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One of the slightly unusual things about how I work is that I'm quite happy to tell you not to spend money with me. If something isn't going to make a useful difference to your business, I'd rather say so. So here are some things I'd think twice about before spending your money on them.
A website that's much bigger than you need
You don't need 30 pages just because another business has 30 pages. Your customers only need to know:
What you do
Where you work
How much it costs
Why they should choose you
How to get in touch
So build your website around those things. You can always add more later.
Features nobody will use
Fancy features can look impressive when you're shown them in a sales presentation. But ask yourself - will my customers actually use this? Do you really need:
Live chat?
An elaborate booking system?
Customer accounts?
A complicated enquiry form?
A members area?
Multiple automated pop-ups?
Maybe you do. But if you don't, don't pay for them.
Paying monthly for things you don't need
Look carefully at what you're paying for every month. Some websites come with a long list of subscriptions, maintenance plans and add-ons. Now, whilst some of those things are useful, some aren't.
So before agreeing to an ongoing charge, ask: What am I actually getting for this every month? If the answer isn't clear, ask.
An SEO package promising number one
Be very wary of anyone who guarantees that they'll get you to number one on Google. Search results depend on lots of things, including what people are searching for, your competitors, your location, your website and your online reputation.
There are sensible things you can do to improve your visibility but there are absolutely no magic buttons. Good SEO is usually about making lots of sensible improvements and giving them time to work.
A blog you don't want to write
You've probably heard someone say, "you need a blog for SEO."
Tht's not necessarily true. Useful content can be excellent for your website, but if you're going to write one article in January and then abandon it for three years, don't build your whole website around having a news section.
If you have useful things to say, great! Write them down. But if you don't, concentrate on making your main pages useful instead.
Stock photographs that don't look like your business
You know the photographs: aA group of people in an office you've never seen. Someone smiling at a laptop. A handshake. A suspiciously happy team meeting. There's nothing inherently wrong with stock photography, but genuine photographs of your business are usually much more useful.
If you're a tradesperson, show your work. If you run a shop, show your shop. If you're a photographer, show your photography. If you're a consultant, show yourself. People like seeing real people and real businesses.
Rebuilding a perfectly good website
Sometimes you need a new website and sometimes you don't. If your existing website is fundamentally sound, you might just need:
Better content
A clearer homepage
Better navigation
Improved mobile presentation
Updated photographs
Better calls to action
Some SEO improvements
Don't rebuild something simply because it's a few years old. Fix the things that are actually causing problems.
Trying to make your website sound "professional"
This one causes a surprising amount of trouble. Businesses often replace perfectly good English with phrases such as "We deliver innovative solutions to empower our valued customers". But what does that actually mean? I've got no idea either. Say what you do. Talk like a human being.
If you're a local plumber, say you're a local plumber. If you're an accountant helping small businesses, say that. Your customers don't need corporate language. They need useful information.
Every possible social media link
You don't need to put twenty social media icons on your website. If you're active on Facebook, put Facebook there. If Instagram is where you show your work, link to Instagram. If you haven't posted on LinkedIn since 2021, you probably don't need to give it prime position on your homepage.
Focus on the places your customers actually use.
Spending money before you've worked out what you're trying to achieve
This is probably the biggest one. Don't start with:
"How much does a website cost?"
Start with:
"What do I need the website to do?"
Then work backwards.
If you need a simple online presence, build one. If you need online bookings, find the right solution. If you need an online shop, build for that. If you need to improve your Google visibility, work on SEO. The website should solve the problem. Not become the problem.
So what should you spend your money on?
Spend it on things that make a genuine difference. Good content. Clear information. Professional design. A website that works properly on phones. Useful photographs. A straightforward way for people to contact you.
And, where it makes sense, improving your visibility in search. You don't need everything. You need the right things.
And sometimes the right answer is "don't spend it"
If you've got a perfectly good website, don't replace it just because somebody says you should. If Google Sites will do the job, don't pay for something more complicated. If you can build the site yourself and you're happy with it, great. If your existing content is good, don't rewrite it for the sake of having something new.
My job isn't to sell you as much website as possible. It's to help you work out what you actually need. If that's something I can help with, brilliant. If there's a simpler way, I'll tell you.
Need some help getting found?
If you're not sure why your website isn't appearing for the searches you care about, let's take a look.
I can review your website and online presence and give you some straightforward advice about where I'd start.
No hard sell. No confusing SEO package. Just a conversation about what's actually going on.
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