It’s a sign of the times.
I’m not even considering whether or not you need a website. You do.
I’m starting the discussion about websites with the concept of who controls your site.
There was a time when businesses handed over control of their websites to third parties – web designers, web experts and so on.
There was a logic to this because, in the early days of the web, many businesses just wanted their website to be an on-line brochure.
They asked a third party to design their brochures and to print them, so it made sense to behave in the same way when creating a website.
Businesses were also happy for their websites to be static. That is their websites didn’t change much, sometimes for months on end.
That’s a very old-fashioned way of thinking about a website.
Today websites serve a range of purposes. Your website is much more than an on-line brochure.
The purpose of your website
Whatever else you hope to do with your website you are looking to use it to create on-going relationships with customers and potential customers.
This means you want a “sticky” website. You want a website that people will visit again and again and again.
This means your website must be interesting.
It must have plenty of new content to help to maintain visitors’ interest.
It must be social. That is it must encourage interaction and dialogue. Part of that interaction will be getting visitors to sign up for a newsletter or to comment on what you are writing about.
You need to speak to a specific audience, not broadcast to the world.
Your website must have a unique voice and it must be a voice that people want to hear.
You get the picture.
This means that you really need to be in control of your website. No one outside your organisation can possibly know what you do well enough to complete all these tasks for you.
What does control of your website mean?
As a minimum you need to be able to change and update your website’s content yourself. You can’t allow yourself to be in a position where you are paying out money to a third party every time you want to change a sentence on your site.
This almost certainly means you will need a content management system.
The most popular content management system is WordPress.
WordPress is free. This is a WordPress site.
Whilst you might not be in a position to create such a site yourself, you will need to learn how to manage and update it.
How often should you update your website?
When I’m asked that question I have a simple answer.
“I hope you can update your website every day.”
Silence usually follows, along with looks of horror. People think they have misheard or that the suggestion is ridiculous.
I accept that some people can’t update every day. I don’t update absolutely every day, but the importance of the answer is to let people know that they must be working on their websites several times a week.
To achieve that it’s important to be in control of the site.
Why you need to maintain control of your website
Keeping control of your website is an essential element of your success today. Your website is the first place people visit when they want to know more about you. Your website is what you are judged on. Your website is often more real to your customers and potential customers than you are.
So ask yourself how you’re going to make sure you keep control of your site.
Will you learn how to do everything yourself?
Will you work with a web designer/developer?
Will you commission someone to help you to produce content?
It’s your choice, but now you know the need, you can work on your strategy.
This is the fifth tip in a series of one hundred tips for people starting a consulting business.
Do you have any questions about how best to ensure you build the right sort of website? Do you have any thoughts about how you intend to make sure you shape your site and control its development?
Leave a comment and let me know how you’re doing in terms of keeping control of your own website.
Finally, if you like this post, then please tweet about it or bookmark it.
About Margaret Adams
[...] Keep control of your website. [...]