At Web Savvy Marketing we work on a good mix of web design projects and straight SEO consulting.  Our website design clients typically select us because our process is integrated with full search engine optimization.  The funny part is that they’re always surprised when we don’t launch the new website the minute they email their last bit of content.  We don’t launch immediately because there is still a lot of SEO work to perform.   And while we start the web design project with SEO, much of it cannot be performed until the last minute.

Why Does Website Launch Wait for SEO?

When we kick off the project and I, the resident SEO geek, perform my research and competitive analysis, I have a plan in mind for SEO.  I know what keywords I want to target and what pages I want us to write.  Then development really starts and you, the naive and unprepared client, realizes writing strong web content isn’t as easy as you think.  It’s painful plain and simple. We, the team, end up making compromises on keywords and content and we shift focus and modify our sitemap.  It happens every time.  As your SEO consultant, I stretch you as far as I can take you and attempt to reach as many keywords as possible.  You, the client, put me back in my box and reset my expectations with what your team can support.

You may think I should scale back, but I’ll disagree.  My job is to stretch your imagination and reach you beyond what you think is possible.  When you fight and cannot support it, then we’ll adjust.  I won’t accept limitations until they are true limitations.  And I’d rather stretch and reach more than what was expected then not reach at all.

Once we modify the sitemap, pages, and keywords, my SEO strategy needs to be adjusted.  I’m used to this and have no problem with it at all.  I’ve learned this is the natural progression because I’m firm on pushing you to your limits.  I just need to wait until this occurs before I put a large block of my time or my staff’s time into your on-page SEO.

When the Design Dust Settles, SEO Cleans Up

Once the last website content is loaded and we know our final page count and site structure, me and my team move in to pretty everything up.  When I say “pretty”, I mean we fancy up your content and make it page one worthy.

1.  Optimize Page Text and Headers for Keywords and Phrases

This really starts at the launch of the project, but as I stated above, these keyword focus can change some over the course of development.  Taking a step back and revisiting your targeted keywords at launch makes sure you have pages to support your keywords and more importantly, your copy supports the keyword.

I go through page by page and make sure your content uses the keyword or phrase we selected and that it is used in a natural way that is easy to read.  I also go through and double-check headers (H1 tags) and subheaders (H2, H3, H4 tags) to make sure they support the keyword and phrase for SEO and readability.

Subheaders are very important because they help break up content for the readers and for the search engines.  They provide natural breaks within the page and help point out areas of interest for those of us that scan web pages and blog posts.  I am one of those scanners, so I make sure every client website has a good mix of subheaders.

2.  Review and Update Alt Tags Images, Anchor Text for Links and Files, and Bold Text References

Alt tag refers to an alternative tag for an image. Search engines, and users with some disabilities, cannot read text in images.  The alt tag is simply used to describe the image in the event it cannot be read.  You want the alt tag to be relevant to the image and include keywords if applicable.  But you must do so only if the keyword is relevant to the image itself.

Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link. Good on-page SEO includes the use of keyword rich hyperlinks, however, this should only be used if it represents value to the reader.

On-page SEO best practices also includes formatting file names.  Using short and descriptive filenames with matching alt text is preferred.  These should not be full, keyword stuffed sentences.  They are best when they’re short, but descriptive.

Bold or strong text is also believed to influence search engines.  I will use this if it can both support the focusing of readers on important points and is keyword rich.  Due to usability concerns, I will not bold words just for the sake of on-page SEO.

3.  Create Page Specific Meta Titles and Descriptions

When you’re launching a new website or relaunching an existing website, it is critical that every page has a unique and hand crafted meta title and description.  Your meta title should be less than sixty characters and your description less than 160 characters.  Both should include the page’s keyword and both should provide text that sells.  The search engines will use your description (if they like it) for the search engine results page.  It is the first thing your future visitor sees about your website, so you need to make it good.  It needs to closely relate to the page and it needs to be worthy of someone clicking through to the website.

I typically create our meta titles and descriptions in Excel and do so for the entire sitemap.  Once this process is done I have my assistant, Jen, input them into WordPress.  We use two people, because Jen will always find mistakes.  When you sit and write 200 meta titles and 200 meta descriptions, you will make mistakes.  The second set of eyes helps greatly in making sure your meta is correct and without spelling or grammatical errors.

4.  Optimize Blog Entries

Blog entry optimization is important and yet it is the one item I many times almost forget.  Clients throw blog posts at me right before go-live and due to this, I frequently catch myself backtracking to make sure these are optimized.

Optimizing a blog post works the same as with the other pages, however you need to remember the value of the internal link.  Blog posts typically support the cornerstone content pages and their keywords.  What the heck is a cornerstone content page?  It is a page that is used to target higher volume and more competitive keywords.  The blog posts then support these pages by providing keyword rich inbound links.

Meta descriptions and post excerpts should be reviewed as well.  Many times these are displayed when the post is shared on social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn.  You want to make sure the intro text is descriptive and entices someone to click through to the actual post.

5.  Create Deep Links

Deep links.  For me this is where I call uncle and grab my assistant Jen.  I’ve worked on the web design and SEO of the website for weeks and I’m usually starting to get fatigued.  Jen, being the perky and WordPress savvy person that she is, takes a fresh look at the content and goes page by page to input hyperlinks to other pages.  This process helps both the user and the search engines understand what pages are most important.

It’s a Wrap

Well kind of.  You’re done with on-page SEO for now, but we’ve not yet discussed the really geeky side of SEO.  This comes in another blog post and another day.  We’ll end this post with the reminder that you’re website and content is optimized for on-page SEO, which is the land of search engine optimization, is a huge part of the battle.

The DIY Website Designer

Lately I’ve received a lot of emails and calls from people who ventured down the DIY website path only to find themselves going astray.  They realized – once in the midst of the project – that the whole web design process is a bit more challenging than they originally realized.  Many people believe a website is simply comprised of a logo, basic color scheme, and text.  Heck that’s easy.  So easy anyone can do it.  Well, not so much.  When website design is done correctly – I stress correctly – it involves a whole lot more than just text, colors, and a logo.

Our website development process includes a 90+ point project plan that is broken out into project kick-off, collection of client deliverables, research and planning, custom theme design, website build, and final optimization for search.  This project plan is tracked electronically in a project management software package that manages tasks, owners, and due dates.  I use software for this because it is a process.  When done properly, the process takes a 6-8 weeks to complete all the tasks and make sure they are all performed properly.  Yes folks, that means building a good website requires a lot more than whipping up your logo, throwing in some text, and picking some colors.

I’m not implying the non-web designers can’t create their own website.  I’m stating the average DIY website creator has a full-time job other than website design and they do not have the time nor stamina to execute it properly.

But What About DIY Services Like Website Tonight?

How can that be?  Companies like Intuit or GoDaddy offer packages like Website Tonight and promise to have your website up and running within minutes.   Intuit’s landing page for this shows a case study for a website receiving a whopping 20 visitors a day.  Yes I said 20 visitors.  Isn’t that just fabulous?

So what’s the problem?  Well first of all, real websites typically have more than five pages.  And they don’t all look alike and they typically receive more than 20 visitors today.  Everyone I’ve ever known who has used one of these services has a website that no one visits.  Worse yet, if someone does manage to find it, the visitor bounces (quickly leaves) and the website generates zero leads, sales, or revenue.  Why is this the case?  Because these sites are built by people whose expertise is outside that of website design and because they DIY website builder does not know what SEO (search engine optimization) is or how to utilize it properly.  The other reasons is people who go this route are in a hurry and they whip up the fastest website they can only to regret it months or years later.

The funniest part of the whole Website Tonight process is that GoDaddy has tried to sell me this service on multiple occasions.  I’ve had to call the company before and virtually every time someone tries to pitch me this service.  I have to cut them off in midsentence to explain I do this for a living, I’m a web designer by profession, and I don’t need a cookie cutter website that no one visits.  Okay I don’t say the end part, but I think it in my head.  It isn’t the customer service rep’s fault that they have to pitch this service to everyone they talk to, so I try to be polite.

Why Hire a Professional Web Designer?

