By Kristie Parker
Psst.
You can tell me.
I can keep a secret.
We all know you work hard on your business, so why don’t you have a proper website?
One that lurks in your unconscious mind. Maybe you’ve never even considered it. I know I hadn’t.
I wonder if it’s because, as business owners, we’re experts in our fields. And experts are supposed to know things. We become the person with the solution, instead of the person asking for help.
I read this on a cherished blog, EnchantingMarketing.com:
“Experts risk losing their beginner’s mind—a mind that’s open to fresh possibilities, a mind that’s willing to ask fundamental questions, an elastic mind jumping to make new connections, unbound by familiar pathways. Even when we share our knowledge as… experts, we need to stay humble, nurture a childlike curiosity, and keep asking questions.” – Henneke Duistermaat
This rings true for me. How about you?
Are you missing out on the benefits of a well-designed website simply because you can’t do it yourself?
Are you unsure of where to begin? Could learning some basic website terms and features make the process less painful? Would it help you decide what particulars are important to you?
Let me explain a few common techie terms that may help you build a winning website…
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Google is the most popular search engine so we’ll use it as an example.
When people search for anything on Google there could be millions of relevant websites and pages.
How does Google rank each one?
If I google “restaurants in Manhattan” I get 281 million results. That means there are 281 million web pages that contain information about restaurants in Manhattan.
How does Google decide in what order to display them? Why are some websites displayed on the first page of search results and others are relegated to a black hole?
Google utilizes many factors (which frequently change) when deciding where your website will be ranked in a search.
Without getting into too much detail here lets focus on 3 main keys.
In particular comprehensive content related to your audience. This is where your blog comes in handy. Consistently creating unique content will improve your ranking.
Keyword rich content and pages are important (don’t worry we’ll take care of all of your on page keywords and descriptions). Create & publish unique content consistently to improve your rankings.
Essentially when somebody else shares your webpage link (usually a blog post) on their website Google likes this. Not all backlinks are created equal either. When someone in your industry with authority shares your link it carries more weight.
Slow loading pages frustrate your users and can discourage them from sticking around. According to eConsultancy, “40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.”
This is where your website lives. Just like people rent apartments, your website rents a home too. It’s where all the data is stored that makes your site run properly and allows visitors to view it.
No need to make a separate payment, your hosting (website’s rent) is included in your monthly service.
Have you noticed that websites look different on your phone (or tablet) than they do on your desktop computer? That’s because the screen size is different, which means the content size needs to change as well, so it’s easy to read. The links need to be clickable too.
Your site needs to be optimized in order to operate to its potential.
When sites aren’t optimized you’ll see photos that are enormous on the screen, misaligned text or it takes forever for the site to load.
Flaws like these are embarrassing for the business because they look unprofessional but they’re also annoying for the potential customer, who is likely to click off the site in search of something easier to navigate.
Since over 60% of Google searches are done on a mobile device it’s critical that your website looks and performs just as well on a phone as it does on a desktop.
Not only should this be included in your website build, it should be part of the monthly maintenance cost.
Technology is ever-changing and what might seem fast now could be achingly slow next year. Your site will require regular updates to keep it running buttery-smooth.
A domain is the name of your website, think amazon.com. Just like every person has a unique social security number, every website has a unique domain name.
The difference is, a social security number is free. A domain name costs money, and if you don’t pay, you no longer own the domain name and it can be purchased by someone else.
The cost to buy (and renew) your domain name is typically $10-$20/year.
Per our promise, there are no hidden fees here, so this cost is built in to your monthly service. If at any time you discontinue your service with us, your domain name is yours to keep and you will be responsible for paying the yearly renewal fee.
Everyone wants to protect their personal information from becoming public online, right?
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is one layer of protection and it offers multiple benefits.
When you enter any information on a site, it has to go through multiple touch points before ending up at its destination. SSL ensures that your information is encrypted and therefore can’t be intercepted by scammers or thieves.
Without SSL, your credit card info and anything else is vulnerable because it passes over the internet in plain text, where anyone with the know-how can see (and steal) it.
SSL ensures authenticity. You can be sure that the website you are sending information to is legitimate and not a fake site created to steal information. Data integrity is another important feature. This means that the information you enter cannot be altered when it’s traveling to its final destination. The way you enter it is the way it’s received.
How do you know if your website has an SSL certificate? Check the search bar (where your web address is located). A padlock indicates a secure connection.
Just like a book, a website has pages. Think of your homepage as a book cover. No matter what type of book it is, every book has one. This is the first thing a visitor sees. It gives her a quick glimpse of what she’ll find inside.
Sky’s the limit after that. Some books have an introduction, some don’t. Some books have a foreword written by another, more famous, author. Others don’t.
Do you want a separate place for customers to view prices? Contact info? An About Us page detailing who you are and how your business got started?
We can do it all. At no additional fee.
Imagine baking a cake from scratch. You’d probably start with the basic ingredients – butter, sugar, flour, eggs. That’s your first draft.
But what flavors would you experiment with to make your cake special? A dash of vanilla, a generous helping of cinnamon, globs of buttercream frosting?
Each ingredient will alter the look, texture and taste of your cake, so you may have to test each one out to get the perfect final product.
Your website works the same way. Browse your first draft. Hmm. Let’s use a more colorful photo here, make the logo bigger, and how about a more whimsical font for the About Us page?
We’ll send you the updated site design and you can continue to make edits as long as you like. We’ll only make a site live when you’re totally satisfied.
Most web design companies offer any type of analytics report is an additional add on cost. Don’t worry though these reports are all included in your monthly payment with Bungalow.
Why? Because we believe that you need to know how many people are visiting your site (traffic), time spent on your site, social sharing or where did a visitor come from (source) to name a few.
This data is vital to understanding how your site is performing and how to improve it.
Think of plugins like the apps on your phone. Each one has a different function. There are endless amounts of free and paid plugins available. The key is to use the appropriate mix of them.
For example in our website builds we use plugins to speed up your website, backup your data, assist with SEO, security and e-commerce to name a few.
Plugins need to be monitored, updating and sometimes deactivated and removed. No need to worry we’ll take care of that.
No one wants to pay for an uninspired cookie-cutter website. Your site should be unique and speak to your distinct audience.
A boxing gym and a florist should not have the same website design, right? We’ll work together to choose a layout, colors, fonts, images and everything else so that your site represents YOU and appeals to your customers.
There are loads of free stock photos online. The problem is: Companies with the most high quality images charge a fee. Paying the premium means access to different sizes and countless more options than you’ll find on a free site.
We have access to the premium sites, which means so do you. Choose as many as you like, there’s no limit to the amount of images we can add to your site.
Is there anything more annoying – not to mention time sucking – than calling a business and not being able to talk to an actual person? Or the company is so large that you end up in an endless vacuum of transfers to different departments?
It’s our biggest pet peeve, so you don’t have to worry about it from us. You can contact us directly and we’ll remember your name.
We’re experts but business owners should never stop learning, right? Is it uncomfortable for you to work on your website? Is that why you’re avoiding it? Imagine you broke away from that. How would your business grow?
Don’t deny people your dazzling service by making it so hard for them to find you.
