5 Things You Should Know Before Building A Website
Throughout the summer we’ve been quietly working away at a few projects here at Legally Bold. One of those projects is a refresh of the website. We’re not changing any of the branding elements like the colors, graphics, or tone. (Personally, I find our blend of African Ankara prints and traditional online business design to be quite original.) But we are working on updating the copy.
Quick note – What is Copy?
Copy is written text of any genre within a publication or composition. So newspaper articles can be copy. So can blog posts, research articles, and book chapters. However, in the online business industry, when someone references copy, they usually mean ad copy. Ad Copy is text used expressly for selling. So ad copy is the text you use on your websites, social media ads, and sales pages. The purpose of the words on those assets is to encourage your audience to buy from you.
Why Refresh?
The longer you remain in the online business industry, the more you realize that your website is never done. You are continually making big (and small) tweaks. This refresh is no different. I’m incorporating some new concepts, methodologies, and processes into my work. So I want the website to reflect that new vision.
As we are refreshing, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about some of the things I wish I had known about websites before I built my first one over 5 years ago.
When you begin anything in business, it seems that the first try is always way too complicated, time-consuming, and draining. So I’m hoping that these tips will help you avoid some of that burnout when you set out to build your site.
Tip #1 Start Low Tech Then Go High
My first website was for a service I developed for attorneys where I would handle the back end work on a particular type of matter for a flat rate. It was basically freelancing before I knew attorney freelancing was a thing.
Initially, I didn’t have a website to market my services. I went old school. I made a list of attorneys I wanted to target, then made some sales calls and office visits. However, once my little side hustle started to gain some momentum, I wanted to create a website to further my credibility.
At the time, I knew very little about websites, email lists, or Internet business in general. These were just words that I heard in the background and saw other people do. However, I knew that I wanted to get the site done quickly and with as much ease as possible. Enter the all-in-one website builder.
Online services like Squarespace, Shopify, and Wix make it easy for anyone to build a website without knowing code or really anything about how sites actually work. And unless you’re in the business of website design or copywriting, that’s a good thing. You want to spend your time developing your products or services, not your web design skills.
For a monthly fee, website builders allow you to customize and use done-for-you templates to get your site up and running in about a day. The key to using a website builder is to keep the template customizations simple. Nothing needs to pop up or fade away, and honestly, your customers don’t care. They just want to know more about you, your products or services, and how to make a purchase. That’s all you need.
Tip #2 – You Only Need 2 Pages To Start
Eventually, if you decide to do this online business thing for real, you’ll want to migrate over to a WordPress site. WordPress is an online, open-source website creation tool. But more importantly, its the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system around today, and it’s free.
Customizing a WordPress site can get really out of control, real quick. So here’s what you need to know — you only need 2 pages on your website at the beginning. (And you can probably get away with one.)
According to research, the most visited pages on any website are the Home page and About page. So as long as one of those two pages has your product or service offerings listed and a way to pay for them, those are the only pages you need. As mentioned earlier, you can get lost in a labyrinth of website design tips, tricks, and optimization if you try to go too big too fast. Instead, focus on executing these two pages really well, and you’re done.
Tip #3 – Determine Your Tech Tolerance
Here’s the secret truth— there’s a lot of frustration when it comes to building websites whether you are using a website builder or WordPress. Learning new tech comes with frustration for everyone. You’re not deficient in any way if it takes you a long time or if you just don’t like it, but you must persevere. The best way to do that is to determine your tech tolerance.
Your tech tolerance is the amount of time you are willing to spend to figure out a piece of tech. That could be anywhere from a few hours to a few days or weeks. Whatever it is, you must promise yourself that once you reach that limit, you will hire someone to finish whatever remains undone. Your hire doesn’t have to be the most expensive person or the most popular. However, the act of hiring will keep up the momentum toward the ultimate goal of finishing your site. There are a lot of half-done websites out there. Don’t let that be you.
Tip #4 Protect Your Valuable Real Estate
The one thing that people always seem to forget is that the purpose of a website is to establish your credibility and then generate leads and sales. That’s it. And the most valuable real estate for getting that job done is the space “above the fold.”
Above the fold is an old newspaper term that indicates the space on the newspaper above the crease where the paper itself was physically folded. In website speak, “above the fold” is the part of the website you see before you start scrolling.
Just like with newspapers, if you want to make the sale, the real estate “above the fold” must include your most eye-catching message and the most important details relevant to your products or services. If you are starting a law practice, those essential details might be your contact information, a photo of your firm, and a brief message about who you serve.
Whatever you do, don’t squander that real estate by putting up a cool picture of a dolphin if your business has nothing to do with dolphins. The space above the fold will either encourage your visitors to stay on your page or leave. You want them to stay.
Tip #5 – Publish then Polish
I got the phrase “publish then polish” from a feminism marketing consultant I follow name Kelly Diels, and it rang so true for me. You cannot wait for your website to be perfect to publish it. Instead, you need to get it about 75% of the way to perfection, then release it to the world, and tweak as you go. Waiting for perfection means you will never finish your site, and you have a business to run. Instead, publish it, get more clients, and polish as you go. This manages your expectations, decreases your anxiety, and helps to keep your business moving forward.
So what did you think about these website building tips? Helpful or nah? Let me know your suggestions and thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear them.