Five secrets to building a website that will WOW and WIN!

Planning a new website… HOLD ON A MOMENT!

Think about this… So your family has out-grown your existing home. You have explored the options and decided that you will join 7% of other British families by building your own home from scratch. You have fantasized about doing this for years. You finally have the motivation and means to do it, so you want to do it well. 

You have big dreams and so many ideas in your head, but where to start? I know where you wouldn’t start. You wouldn’t just book a builder and ask them to get on with it after a couple of relatively brief conversations.

Could you imagine what you would end up with, not to mention the daily (or possibly hourly) requests for direction as you go! It doesn’t bare thinking about. Enlisting your builder is quite possibly the last stage in the process.

So why do so many companies take this approach with their website?

You know you need a new website so you immediately start contacting web agencies to help. Don’t get me wrong, web agencies certainly have their place in the process, but in my experience there is important groundwork to do before you get the designers and developers involved.

I have seen it time and again. What tends to happen is a prolonged muddle that eventually results in a marginal improvement on what came before, leaving both parties miffed by the experience.

HOLD ON A MOMENT!

Many businesses today cannot thrive let alone survive without a website, but it is in fact a means to an end. It is a means to help you achieve something specific for your business. All too often this is overlooked – your website has a significant strategic role to play but it is rarely approached with this in mind.

A new website is the perfect opportunity to reposition your brand and get attention to secure a new source of income. Building a great website takes more than a site map, new colour pallet and the latest features. I came across an infographic the other day (see below) which very much talks to my philosophy when it comes to websites.

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