Website Building and WordPress

Why do you need a website when you can use a social media platform, especially since you might already have a fanbase there and it’s free? There are a lot of pluses to social media – it allows you to communicate to your customers that are on the platform and you can easily post content for free.

The reality is there are many small businesses that just operate only on Facebook or only on Instagram. It’s do-able. If you are in a position where you have enough customers or clients, know that you can retain those clients long term, and you don’t need to grow, you might not need a website.

But relying on social media exclusively might not be ideal for your business. Here are some considerations:

Social Media is typically best for only part of a Buyer’s Journey

Social media typically has a different function in the customer buying cycle and journey than your website does. Social Media can be good for driving awareness to a new brand or a promotion for example. It can also be great to customer retention and loyalty. It can be great for branding. If you are someone who actively comments and participates in social media it can give you an excellent idea of who you are and your authenticity.

However, using a social media platform means you are at the whim of the various algorithms those platforms use to control what their users are seeing and engaging with. Your content and branding will always be framed by the platform branding and you are subject to their rules and decisions.

Keep in mind that social media platforms are businesses with their success on the agenda above all else. They don’t want the viewer to leave their platform. This means you are constantly competing with all the other addictive content on the platform.

Social media audiences aren’t there to buy

Customers do check out a business’s social media accounts for credibility, particularly when they are uncertain of a business’s credibility. Fans will also check you out and may want to stay up-to-date with your offerings. A product may pop-up on their feed which may tap into an impulse buy.

But typically social media not where they go to make their purchase decisions.

In most cases, people are looking for a dopamine hit on social media because that is what social media has been so finely tuned to do. Users are looking to be entertained or otherwise distracted from what they are avoiding doing. They are not there to search for a solution that your business can provide.

Social media distracts

Using a social media platform exclusively means that you always have to compete with what and who else is there and why your audience is there. Not only are you competing with your competitors, but you are competing with your audiences other interests, and you are competing with the platform itself.

Even worse, social media users are in the habit of devaluing content while on social media, impatiently scrolling past anything that doesn’t instantly connect with them, clicking on to the next distraction.

Why your website is critical for the ready-to-decide stage

When your buyer is ready to narrow down their options, you want their full attention, and you want full control over how to you take them through the decision process.

The deciding stage is a journey unto itself. Humans tend to make emotional decisions at a subconscious level, and then find ways to rationalize those decisions. Typically there is a process a cusoter has to go through to get to a decision. Your website can do that easily by creating content that is right for their stage, and then move them to the next piece in a way social media just can’t. Here are some ways your website can convert customers:

• You can communicate content in different ways appealing to different customer needs, from infographics to video, to writing and so on
• Showing them that your business undertands them and their needs
• Drive awareness to other problems they might not have thought of
• Shows them you have the same values
• Create trust with facts, testimonials, etc

You gain your audience’s full attention by the time they are on your website and can be the deciding factor that shifts a tire-kicker to a paying customer/client. It is often where people will go just as they’re making their purchase decision or what to learn more about who you are. It is always an opportunity to provide your audience with more information that they might not even know they would like.

Ideally, you are keeping your content fresh so people have a reason to return to your site. But if having a presence on search engines isn’t not critical to driving awareness of your business, having fresh content may not be necessary.

However, if your website looks dated to other people, it suggests that your business is as well. In that case, a re-design is important to your brand. When your site starts to feel outdated is a matter of opinion and depends on your industry. Some websites for certain industries can get away without a redesign over a period of years where as others need to be updated much more frequently.

A good starting point is a landscape review. Spend time looking a the sites your customers are looking at. Then move on to a competitive review, look at what your competitors are doing. It can be difficult to remain objective about your own site, so don’t be afraid to bring in objective people to give you honest feedback.

You might also want to update your site when you are repositioning your brand or business approach (ie. moving from a value brand to a premium brand, for example).

So you know you need something. Sit down and figure out your Have-to-haves, and your like-to-haves. For a simple business offering you might only need a single webpage that offers a variety of sections to provide customers with all they need. But be clear on what your customers would be looking for, not what you think you need. A good option is to create different “personas” for your customers. This is basically fictional sets of people with specific needs, lifestyles, technology, etc. and then go through each of their processes in finding and deciding to invest in what you have to offer.

If you would like to be able to update the text or post a news article yourself without going to college to become a programmer or paying someone by the hour to correct that spelling mistake you made in your About page copy, I get it. I suggest a website built on a content management system (CMS) with your own domain name (that’s a yourname.com) on a web server host (that’s a business that hosts your website files and serves them up to the internet for the world to access), or invest in an existing platform that can provide you with these options.

Keep in mind that the cheaper options provide you with less flexibility. Many drag-and-drop interface-type sites seem very flexible when you see the demos, until you actually get working with it, and realize trying to make what you fit into their templates might be tricker than you thought. If you are a new business and can afford to be less flexible then this is a good option for you.

