Jon Whitbeck
Websites that Can Weather the Storm
As a professional web designer, here’s a situation that happens often. A potential client wants a website. I listen to their web needs, research their market, and lay out a plan like an architect would with blueprints for a solid house that will keep them safe and warm in all sorts of bad weather. But they think they’re only going to need an umbrella. So, I explain why they need a house. And then they go get themselves an umbrella. After a few storms, they ask me to turn their umbrella website into a real home on the web.
So, if you’re thinking about getting a DIY umbrella website, here’s what I’ve seen happen:
1. You Don’t Appear in a Keyword Search: The Hurricane
When you search for your business the way your target consumer would and you don’t show up, this is an SEO problem. Say you’re a jeweler in Springfield and your cousin put up your umbrella website for free. After a while, you notice no one ever mentions that they found you through your website, so you decide to Google “Jeweler in Springfield.” And your competition shows up on the first page … and on the second page … and on the third page. Honestly, you can forget even going past the first page. No one else will.
A professional web developer layers SEO into every aspect of their web designs from coding to keywords so you’ll have a fighting chance at getting new business.
2. You Get Complaints About Your Site: The Hailstorm
Maybe you don’t care about getting new customers. You just need a site to support your word-of-mouth business. For example, you own a restaurant and your Yelp reviews are good, so you decide to put up a site to get more Yelpers in your door. If the few new customers you get tell you they had a hard time finding you, this is probably a problem with Responsiveness. It means your umbrella website isn’t taking into consideration the kinds of technology people are using (smartphones, tablets, different browsers). Your customers want links that will allow them to call with one click, view your menu without downloading a pdf, or get the coordinates of your location linked to their iphone’s GPS.
Professional web developers take all of the ever-changing facets of technology and responsive design into consideration to turn online researchers into buyers.
3. Your Visitors Don’t Stay: The Tornado
You’ve got an umbrella site and you’re pretty excited about it, so you keep up with its analytics. Maybe obsessively. And you notice that your bounce rates are really high. Practically no one is staying on your site. Say you’re an Aesthetician and you want to get more regular clients through a weekly web offer. If your analytics show that visitors are leaving after a second, you’re not achieving this goal. Maybe it’s your content, maybe it’s your design, maybe it’s about responsiveness, maybe your SEO isn’t targeting your audience, or maybe Google updated its search algorithms (again).
Whatever problems professional web developers haven’t anticipated before your site goes live, they can diagnose and fix after the fact. This means your site will stay current, relevant, and accessible.
I’m not saying I have anything against umbrellas. But they have little use in the hurricanes, hailstorms, and tornados that are the online marketplace. Hire a professional web designer to build your home on the web.
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