What To Do When You Build Your Website
Part 1
Website builder analysis and changing for your website.
We covered all the reasons why you shouldn’t use the DIY websites for your business in Wonderful World of Website Builders – NOT. So, now what do you do? You have hired a friend, or you are going to tackle building a website from WordPress, where you own the website and provide the hosting, smart move. Remember, that the quality of your website can either break your business or see your business succeed.
Our team has years of experience jumping over obstacles and countless other issues that occur when creating a website. And let us not forget the ever-changing rollouts from Google that affects websites from front end to back end in algorithms. Pain-staking at times. Be sure to plan out your website in detail. Built it, test, run compliance and make changes before launching it. Better yet, hire us and we will make it happen for you! Just kick back while we “take it beyond design”.
Boy, things have changed. Now business cannot rely on the power of social media alone, they must have website branded, functional and user-friendly. So, let’s dive into areas that we see are problematic when clients come to us.
Let’s start with Part 1 of Web Design Mistakes:
Wow Factor – Fancy, Colorful and Sparkly Dynamics:
Oh, you have created a beautiful website for sure with all the bells and whistles, very fancy like. However, you forgot some of the most critical areas like your end-user experience. Just because you can see how it all works, because you built it, don’t assume your end-user can. Hard to read formats of text might be a concern. You picked a cute font but hard to read on mobile. Or you have it spread too thin it is not easy on the eyes because I’m jumping all over the place. Nice pictures though. Those pictures though it creates inconsistent aesthetics for the end user.
Why?? So, What Is It You DO?
I am on your homepage but I’m not real clear about your services or what you can do for me. Did you know that most users will bounce from your page if they do not see a defined statement explaining what it is your company does? No joke, it needs to be up-close and personal and preferably above the fold. Otherwise, you are losing opportunities to grab your audience at the very beginning of their research. Put your slogan, tagline and list your USP above the fold so that anyone coming to your website knows just what you do and how you can help them.
Logistics and Longing
Information, we all crave information. It’s the world we live in, whether we want it on not. However, when it comes to your website you can’t give the world enough. Talk about your business, include hours, location, and how they can connect with the you. If your website has a local business shop, list it and provide a map. Make it easy for your customers to see it and find you. Best practices are on your Contact Us page and/or in your footer so it is on every page of your website. Don’t leave your potential customers hanging and longing for more, bare it all!
Product, Product but No Organization
I am seeing so many different products and while all this is amazing, and cool but I really just want to find what I came here for. What would you say is the most important part of your store? If you had a brick-and-mortar store it would be keeping it clean, having things arranged so that shoppers could find things easily, right? Your website is no different and having unrelated products together, unless it’s sales or clearance items, makes no sense to your customers. So, again the importance of your end user experience means you need to pay attention to the details of placement and navigation.
Let’s Get Techy
Face it, you have inventory, you have clients, you have customers, you might have a life. . . you are a busy person. Finding time to take care of your website can be a dauting task. What do you mean take care of it? Most individuals do not think about that maintenance that comes with having a website.
Maintenance: Plugins need updated and let me tell you, some of those updates can make your website crash. You need to pay careful attention to updating them. Always, always back up your website or make sure that your server backs up your website on a daily basis.
Website Health:
Make sure your website health meter is getting a good grade from Google. How do you do that? Well, there are two ways: One way is to pick up our Website Audit Checklist and another way would be to hire me to run an in-depth business audit. Making sure all your software and themes are updated and running smoothly to prevent slowing down our website and making it vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Basic Backups & Security:
This is a precautionary measure because these days it doesn’t take much for the hackers to make their way into your site and cause chaos. We check daily backups, and most hosting agencies will now do backups for you. I still like to make a local backup monthly, for the just in case. There are security plug ins that you can install, and I highly suggest that you do. Also, speaking of security have you added the lines of code needed to website?
Did you know that over 80% of the cyberattacks are to small to medium-sized businesses?
Words Are Just Words = No Keywords
If you are just writing your content for your website, you probably did not take the time to get a professional evaluation of current keywords to target. You need keywords to rank your beautiful website, because it won’t be visible on pretty pictures or just dynamic responsive websites without them. We call this SEO, Search Engine Optimization. I’m sure you’ve heard the word before. It is a big buzzword in our world and in yours, actually.
You need to take the time to learn about on-page and off-page optimization. Like you need anything more to do right now, but just a reminder, we are here for that too. A well built and designed website will center around our keyword strategy to drive traffic, this also tells the search engines that, “Hey, I have something to say” and I’m a pro at “whatever keywords you pick”.
Last issue on this part 1 of Website Design Mistakes:
Not hiring a professional, like us to take the frustration and task away from you. We give you back your time with all the techy stuff and building out a website that is not only beautiful BUT is also functional. You really can’t get the customer service you need, the quality, or the uniqueness of a crafted just for your website from the page builder kind. Make sure your website is professional so hire a professional in the long run it does pay off.
Stay tuned for part two next week.