Your web designer is probably not a marketing professional. Unless, of course, you are paying several thousand dollars for your website, and even then you need to check to see what you get for your money. Let this information sink in for a minute.
The reality is that most web designers are just that: Designers. And when it comes to the more affordable echelons, it usually means that you are dealing with someone whose definition of web design is “making it look good”.
Fair enough, for some industries the appearance of your website is crucial. This depends – in part – on the value of what you are offering, and in some cases it depends on the visual nature of the industry.
For instance, if you want to offer anything in the line of travel or real estate, your website’s design has to be up to highly professional standards.
However…
Your website can look great, and still not be an effective website.
5 Dangers of hiring a web designer who doesn’t understand marketing and people:
1. A website that simply doesn’t resonate with your visitors.
If your web designer doesn’t understand your audience, the result is likely to be a website which simply doesn’t communicate your message as well as it should.
And yes, you could pay someone else to do the copywriting on the website, which could escalate the costs even more, but the way in which it is presented can still alienate your audience.
This can happen through the use of random stock images, the way the website is laid out, and fancy elements on the page which might be counter productive.
For instance – if you offer a product or service aimed at predominantly middle aged (and older) people, having lots of moving elements on any given page could send your visitors elsewhere.
2. A confusing website.
Fair enough, in many cases the owner of the business could be the cause of this – however it is up to the “professional” web designer to point out any errors in thinking or a lack of knowledge on the part of the website owner:
A website must have a clear focus. What do you want the visitor to do? Then a clear pathway (customer journey) so they will do what you want them to do.
3. A website that doesn’t move the visitor closer to doing business with you.
Every single aspect of your website must be designed to either draw the visitor in deeper (links to internal pages of your website) , or into doing business with you – whether it is by making a purchase online, or by reaching out to you.
If your visitor cannot clearly see what their next step should be, then there is a good chance that they won’t take that step.
4. A website that doesn’t tell Google what it is about.
When building a website, there are a series of steps to take to ensure that Google not only sees your website, but perceives it to be a quality resource while supplying a good user experience.
If those things are not in place, Google will (a) take much longer to find and index your website, and (b) place your website lower down the search results (c) not index it at all.
5. A website that simply doesn’t convert.
Getting people to visit your website is one thing, but converting them from visitors to buyers or even leads, is something else entirely.
If your web designer doesn’t at least understand the basics of marketing and human behavior, chances are that the visitors to your website will mostly remain just that – visitors.
All of this comes down to one thing:
If your web designer doesn’t understand at least the basics of online marketing (and visitor behavior), it will cost you.
It will either cost you in terms of lost customers or clients, or it will cost you in terms of fixing it. Depending on what exactly is wrong, fixing it could mean anything from making minor improvements to paying through your nose for search engine optimization or rebuilding the website altogether.
The problem is…
Most web designers are not marketers. They lack the skill set. And unless you know which questions to ask, you won’t know until it’s too late.
So here’s a question for you:
Does your website do its job? Or is it “just there”, existing, not living up to your expectations?
If it isn’t doing its job as it should, let’s discuss how to improve your website marketing strategy. Just Click Here to contact us.