There are plenty of reasons.  A professional website designer will guide you through the process.  He will explain why dancing gifs are inappropriate, why thunder sounds on the home page distract from the visitor experience, why Google can’t digest a flash website, and why SEO is critical to driving traffic.  The professional web designer will teach you about design best practices and make sure these elements are used within the project.

And if your design firm is good, at some point within the project you’ll hate them because they will tell you your blog post is too “salesy”, your content doesn’t make sense to the average visitor, or that your images are not high resolution enough to use.  And then at the end of the project you’ll love them, because you will have a website that is unique, easy to use, and easy to find.

But Isn’t WordPress for DIY Websites?

WordPress is hugely popular and it is a great CMS tool.   I love it, because it can create beautiful websites that are loved by Google and Bing.  What I hate about WordPress is it gives people a false sense of security.  It makes you think you don’t need a professional.  And in some cases you don’t.  Some people just naturally think marketing, design, and psychology.  Some people can actually create a great website all on their own.  The problem is that these people are rare.  They are few and far between.

What WordPress is exceptional at is empowering companies to maintain their own website.  My suggestion to businesses who want to use WordPress is to hire a professional design firm to create a custom theme and help you get the website up and running.  Then maintain it yourself in WordPress.  Update your own content, add your own blog posts, and moderate your own comments.  Just leave the plugins and design changes to the professional, because you’ll end up breaking the theme.

There are many design firms that only give clients limited access to WordPress. They do this to prevent clients from breaking their websites and themes and to limit support calls.  I do not do this, but part of me wishes I did because people make changes and break stuff and never see the problems.  They don’t notice that content boxes no longer align or links are broken because they are not professionals.

DIY Websites the Right Way

I applaud people who want to create their own websites.  Heck I did it myself over a decade ago and it is how I got started in internet marketing.  The problem is my website looked like I created it myself and it took years for me to “get it”.  Most people and/or businesses don’t have years to wait for success.  They need help and traffic and leads or sales now.

My suggestion to those who want to create a DIY website is to hire a professional to get your started with the design, SEO, and build out.  Once you have a solid foundation and a strong website architecture in place, manage it yourself and be autonomous.

Let a professional designer give you the wings, then you can teach yourself to soar.

Since I run into this often, I’m sure the average website owner does too.  If you’re trying to decide between updating your existing website or moving towards a full website design, I’d encourage you to ask yourself five quick questions.

1. Do You Have a CMS Package?

If you’re wondering what the heck a CMS package is, it means content management system. Which really refers to a user friendly way to update your website. And when I say user friendly, I mean easy enough that the average person could update page text, write a blog post, and modify an image.

Popular flavors of CMS consist of open source WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. I am a WordPress girl and have dedicated by firm to creating WordPress websites and supporting WordPress users. That being said, Joomla and Drupal are also good packages and both have their place in the market. Each CMS package have different niches they fill and each can be an excellent solution for creating a new website.

Do people really use CMS for website design? Yep and way more than you think. WordPress powers 14.7% of the top million websites in the world. And 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the US are running WordPress.

I digressed a bit. The point I wanted to make is that CMS packages give you control over your website and your online marketing. If you’re stuck living with an HTML website that is impossible to update, then you have a problem.

2. Is Your Website SEO Friendly?

This is a huge factor if you rely on your website to generate traffic through organic search. One of the core reasons I love WordPress is because it is very user friendly. If configured properly, it will create search engine friendly URLs, alt tags, unique page descriptions and titles, XML sitemaps, and the beloved H1 tags and bolded text. All are needed for courting Google and Bing properly.  WordPress makes it very easy to stay compliant with search engine rules and helps guide you along the way.

If you can’t answer that question yourself, go to WebsiteGrader.com and see how they grade your website. My website is a 99/100. Most I query are a 50/100. If you’re less than 90, you have problems.

3. Is Your Website Functionally Robust?

Complete a list of functional desires and compare it to what you currently have in place. Can your website manage your wish list without consuming your entire marketing budget in code changes? Can you add to this functionality or do you have to turn to a high priced coder each week?

Now take your requirements list and compare that list to WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. One of these CMS solutions will meet your needs and all are excellent choices. Especially if you’re currently stuck with an HTML website.

Remember the usage numbers I provided for WordPress? You’re probably wondering why it’s so popular? There are over 15,000 plugins available for WordPress and that means 15,000 opportunities to add to the core functionality WordPress offers. Many of these are free and they usually have an easy one click install right from the admin panel. Good stuff for me and the million other WordPress users.

4. Are You in Charge of Changes?

Do you control your website? That may seem like a silly question, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t know exactly who created their original website, where they are, or how to reach them. Another frequent compliant I hear is the developer has a 30 day backlog and a simple text changes cannot be made for 45 days.

That, my friends, is a major problem. Internet marketing is fast paced. Last year Google made 500 changes to their algorithm, which means we webmasters needed to also adjust. If you can’t get a hold of your webmaster or if you have no access to the website, you’ll fall behind on search engine compliance and you’ll also be a lager to your competition.  The goal of CMS based websites is to keep you in control.

5. Is it Easy to Use?

Assuming you are in control of your pages and you can access the backend to make modifications, is it easy to do? Can you figure out how to update text, add a page, or create a blog post? Can you add images, products, or change your navigation structure? You should be able to if your website is built within a CMS solution.

But I caution you on picking your developer and making sure they fully understand the CMS package. Back in December I wrote a blog post about my sister’s experience with selecting a WordPress designer. The post Fifteen Questions to Ask Your Future Website Designer goes into how she had a pretty blog that didn’t quite the level she was expecting. Needless to say, my development team rebuilt the entire thing for her this month because the original designer did not code to WordPress best practices. He hardcoded a ton of functionality that should have used WordPress’ user-friendly menus and widgets. It’s been eight months since she received the original design and after months and months of frustration, she is just now capable to making changes.

My sister’s project was a worst-case scenario and this is typically not the case. Generally when you hire a reputable designer for WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal – you actually receive a very user-friendly website.

Conclusion

If you answered no to any of the above questions, consider moving to a CMS.  And don’t forget to locate a reputable website designer. Review WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal to see which CMS package you like best. Ask around and review some website portfolios. You’ll find someone you like and the money will be well spent. You’ll end up with a SEO friendly website, that looks modern, and that you can actually update yourself.  All very good things.

What Lies Beneath is Always So Scary

At the end of our discussion I promised to review his website and dig further into his online presence. I’m not going to offer to help or even send a proposal, unless I know what help is needed. So I dug further and I did a fairly deep review of his website and his online activity. What I found did not make me happy.

As I reviewed his website, I realized his osCommerce site had some significant problems with core functionality. He didn’t have basic SEO features like an XML sitemap, H1 tags, SEO friendly URLs, canonical links, etc. What was worse, I realized his website only had products and all the product descriptions were duplicates of other websites’ content. So to sum it up, he had a website full of duplicate content that was also missing some fundamental SEO components. Oh what lie beneath is always so scary.

Pulling Off the Band-Aid

Sure I can help with social media, but in some cases I won’t. What? Really? You turn away business and future clients? Ah yes, yes I do. In some cases social media is only going to partially help and in most cases, the prospective client isn’t looking for partially as an outcome. He wants a game changer. He wants real results that provides real ROI. This gentleman wanted an immediate increase in traffic that would occur right before his peak season happened in October and November.

My proposal included setting up a blog, setting up social media accounts, and fixing his SEO. I quoted working with his existing webmaster to fix the website and I quoted rewriting his product descriptions so he had unique content. After reading through the proposal the prospect requested a call to discuss. Great I thought. I didn’t offend him with calling his baby (aka SEO) ugly.

Sins of the Past Always Cause a Stalemate

The discussion went okay. The prospect said the proposal was right on and the costing was completely in line with what I was proposing. Great. Yes I do think “great” a lot during the whole prospecting phase. He said he agreed that he did need everything that I proposed. But – oh why is there always a but in these calls?

