I’m just in the process of preparing a presentation for my local 4N networking group and it occurred to me that I should share my thoughts a little more widely!
Having worked for clients who either want a brand new site or (more commonly) with a revamp of an existing site, I see the same mistakes being made over and over again and all of these mistakes will cost you money. That’s not to say other web-designers are all crooks but that if you aren’t clear about these points and don’t arm yourself with some knowledge it is very easy to waste money.
In this post I’m juts going to give you an overview of the seven (don’t forget the half!) points which will form the basis of posts in the coming weeks.
Mistake No 1 : No Plan
The first question you must ask yourself is ‘who is this site for?’ The first answer has to be a consideration of who it isn’t for! It isn’t for you, or your graphic designer or for your kids to tell you it looks pretty.
The site must be targeted at your ideal customer and you must consider what you want them to do as a result of visiting the site. In other words your Most Wanted Response (MWR)
Mistake No.2 : Who’s a Pretty Boy Then?
Mistake No.3 : Build it and they’ll come
Your website is not a ‘Field of Dreams’. Unless you have a traffic generation strategy you will struggle to attract any visitors except by chance.
How many ways do you use to drive traffic to your site?
Mistake No.4: Squander Your Money on SEO
Now, I realise this is probably the most contentious of my points. Everybody knows that you must get your SEO right. The trouble is that it can ultimately be a game of chance and with the global number of websites for any keyword you could spend an awful lot of money and time to get anywhere near the front page. Why not spend money on a well targetted Adwords campaign instead…which leads me nicely on to:
Mistake No.5 : Add to Larry & Sergey’s Retirement Fund
I’m a great fan of Google Adwords. When used effectively this is a very cost effective way to advertise your services and drive people to your site. But and it is a big BUT, you must understand what you are doing and your website must be ready to convert clicks from the advert ( here we go back to an effective and well thought out MWR).
Otherwise you will end up adding to Larry and Serge’s already (I imagine) extensive retirement fund as they are the co-reators of Google. Incidentally if you want a perfect example of a well executed MWR take a look at www.google.com !
Mistake No.6: Can You Just…..?
This is one of the most common mistakes I see with existing sites. If you want to be able to change your website yourself then you need a CMS system. This may be slightly more expensive to start with but will save you money in the long run as you can make small changes yourself when and how you want to without extra cost.
This site uses WordPress which is a free open source system. Unless you are techy yourself I would still get someone to set one up for you but once you’ve had a little bit of training you will be able to make any changes yourself.
Mistake No.7: Lights, Camera, Action!
Mistake No.7 and a half: “I Want to be Alone”
Please don’t forget once you have created your site it is never finished.