If you build it they won’t come…
… unless you do something to let people know you exist.
I have recently taken on some new clients – all of them requiring websites to promote their new businesses.
I love doing this type of work. Setting up a brand new site, giving them an identity or brand and helping them to let others know they exist.
But their level of knowledge or expectation vary considerably.
There are those who really put the research in, know exactly what they want and in what order and then are ready to do the promotions and marketing as soon as the site is ready. They’re raring to go and can’t wait to take over the site (by the way, did I tell you I build CMS sites so that clients can have the control?).
And then there are those who have a loose or vague idea of what they want. They’ve heard if they build a website they can make a lot of money but they have no idea what it will take to get them from their idea to the reality of that goal. There’s a lot of information missing inbetween and I have to try and draw it out of them:
- What will their domain name be?
- What information will be on the website?
- What will the site look like (colour, number of pages, style, etc)
- How are they going to promote the site?
- Do they want to write articles, have a blog or newsletter, build a subscription list?
- Do they know who their competitors are?
- Why do they think they need a site?
And the list goes on. These clients are harder to service, or should I say more challenging? I still enjoy the work but I wonder if they really understand what’s involved, other than having a website up one day and then they’re expecting the money to come in a few days later…
I frequently feel like I’ve shifted from webmaster to business coach as I try to get them up to speed on the information they should be providing me with.
If the content is there and they know what they’re talking about, they will get an audience… eventually. But they need to spend time networking online and offline, letting people know they exist and understand their topic well.
If no-one knows you exist they are not going to find your website, except by chance. The site needs to have worthy content and if your name is not well known, then no-one is going to be searching for you by name at all. Only by topic and you’ll already have at least tens of thousands of sites to compete with out there.
And if a logo is all you want on the front page, well I’m sorry but that’s not going to work for you – unless you’re Coca Cola or some well known brand. No-one wants to click on an image to see what’s behind it, unless they already have some idea of who you are and what you do. All sorts of nasties live on the web and they won’t know you from Adam, so why would they want to click on a logo or image if they don’t know what you do or what your site is about?
Apart from that, search engines need text on the home page of the website – how can they catalogue and list your site if they have nothing to work with?
So, if you’re looking to get a website – that’s just the seed. It needs to be planted, nourished and fertilised in order to grow and develop so that your site becomes an integral part of your business.
Oh, and if you’re a website virgin, then here is what you need to get started:
- A domain name – that’s the address people enter into the web browser to find your website.
- Webspace – you need to pay for webhosting to get webspace. Your webhost will help you get the domain name pointed to your particular webspace so people can view your site after entering the URL or address into the browser
- Website – this is what is built to show up on your webspace at the address you have for your site.
And that’s just the beginning. Next there is content, images, logo, decisions to be made on how people will contact you, what email addresses you might use, what your site will look like, what colours you will use, how you are going to promote the site so that people will visit it, how often it will be updated and so on.
Once that is done the rest is up to you – the website owner. You need to be networking, meeting people, speaking to people, adding your web address on all your printed material, in your email signature block and anywhere else that people might see it. After that, they will come…
