How do you feel about your website?

How do you feel about your website?

Are you completely satisfied with how it looks and how well it portrays your personality and your business?  Or are you a little embarrassed by how it looks?

Having a website can be a great tool for building your business and expanding your reach.  Unfortunately it can also be extremely overwhelming.

 

There is so much to learn when you’re just getting started.

What type of website should you have?

Where should you host it?

How do you customize it?

What colors should you use?

Should you use videos?

What do you want to say on your website?

How do you get traffic to your website?

Which Auto-responder should you use?

Should you learn how to manage your website yourself or hire someone else to help you?

If you’re going to hire someone how do you find them?

 

5 Tips to reduce your website overwhelm:

1.  Understand that your website will ALWAYS be a work in progress and you don’t have to figure it out overnight.  I compare it to your house.  There will always be upgrades or remodeling projects you would like to do in your house.  Your website will be the same way.

2.  Start by making a list of the key functions that your website will help you achieve.

    • Build your list
    • Sell your products or services
    • Attract new potential client/customers
    • Build Trust and Credibility
    • Entertain
    • Educate
    • Anything else that is important to you or your business

3.  Prioritize the list of key functions starting with the functions that are the most important.

4.  Rewrite your list starting with the Function that you determined is the most important.  As you write each item brainstorm some features that your blog should have to help you accomplish that function.

For example:
Build Trust and Credibility

  • Write blog posts about my topic that demonstrate my knowledge and experience
  • Have an amazing About Me page
  • Have great testimonials
  • Have a video that allows people to get a sense for who I am

 

5.  Start with your first item and focus on creating one feature at a time.

 

You also don’t need to wait until your website is perfect before you start putting it out there.  You can begin connecting with people through your website while you work on adding all of the features and functionality.

 

As long as you are putting yourself out there, you will attract the people you are meant to attract.

 

Don’t feel bad if you don’t have the budget to hire someone to make your website everything you dream it can be right now.  Especially if you aren’t exactly sure what about what your message should be or how you want your website to look.

 

The most important thing to remember as you create your website is to just have fun with it and do whatever feels right to you.  There are no rules that you absolutely have to follow just because that is what everyone else is doing.

 

Start working on your Function-Feature list and look for more tips and encouragement in the next post of the Website Wednesday Series.

 

I would love to hear what is the thing you would most like to improve about your website so leave a comment below!

Comments

  1. Hi Melissa – Great tips to help people get focused on the right things & stay out of overwhelm when it comes to their websites! I spent much time in my corporate days in IT, so really appreciate the focus on listing & prioritizing the key functions. I’m also grateful you’re providing a reminder that our sites are a work in progress, as I’ve seen this be such a point of frustration with entrepreneurs & business owners. As my business has evolved & I’ve rebranded, my main concern at this point is SEO.

    • melissa says:

      Thanks for the comment Kelly! SEO is definitely one of the things I haven’t felt inspired to tackle yet, so I would love to hear how you do with that!

  2. Hi,
    I appreciate that you mentioned that a website is always a work in progress. I find that many of my new biz owner clients- get stuck thinking they need perfection and once it is done it will be done. (and as you said- it is never done). So get up those first most important pages and know you can change and tweak as you listen to your clients and your heart.

    • melissa says:

      Hey Sheri, thanks for you comment. I love the piece you added about listening to your clients and your heart! I completely agree!

  3. Oh the “Work in Progress” website – yes indeed mine is definitely in that space and then I put myself into a challenge (the Ultimate Blog Challenge) where I get to see all these other cool fun optimized or creative websites and the ugly Website ENVY monster starts to peek in and send shivers up my spine…. Thank you for simplifying and helping to create a clear focus for what the website needs to have! It’s kind of like those “money pit” houses – got to be careful not to spend too much time and money here – good enough is good enough!

    • melissa says:

      I have definitely had some face offs with the Website Envy Monster too! Life is so much easier when you can really start to believe that good enough really is good enough. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

  4. You have some great tips here. I’ll be putting some of them into practice.

  5. Awesome! I just rebranded – and a new website and logo was part of the process. I totally could have used your list a few months ago! Thanks again for reminding me that the website is constantly changing – I keep wanting it to be “perfect” before sending people to it . . . but really . . . I’m not perfect, my clients aren’t perfect, why should I expect my website to be?!

    Lisa

    • melissa says:

      Great point Lisa! Letting go of that desire to be perfect can be tricky! Your website looks great! I love all of the color and the beautiful photos!

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