Speeding Up the Website Change Process

For all the talk of analyzing a website for key performance indicators and making changes based on the findings, altering even a single website element can be quite difficult for companies where requested changes - even those that are timely - are queued only to lose their effectiveness once they are made.

Website Magazine caught up with online form builder JotForm to get insights into how to speed up the website change process for greater revenue opportunities.

What's the process like in many organizations when it comes to making Web changes?

Aytekin Tank, CEO & Founder of JotForm: Depending on the organization's content management system (CMS), the process tends to fall somewhere along the likes of...

1. Employee identifies area of website in need of an update
2. If new copy is needed, employee notifies the department responsible for copywriting the changes
3. Updated text or graphics are sent to the marketing team for review to ensure they meet brand guidelines and subsequent approval
4. Final changes are sent to team responsible for handling the content management system

What are the downfalls of having one department responsible for Web changes?

Tank: If a single department is the only point of contact for making changes, it can often lead to a bottleneck and long turnaround times, even the smallest changes.

What are the benefits of having a single department responsible for Web changes?

Tank: On the flip side, having a single point of contact reduces confusion since every employee knows immediately who manages all change requests. With one department managing the changes, it can also prioritize the various requests.

What recommendations do you have for enterprises/organizations that want to speed up the pace of Web changes to meet their business needs?

Tank: The sections of an organization's website that can be redesigned with a flexible form should definitely be moved to that system.

This can include areas such as contact pages and order forms. Once these pages are converted into forms, they can be easily edited using an online form building software.

What are "flexible forms" and how can they help individuals struggling to get desired website changes done?

Tank: Flexible forms is simply a term used to describe online forms that can be edited quickly. Many online form builders, such as JotForm, allow you to easily make changes simply by dragging and dropping new fields, or removing them with a single click. If these forms are embedded on your website, you only have to copy and paste the embed code into your CMS and the changes are instantly applied, without having to rewrite any code.

Please provide a specific example of an enterprise/organization using flexible forms for business benefit.

Tank: One of our users, Beast Metals -- an exercise equipment manufacturer -- created an order form via JotForm to sell products online (to zoom, click on image). If for any reason the products become unavailable, they can remove it from their website simply by editing the form. Beast Metals can also quickly add new products using the same process. By embedding a flexible order form on their website, they were able to increase their total sales by 50 percent.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Tank: Flexible forms are an incredible and powerful tool. Given their versatility, they can be used to create surveys to help with website user testing, quickly creating different versions of pages for A/B tests, and more.