6 Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Website

It has been said it can take 10,000 hours to become an expert in a craft. Unless you work for a web design agency, chances are you may have only been involved in creating one or two websites. And if you never have before, we’ve got your back!

Our agency has spent well over 100,000+ hours building hundreds of websites for dozens of different industries. Check out our portfolio for a few examples of our work.

If you avoid these common mistakes in your next website project, you’ll be set on the right path to start making big things happen online for your business.

Cheap websites are cheap for a reason. How the site looks on the outside is a very small portion of your overall website architecture. Think of it as buying a faux leather office chair. It might visually look the same as genuine leather, but it won’t be as soft, you can’t condition the synthetic fibres, and once the seat starts to crack, it’s not worth investing in repairs, so it’s time for a new one.

Your website is no different. Just because a site looks aesthetically pleasing with a modern vibe, cheap websites are often hard to update when adding new content and have slow load times for your customers/clients/fans. And when something does go wrong down the road (which it will), it will waste unnecessary time and money to fix because the site was built for the sole purpose of being inexpensive.

Now, I first want to say there are plenty of great and even amazing solo entrepreneurs that solicit their skills for hire on online marketplaces. Still, the risks of working with a 1 person development team on a web project shouldn’t be ignored.

A developer with a tech stack of an Amazon engineer can probably build you a great website, but keep in mind that many disciplines go into a successful web project. There’s strategy, content, SEO, artwork, project management, analytics, etc. It’s not feasible for someone to specialize in custom web design & development AND all the other skilled roles that are required.

Not to mention that if things go south at any point during the project, you could easily be ghosted without a department to follow up with.

If you were to look at all the internet activity around the world, nearly 93% of traffic comes through search engines. Google search alone accounts for 76% of that. (source)

Rest assured that every website we build here at Reaction has baked in SEO right from the start. However, the theme of this article is that “not all websites are created equal”. You can test this for yourself by searching for keywords of your own business and skipping to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th page of search results. A team/someone built those websites so they can technically have a digital presence, but the last thing you want is to invest in a new website to show your audience just to have it buried in search results that almost no one sees.

What do the websites of Ford, Lululemon, Globe and Mail, and Halliburton have in common? They were built for their customers, not themselves.

For just about every business in the world, customers will seek you out online with 3 things on their mind:

1. They have a problem

2. They want to see a solution

3. They want to know what success looks like

The content and messaging on your website need to speak directly to the needs of your most ideal customers. Your products/offerings need to be up-to-date and easily accessible. And you have to provide an unobstructed digital path to making a purchase, booking a call, or learning more.

You have business goals now, but what about in 1, 3, 5+ years down the road?

Referencing Ford, Lululemon, Globe and Mail, and Halliburton again, it simply wouldn’t be cost-effective for them to launch a new website every few years, so their development team works in sprints to constantly update and improve the site over time.

Your website should grow alongside your business. That’s why we take a growth-driven approach to web design and development so we can align future business goals to your website strategy that ensures a real return on investment from your website for many years to come.

Your brand is what people think when they hear your name and see your logo. If its overall identity is old and looks stale, your potential customers will think so too. Even the most high-performing website can’t showcase an outdated brand. 

If the business you started all those years ago is different than what you’ve built today, that’s ok. You just might need a refresh on its overall identity. When branding is done right, it connects with your most ideal customers, makes your marketing more consistent, and helps your business grow.

No two businesses are the same, and no two websites are the same. At Reaction, we pride ourselves on providing long-term strategy and guidance to our clients while navigating the ever-evolving digital landscape.

If you have any questions about the content in this blog, or you simply want to chat with someone about a project you’re thinking about, please book a no-obligation discovery call.