5 non-negotiables when building a website
Branding
One crazy thing I hear time and time again is to “Just start the business, your website/branding/logo can wait” or “Don’t get caught up in the little details”
If you are anything like me, your drive and motivation is the excitement and enjoyment your business brings you. That passion! When you try to launch and take on clients without a purpose or image of what your branding will be, your name, your brand identity, it’s not a good feeling.
I tried that. I tried to get clients with no website and you know what I got? A lot of responses like this…
“What’s your website”
“Do you have a business card or info I can save?”
“I’d love to look at your portfolio”
So all it did was make me look unprofessional and like a complete noob. While I can understand the mentality of getting stuck on the design and naming process of your business, it’s important. Because once you find that perfect name, that perfect logo, etc…a couple of things happen.
You get PUMPED!! You’re proud and want to show it off. Asking for clients and advertising isn’t embarrassing anymore. Sure it took you a few days, weeks or even a couple of months to pick something perfect but now that you have, it’s yours and it just FEELS good. Ya know?
I’m not saying that while you are thinking of your business name or logo you pause all other things. Play around with colors, and logos, but also start blogging and saving them for when you do launch.
Draft up a business plan
What will our services and price plans be? There are a million and one things to do, so don’t get stuck, just keep swimming and that light bulb moment for the perfect name and branding will come, I promise.
2. SEO
What the Bleep is SEO? Right? If you’re not sure, I’m almost positive you’ve heard SEO thrown around before. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
The Coles Notes version is, implementing strategies in your website to help Google find you so you can show up on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
This can be daunting and for the majority of business owners, mundane and tedious. Especially if you don’t know what you’re doing or how to do it.
Also, word to the wise, you can’t just put in a few keywords and suddenly be showing up on the first page of Google. No no, it’s not that easy.
Google’s algorithm makes it so they show only the pages that show the MOST authority on the topic you are searching. For example, if you are looking up book clubs, Oprah is going to be number one followed probably by Reese Witherspoon's club. They get the organic traffic, they’ve been doing it for years and probably have countless blog posts with very strategic keyword placements.
But don’t fret, you don’t have to have celebrity superpower to rank on Google, but you DO have to have patience and consistency.
For example, think of Google for this instance like the old-school personal ads in the newspapers. You are looking for your soul mate. Your ad simply says you’re single and looking for love. You get little to no responses or the responses you get are not welcome.
Let’s say Bob down the street is also single and looking for love, but in his ad, he also adds that he’s 46 years old, likes the outdoors and old movies, with a love to travel.
Now he’s getting responses from people that are similar and exactly what he’s looking for.
The point is, don’t skim on SEO research and post regularly. Google will start to recognize you as a business who knows what they’re talking about.
3. Flow/User-intuitive
This is where I say your competition comes in. What do their websites look and feel like? What do you like about them, what don’t you?
Don’t simply slap together a basic page and pray your clients will come in droves. You gotta do the work, either yourself or hire a designer who knows what's going on (ahem…)
Your website should not only look pleasant aesthetically but also function rather intuitively. Do your pages make sense, is it clear what your business is? How can people reach you or find out more?
I love Pinterest for pinning ideas for websites. Taking a little of this and a little from another site and making one big beautiful useful website!
I utilize Pinterest in ALL my builds and I encourage my clients to do so as well. And I make it very clear, not to steal ideas or layouts but for inspiration, to make it your own.
4. Purpose
This one’s important. What is the purpose of your website? Are you looking to grow an email list? To showcase your portfolio, advertise an event, or just sell our service/product? Whatever the purpose is, make it clear and ensure there are multiple CTA throughout your website.
Call To Actions are prompts throughout your site to encourage users to buy the thing, sign up for the service, or book a call with you. The goal is to place not just one but multiple throughout your website as users navigate different pages and hopefully learn more about you and the things you offer. The more they see you are a pro and the real deal, the more likely they will want to sign up, so make it easy for them to do so. Building trust is important. It takes a potential client/customer to see your business or pitch 7 times before they take action. 7 times!
The purpose for your website is very much like a physical storefront. They say you have 3 seconds to make a first impression. You’d want your physical storefront to look inviting and entice people to come in. To stick around and browse. This is the same thing with a website. Visitors that exit your website without browsing is called a bounce.
So the purpose is to get people to visit your website but to also stay! You should have a clear vision of how to get that to happen.
5. Proof, double check, triple check, then check again
And finally, like anything you put into the world. An email, text, website you’ve built…. proofread everything. Check every link, make sure pictures load, and forms are sent properly to the designated email.
Check. All. The. things.
Seriously.
And then have someone else, a friend or family member check it again.
As a rule of thumb, I go through each page from top to bottom. I check on the links all the copy for grammar, spelling, and readability.
Do your links open in new tabs or redirect your current window? Does it do what’s supposed to?
Next, do the same thing mobile view. I’m the first to say that this is probably the least enjoyable part of building a website but so important to not skip over. You may think you were super thorough but we are all human and even the best of us make mistakes. And they could cost you a paying client.
……Even the header and footer.
WAIT!
Does that just sound like too much and you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?
Let’s chat and I can do all the above and MORE to get you kick started on an awesome new website in 2 weeks tops or maybe even 1 day.
Let’s chat! or check out my services to see if we’re a fit.