There are a number of CMSs around, the most popular being WordPress which has been used for both large-scale websites right down to the lone individual. I’ve used other CMSs but my expertise is in WordPress which I have chosen for its value, its flexibility, its scalability, and ease-of-use.

You can also choose to built from scratch. This option usually costs much more than using an existing platform, or a CMS and you might not be able to update it yourself unless you are a programmer. But don’t rule it out, as it might be an option depending on your use case. For your standard business website or creator portfolio or writer’s blog, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Yes, I know you have probably heard the counter-question: how long is a piece of string? Maddening, isn’t it? But from a web builder perspective, I’ve found most people do have a number in their head, subconsciously or not. My least favorite game is trying to guess what that is.

But I also understand that there are people who really have no idea what a website should cost and it’s much harder than you would expect to get a sense of what you might expect to spend. No one wants to embarrass themselves by asking for a website for a fraction of what it will actually cost, nor does anything want to pay $10,000 for a $3,000 website.

Budget – Development Fees

If you don’t yet have a website, and need something professional with basic functionality, and really have no idea where to start thinking about a budget, $1600 tends to get you about a 5-6 page site build based on a template, assuming you provide a proper logo, copy (the text) and good images, and pay for web hosting. A six-page site might include: Front or landing page, About page, contact page with form (so that your email address isn’t published to the world), a product/ services page telling people what you do, a privacy page (yes, you need this), blog or news page. A simple e-commerce site might be double that on upwards to $5000+ depending on your requirements and how much you are willing to do yourself.

You might be able to find a platform that allows you to create one-page websites with sections that you can do yourself. There are platforms that you can use to build your site yourself if you are willing to spend some time learning how to do it. This is ideal for people who don’t have money, but have time.

Just be aware that low costs don’t always stay low costs over time, and if you plan to scale your website or business, you may have to start over with another platform. On the other hand if you need something right now, and don’t have the budget to be choosy, go for it. Websites are meant to be living things, so you can always change your mind or start over later. Getting something up now is better than not doing anything. In the process, you will also come to understand better what you need as well.

Monthly fees

You might pay anywhere from about $150-$200 a year for your domain name and site hosting on up. Costs tend to go up with site speed. It’s difficult to get a fast site on a shared-hosting budget, but you may not need anything terrifically fast. Maintenance can really vary, but software needs to be updated regularly, and from time to time servers will cause problems and need to be re-booted, etc. You might be able to handle the minimum yourself and only pay for a developer or site builder to handle specific issues as they arise.

You will find some designers willing to charge very little, and others a lot. Here are some of the things you should pay for and ask about.

Here are the things you should pay for:

Security

All websites have the potential to get hacked, and that potential grows exponentially based on lack of experience regardless of the platform. Many web designers or builders build a site, bill you and move on. And you have no idea of what security has been implemented (if any) or what you even need.

But trust me when I say that there are millions of web bots designed to constantly probe your site for vulnerabilities. You don’t need to be a big site with important data either. Hackers are just as happy, maybe more so, with a site that gets little traffic. A hack might be an advertising click-through pharmaceutical scheme or a way to co-opt your site’s ability to send out emails or any number of things. It’s just the way of the world now. I remember when the first time I got hacked they just defaced my site. It’s got way more complex now.

Speed

Google cares about speed. So should you. Why? If your site loads slowly your audience will get frustrated, and depending on how invested they are to get to your site, may leave altogether. It matters. But unfortunately, it’s not just how your site is built, your host (where your web content is stored) has a LOT to do with this. If your audience is willing to wait for your site to load because your site has information they can only get on your site, you might be able to get away with a slow-loading site.

However, if you are hoping to find an audience organically, or you are paying for ads to drive people to your site, or you run an ecommerce site, speed will ultimately impact your bottom line long term.

Design

Design is a subconscious signifier that informs a user about your credibility and your brand. It’s a holistic experience. The impression they get is built on all of the user’s experiences of the world to date that they’ve subconsciously absorbed and categorized. From the moment they arrive on your site, they make that subconscious judgment and modify it, or justify it as they go.

It’s one reason why websites need to be redesigned from time to time. Your site may be giving the impression of being dated, “small-potatoes”, doubtful quality or of you not being on top of your game without you even realizing. Maybe you are saying value when you should be saying high-end or vice versa. Maybe you’re communicating fuzzy when you should be efficient. It is the impression they get that they can’t quite put their finger on. Before they have had a chance to think about it. Before they’ve read your copy.

And this is why it is so important. You may have lost the chance to reach them before you even got started.

Now, there is a lot of leeway once you have the basics down. If you tend to err on doubt about whether the font should be white or off-white and a smidge bigger or a touch more space, you will then need to ask the question: how much will that choice affect your audience’s decision to fulfill your call to action (CTA)?

E-commerce

When it comes to selling things through your website, there are a number of complexities and issues, and different ways to go about it both large and small. Here is an area where you should pay for someone who has experience with your size business.

