The 1st truth of website design

We covered the 7 truths last time – and each month we’ll look into them, in turn, in more detail.  And if they’re particularly thought provoking, we may dedicate more than one article to some of them.

So let’s start with the first one, namely

It’s easy to build a website.

This is what we said last time:

Clever people have built development tools and designed templates which enable people with no programming knowledge whatsoever to build websites and get them up and running.  You’ve probably even seen adverts on the television!

So how true is this, and, more importantly, how helpful is it?

Well, it’s certainly the case that clever (not to mention entrepreneurial) people have made it easy, and that you no longer need to be a programmer to create your own web site.  You can search for and register your domain name in a couple of minutes; select from numerous templates; enter your own content (text, images and so on); check everything looks ok; and finally make the site go “live” – all in less than an hour, depending on how quickly you work.

Using tools like WordPress, it’s then possible to update and add new content to the site, yourself, without needing to go back to the originators of the software.  This of course saves you time and money.

This is genuinely wonderful, with no caveats whatsoever, and has contributed to the vast number of web sites that are currently live.

No caveats – really?

Absolutely not.  This is good news.  There’s no “but” coming here.

There is, however, a “however”, and here it is … it’s one thing to get a simple website live.  It’s quite another to get it found (in, say, Google searches), and it’s a whole different ball game if you want to get it used (e.g. sell things on it).

It very much depends on what you want the website to achieve.  If it’s a predominantly static site, perhaps giving information to members (like, for example, upcoming fixtures to members of a squash club, who by definition all know about the site anyway and it’s not hugely important that the site gets found in Google searches) then the simple approach may well be sufficient.  Indeed – many people start off like this in their website design, before realising that they need more functionality and exposure later on.

If, on the other hand, you do want the site to get found by people who don’t know about it; used (as a source of information); and potentially even sell things on it … you’ll need a slightly different approach … and the site you can get from a TV advert probably isn’t going to be sufficient.

It’s still good news though!

Clever people are still involved, still making it easy – but adding capability and services so that your website design leads to your site getting found, liked, and used …

… and this is where the 2^nd truth comes in, which we’ll write about next time …

… but if you really can’t wait that long, and want help with your website design now, then check out our own website here, or contact us either on-line here or on 01539 900 020

and we’ll be absolutely delighted to get you started!