A year ago this gentleman worked with another SEO consulting firm. I told him I could see that some SEO work had been done on his website. After all, all the products had unique meta titles and descriptions that used keywords and they were within character limits. The problem was he said he couldn’t tell what the SEO consultant did and that the ROI wasn’t there. He was still relying on his pay per click campaigns and they were expensive. He didn’t get ROI with the last SEO consultant, so he was hesitant to move forward with me. Snap! Not great and in fact a total bummer. Foiled by an SEO consultant I’ve never met and never will meet.

I am now at a stalemate due to sins of the past from another SEO consultant. I am saddened to say this happens a lot. This happens a lot more than any of us good SEO consultants would like. There are a lot of SEO consultants out there that stink. They have good intentions, but just don’t know what they’re doing and the clients don’t get the results they need. It is very difficult to convince someone to trust you when another, less educated you, already burned them. And I can’t blame this gentleman for being cautious. I would be too. Thus we are at an impasse, a stalemate, and what feels like a dead end.

Time for a Hard Decision

In our follow up call he asked that I review the proposal and that we take baby steps towards the end goal. What are some small things we could do to help drive traffic and could prove me as knowledgeable to him. I told him I would review the proposal and follow up. And I did. I’m sitting in New York at a conference and still thinking about this prospect.

Unfortunately there isn’t one set of tasks or changes that are going to drive the result he wants. He needs his website fixed for the missing SEO elements so Google will embrace it. Google won’t embrace it unless he has unique content that continues to grow. And he needs inbound links, which will come from blogging and social media activity. In my heart I don’t believe any of these things, set apart by themselves, will produce results. It just won’t work.

The mom in me wants to take care of his SEO and fix him. I want to heal him from head to toe. But I can’t. Social media or any small part of his proposal is a band-aid and it isn’t healing him. It is temporary and it would leave him without results.

He isn’t ready to take the leap of faith with me because his last leap ended up with him falling without a net. I get that, but it doesn’t change my view of his current situation, my desire to help, and the experienced internet marketer in me saying doing a tenth of what was proposed will not help.

It is time for me to walk away. Oh I hate when this moment occurs and I realize it is the best course of action. A business associate always says he “hates to lose” and me walking away would kill him. But winning a client and not achieving the results he wants is not winning. Well maybe in Charlie Sheen land is, but not in Rebecca land.

I am now off to write the goodbye email. The “I wish you luck” email. The “come back to me if you change your mind” email. Some may take this gesture negatively, while others may take it positively. I don’t know and I can’t control his reaction. I can only stay true to my beliefs and the business ethics by which I live.

In some cases, the social media band-aid does nothing more than cover the scary stuff underneath that will continue to sit there and fester and grow more and more ugly. While some may choose to apply this band-aid, I will not. I want to heal.

Yes I realize that sounds like fluff, but in my geeky WordPress world all that makes me happy. It means I get to focus on clients, strategy, SEO, and I get to create wireframes. Website wireframes are like pieces of a really cool puzzle that come together to make a really great website.

What the Heck is a Wireframe?

Basically it’s a sketch of what you want a web page to look like. We start with the home page and I typically create a wireframe to give to my graphic artists when I request a new web design. Sometimes I don’t because I want her to be free and unrestricted. In other cases, when I know the client needs specific content or “stuff” on the home page, I create a wireframe. If we are dealing with any type of website personas, I always create a wireframe. It helps give the designer an idea of what we need to accomplish with the home page and what is important for the overall web project.

At this point you’re probably thinking I have this really expensive software for wireframe creation. Not at all. I simply use a SaaS product called iPLOTZ that is available via the internet. You can try and create real wireframes for free. I’ve upgraded and I pay for the service so I can have multiple wireframes at one time, but the free version is perfectly acceptable for the average person to use and create really cool concepts.

The Before and After Using Wireframes

Again, I have a good graphic artist and coding team. But even if you don’t, creating a wireframe will allow you to figure out what you’d like your home page (or other pages) to look like well before you head into actual web design.

So if you’re a novice in WordPress or a business owner who is considering a new website, consider using a wireframe to get your creative juices flowing. It might just bring out the inner geek you didn’t know you had.

That’s a lot, but there is a reason for it. I’m methodical in nature and my web design process is too. There are a lot of dots to connect and things to worry about when you launch a new website.  That doesn’t mean it has to be scary, it means it just needs to be right.

What We’ve Learned Thus Far

So far on our journey of web development, I’ve taught you to:

• Define Marketing Goals -> Successful Internet Marketing Begin With Goals
• Identify Your Target Audience -> A Box for Every Website Visitor
• Review Your Existing Website -> SEO Can’t Help a Website That Sucks
• Perform a Competitor Analysis -> Internet Marketing is a Battlefield
• Perform Keyword Research -> Keyword Research for the Average Joe

Now it’s time for us to prepare our sitemap and requirements list for the new website. I know you’re excited. This is the one step in my process that takes the most thought. But don’t be scared. I’m going to take you through it step by step.

In my last blog post we walked through performing keyword research, so you should have a great list of keywords in hand. That means it is time to create a rock solid sitemap that can support your targeted keywords and convert your traffic into revenue.

Eleven Steps for Creating a Great Sitemap and Connecting All Those Website Dots

1. Perform a Gap Analysis of Your Existing Website – Really, this simply means asking yourself what is missing. We won’t go into specifics here, but when you look at your existing website, what jumps out at you right away. Or more important, what doesn’t jump out at you, but should jump out and grab your attention?
2. List Goals and Objectives for the Website – What does the new website need to accomplish? Capture emails for a newsletter, obtain new leads, sell a product, etc.
3. Outline Potential Call to Actions and Desired Outcomes of Website Traffic – If you know what you want your website to do, then you should know what you want your visitors to do. Should they sign up for a newsletter, attend a webinar, register for a white paper, request a quote, purchase your product?
4. Identify the Path You Would Like Each Persona to Take Once Arriving at the Home Page – An earlier blog post discussed website personas and you can read the post mentioned above to catch up if needed. Since you’ve already documented your personas, consider what information you need to present to get the visitor to perform the desired action you just documented above.
5. Develop a List of Functional Requirements – You’ve defined your actions or “what” you want people to do, so you now need to consider the “how” they are going to do it. Do you need a protected directory to house high quality documents, do you need an integrated contact form to register leads, do you need an e-commerce store to sell products?
6. Develop List of Visual Requirements – Remember to consider personas here, because different genders, education levels, and personality types respond to images and visual stimulus differently. Do you need custom charts, photos, or buttons? What about a fancy web form?
7. Take Inventory – This is the really fun part, because you are probably going through content that is three years old and now that you look back, you realize it isn’t pretty. Go through your existing website and list out all content pages, files, images, and forms that you want migrated to a new website. Don’t forget your web pages should match up to your keyword list.
8. Match Content to Personas – Consider your visitor types, the products or services you offer, and what stage in the buying cycle they may be at when visiting. Now consider the inventory you just went through and match up that inventory (pages, files, images) to your personas. Don’t worry; you’re going to have gaps and holes that you need to fill. Just remember to keep looking at your keyword list and keep this in mind as you go through everything.
9. Consider New Content Requirements – You just identified new gaps in content you didn’t know you had, so now it’s time to document those gaps so you can address them one by one.
10. Develop a Website Outline – We are now creating the sitemap. You were really creating it as you walked through these last few steps, but it is now starting to come together so you can see how the pages and actions fit together to make a cohesive website. Remember, you need to have one page per competitive keyword and those pages need to align with your visitor personas. The pages also need to represent the information visitors need to see and the actions you want these visitors to take upon visiting your website.
11. Validate Your Call to Actions – You’ve already done this right? Well maybe. But I want you to go back and make sure. Think about what words you can use that are compelling enough to make someone do that action you desire. Have you given website visitors enough “meat” to make them want to do something? Internet marketing is about give and take. You need to give before you take. So before you ask for that email address, make sure you’ve given your website visitors enough reason to want to give you something in return. If you haven’t, revisit your sitemap and make sure you do.

Note of Caution: Make sure your sitemap has a hierarchy that makes sense to you, visitors, and the search engines. Do not bury content so deep that a visitor needs to click three times to reach it. Keep as much towards the top as possible, while still having a logical flow.

Connection Complete

Are you exhausted? You might be, but don’t have despair. Your new sitemap is significantly better than anything you’ve had in the past because you created it with a methodical approach geared towards SEO and converting visitors. This is excellent!