Things that you should consider paying for but might not need to

Photography and Video

Of course, with my photographic and video background, I would suggest you pay for this! But if you are willing to pay for stock footage you can reduce this cost by a whole lot especially you are willing to do the work yourself to find what shots you would like to use. You might also be able to produce good enough product shots and video with your phone (shh, don’t tell people I actually said that). Just be aware of your brand values. You don’t want to be communicating budget and scrappy when you want to communicate high-end.

There are two functions of photography you should be thinking about. The first is what you are communicating about your brand, who you are, and what you offer. What those shots actually are can vary greatly depending on your business and your approach. The other thing imagery provides is a good way to break up or support long text.

Video is an excellent way to not only demystify what you have to offer but also reduce the fear of the unknown for your buyers. You can’t underestimate the power of video. It can be used to give a much better idea of what your product looks like, what your place of business is like, or who you are as a person and so on.

Next, if you are selling through e-commerce, your catalog product shots are even more important and should only show your properly lit product on a white background, whereas your lifestyle shots can be shown with people using your product, or with something that gives your product scale.

If you offer a service, photography might include you working, or dealing with clients and customers, or just stock images of happy customers.

Graphics, Images, Branding and Style Guides

This area might include logos, a look and feel document for your brand, graphics, either for content or for design, and other illustrations. Artificial intelligence apps can now generate images that may help illustrate your content and can be relatively low-cost compared to photography.

Writing

Writing is more about putting words down to page, it’s about taking your readers through the right journey and understanding how they scan content.

Copywriting is an art. So is writing for the web. But if you are on a budget, you might be able to write it yourself.

If you are selling online, I would do research on the tried and true sales letter formulas to get an idea of the areas you need to address to convert a potential lead. It doesn’t mean that you need to follow a formula, but it will help shift your focus from what you want to say toward what your customers want or should hear.

Next focus on your brand voice to resonate the right way with your readers.

Maintenance

Maintenance is a technical service and is designed to keep your site running smoothly and keeping it as secure as possible.

Maintenance is usually a monthly expense and not usually included in site build fees. The cost of maintenance varies, too. At a minimum, you should consistently make sure your site works properly and keep certain pieces of software up to date for security reasons. Unless you are confident you can handle this, you should pay for someone to do it. But they should be doing it, and not waiting for you to contact them or for something to go wrong on your site before they act.

What You Shouldn’t Pay for – at least not yet

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

I go out on a limb saying this since I have been paid to consult on SEO. Back in the day it was great to get your website up in the top ten or see traffic rise because of changes you implemented. But things have changed. Google’s algorithms are more complex than ever. They have to be to weed out the millions of sites that are trying to manipulate those algorithms. If you think about what Google wants; they want what you yourself wants when looking for information.

Unfortunately, algorithms favour big business because big business is credible. Long-established sites that have plenty of other high-ranking sites linking to them. It’s extremely difficult for a new site to get traffic. That’s the hard truth.

There are technical things you can do to give your site a better chance. And it’s a good idea to figure out what people would search for to find you, and then work that into your content. But if traffic is what you are after, you will need a different way to do it.

The most important advice I give away for free: be clear on your business plan and create a site for your audience and ideal customer. What do they want and need? What are they looking for? What do they need to know or believe before converting to customers? Then look at your competition. What is your “value proposition”? What can you offer that is better than your competitors?

I have worked in the web industry for longer than I care to admit. More than a (cough) decade, (and that’s all I’m going to admit to).

I started with my own sites, initially building from scratch with HTML, but then as the demand for functionality grew more complex, started building in WordPress which, using PHP, is a modular platform with thousand (at least) themes and plugins. I am not a PHP programmer although do modifications from time to time when modifications are needed. I’ve kept up with WordPress as it’s grown into a flexible multi-solution platform.

Over time various contacts have asked me for help and so I’ve worked on other people’s projects as well, sometimes as a producer or project manager, sometimes as a consultant, sometimes to build out the entire project, sometimes to simply make updates.

I have done everything from acquiring domain names and setting up servers, right through to building, designing, and writing content, to updating and maintenance which makes me a good fit for other small businesses or individuals. If necessary, I will use a PHP developer if more customization is needed, but for the most part the WordPress platform and more than enough flexibility that those additional costs are not required.

What I bring to the table besides straight-up technical WordPress skills, is the total thinking. I’ve written business plans and have worked for marketing agencies, I’ve fixed hacked sites and dealt with a number of different web hosts over the years.

But I’ve gained the bulk of my in-depth knowledge that is relevant for individuals and small businesses through the building, running, and maintenance of my own websites. As a “multipotentilite”, I generate income through a variety of ways, and some of my income comes from my personal passion websites whether it’s directly through e-commerce, affiliate marketing, or advertising, or indirectly through gaining new clients or retaining existing ones.

That means I’ve been highly motivated to make sites that perform by providing value to my audience, loading fast for users, play well with Google, are current, are efficient for me to maintain and update, and are less susceptible to hacking. And I love to do it.