the change. Not the one that would look best, and not the one somebody has been asking for.

A worked example

A pet sitting company with six sitters visits cats and dogs at home while their owners are away, across three neighbouring suburbs.

Its sentence for this year was simple: bring in new clients. By December it was turning people away every long weekend, while weekdays in the quiet months had room.

New clients must book a meet-and-greet, a short visit before any sitting, and most asked for one a few days before they travelled, when the diary was already full.

So the sentence for next year became: new clients booking their meet-and-greet weeks before they travel, in the three suburbs the company covers.

The single change is a meet-and-greet request form at the top of the home page, saying why to book early and showing the service area, in place of a slideshow of pets.

It goes in during the first week of January, ahead of spring break. Everything else on the list waits until it is done.

Booking it

A change decided on December 31 and left until spring is a resolution, not a plan.

Book it now with whoever maintains the site, for a date in January, with the sentence attached so they know what the change is for.

If your web company's January is already full, a date in the first half of February is fine. Having the date is what matters.

Counting from the first day

Start counting the job on the first working day of January, in whatever form fits it, and look at the number at the end of each month.

One month's figure says little on its own. Twelve of them, side by side next December, say whether the sentence was the right one.

Without the count, next December's review rests on impressions, and impressions favour whatever happened last week.

The counter-case

For a business whose site does its job well, this takes ten minutes: confirm the sentence, choose a small change, carry on.

A business planning a rebuild next year can make the sentence the first line of the brief, and leave the change to the rebuild.

And a business with a very new site may do best to leave it alone for a few months and count what it does before changing anything.

For everyone else: one sentence for next year, one change, and a date in January to make it.

Today

  1. Read this year's sentence, if you wrote one.
  2. Check what was counted this year.
  3. Write next year's job on one line.
  4. Find the page most visitors arrive on.
  5. Name the one change that helps most.
  6. Book it for January with whoever maintains the site.
  7. Start counting on the first working day.

Step five is the hard one, because every business has a list. Choosing one item means saying not yet to the others, which is exactly what gets the first one done.

Where the sentence came from at the start of the year is covered in what your website was supposed to do.

Frequently asked questions

What should my website do next year?

One job, written as a sentence: a result such as calls, quote requests or bookings, from the kind of customer you want most, counted monthly.

Why only one change?

Because a long list gets half done by March and forgotten by May. One change finished in January actually happens, and the rest of the list follows in order.

How do I find the change?

Read the page most visitors arrive on, on a phone, and ask what stops somebody doing the one thing the sentence asks for. That obstacle is the change.

What if the job has changed?

Write the new sentence and judge the site against it. A business that needed volume a year ago may now want the right customers rather than more of them.

When should the change be made?

Book it today for a date in January, or the first half of February if your web company is busy. Having the date matters more than the exact day.

How will I know it worked?

Count the job from the first working day of January and look monthly. Twelve months side by side next December show whether the sentence was the right one.

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.

Not sure what the site should do next year?

Send us the address and this year's sentence, if you have one. We will suggest the one change to make first.

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