Next we’ll create a wireframe of your home page, but this is another post and another day.

The below list of top reasons for a website redesign is a humorous take on my recent conversations with website owners. I wish I could say these were unrealistic and made up in my head, but they’re not. They’re based on real-world websites.

Top Ten Signs Your Website Needs a Redesign

1. Your website looks like it was design in 1995 and it was.
2. Your website needs some updates, but the developer (aka your nephew) is now in college and is unavailable.
3. Your animated gif is getting tired. He looked so hip back in the day, but dancing puppies just don’t articulate your marketing message like they should.
4. If a battle were to break out, your company’s PowerPoint presentations would kick the crap out of your website’s content. Which it should, since the PowerPoint was updated last month and the website hasn’t been updated in years.
5. Your website feels like a black hole. You’re not exactly sure how many people come to your website, what they do once there, and when they leave.
6. Your website feel tiny compared to that of your competition. It looked great back in 2000 when the standard resolution size was 800×600. Today, well, not so much.
7. You navigation is so poor, you and your website visitors have difficulty finding relevant content.
8. You have duplicate content and you didn’t even know you had. But Google did and you’ve been hit by Google’s Panda update because of it.
9. Your website is so slow you can grab a cup of coffee while navigating between pages.
10. You greet visitors with a talking image of yourself. That may have been ultra cool years ago, but now it is just really annoying. And when the world talks about social, they do not mean talking avatars.

Again, real-world websites and comments from website owners. But there is hope. You are no longer forced to rely on your tech savvy nephew or an outdated WYSWYG software package with limited capabilities. You can use modern tools like WordPress and Google Analytics to create a fresh new website presence.

And if you really need help, you can contact a website designer like myself. I’d suggest you locate a WordPress website designer who is spunky like me, so we can stop you from using animated gif files, talking avatars, or anything else that would harm your online image and the world’s perception of your company and offering.

Feel free to add a comment below to help round out my top ten list. I’m sure there are plenty more website faux pas that can be added and I’ve love to hear from you.

Make no mistake, internet marketing is a battlefield.  You’re going to war against a million other websites and you need to have sufficient weaponry to compete and to walk away unscathed.  You need to know your enemy, you need armor for proper defense and you need a clearly defined plan of attack to win the online battle.

When was the last time you performed a marketing recognizance mission?  Have you looked at your competitor’s website recently?  Or even their general internet activity?  I’m always surprised that many small business owners, CEO’s, or marketing executives do not make this part of their overall marketing strategy.  I do this with my own company and with ever client that contracts me to design a website or engage in an SEO project.  I want to know the websites they compete with so I know how to best position them.  I want to understand the battlefield so we can plan an effective attack.

If you are a website design client of mine I expect you to take the time to perform your own marketing recognizance mission.  Since I will be doing one for you, I expect you to do one too.  I want you to look closely at your enemy and I want you to be prepared as we enter into battle.  Why does it matter?  You need to intimately know the enemy.  Your website visitors will know your enemy, so you should too.

In previous blog posts I’ve mentioned my client questionnaire.  I ask clients to complete this before we begin our engagement.  In many cases, I email prospects the document with the proposal so they know what they are in for and so they have realistic expectations of my marketing philosophies and me as a website designer.  The vast majority of these people don’t “get” why I require this step until they review the questionnaire.  It then becomes crystal clear that internet marketing is a war and that they are currently going to battle with a toothpick and not a armored tank.

So do you have a toothpick or an armored tank?  Most likely you cannot answer this question yet, so take the time to evaluate your armor.

Review the Website Battlefield

• Identify your key direct competitors
• Identify benchmark companies within your industry
• Review competitors’ websites
• Review benchmark companies’ websites
• Identify strengths and weaknesses of the competition
• Identify strengths and weaknesses of the benchmark companies

Evaluate Your Armor and Prepare to Plan Your Website Attack

• How does your current website and online presence compare to that of your competition and the benchmark companies?
• List elements of your competitors and benchmark companies’ websites that you would like to incorporate into your new website design and build.
• List gaps within your existing content that need to be addressed and consider the timeframe and resources required to develop said content.
• Evaluate your internal resources and their ability to create a website that can address your gaps and weaknesses.
• Evaluate your budget for obtaining outside assistance for web design, build, and optimization.

Review the Online Battlefield

• Is your competitor using pay per client (PPC) ads and if so, what keywords receive the largest portion of their ad budget?
• Is your competitor’s website designed around a set of core keywords?
• How does the competitor score for these core keywords in organic search results (i.e. natural search not attributed to paid placement)?
• Is your competitor active in social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn, or YouTube?
• Is your competitor actively blogging and/or guest blogging on other websites?
• Is your competitor utilizing content marketing strategies for lead generation and potential sales?
• Is your competitor actively engaged in inbound link building?
• Is your competitor utilizing a drip marketing campaign or regular newsletter campaign?
• Is your competitor active on local search directories and are their profiles optimized?

Evaluate Your Armor and Prepare to Plan Your Online Attack

• What competitor keywords best align with your organization?
• What other keywords should you consider and target?
• Can you afford a PPC campaign?
• Do you have the knowledge and staff for organic search engine optimization?
• What changes to your existing social media activity needs to take place to level-set you and your competitors?
• Do you offer any unique and authoritative content to help differentiate your from your competitors?
• How does your blogging efforts compare to your competitors?
• Are you utilizing content tagging websites and RSS feed automation?
• Do you have the knowledge and staff for a link building campaign?
• Do you have a newsletter and would this apply to your target market?
• Have you claimed your local profiles and are they optimized?

As a website designer and SEO expert I cannot completely prepare you for battle.  This is a joint effort and we need to collectively prepare for and fight the battle together.  I can help in your internet marketing war, but I’ll need you to help in this effort.

One of my first website clients was a referral from a friend.  This client was going up against some savvy competitors and I knew he had a steep climb.  I built him a WordPress website and tried my best to prepare him for the battle that lay ahead.  With his new SEO friendly website I gave him armor.  Unfortunately he failed to plan his actual attack and he didn’t even walk onto the battlefield.  He sat in his little bunker doing the same things he had done for years.  He did not take the competitive analysis I had done seriously, nor did he believe in social media optimization, inbound link campaigns, or virtually anything outside his existing practices.  One year later my friend keeps asking me why the website did not grow in search traffic.  What?  Really?

In that same time-frame I launched a website for another client who did go to battle.  In his battle he was fighting against some of the biggest companies in America who had huge internet marketing budgets and a large number of internal employees dedicated to reaching page one search results.  This client not only went to battle with my armor, he kept me on to help him plan and execute his attack.  We were a force to be reckoned with and we beat the snot out of his competition.  Everything we did had purpose, we planned our attack and executed it as planned.  His search traffic grew almost 500% in one year and he even stopped spending hundreds of dollars each month on PPC ads.  But he reinforced the armor I provided, he prepared a strategic marketing plan, he went to war with eyes wide open and he fought and fought hard.

Initially the client I feel was a failure crushed me.  At first I felt like I failed him.  But then a fellow and very wise WordPress consultant reminded me that I cannot fight a battle for a client who does not want to go to war.  There are potential clients and situations where I have to retreat because I’m trying to win a war with someone who simply wants to spend his days sleeping in his bunker.  It was a hard lesson, but a valuable one.  I try to identify those people early on and I avoid them at all costs.  We are not well matched and we have two totally different views of internet marketing.

Don’t let yourself fall asleep in the bunker.  Rise up, go on a marketing recognizance mission, plan your attack, build your armor, and go kick your competitor off of page one search results.  It is possible.  You just need to decide if you have the fight in you and then you have to rise up and fight.

I’m not a website snob and I value the small business owner and his desire to bring sales in through the internet. I think internet marketing is critical for many small businesses, because it is relatively cheap compared to other marketing tactics. The problem is most small businesses owners want you to market a website they designed themselves or one that has not been updated in five or more years. My professional opinion is although I’d love their SEO retainer, it would feel as though I was taking their money and providing nothing in return.

