The Worst First Mistake of Small Business Websites
Do you know what the worst first mistake of a small business websites is?
You are about to find out because it is all downhill from there.
However, I want to remind you of an old saying.
You might have heard this:
“There is a reason you were born with one mouth, two ears and two eyes.”
The reason? To watch and listen before you speak!
This leads me to the three L’s of website success–look, listen, and leave it to your web team.
LOL
I believe the real saying is look, listen and learn but you know how I feel about doing it yourself.
Just sayin’…
Now if you have been reading this blog for any time at all you know that I’ve been there done that myself.
These days I am so happy to turn things over to the professionals so they can do there thing and empower me to focus on those things that I am good at (and that make me the money) versus the things that make my eyes get blurry and take oodles of time to make little to no progress.
Okay so the Triple L is a hard and fast rule when it comes to obtaining an online presence.
I know you you want to know the worst first mistake of a small business website–it is selecting the wrong URL or domain name.
Of all the things I’ve done, making a mistake getting the wrong URL has only happened once.
I’d like to tell you that I was a seasoned web researcher but that would be a fib because it was beginners luck.
Today I know a whole lot more but the first, horrible, nasty, unforgiving mistake small business owners make when it comes to getting a website is deciding that they know what to get and then buy one.
It is a critical piece for making your website work instead of investing in a nightmare that ultimately won’t work and will need constant fixing.
The second worst?
They get a web designer with little or no SEO experience to secure a website.
Now I know you are wondering just why this is such a big mistake…
If you have not launched the site yet–no problem.
If you have zero traffic yet–no real problem.
If you haven’t put anything on your business cards or other print marketing materials–you are lucky!
The wrong domain name or URL can be a big mistake for a few reasons:
- You need the right business name to appear.
- You need to have the right domain name to attract traffic.
- You need to make sure the domain name doesn’t get buried by the competition.
Recently, over on Facebook, one of my pals announced that she was going crazy over website stuff.
She wondered aloud about how she was ever going to understand how to get her website to work.
After lamenting for a while, I wrote and asked her why she had not asked me about my web designer or team.
We both laughed because as menopausal women our brains sometimes seem to shut off or go haywire.
She said that was the case. Which was probably a good thing because I also believe it is usually best NOT to work for your friends.
Anyway, since we talk on a regular basis, I did get to chat a little with her about the challenges.
So time will tell what is going to happen with her new site.
But like many people, she first put up a blog on a subdomain (read Blogspot or WordPress) where the content basically does not belong to her and they can shut her down any day without warning.
However, it is a good learning platform to start with. The good news is that content can be migrated.
Plus, she was able to secure her actual name as a domain name and that will be good for what it is going to be used for.
Then I noticed another pal on Facebook who had changed her email to a private domain address.
I took at look at the domain URL which was “nameandname” dot com.
And then shook my head in disgust.
Why?
Because it won’t serve the purposes she wants as effectively as if she selected a more optimized name for the business site.
These gals are not alone in their mistakes during the efforts to get a new website up and running.
The selection of the right domain name and the write online management system can be critical to your small business success with an online presence.
It is also important to find someone you can work with on the tech side–meaning your web team.
Sure, you can get good deals some places but try and get a call returned.
For instance, a local business person was lamenting about a web designer in my area (and someone I happily don’t work with) who would not return their calls.
The website was not up and the deadline for completion had passed.
Now there are a lot of reasons a site is not ready for launch, but if you have a good relationship with your tech team and good communication channels–things are easier and a lot more pleasant.
I know I am ranting on about this but I am working with lots of small businesses at the moment and they all make the same mistakes or hire people who really don’t know much about the entire process of making a small business website work.
So, have your web team help you with the URL as part of the whole website construction and search engine optimization package.
Yes, I’ll have more for you soon and I’ll be updating you about how my two pals are doing since they are not working with me or my team.
Me? I have to get back to my search engine optimisation work…yes, that is with an “s” on purpose!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.