What an exciting moment! Right???
Now, we don’t want to kill the buzz you got going on just thinking about all the business your new website is going to generate for you. However, before you dive in headfirst, we’d like to make sure you don’t make these very common and costly mistakes.
Mistake #1: Focusing 90% of your effort on the website’s design
Mirror, mirror on the wall…this is perhaps the most common mistake of them all!
Ok yes, your new website design is important. And yes, it should be given some consideration. But should it be top priority? Should it take up all of your time? Should you spend hours nitpicking over button shapes, drop shadows and parallax effects?
The answer is a resounding NO! And here’s the reason why.
Great design, alone, is not the end-all be-all. Your design should play a supporting role, not the lead role, to the other aspects of your site that will have a greater impact on your bottom line, like your compelling copy, targeted sales funnels, landing page layouts, and email list opt-ins. So until you have all of those items in order, don’t you even dare start thinking about about the design of your new site.
In all honesty, design is just a big fat shiny distraction for you when it’s first thing you start working on when creating your new website. You’ll get so caught up in it, that by the time your design is finalized, you’ll be so ready to just get your site launched already, you won’t want to spend any more effort on the other pieces of your website.
Your copy, layout and sales funnels should dictate your design…not the other way around.
So do yourself a huge favor and save the design for the last step prior to actually building your website. Spend the necessary time to take care of the other items first. Then, you’ll actually find the design process goes much faster AND you’ll have a final website that performs better when it comes to generating more business.
It’s a win-win.
Get our FREE eGuide to help you with your new website.
Mistake #2: Blowing your entire budget on the creation of the new website
Oh gosh, now this is an especially painful mistake.
Have you thought about what it might cost to create a new website? Yes, you probably have.
Ok, but have you also considered what it might cost to maintain your website, keep it secure, back it up, make changes, and promote it to your target audience?
If you answered “No”, you are not alone.
We find most entrepreneurs grossly underestimate what it might take to not just keep their website up and running, but to ensure it’s actually performing the way you want it to…meaning it generates more leads, customers and revenue for your business.
Here’s a hint, the ongoing optimization and maintenance of your site will cost much, much, much more than your initial website creation.
And you SHOULD be investing in your website on an ongoing basis, to ensure it’s helping support your business. Your website is just as important as your brick and mortar location, if not more. So please, please, please do not neglect it. If you do, you’ll likely end up paying an arm and a leg to fix it,,,when you could have spent much less provided you had paid regular attention to your site.
Ok, so now that we’re on the same page, let’s talk numbers.
Like all savvy entrepreneurs, you likely know what percentage of your revenue you can put back into your business for online marketing purposes. We recommend taking 75-80% of that and setting it aside for the ongoing maintenance, optimization and marketing of your website. Now take the 20-25% you have left and that is how much you can spend on your initial website creation.
Whoa. Are you having a bit of a wake-up call? Are those numbers in line with how you had originally allocated your website budget?
We suspect not. However, while this may require a drastic shift in your financial mindset when it comes to thinking about your website, we promise it will pay off.
A plan to improve your website 1% every day after launch and spend X amount doing so, will impact your business in a far greater way than spending that same amount on the initial site creation ever would.
Mistake #3: Forgetting to gather feedback from your target audience about your new site prior to launching
Imagine this.
You have spent thousands of dollars and many months working on your new website. And you finally just launched this bad boy! Woohoo! It’s time for the customers to start rolling in.
Except…all you hear are digital crickets. Uh oh.
You scramble to figure out what’s wrong, you think it might be A…and spend more money and time making that change. Still no customers. Now you try B…still no customers.
You’re in a deep hole, and you’re just digging yourself deeper and deeper. And you’re having a really hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
You can avoid this miserable scenario by getting feedback on your new site BEFORE you launch it. And here’s the kicker…you want to get feedback from others who are either in your target audience and/or do not know your company.
This will allow you to get unfiltered feedback in all its glory. Yes, sometimes it hurts. Yes, sometimes it means you need to go back and make changes. But, you’ll really appreciate the frank input when it results in a better performing website.
Sounds great right? But you might be wondering: “How hard is it to gather feedback?”
We’re here to tell you its super duper easy when you use a tool called UserTesting.com. Go to the website, input your URL and get a free video of a real person using your website…and giving you feedback. Want more? You’ll have to pay for those, but you’ll find that the $50 you spend per test is a whole heck of a lot cheaper than creating a website that gets no results and then having to go back and fix it.
Why not get a video now of your current site? We bet you’ll be surprised by at least one of the comments you receive from your user test.
A special (and free) bonus to help you with your new website…
Now that you know the 3 site mistakes not to make, we’ve created a free guide to help you create your new website quickly and affordably.
We’ve helped so many entrepreneurs create new websites (and created 5 different versions of our own site). And we’ve perfected the science (and art) behind cost-effective, revenue-generating business websites. We’d love to share with you a few of our methods that you can easily apply when working on your own new site to save time and money on the process.