One of the interesting phenomena we have encountered is when a website starts evolving away from the corporate direction. This occurs when the website development team is separated from the strategic decision makers, or is treated as an off shoot of the main business.
It also occurs when too many people are inputting to the web content and no cohesive plan is being followed. Normally this does not happen over night but is a result of many minor changes and inattention to the overall direction. It rarely becomes obvious to the organization, but to customers and visitors to the site who have done their homework, there appears to be a gap or disconnect with the organization and perhaps contradictions with policy or other bits of confusion. The end result is an uneasiness or other doubts being created in the minds of potential customers. Which then translates into a negative user experience and possibly loss of potential business.
Unless the employees and executive are on the site regularly, it is very difficult to realize what is happening. Similarly if the marketing team is not connected with the web development team, this strategic drift will occur
Every website has a life cycle – that is a limit to its usefulness. When that is for each website is determined by many factors, but probably it is 12 to 18 months. So an annual strategic review of the website and the organization’s strategic plan will avoid strategic drift and extend the usefulness of the website.
