blog

When websites go wrong, businesses go right after them

A successful website takes two important things into account. First, your business' goals and objectives.

  • How do you sell your business to your customers? Your services? Your products?
  • What business software or platforms, other than a website, support your business?
  • Who in your business will administer the site and what is their level of technical knowledge?

And second, your client's or customer's goals and objectives.

  • Who are your clients or customers? Age? Demographic? Gender?
  • What do they hope to achieve by coming to your website?
  • What path will they most likely follow to conversion?

These and many other questions need to be answered before a single pixel is designed or a line of code developed.

More often than not, the answers to such questions are not incorporated into a website's design, the result being a site that has little to do with effectively serving your business.

Here are the three common reasons your current website may be failing your business and how you can achieve success with your website.

Lack of Planning
Odds are your current website was designed without much planning. If you're lucky, it may look nice, but your clients and customers seem confused and often call or email you to find out "more about what you do" - if they can find your contact info. You feel like you're working for your website, instead of it working for you. You've made some changes, but somehow it continues to "miss the point."

Superior planning involves finding out as much as possible about your business and then applying that knowledge to the design and development of your website. Our mantra is "Do it once, do it right." Thoroughly plan your next website project and put your site to work serving your company.

Poor Messaging
Your website sends many messages that create questions in a visitor's mind within seconds of arriving. Does the homepage tell me who you are and what you do? Do I see clear pathways to important goals and appropriate calls to action? Will I quickly find what I came for? Is the site safe for me to browse without getting lost, confused or misdirected?

The answers sent back from your site decide whether they stay and explore...or leave. And slick spin or savvy marketing language won't correct the poor messaging revealed by your website's "less noticable" flaws and shortcomings. Thorough planning married to intelligent design and development will ensure that all messages your website sends are clear, trustworthy and reassuring, on every level.

Unprofessional Website Developers
Coders, developers, programmers. They are the last line of defense protecting your website from failure. Get the rest right, fail here, and you still fail. Online, there's no 85% or 95% right. If you feel your site is "95%" of the way there, it's actually closer to zero.

Slow page load, browser incompatibilities, inattention to SEO basics, and any number of other technology driven quirks, idiosyncrasies and equivocations will drive customers from your site into the digital arms of others.

We employ only trained and educated (a computer science degree is mandatory) web development professionals, all in-house and well versed in the latest development technologies and standards. Verify before you start your next redesign that your chosen vendor does the same.

Contact us to find out more about achieving success in your next website project.