Valuable Lessons Learned From Building a New Website

Now, that I’ve learned and used Drupal, I have to honestly say that I would have preferred WordPress. I suppose it’s tough for an old dog to learn new tricks. I found some of the functions in Drupal just aren’t as user friendly as WordPress. My advice to you is to test and play with whatever system you think you want to use in order to have a comfort level with the CMS. This is very important.

SEO cannot be avoided. From my experienced readers, I know this is a big Homer Simpson, “D’oh!,” but for the uneducated, you must, must, must have a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focus for your site. I can’t really say this was a lesson learned because I wholeheartedly believe in the power of SEO. Yet, the reality I want to pass on to you is that you cannot manage the SEO yourself; hire an outside consultant to do this (full disclosure, again: I don’t offer SEO services; I outsource this for my clients). Nowadays, you have to submit and resubmit your pages to search engines, not to mention constantly add pages and content to continually boost yourself to the top of the rankings. This is just too much to handle within your firm or business. Outsource this and find a trusted provider.

Now it should be said that your website provider probably offers SEO services. I think that’s great, but I still would employ an external company that can do this separately from what the website provider offers. You can structure your agreement with the website provider to include this function (probably for some kind of fee), but you’ll reap greater rewards if you find your own solutions to SEO. Trust me on this one!

Final Thoughts. I’m running out of space, but let me impart one final word: Don’t expect your website to generate 100% of your leads for new clients or customers, and don’t expect it to be the sole reason why 100% of your current customers or clients stayed with you. Your website is one in a full arsenal of great tools you have right at your fingertips; don’t rely on it to be your only marketing/communications tool. You’ll be very short sighted if that’s the case.