You can manage your own website project. Right?
Building a new website is easy. Anyone can do it. There are powerful what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) website builders today like SquareSpace, Wix, and Weebly.
So get to work! You can do it!
Or can you?
I (Joshua) regularly chat with solopreneurs, pastors, and company managers who tried to manage their website project internally to disastrous results. Why is that?
In my professional experience, these three factors are the most common culprits for failed internally managed website projects:
1. The Web is complicated
WYSIWYG builders make the process of visually building a webpage easier but they don’t drastically reduce the complexity of the Web itself.
Media embeds, page weight, server infrastructure, complex metadata, backlinks, sales funnels, email protocols… These are just a few of the technical factors that are too often misunderstood (or missed altogether) when managing your own website project.
And the Web isn’t getting less technical. Content delivery networks, next generation image formats, CSS Grid, featured Google snippets… The Web is constantly evolving and WYSIWYG builders are limited in their ability to help your company adapt.
When you manage your own website project you may miss important technical aspects of web development and maintenance.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more complex than flipping a switch
Just because your WYSIWYG website builder says it is SEO doesn’t mean that your site is SEO. It just means that the software you are using is designed so it doesn’t hurt your SEO.
You’ve probably realized this if you have an existing website you’re managing yourself but it isn’t driving traffic.
The best WYSIWYG website builders stay out of your way – but they can’t tell you how to do your part well.
Some of the most significant ranking factors (like your domain name, content optimization, and user experience) can’t be just switched on by your website builder. If you are managing your own website project those factors are on you to get right.
3. Converting traffic into customers requires strategic planning
A couple of months ago I was on a conference call with a niche B2B company that was driving decent web traffic but failing to see conversions (in fact, conversions were down).
An online conversion is when a visitor becomes a customer. So you want lots of those!
The temptation when this happens is usually to just double your efforts to drive more traffic. If you’re converting 7% of your visitors into customers you can increase your customer base by just driving more traffic.
Stop.
What about your cost per conversion?
If your conversion percentage is low you may be spending too much for each conversion.
Converting web traffic into customers takes strategic planning. If you’re managing your own website project you may not have strategically thought through your online sales funnel, number of clicks required, or what customer personas each page is targeting.
Increasing Web traffic conversions is a science as much as an intuition.
But you don’t need to manage your own website project.
How many hours are you spending on your website per week? How much is that time worth to you and your business?
If those numbers are higher than you’re comfortable with you may want to consider having a professional team manage your project.
Rystedt Creative’s Web Development and Maintenance services can give you back valuable time, get you further with your website, and handle the technical factors you may be missing.
Your next step is as easy as contacting us.