Organic SEO rocks. I believe in it and I’ve earned a living off of it for many years. But search engine optimization will only go so far. You have to have a decent website to present to visitors once they arrive.

To illustrate my point, I’m going to use Randy as an example. Randy called me on Monday and asked me to “make his phone ring”. His words. I told him I could, but we’d need to address his website and SEO together, as SEO alone will not work. Randy didn’t believe me at first, so we had a frank discussion about his website and what it presents to visitors.

If a small business owner even thinks about engaging in an SEO campaign, he needs to first look at his website and ask himself a few questions. I think fifteen questions can really help determine if an SEO campaign is needed or if he needs to start first with a website design project. Let’s step through my fifteen questions for website owners to see how Randy’s current website stacks up.

Fifteen Questions Every Small Business Owner Should Ask Themselves

1. What is the first impression your website gives to a visitor?
Stress. One word describes it for me. As soon as I arrive Randy’s website a video starts playing and replays everything I hit the home page. I don’t like background noise and the video literally stresses me out.

2. What is the first thing you notice?
Links and lots of links. Randy has done his own SEO and his home page has nineteen links within four paragraphs of text. It is overwhelming and worse yet, it is keyword stuffing. He has multiple links to the same page and simply uses different keywords for each link. Keyword stuffing = Google penalty. It is not helping him from a search standpoint and it does not help facilitate a positive visitor experience.

3. Does a thirty second review of the home page articulate what your company is all about?
Yes. I definitely know what he’s pitching.

4. Does the website speak to your target audience and/or visitor personas?
Not so much. His text is written for search engines and not the user. As the visitor I see red and lots of it. The text is red, the links are underlined red words, and I struggle to read the actual text. The home page is a flood of information and it does not distinguish one visitor from another.

5. Does the website visitor have a clear understanding of what he/she should do once landing on the home page?
As the visitor I’m told to “CALL NOW XXX-XXX-XXXX”. Unfortunately that is all I see. Randy has a lot of content and videos available, but I struggle deciphering where to go. I’m simply overwhelmed. I believe part of this is because all the lovely red text (yes even content) is centered. The yelling caps is also a problem, as it is an immediate turn off. I don’t like people yelling at me. Painful, simply painful.

6. Is navigation easy and clearly defined for the website visitor?
Yes. Once I get past all the red text and view the navigation bar, my options are clear.

7. Is it usable and bug free across all major browsers?
No. That would be a big fat no. It is “broken” in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. I didn’t check IE, because I’ve already validated three browsers, so a fourth is just salt in my wounds. Boxes hang over text, text hangs over text, and there is about eleven inches of a blank page at the bottom of each page. That is just the beginning, but my point is illustrated so I’ll stop.

8. Are the “call to actions” clearly defined and compelling?
I know I’m suppose to call and I know I should “submit a case”, unfortunately the submit function on the contact page is covered with text. The bigger issue is I have no compelling reason to call or give my email address.

9. How does your visitor engage with you?
As I’ve already stated, there are instructions to call. There is a contact box on the home page, but it just states “Submit Your Information” without explanation on why I should submit. It is more about me giving than the firm actually engaging with me.

10. Does the website properly project information about your current product and/or service offering?
I think the website does provide information on his service offering, although because of the large amount of coding issues, multiple parts of the service descriptions are difficult or impossible to read.

11. Does the website discuss your visitor’s pain points and your matching solution?
No, not really. The website talks about the services and the industry itself. It does not connect with the visitor on a personal level or try to relate to their problems or pain points.

12. Do you offer anything to visitors or do you just demand something from visitors?
There is a page of “Resource Links” but these are simply links to industry websites that are not written for the average website visitor. They provide little if any value. So the website itself does not provide or give anything to the visitor. It does demand that I call (in all upper case letters) or give my email address. Since it gives little and wants something as soon as I arrive, I’d be very hesitant to take action.

13. Is the website Web 2.0 friendly?
There are no references to social media, the blog link takes the website visitor to a completely new URL on Blogger. Instead of using the blog to bring people into the website, it takes them away. There is no RSS feed or sharing options. The videos are hosted on the domain and do not utilize YouTube. This website is barely making it with Web 1.0, let alone Web 2.0.

14. If you were the website visitor, would you pick up the phone and call?
Nope. The nature of Randy’s service offering requires the visitor to feel that Randy’s firm is an authority figure in his industry, that he and his colleagues are trustworthy, and that the firm is highly knowledgeable in their area of expertise. In my opinion his website does nothing to convey these characteristics. And, there are plenty of his competitors who do, so I suspect the visitors will simply move onto another service provider.

15. Does your website help or hinder you from obtaining your company goals?
My opinion is the website hinders Randy’s goals. I’ve talked to Randy and I liked Randy. His website does not make me feel the same way. It is dated, difficult to work with, and does not tell me what I need or want to know. That feeling transfers over to Randy and his firm and makes you feel the firm is old, hard to work with, and will not communicate with me as needed.

To SEO or Not to SEO

When I spoke with Randy, I told him I would not take him on as an SEO client. I said I would take him on as a web design client with SEO at the forefront our redesign goals.

Why would I turn business away? I only want a client to retain my SEO services, if I can help the client obtain their goals. Randy’s goal was to make his phone ring. Encouraging Randy to spend money on SEO consulting, while knowing full well his website is horrendous, it unethical. Or at least to me, it feels as though I’m stalking unprotected prey. He’d be wasting money, because any traffic I drove to his website would leave and not convert. Thus in the end, my SEO services would not reach his ultimate goal of new clients.

I have to provide Randy a proposal tomorrow for a website redesign. If Randy decides to decline a website redesign and goes with another SEO firm, I’m okay with that outcome. I may not like it, but I know I tried to level set his expectations and steer him in the right direction. The rest is up to Randy.

I ask a lot of questions about the current and future state of their sales process and marketing programs. While these questions are informative, I definitely have a few questions that are my favorites. In particular, this would be four questions focused on their current website. I like this set of questions because they’re very informative and they are “raw”. I can tell many clients write the first thing that comes to their minds, which is priceless. Some answers have me laughing out loud. I don’t mean the LOL kind of laugh; I mean the tears coming out of my eyes kind of laugh.

I believe my clients’ candid responses are representative of most small business owners and how they feel about their outdated and lackluster websites. While most small businesses owners don’t spend their day thinking or talking about their websites, when asked, they will provide feedback. Unfortunately the feedback is usually far from positive.

Tell Me What You Don’t Like About Yourself

To illustrate my above statements, I thought I’d return to my questionnaires and pull a few client responses. You’ll see the average small business owner does not have a whole lot of admiration for their website and their current internet marketing presence.

Below are a few candid responses from real clients:

1. What does your website currently do well?

• Nothing…Or at least very little. It’s a personality free online business card.
• There is lots of information and it does convey our brand.
• Well it is doing something right, because we are getting business from it. Other than that, there isn’t anything I am particularly proud of.

2. What does your website currently do poorly?

• Doesn’t engage visitors, there are no differentiators, and it doesn’t clearly describe our products.
• The e-store has never generated revenue.
• It is basic and comes across basic.
• Lacks traffic.
• It looks like I did it myself and I did.

3. Are there any aspects of your website that you love?

• Love might be strong.
• Not really.
• No.

4. Are there any aspects of your website that you hate?

• It is out of date and information is difficult to find.
• Yes, but can’t point to one specific thing.
• Not necessarily, I think we just need a facelift and a more optimized site.
• All of it.

If you read through the responses, you’ll notice no one is overly excited about what they have presently and no one provided anything really positive about their existing website. The one client who said he just needed a “facelift” received a completely new website and it is actually one of my favorite web design projects because the before and after was so dramatic.

I Love You and Hate You All at the Same Time

As much as I love small business owners, I hate them at the same time. I love working with this segment, because they need me and they like me. They really really like me, as Sally Field would say. They like me because I’m opinionated and I’m not just a web designer. I’m a marketer and a salesperson and an SEO consultant and a WordPress geek all wrapped up in one. I like the companies who need a lot of help, because I like to help. It’s why I quit my real marketing job and started my own firm.

