10 Things Every Web Site Owner Should Know

I’ve been building web sites for 14 years, and in that time, I’ve come across a lot of clients with misconceptions about how the web works. To save a lot of time, money and frustration, I’m presenting this list of things every web site owner should know.

1. Avoid black hat SEO tricks

Chances are, if you own a web site, you’ve been contacted by SEO agencies promising to get your site to the front page of Google or to increase your traffic 1000%. What they never tell you is that the results will be temporary, and by the time you discover that your site has been blacklisted from Google and other search engines, they’ll have disappeared along with thousands of your dollars.

SEO isn’t magic – it’s mostly common sense. Stick to a few simple rules, and you’ll be happy with the results.

2. Everyone will experience your web site differently

Never assume that the web site you see when you open your web site is exactly what everyone sees. With the rise of mobile browsing, this is more true now than ever before. There is a tremendous variety of monitor sizes, screen resolutions, operating systems, browsers, and devices out there. Your web site won’t act and look exactly the same on all of them, nor should you expect it to. What is important is to make sure that everyone can get to the content they need, no matter how they’re viewing your site.

3. Always look for ways to engage

Publishing a simple brochureware site or broadcasting news updates through Twitter won’t get you nearly as far as actually engaging with your audience. Look for ways to make it easy for people to initiate a conversation with you. If you’ve got a simple brochureware site, set up a Facebook fan page where your fans can gather and talk about you. Enable people to add comments or testimonials to your site. Look for any way you can to create a community around your business or your ideas to keep people interested, to make them feel heard, and to make them feel welcome.

4. Knowing HTML does not make you a web professional

HTML was purposefully designed to be simple and easy to learn. Anyone determined enough can sit down and grasp the basics in a single afternoon. On one hand, this is wonderful, because it has empowered almost anyone to publish publicly-available content. On the other hand, it’s bad because it’s opened up a lot of business owners to paying non-professionals with a basic HTML knowledge to build their sites. Before you pay someone to build a web site for you, make sure they’re a professional. Even though HTML is the backbone of the web, there is so much more to learn to be able to build truly dynamic, wonderful, cross-browser compatible, professional, search-engine-optimized web sites.

5. Content is king

I don’t even have enough fingers and toes to count the number of clients who have thought all they needed to do to have a web site built for their business is write me a check and wait a few weeks before it would magically appear. Your web designer probably knows next to nothing about you and your business. All of that information that’s going to be available on your web site? You’re going to have to provide it. In fact, it should be one of the first things you do.

Sit down and think about a) what you want to tell your customers and potential customers about you and your business, and b) what your customers and potential customers want to know about you and your business. Sure, there will be some overlap, and that’s a good thing. There are the basics, like hours of operation, contact information, pricing, services and products available, physical address (if relevant), what payment types you accept, etc. But just as importantly, there are the reasons they should want to do business with you and what sets you apart from your competition. Think about everything you want your web site to include, then work with your web designer, and possibly a copy writer or copy editor, to get it all organized and into a structure that’s going to make sense for a web site.

6. Your web site is never finished

Most of us are quite used to print design projects like brochures, business cards, and signs. Once they’re printed and delivered to you, the work is done – there’s nothing else to do. But a web site is never finished. There will never be a point where you can just relax and stop thinking about your web site. There should always be new information to add, new features to think about, and content to update. Plus, you can work consistently to keep the web site’s look and feel evolving so that it never feels stale or out of date.

7. You get what you pay for

That’s not to say that you have to pay through the nose to get a simple and professional site done. Just be wary of anyone whose price is extraordinarily cheap. Unfortunately, you’ll find out later why the price was so low. Then you’ll be in a situation where you need to hire someone else to fix the problem or scrap the mess and start from scratch if it’s bad enough. And the money you spent on a cheap fix turns out to be money wasted.

8. Take the time to plan before you start

Even though you’re really excited and raring to get started yesterday, do spend a few days or even a few weeks working with your web developer to plan the site properly. Discuss your budget and the features you’d like on the site. Don’t start work until you have a nice road map of what’s going to happen when, and what the due dates are for different things. Remember, you’re providing all the content, so you’ll have just as many deadlines as your web designer does.

Keep in mind that if you fail to meet your deadlines, your web designer is held up from being able to do any further work. That’s going to delay the entire project and keep things from running smoothly and on time. Also, keep in mind, that if you make major changes to the plan after it’s in place and already in the works, that that’s going to run into extra time and effort for your web designer and extra time and money for you. Make sure the change you’re requesting is worth it.

9. Speak up if you see problems

I’ve had an alarming number of clients who find a problem on their site, such as a broken link, slow loading times, or something out of place in their browser who don’t tell me about the problem. After they’ve been experiencing the issue in silence for days, weeks or even months, they fire off an angry email about the broken item and demand an immediate fix. You’d never sit in a kitchen with a stopped up sink and just expect a plumber to show up, so don’t expect your web designer to somehow know that your site has an issue. As soon as you notice something amiss, let your web designer know so they can investigate and fix the problem as soon as possible.

10. Bugs are a normal part of the process

When you’re building a new site or adding a new feature, you should expect that the first try is going to have a few problems. That’s a normal part of the programming process. There isn’t a programmer on earth who can code up something perfectly on the first try. And what’s more, you can expect that occasionally, fixing one bug is going to cause another one. I’ve seen a lot of clients who throw their hands up in the air and roll their eyes when something doesn’t work on the first try, but that’s perfectly normal, and you should expect it. Work with your web designer to get it all figured out and working the way you want.