The simplification of almost everything has ensured that anyone with an idea can now have their own website up and running within a few hours and minimal fuss. Welcome to the rise of the 21st century digital shortcut known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), a world where knowledge of HTML is just a distant memory.
DIY builders such as Weebly, Wix and Squarespace can be seen heavily marketing themselves to small businesses with the promise of a quick and easy web presence at a very low cost. However, like any shortcut we might be tempted to take in life, it often ends up much more expensive and ineffective in the long run.
There is much more to a website than an online home for your business and this is a mistake that many continue to make. For example, our online world is surrounded by white noise and it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. The creation of your brand to differentiate either your unique self or business in a crowded market simply cannot be achieved by a prebuilt template.
Your businesses digital presence should deserve more than a drag and drop template. Considering that your website is now the gateway to your business and the difference between clients choosing to spend money on your services and clicking elsewhere, maybe you should invest a little more thought into what you want to achieve.
Before even thinking about hitting a create site now button, we need to understand that behind the shiny buttons or templates, a website should also be about search engine optimisation (SEO), graphic design and branding. Those shiny pages may look atheistically pleasing, but if Google can’t find your new creation, your business might as well put up a big closed sign to the online community.
There should also be a strong focus on the content structure long before posting blog posts and podcasts etc. Once again, an incorrect strategy results on your business appearing on page 29 of potential customers who are Googling your site. By dumbing down website creation and protecting its users from the complexities of web design, they could be doing more harm than good.
When encountering any issues with a website that has become the front doors to your organization in a mobile first world, would you rather speak to a fellow human being or a chat bot? Equally a support hotline where a virtual agent reads from a script is frequently the cause of more frustration than anything else.
When choosing a digital design agency, you should have a dedicated team of people that have an active interest about your company, brand, and the importance of the slightest niggle to your website.