On the flip side, I hate small business owners because so many of them live in a bubble of self-denial. This is even true of my good friend Jason, who is a small business owner here in Michigan. He’s weathered through the rough period and will make it through, because he is smart and he is a good man. But he is in denial. Jason doesn’t put his website’s URL on his business card, because he says the website is so bad. His wife, Megan, regularly makes fun of it and we all laugh about it over Friday night drinks.

But the real problem is Jason needs a new website. He desperately needs a new website and I’m almost to the point of designing one for free because his is so bad. His wife and I have talked about hacking his current website and just surprising him with a brand new WordPress website.

Jason says no one goes to his website, so he doesn’t need a new one. Really? Jason I love you, but no one goes to your current website because it is ghastly and it isn’t optimized for search engines, visitors, or anything else. And let us not forget you are ashamed of it, so you don’t even tell anyone it exists. Jason doesn’t know the potential results a new website could bring, because he is living in 1975. A time when half of America didn’t use the internet to research and buy things. Just for the record, he is only 36 and he should not be stuck in 1975. I could prove to him that real ROI is possible, but to do that I’d have to put down my beer and have a real heart to heart with him. And quite frankly, he isn’t ready for it yet.

If you are a small business owner, take a moment and look back at the list of comments from my clients. No traffic, no revenue, out of date information, and lack of information are all symptoms of old websites or poorly designed websites.

If you are still reading this blog post, you know in your heart, your website is also bad. It may not be as bad as my friend Jason’s website, but you know you have problems. So sit back and take a good look at your website, your current marketing efforts, and your overall internet marketing presence. After doing so, you can tell me what you don’t like about yourself and I can tell you what I can do to help.

If you’re on Twitter, feel free to drop me a tweet with your thoughts at @WebSavvyMrkting.

A lot of small business owners launch their website with the simple goal of using the site as an information portal and a mechanism to talk about their company. It is basic human nature to be egocentric. The problem with this methodology is that it generic. Simply talking about yourself isn’t a differentiator for your website, product, or service offering. It doesn’t compel your website visitor to take action.

No matter what the search criteria is, a typical internet user can visit hundreds, no millions, of websites that all present the same type of information. Users are numb to this approach and their average time on a page supports that they are inundated with bland web copy. By following the same route as the masses, you lack the ability to grab anyone’s attention. Because I believe each and every website should stand out and grab attention, I’m a huge fan of presenting your offering via a mix of problems, solutions, and requests for action.

The Solutions for Marketers and Small Business Owners

In a recent blog post titled A Box for Every Website Visitor, I discussed segmenting your website visitors into personas or categories and then documenting each persona’s pain points or needs. That, my friends, is only the first few steps in my master plan of website design. In the next step, we must move onto brainstorming how your product or services offer a solution to each personas’ individual needs.

If you are a divorce lawyer, quantifying a persona’s needs is fairly simple. If you are a B2B company and you sell complex products, your task is a bit more difficult. That being said, this step in my web design process is still difficult for both the lawyer and the B2B marketer. Most B2B companies have an internal marketing team who is well aware of each persona’s needs. Generally they can articulate and document needs by a given persona if asked. The attorney on the other hand, doesn’t have to segregate his target market, but he lacks a pool of marketing professionals. Thus this task is difficult even though his offering is fairly straightforward.

So what’s the B2B marketer and lawyer to do? Both should create a matrix similar to the example I provide below. By forcing yourself (or team) or document personas, pain points, solution, and call to actions, you begin to formulate your future website map on paper.

Planning Your Website Based on Individual Personas

The Service Offering

Let’s dig deeper into a sample website design for a law firm. After populating the above table, the lawyer now has a clearer image of what information to present. Now he needs to consider how to present this information.

• If the attorney’s target is family law for women, he needs to immediately connect with the website visitor on the home page via familiar images and verbiage. One would imagine the images would include women so that a female visitor would immediately see the website in question provides services to women like herself.
• Once the website visitor has been “interrupted” with a graphic, the attorney can present compelling text to encourage the woman to click to a page that will provide further information about her specific pain point. We will assume our female visitor is already divorced and needs a post judgment modification of child custody, financial support, or parenting time.
• So assuming there was text on the home page to quickly illustrate this is an area of expertise and it had proper navigation options, we will also assume the woman clicks the correct link and moves to a page dedicated to this topic.
• Once on this keyword focused page, the website copy should quickly provide a synopsis of her problems and then provide the solution (or services) which will help provide resolution for her.  In this specific case it would be modifications to her existing child custody or support ruling.
• Finally, after presenting the solution, the page copy should offer an appropriate call to action that will encourage the woman to immediately perform an act. In this case, I would imagine it would be to call the law firm for a consultation.

Assuming the law firm has done a quality job in it’s assignment, the website visitor should take action or bookmark the website for further follow up.

The Call to Action and Close

So how do you know if your current website manages this process correctly? Visit Google Analytics and view your inbound traffic by keyword, the pages visitors migrate to, and the pages of exit.

In our above example, we would view inbound traffic for “child support modifications” and review the path the visitors take. If you received ten visitors for this term and they never move beyond the home page or a keyword specific page, you know you have a problem. You – the lawyer – need to take your own action and you need to consider redesigning your website.

It is as simple as: Persona Identification -> Articulate Needs -> Identify Solution by Needs -> Provide Appropriate Offering -> State Call to Action.

When you break the process down, it is straightforward and very easy to execute.

For example, I know I can pretty much tell my best friend anything and she’ll continue to love me, which is an example of our boundaries and expectations. I know what she is expects from me and what she can give me in return. We have a mutual understanding of respect that has grown over the last decade.

Website visitors, however, do not offer than same continuity. Unlike my best friend, the average visitor gives you about 30 seconds before they make a decision and put your website and company into a box. Your box can quickly become the “expert”, the “clueless”, or worse yet, the “has been”. Website visitors have short attention spans, multitasking lives, and they simply have to much data thrown at them to weed through useless rambling and ill contrived text.

When I sit down with a prospective website design client, I always ask about visitor personas. A visitor persona is simply a box for your website visitors. It helps segregate your web traffic into manageable groups similar to what I do in my personal life. Personas help define your target market and helps web designers formulate a design that direct a more precise marketing message to the various personas.

When a client and I brainstorm website personas I usually ask a lot of questions and before you know it, we have our personas. By default, personas vary greatly between B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) companies. A B2C company will have personas that include characteristics like gender, age, education level, or geography. A B2B company will have personas that include characteristics like industry, management level, and organizational department. Regardless of B2B or B2C segmentation, defining a website’s visitor personas will help place prospective users in a box.

Why would a web designer or company want to segregate their web traffic into boxes? So the marketing message can be tailored to each persona or group of visitors. Once you have your personas defined, you can create unique messaging targeted to those personas, you can better articulate your offering, and thus convert more web traffic.

Once you’ve defined your personas, put yourself into the box. Think about why your visitor might land on your home page, what might they be looking for, and what might they need to hear to encourage them to take action.

Two Very Different Website Persona Examples

• B2B Example – Over the years I’ve worked with a lot of B2B technology companies. There personas many times get defined into boxes that include IT, finance, users, and the c-level team. I don’t care what service or product you offer, those four groups digest and respond to information differently. They also have very different “pain points” or needs. Different pain points mean completely different marketing messages.
• B2C Example – Since I’m a technomommy, my B2C example would be cereal. General Mills has placed their target market into boxes. There is the kid box and the mom box. Kids want to hear tasty and see colors and chocolate. Moms want to hear nutrition and see grams of sugar and see value. Both are your demographic and both have to be targeted from a marketing prospective. Let me just say, I’m certainly not buying Lucky Charms for myself, which proves the five year is a clearly defined persona.

Figuring out your website personas and placing them in their boxes is the hard part. Once you do this, their needs and their wants begin to quickly materialize.

I so strongly believe in website personas, I will not even consider the aesthetics of a new website until I do a deep dive into your marketing requirements. If I don’t know who we target or how many boxes we will have to satisfy, I can’t begin to think of possible web design options. It just isn’t possible.

So now that you know about personas, take a step back and look at your current website. Do you have them and do they convey the right marketing message? Unlike my best friend, your website visitors are not forgiving and they won’t give you a decade to win them over.

