5 things most web designers don’t know that  are silently killing your chances of online success.

Last Updated on Nov 20, 2017 by Jos

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    6 things most web designers don’t know that  are silently killing your chances of online success.

     

    Problem: The majority of web designers are JUST designers… i.e they’ll take exactly what you tell them and create a pretty picture with it.
    Solution: Start with your end user in mind. (Visitor Avatar) and build your website experience around helping them achieve their goals. Meaning before your designers start designing your site they should at the very least have a conversation with you about what the website should be designed to achieve. E.g leads, sales, enquiries.

     

    You should also be clear on what information your visitor will want to see on the site. Helping them find this information easily will instill a level of trust which will help position you as the expert in their eyes.

     

    Problem: Marketing is an afterthought…

    Solution: Before you start building your site you must consider where your traffic will be coming from. This is very important especially when you need to consider that you’ll need to make sure it’s compliant with the rules that traffic source might have in place. E.g with Google Adwords your testimonials and anything that can be considered a claim must be displayed in a specific way.

     

    It’s also a consideration for when you know you should be creating audiences on those platforms to retarget from day 1. I.e you should be building in Facebook™ and Google AdWords™ remarketing pixels into the site.

     

    Problem: You can’t manage what you can’t measure (analytics)

    Solution: Remember that saying “You’re closer to success than you think”. Well this is definitely true of even websites. If you know what your goals are and your visitors are taking all the right actions bar one without analytics you might look at your site and see it as a total failure. But with the right measuring tools in place you’ll be able to make the necessary adjustments based on data to get the results.

     

    Problem: Your site is so incredibly slow it makes a tortoise seem like a Ferrari

    Solution: This is often a result of using inferior hosting, you should aim to use the best hosting possible for your budget. Speed is vital here when a site is fast visitors are likely to stay and consume the content. However keep them waiting and….

     

    Well you can imagine the result.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Another common cause of this is a bloated theme or plugins. Meaning it’s coded in a way that’s messy and takes a long time to load. Your best bet in this case is to start by using a theme with a code base that allows you to do everything you want without being excessively heavy.

     

    I personally use and love beaver builder along with a suite of plugins that help keep mine and my clients online world running smooth.

     

    Problem: No Safeguards in case of Disaster.

    Solution: Ensure a regular backup schedule is in place (we recommend a daily offsite backup), updates are made regularly to the software themes and plugins software.

     

    This is extremely important because if it’s not in place you risk losing everything, your site being hacked or worse still losing the trust of your site visitors when things inevitably do go wrong.

     

    Problem: You’re often left fending for yourself once the site has been handed over.

    Solution: Just like a bad breakup, most web designers are all care and no responsibility. Little to no training, no support and absolutely no responsibility once your site has been handed over.

     

    Now doing this for you does take time and skill and honestly most aren’t equipped with the ability to assist you long term. If they are brilliant, take them up on the offer, knowing your site will be in safe hands.

     

    What I recommend in this situation is to have some form of training (ideally video training that you can easily reference.), have site security, backups and speed optimisation handled by them (or me 🙂 ) and making sure your site is regularly updated with the latest software versions.

     

    Conclusion: I hope this handy little guide has been useful to you. If you’re looking at getting your own site designed soon and would like some help from me personally. I’d love to book a time to chat with you. Click here to schedule a time that suits.