Creating a website is really simple!
I am guessing you have seen all those ads for GoDaddy, Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and others offering easy, do-it-yourself, “professional looking websites” that will fit any company budget.
Frankly, they are not lying, you can get a website with a little effort and money on your part. Whether or not it is a professional league designed website is not what I am talking about today. What I do want to assert to you is that what those companies don’t tell you is that you will most likely be the only one looking at it.
Creating a website is really simple these days especially with the services mentioned above. They have a great drag and drop design features and stunning templates created by some really talented artists. And so yes, if you have any technical prowess, and free time on your hands, you can most likely create your own website. However, let me ask you, how are you getting people to visit your site?
You might tell me that you have great SEO features like keywords and meta tags. Great! Now, do you know how competitive those keyword terms are and what you can compete against established companies like eBay, Amazon, and Jet.com for those search terms? Maybe not!
What if your search engine optimization isn’t working and you are not appearing on the first page of Google? Do those other companies instruct you on other techniques like AdWords or Social Media Advertising? Speaking of Social Media, do these sites help you create content to post to social media and help drive traffic to your site? Again, most likely, not.
So you have a website, Now what?
Website Traffic
These ads that tout “professional looking websites” for practically the equivalent of a ham sandwich, leave out the important part, –driving traffic. My point is, if you haven’t guessed by now, is that whether you spend $300 or $10,000 creating a website, not having a marketing plan, or worse, not understanding your online competition will cost you in lost traffic to your website. Traffic is what leads to sales and driving traffic is what makes an online business or any business looking to make money from their website, successful.
I am not going to be smug and tell you that you get what you pay for because that is not the case. You paid something for your website and my guess is that you are happy with it. What I am saying is that the website itself is only the first step in a long list of steps to generate business online. Even with good traffic, there is a good chance that you are not converting nearly enough as you expected or wanted with the launch of the new site.
What these companies aren’t telling you is that you still need guidance on driving traffic and converting that traffic into sales. These are two different ends of the spectrum. Many companies have perfected the technique of getting people to your site but getting those people to purchase your product or service requires different sets of techniques. Trust me, you need both. You will need a marketing plan and that is where we can help!
Moving Forward…
My recommendation moving forward is that the money you may have saved on initial costs for your website could be used to hire a company like ours to help you with step two of the process; driving traffic to your website and step three; converting that traffic into sales. Otherwise, you may be the only one enjoying your website. See our SEO packages for more information.