Flash forward twenty years and I now claim to be an Internet marketer who spends many hours as a WordPress designer and an SEO expert. I love what I do, yet still miss my first love of Psychology. Recently my two loves collided as I remembered Swiss-born psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and her book On Death and Dying. She outlined the five stages of grief a person and their loved ones go through when presented with death. I was reminded of this recently as I spoke with a business owner that reached out to me concerning his outdated website. The discussion and the desire to hang on to something beyond repair reminded me of the book I read so many years ago.

While letting go of your old, outdated website is not as traumatic as losing a loved one, it does represent change. Many of us tend to hang on to what is comfortable and easy and avoid a voluntary jump into the unknown. The small business owner is no different. While he may know his ten-year-old website is horribly outdated, the desire to change it seems overwhelming, unimaginable, and unnecessary. He steps into the first of five steps of grief.

A Review of the Small Business Owner’s Website and His Five Stages of Grief

1. Denial – My website is fine. No one comes to it anyway, so I’m not going to waste any money changing it. Who really cares about what is looks like? It’s my product (or service) offering that makes a difference, not my website.
2. Anger – If people don’t like my website than I don’t need to do business with them. I’m not spending thousands of dollars to have some web designer try and communicate my marketing message. I know what’s good for my business, not some graphic designer who spends his entire day on Twitter. SEO, local search, and Facebook. Who are these people and what the heck are they talking about? I don’t need any of that stuff.
3. Bargaining – Okay maybe my website is a little dated. I think I’ll update it myself and tweak it a bit to freshen it up. If I update the pictures from 1985 and put in a few keywords, I’ll be good to go. My cousin built his fraternity’s website ten years ago, so I think I’ll take him to dinner and ask him to help. It shouldn’t be that hard. I’m sure I can just make a few changes and get a huge impact without spending any money.
4. Depression – Oh my gosh, this website project is a nightmare. I don’t know HTML, I can’t locate the original website designer, and I have no idea how to strong content that people will actually read. I can’t tell the difference between CSS, PHP, and HTML. What do they mean Google doesn’t look at meta keywords anymore? I have no idea what meta is, let alone if Google reads it. What is black hat SEO? I don’t even know what SEO means, so how am I supposed to know if my website uses black hate SEO practices?
5. Acceptance – Yep, completely over my head. Need some help and need it now. My competition is killing me, prospects don’t know what I do or when I’m open, and anyone I do get to look at my home page runs away laughing. The time has come to get a professional web designer to overhaul the website and start fresh. 2011 is the year of my Internet debut.

While this list may be praised by some and criticized by others, it is a reminder of why so many small businesses struggle with their web. In the Unites States, 55% of people use the Internet daily with Americans spending an average of 60 hours online each week. With the growing availability of broadband and the increased popularity of smart phones and devices like the iPad, the level of Internet usage will only continue to grow. Small businesses cannot ignore the need for a strong web presence and that having a marketing plan now means reaching prospects and customers through the Internet.

Five years ago I would have agreed with most small businesses owners. Internet marketing was still difficult and not an easy task to accomplish. While I’ve been working with SEO and website design for years, technology didn’t really get small business friendly until the world of open source kicked it up a notch. Websites were expensive, you needed a graphic designer, and you needed an SEO expert to help guide you along so someone other than your employees would find your website.

Enter WordPress, the fast growing, open source CMS package that is launching everything from blogs and small business websites to fancy portals for stars and magazines and television networks. WordPress is my passion and the software that liberated me and countless other small business owners. We are now empowered to take website design into our own hands. Or, at least outsource the creation of the website, then manage it internally if we choose. We have an option. We can create a great new website that is search engine friendly and pleasing to the eye and for a much lower budget than we could ten years ago. We have choices.

If you are a small business owner who is stuck in one of the five stages of grief, visit wordpress.org and learn more about WordPress website design and your options. WordPress will allow you to create and manage your web presence in the same software as CNN, Katy Perry, Carnival Cruises, Lexus, and The New Your Times. Best of all it is free and you only need to locate a good WordPress designer to help get you started.

She wanted a cute blog with minimal website functionality and that isn’t my strength. I’m a B2B or B2C girl who likes to work with small businesses and not so much individual bloggers. I wasn’t a good fit for her and we both knew it. While I did coach her along the website design process, she did pretty good all on her own. She found a great graphic artist who created an awesome WordPress design for her. I didn’t agree with everything he did, but I do think he answered her unique needs and she has a WordPress design that is perfectly matched to her needs.

This experience with my sister reminded me that different websites and blogs need different talent sets and while we web designers may want to be everything to everyone, we simply cannot do it. We have limits, areas of expertise, and a niche within which we fit. We have to acknowledge these limitations and strengths both for our future clients and ourselves. I didn’t fully understand this when I launched my internet marketing firm, but I do now.

So what should you look for when hiring a website designer? While this will vary based on your individual needs, there are fifteen criteria and/or questions that I consider fairly universal to the process of selecting a website designer. This may not be all-inclusive, but it is a great starting point for locating and interviewing a consultants or design firms.

