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Mar 28 / 2:06am

Things to consider when creating a website for your business

Website-design

A website is an important tool for businesses when it comes to communicating with existing clients and attracting new ones. Today I want to highlight common mistakes to avoid when creating a website for your business.

1. We built it but nobody came...

If attracting new visitors to your website is important, then you need to plan for it - it is highly unlikely you will succeed by accident. If possible, you should start thinking about marketing your website before you even have one. The way a website is built can dramatically impact on its ability to perform well in search engines.

You should ask potential web developers for examples of websites they have built that are ranked highly. You will also need to consider things like email marketing, offline marketing and a variety of other marketing methods to attract quality traffic to your website. This will be an ongoing process.

2. A website is never finished

Avoid thinking about your website as something that will ever be finished, rather you need to think of how easily and cost effectively your website will evolve over time. You will need to add new pages, edit content, possibly consider a design face-lift, as well as make constant small improvements to keep up to date with the latest internet developments, such as new web browsers.

The degree to which your website evolves will depend on the type of website you settle upon and where it fits into your business as a whole. If changes are frequent you should seriously consider a Content Management System (CMS).

A CMS allows you to update your website content yourself rather than paying web developers to make simple changes. Be aware that over time you may need to also spend money to keep the CMS itself up to date as technology changes.

3. Users hate slow websites

Do not underestimate how a slow loading website can affect its success. Not everyone has broadband and those who do expect sites to get faster each year. Statistics suggest that if a website doesn’t load within eight seconds, around one-third of visitors will leave.

The need for a fast website emphasises the importance of cutting straight to the point and avoiding large image or video files that may look nice, but adversely affect the performance of your website. Speak to your website developer about techniques to make your website load within a reasonable timeframe. It can be attractive to go for cheap hosting, however be aware that you may be sacrificing the speed of your website, and therefore its success, for a few pounds£.

4. Don’t necessarily go for the cheapest option

Creating a website can cost a business anything from a few pounds to tens of thousands of pounds. The price difference will come down to your specific needs and how much custom design or programming you require. In all of this you need to maintain a strict sense of reality, as the old adage goes – you get what you pay for!

Don’t go for a cheap do-it-yourself solution if you do not have the skills to create a website that will effectively win you customers, rather than turning them away. You may not need a highly customised and expensive solution if your website simply needs to let people know what your business does. Explore all your options before you make a decision

5. Keep it simple

When creating a website, pay attention to some of the more successful websites on the Internet and you will find a theme of simplicity. Think Google, YouTube, eBay and even Facebook. You will notice that all of these sites focus carefully on their core message and purpose. They do not get distracted by fancy flash movies, graphic intensive layouts and unnecessary distractions. You have to decide: is your website a fancy piece of art or is it a tool for your business? Of course this does not mean that you can’t have a successful website that also looks great. But the core purpose of your website should remain your focus.

6. Sites which look awful in very new or very old browsers.

Before selecting a web designer ask them about website compatibility. Do not let them tell you that “only” 10% of users have that type of browser, or only 15% of users have that operating system. The reality is only a fraction of website users will have the latest operating system, the latest browser and the highest screen resolution. Ignore the minorities at your peril! There is no reason why you can have a fantastic and effective website presence that is viewable and useable by well over 95% of internet users. Ensure that your website looks great and functions correctly :

•On both PCs and Macs

•Using Firefox, Explorer (versions 5 and up) and Safari

•On monitors starting at a resolution of 1024 x 768. While there are still 800 x 600 resolution monitors out there, building a site for that size screen will limit the effectiveness of your site for the vast majority of users.

•When measuring up to W3C compliance.

7. Choose the right web developer

It is absolutely vital that you have a good relationship with your web developer. Your website needs will evolve over time so you need a developer you can rely on. With literally thousands of developers across the UK or the world, finding the right one for your business can be a challenge. I would strongly advise that you probe any potential developer with a range of questions, including:

•Can you supply me with a list of the last five websites you built?

•Can you supply me with the contact details of five happy customers?

•How long have you been in operation and how many websites have you built?

•What makes your websites search engine friendly?

•Can you show me examples of your customers’ websites ranking well in Google?

•Who owns your company?

•How many staff members do you employ?

•Who owns my website once it is built?

•If you go out of business what happens to the code that runs my website?

•How much will website changes cost after my initial website is built and how quickly will you work on them?

•Who is responsible for repairing bugs in my website?

The answers that are supplied to these questions will give you a good feel for your potential web developer. You need a company that has a strong track record and one that you feel will be around in a few years time. If your web developer goes out of business it can be disastrous for your business. You also need a web developer that builds sites that have the potential to rank well in Google.

8. Know your limitations

Solo business owners are used to being a jack of all trades. There have been times when I have been a Managing Director, Financial Controller, Head of Sales, Gopher and virtually every other role imaginable all at the same time.

It can be tempting to consider adding ‘web designer’ to this list of roles. However, I would advise you to put some serious thought into whether it will actually save you money. The web is a complex place where only the fittest succeed. Designers go to design college and spend years learning exactly what sells and what doesn’t. A good web developer will have invested thousands of hours honing their skills to ensure they build websites of a high standard. You might find it less stressful, quicker and even cheaper to hand-over your website project to the experts. The result, if you pick the right web developer, will be better than if you attempt it yourself. Go ahead, delegate!

Pick a web developer you trust and then listen to them and back their judgement. Have them explain the reasons for their decisions, but ultimately they should be in a position to make decisions relating to your website. It is important to remember that it isn’t what you like, but rather what your potential customers like that really matters.

9. Champagne tastes on a beer budget?

You need to be realistic when creating a website as websites can get really expensive. Web developers are well paid people and their time is costly. When you contract a web company to complete a sophisticated web project it will require highly paid programmers to sit down and spend hours, possibly weeks, coding to your requirements. There is simply no way to make this a cheap process although if you can leverage code they have used before, you may be able to keep your costs down.

Keep in mind that large web-based companies will not spend a set amount of money on a website project. Rather, they will have a team of developers who are dedicated to working on their system to make changes, developments and improvements. These systems can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds each and every year in terms of maintenance and improvements.

This does not mean that you shouldn’t expect to have a great website built for your company at a reasonable price. I have seen wildly successful websites at all price points - £495 to over £100,000. I have also seen abject failures that blew well over £50,000.

You need to approach your web developer with a clear idea of what you want to achieve. You then need to have a realistic plan on how you will afford ongoing changes to your website. Accept that you will need to make changes to your website, regardless of how well you have planned your project.

10. I don’t know what happens on my website!

You can’t judge the success of your website without knowing what is happening on it. It is vitally important that you carefully analyse who is coming to your website, where they are coming from and what they are doing on your website once they arrive. You can do this with a website statistics program, these are commonly referred to as website analytics and there are many options out there. Some such as Google Analytics, are free and do a great job. I gave you a report of our analytics last week, I hope that was useful.

I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts and suggestions on mistakes to avoid when creating a website for your business. Don’t let it scare you, though! There are hundreds of fantastic website developers across the world who will do a fabulous job for you. Don’t be afraid to pepper them with questions and research their background in great detail. You also need to have a firm plan on what you want from your website and what will be judged a success or failure.

Good luck!

P/S If any of this has been of any use to you would like to discuss it further or you would just like to discuss your online presence then don’t hesitate to contact us on info@quartzmarketing.co.uk

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