WordCamp Orange County has a special place in my heart. It was the first WordCamp I ever went to. It was the first WordCamp I ever volunteered at. It was the first place I ever heard of Automattic. So I knew I wanted it to be the first WordCamp I ever spoke at.
A few weeks ago, I felt so privileged to be able to give a presentation on How to get Started with your Business Website.
It’s a subject that I’m super passionate about because I get to help people every single day with building their own Business websites.
You can find my presentation slides here.
If you didn’t happen to make it to the presentation here are just one of the points that I covered that I think is super helpful for Business owners launching a website.
3 Common Mistakes Business Owner’s Make
#1 Not being Obvious
Have you ever gone to a website and you’re just confused from the start? You just don’t know what the website is about?
If the website is not designed well and it isn’t clear what the website is about within a matter of seconds, it won’t matter how much traffic you get to your site, people just leave.
Sometimes you get so bogged down in your website project. That you forget to take a step back and see if you’re really accomplishing your goal.
You only have a few seconds to get the attention of your viewer. Are you taking advantage of it?
This means it needs to be apparent what your website is about.
Action to take: Show someone you don’t know your website for only 3 seconds- then close your computer screen and ask them what is the website about?
If they can’t answer you, then you need to be more obvious.
#2 Too Many Messages
When you’re in the middle of a website design, it’s easy to forget which one action you want someone to take when visiting your site.
When this happens, you end up sending visitors to your websites in a bunch of different directions. “Go read my recent posts, no wait go click on my social media links, no wait…. Go to this other page” Make sure each page has only one focus, and that your focus is getting the visitor to the next step.
You need to be clear on what the goal of your website is. That one action needs to be front and center. Then every time you face a decision, see if it lines up with your goal and adjust accordingly. For example, if the goal is to get people to sign up for your newsletter. Then maybe putting a bright red blinking graphic advertising your specials up at the top of your site, isn’t the best call. Maybe it should be a newsletter sign up instead.
#3 Distracted by Features
This goes hand in hand with the last item, but I’ve seen this item sidetrack sites for months and even 4+ years.
Every day your site isn’t online, is a day that you’re losing out on business. View it like opening a brick and mortar store. Get things to a point where you can open and function and continue to edit it and add features after your launch.
People commonly get distracted by Plugins.
The conversation needs to change from: “What plugins are the most popular so I can install them onto my site?” and instead should be “What is the goal of my site and what features will get me there?”
Don’t get caught into the hole of installing a list of plugins, just because you hear they’re the most popular plugins. Most popular plugins don’t always have anything to do with the goal of your site.
You could install plugins all day every day, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting you closer to your goal. Sometimes, they can just a distraction. So focus on your goal.
Thanks so much WordCamp Orange County, for giving me a platform to share these thoughts! ❤
Tish Briseno 