Fifteen Must Ask Questions for Your Future Website Designer

1. What CMS packaged do you use? Is it open source or proprietary? If you don’t know the definitions of those two terms, research them and you’ll thank me later. Open source means the website design software it is widely available, while proprietary means it is solely used by the website designer. Proprietary would also mean the website designer probably wrote it himself and the website itself is HTML based. What doesn’t this mean to you? Open source means you are free to update and select website designers at your leisure. Proprietary means you are tied to your website designer for life. The only CMS I use it WordPress, because I feel clients should be able to come and go as they please and not based on my needs or wants.
2. Can your design portfolio meet my esthetic needs? Remember my sister who wanted a cute farm blog? She needed a graphic designer, not an internet marketing expert. Take a look at my WordPress portfolio. Do you see anything cute? Nope, you see business and branding. Now you understand why we didn’t bond over her WordPress design project. If you are looking for a new website designer, review the potential designer’s portfolio well before you reach out to them for conversation. You’ll save both of you a lot of time and frustration.
3. Do you adhere to web design best practices? This may seem silly, but not every web designer understands best practices. Usability is still huge issue with even the best graphic designers. My sister asked me if she should add a “key to help explain her social icons” and my response was “any website that requires a key or tutorial is not based on solid design or best practices” then I told her to change the icons. Cute is great, but functionality and usability trump cute any day of the week.
4. As a web designer, how knowledgeable are you with organic search engine optimization? If you think you can worry about SEO after design, think again. Strong search engine optimization begins with website design and the architecture of your website or blog. Rush ahead with design without thinking about SEO and you’ll regret it long-term. I won’t even start designing a new WordPress website without first having a full understanding of a client’s marketing needs and SEO objectives.
5. Do you use social media and do you feel it is important? Don’t skip this question, because social media is not going away anytime soon. In fact, it is growing at amazing rates of user adoption. Facebook, Twitter, and locally focused websites like Foursquare are taking over the internet and they are powerhouses of traffic and engagement. A new website should embrace social media and encourage engagement. Your new website designer should be active on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If they aren’t, then you ask yourself why and if they can really serve your needs.
6. What exactly are your project deliverables? Can they meet my individual needs? Let me return to my sister. She hired a graphic designer and he delivered. She didn’t hire a website developer. She got exactly what she paid for, which was a beautiful WordPress website design. She didn’t get hosting set up, organic SEO, page build out, WordPress plugin set up, Google Analytics integration, an XML sitemap, a robot.txt file, or even submission to the search engines. She didn’t pay for it. She also didn’t ask for it. She’s a newbie so she didn’t really know she needed all of that other “stuff” and she has me to help coach her along. But not everyone has a free website designer on call, so decide what you need and make sure your potential website designer can deliver it. Your new website won’t produce results if you can’t figure out how to get your content uploaded or submit your finished site to search engines.
7. What is the full scope of your services offering? This is a big one, because similar to project deliverables, designer capabilities are as diverse as clients’ needs. If you need copywriting assistance, organic SEO, or even assistance with public relations, you typically won’t get this from a graphic designer. My sister didn’t need any of these, so a graphic designer was perfect for her. Most small businesses need a full service design house or an experienced internet marketer. They lack in house marketing resources and need someone to provide a complete website development project with the option for post-launch support. Know your own needs and make sure you pick a firm that meets those needs in both the short-term and long-term.
8. How would you categorize your project management skills and what tools do you use to manage website design project? What? Isn’t it the client’s job to manage the website project? Honestly, most clients don’t comprehend all of the steps necessary to launch so expecting them to manage unknown deliverables is unrealistic. I provide prospects with a written project plan and then once they sign on as clients I transfer this plan to Basecamp so we can jointly manage the project electronically. I learned this the hard way unfortunately. One of my first clients was classic for expecting me to write content, locate images, and do way more than our contract called for when signed. He lied about project volume and frequently told me he did not know “it” was his responsibility. I learned my lesson and now I list of tasks and assignments in Basecamp and assign owners so there is no room for misunderstandings. This helps me stay organized and it helps my clients see the immense list of to do items that need to be accomplished to launch successfully. It keeps us both on task and on target.
9. Are you comfortable with my brand and do you understand my marketing message? This is important to small businesses because they frequently lack an in-house marketing team. If there in not a full-time marketer to monitor the brand and message, someone needs to do it and it falls on the web designer. Your website fails if it doesn’t grab your audience and convert them into your desired outcome. No messaging and no conversion equals failure. While industry experience is not always necessary, if you have a sophisticated product or service, then it is needed. I have had multiple clients within the ERP industry because I was in the ERP industry for eight years. I not only was a marketer for an ERP software developer, at other times I demonstrated the product, sold the software, and trained users on it. I got the concept of ERP and I understood CIO-speak and selling to the C-level decision maker. While this isn’t important to every industry, it is to the ERP industry and you need to get C-level selling to help craft out an effective website that can sell a product the size of an ERP system. If you fall within this type of niche, then you need to thoroughly interview your future web designer to make sure they “get it”. If they don’t, it isn’t their fault. Just keep looking until you do find someone who gets your industry and your product or service offering.
10. Do you think we have a good rapport with each other? Yes, I’m asking if you like the designer. I receive calls from people needing websites and they are so opposite of my personality I don’t even quote the opportunity. I am passionate about internet marketing, I really do know my stuff, and I will tell you when I think you are off base and headed down the wrong path. If you don’t like this approach and simply want your designer to unconditionally agree with you, then I am not the right website designer for you. Run, run away from me quickly. On the other hand, you may find me refreshing and you may like my passion and conviction. If that is the case, we are destined for a long-term and successful relationship.
11. What is your availability? Are you accepting new website design projects? Some of us are really good at what we do and we fill up for months. Many times throughout the year I’m at capacity and I feel as though my head may spin off. Other times I’m not and I’m open to new projects and/or consultations. If you’ve found someone of quality, don’t assume their schedule is wide open and they can start immediately and devote 40 hours a week to you. It most likely won’t happen. Ask your potential designer for a possible start date and how long the project will take to go-live. If they cannot meet your timing constraints, thank them for their honesty and keep looking.
12. Are your terms and requirements flexible? I don’t mean yoga flexible, I mean “go with the flow” and gets the idea that life and business happens. I have a new client who had a family emergency come up and he dropped off the face off the earth in mid-December. I told Steve I understood and we will pick back up once he gets his mother-in-law back on the road to recovery. He has a business to run and his mother-in-law just took the free time that was slated for website launch. I get this and I also get that I am not his top priority. I may nag at you, but I understand you need to keep your business running even if I’m waiting on content. I get you may need to reschedule our appointment three times due to your client needs. I don’t like it, but I get it and I’ll work around it. All I ask is for you to allow the same should my five-year-old son come down with the bubonic plague.
13. Can you work within my budget? This is a big one. My sister’s graphic designer was contracted at a fourth of my standard rate. I didn’t understand how he could do this until I realized our deliverables were completely different. In life you get what you pay for and website designers fit within this theory. Reduced budget means reduced deliverables or reduced abilities. You cannot expect the best of the best on a shoestring budget, so be realistic and find someone who meets your financial constraints. WordPress consultants range from $50 to $300 per hour and WordPress websites can range from $500 to $50,000. If you only need a $500 website, then great, but know you are getting a $500 website. With most things you purchase, it is relative. My pricing falls into that middle of the road category of $100 per hour and websites ranging from $3,000 to $15,000. I believe my rates match my skill set and my target market. While I’ve given free websites to nonprofits, I don’t discount and I don’t believe in cost creep. If you can’t afford me, I understand and I believe you should continue to look until you find a consultant that can work within your budget.
14. Can you provide references? While many of my clients come from referrals and I’m happy to provide clients to speak with prior to signing contracts. Not every website designer can or will do this for prospects. This is especially true if they are just starting out in website design. If the potential website designer was referred to you by a trusted advisor, you really don’t need additional references. If you randomly found the designer via the internet, you should validate their abilities with a reference prior to signing contracts. In doing so, please be respectful to your potential designer and their clients. Don’t ask for a reference unless the designer is your chosen partner. In my case, most of my clients would be C-level executives who are busy, so I only provide their name to prospects if needed. Their time is valuable and the reference is a gift so I try my best not to abuse it.
15. Do you want or can you support long-term relationships and website support? I firmly believe long-term relationships are a privilege and not a right. I need to earn your business and in many cases I want to earn your business for the long-term. That being the case, not everyone wants or needs me long-term and this is okay too. Hire me on retainer, by project, or even hourly. I don’t care, because I’m fairly flexible as long as me calendar has availability. But I am not every web designer. Not every graphic designer or website consultant wants or can support long-term clients. If you need support after launch, make sure you’ve asked your future website designer if they can or want to manage you as a client moving forward.

Web designers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors and we are definitely not a one size fits all type of offering. Don’t assume a potential web designer is good or bad until you can compare his or her skill set to your unique needs. What may be a poor designer for you, may be an exceptional designer for someone else.

Like I said, this list of qualification questions is my list and Rebecca’s view of the world. Your list may differ some and you may even add another fifteen questions or criteria onto mine. But that’s okay, because you are thinking about what is important to you and you are providing yourself with selection criteria that will help you narrow your search field. You now have a list of questions that will help you pick a website designer that is a good fit for you and your website project. In the end, that’s what matters most.

I just finished a call with a client, which is what led me to write this blog entry. On the call, we were discussing page content for his new website. Without realizing it, I found myself saying “Your website content is like a trade show. You have one minute to make an impression and keep a prospect’s attention. What do you say as you shake someone’s hand and make introductions?” His response was that his trade show pitch wasn’t at all close to what he wrote for the website page that discusses that same topic.

The reason I came to this illustration is that this client is from a B2B technology company. The writer of the content speaks at an educated level and tends to go into significant depth on the “how” when writing content. In actuality, he simply needs to discuss the “what” and more importantly, the “what’s in it for me”. He’s absolutely great at demonstrating his product and is very good at explaining the technology behind his offering, but the web page isn’t a demonstration. You simply are not afforded that much time. It is a handshake or an introduction.

My ten-year-old daughter is, in some ways, like my client. I call her the “clock builder”. If I ask her the time, she doesn’t just give me the time. She wants to build me the entire clock to help illustrate how she reached the point of knowing the time. I love her to death, but she is way too much like me. We are clock builders by nature, which is good if you are a clock builder but not so great if you are writing content for a basic web page.

Back in my early twenties a sales manager at my first job said “Rebecca why can’t you just tell me the time? Why do you always have to build me the clock?” He was right. Many years later I still want to build everyone the clock. I have to make a conscious effort to simply just tell them the time. I’ve learned to adjust my clock building tendencies when I’m writing content for a website, although I still struggle with building the clock for my husband or friends.

The pages of your website only give you enough time with your visitor that is equivalent to a handshake. They are brief moments that allow you to connect with the visitor’s needs or wants. You must provide enough in depth verbiage to offer value, but not so deep of content that you make the visitor feel like they just fell into a graduate level course at Harvard.

My client is a smart man and not a clock builder. I suspect he will have a much easier time adjusting than I did years ago.