How to Avoid Costly Website Development Mistakes

Insights from Recent Website Development Ordeals

Website Development Mistakes Can Be Costly and Painful for Small Business Owners 

Successful small business owners understand the importance of marketing to build a pipeline of new business. They also learn how to avoid making costly mistakes to ensure their finite capital geared for marketing and sales generates the highest possible return on investment or ROI.

It’s painful to make mistakes with website development or any other aspect of marketing and growing a small business. But small business owners are like everyone else. We simply don’t know what we don’t know. And this can get expensive.

A recent client of mine hired someone to redesign his website. He felt the fee quoted was fair. The client had entrusted the project to his marketing manager (one of many hats) who was supposedly responsible for the planning, design and development of their new website.

In the end, the client learned that his marketing manager wasn’t necessarily on on-the-ball as he thought she was. Turns out there really was no clear plan of attack on the new site in terms of content development. Sure, the site was to be "reskinned" meaning the look and feel of the site would be new. But the content would all be the same. No one discussed who would write the new copy, generate new video, and other aspects of really solid content development. There were many other issues that ended up costing this client a ton of money. They all related to not taking a solid enough business approach to planning and managing the website development project from the beginning.

When it comes to more effective website development here are a few things to understand and apply when it comes to avoiding costly website development mistakes.

Website planning. Yes, you need to develop a simple plan with goals and clear intentions for the site. If your website person isn’t taking you through a planning process or asking intelligent, business goal-oriented questions, find someone who will.

Website is about business. And business is about profit. So whoever is your main consultant or lead for your website better be a business person. If he or she is not, then understand that someone on your team has to take the business lead. But most of the time it’s perhaps a good designer who throws up a website with no business sense for list building, conversions, keywords, competition, ecommerce, etc. most websites just sit there online. Static. Boring. Ugly. Never found. And it’s a shame. Because your website can be a serious weapon for generating leads, selling products and services, and building your brand.

Have a clear, written agreement for website development. Look, your website is a serious investment if you choose it to be. So treat it as such and make sure you have a clear, written agreement that spells everything out for you on your website development project. Without an agreement in place you are likely to get something less than you deserve. Or worse. Like nothing.

Know the key players. There are many skill sets involved with building a successful and profitable website. You need a business person who understands online marketing to take the lead. This is where a marketing director, manager or consultant can help you. They drive the planning and project management process. You need a designer. Designers are not the same as programmers. Designers make it pretty. Or not. You need a programmer. Programmers are not always designers. Programmers make the site function to specifications. For example, will the shopping cart work? Will the site look the same in all browsers? Will it fulfill the intention for the ideal prospect, visitor, client or customer. Then there’s often a copywriter. Most people can’t write let alone write good sales copy. So you need to have a great copywriter involved. You need a quality control person to edit and test all aspects of the site BEFORE it goes live. In short, you need a team that will work well together toward your business goals.

Measure, Analyze and Grow. Website development is not a one-time deal. Although this happens all the time. "Here’s your website. Good luck." Once the site is up it needs to be maintained. Google Analytics or other analytic tools need to be integrated to track results. You need to analyze the reports regularly and allow the data to drive future decisions and investments. You need to add new content. You need to build links. You many want to "buy clicks." The key is you want to maintain and invest in your site all the time. The more the better as long as you have a solid plan. If you’re doing a good job you’re business will grow and prosper.

It’s about attraction marketing. There are about 14 distinct tactics or ways to drive traffic to a website. Think big for your site. Look at dramatically reducing the cost of acquiring a new client. Flip the sales funnel. Outbound marketing has been usurped by inbound, attraction-based marketing. Great content. Great planning. Great leadership and management. These are the ingredients you need to implement for successful website development. Attract more new business.

What has your experience been when it comes to website development? We always appreciate your feedback and comments on the WealthNet Partners blog.