There are many elements in a website design project.
Elements may include the overall strategy, the site map,
site contents, design, coding, search engine optimization
(SEO) and additional functionality. With so much to track,
it's easy to let the website design project roll on
forever. It's tempting to keep tinkering and adjusting the
various components until they're perfect. But you should
remember that while you're editing the website, it stays on
your designer's temporary server for testing or on your
desktop - and never gets launched.
This is counter-productive.
While it's important to launch a website that looks
professional, it's also perfectly OK to launch a site that
isn't 100% finished.
Launching a site that's not perfect can actually help you!
Once your site is live, you'll be able to:
- Get Feedback: While you're working on your website,
you're working in a vacuum. Even if you're working with a
designer and testing it out with some of your clients,
you'll only be getting input from a few people. Once you
launch it you'll be able to ask all of your visitors for
their impressions and feedback on your site. Improving it
with this extra help will really speed up the process and
the site will be improved much more quickly.
- Get Found: The faster you can launch something, the
better. The search engines won't find you the instant your
site is up! If you launch it you'll get more time to work
on the site while giving the search engines more time to
find you. Once the search engines find your site they will
start referring business your way. And that's the whole
reason you're creating this website, right?
- Refer Clients To It: Imagine if you could spend less time
trying to make sales. One way is to refer clients and
prospects to your website. If you put your 80% complete
website online, you can send those inquiries to your site
instead of spending time answering questions. And that time
will be freed up for you to work on your website. It winds
up being a win-win for everyone. So, if you have a website
that's partially done, get it up online now!
Go ahead and launch the site, even if there are whole
pieces missing. Say you still have to finish spicing up the
copy, or have a few more pages to add. Even if you haven't
hooked up your newsletter subscription or your shopping
cart yet, just go ahead and launch the site - it will help
you bring in more business while you're finishing your
website project. A website that's out in the world does you
a lot more good than a website that's sitting on your
computer, stuck in development.
----------------------------------------------------
Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big
visibility for small businesses. Her workbook, "Design a
Website That Works", will walk you through all of the
questions that you need to answer in order to create the
best possible website.
http://www.elf-design.com/http://www.elf-design.com/products
-webWorkbook.html
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