Building a website can be a great investment for almost any business — and vital for most. Yet nothing is as simple as it seems. Every website project can be put at risk by common mistakes.
Knowing these basic web design project pitfalls helps you avoid them. Still, they’re common because they aren’t always obvious. So here’s a list of the top five website project risks.
1. Delaying Decisions
It’s easy to put off big decisions, telling ourselves we need to think them over. However, we then rarely get around to doing so.
We forget 70% of new information within a day — and opportunities don’t wait. “Let me think about it…” is the Dreamkiller Phrase — it rarely leads to anything but procrastination. So successful people make prompt decisions, when information is fresh in their minds. The secret to success is getting started.
Life frequently derails even the best-laid plans, as we let others’ demands take priority over our own goals. So the only surefire way to get a project started is to involve someone else. This can be as simple as booking a consultation or engaging a business coach to help keep the project on track.
2. Poor Project Planning
That doesn’t mean making hasty decisions, though. Failing to plan is planning to fail, after all. On the other hand, not all planning is effective planning.
That’s especially true when planning a project outside your own field. In that case, it can be tough to know how to start your research. It can also be hard to know when to stop.
Asking the wrong questions can lead to the wrong solution, too. For instance, it’s easy to focus on visuals, but it takes more than a pretty website to make sales.
Effective web design also considers your audience, goals, competitors and marketing strategies. Without that, a site can look impressive to the untrained eye, yet do a poor job of converting visitors into leads or customers.
Yet many sites are built without much discussion of those points, in the hope that just “having a website” will boost sales. True, only a website that looks cheap or amateurish is likely to harm sales. Still, low conversion rates mean you’ll need to attract far more site visitors to get results — and your site’s looks alone won’t attract visitors.
So why waste time and money chasing the wrong solution? It’s far safer and more cost-effective to get expert web design help.
3. Under-Investment
Under-investment undermines success. Those who buy on price alone are the most likely to be disappointed with their website’s performance. Marketing makes money, and competing requires the best solutions you can afford. So assess the profit potential rather than just looking at cost out of context.
For example, would you prefer a 10x return on £300, or on £3000? Which do you think will have put more work into ensuring it achieves such returns? You won’t get higher returns from less effort.
Besides, web design times are measured in weeks and months. It takes time to discuss your goals and create designs that suit your target market. So cheap web designers rarely stay in business long enough to gain the business experience needed to help you grow. On the other hand, an experienced web designer will generally cost you less than the hidden costs of DIY web design.
Don’t get me wrong. Cost-effective marketing can help even simple sites achieve some common business goals — but experience still matters. You’re creating a business-critical online marketing vehicle, and online marketing isn’t the same as offline marketing. So you need a web designer with online marketing experience.
In any case, bigger ambitions, sophisticated markets and complex systems need more professional websites. This is especially true for website development projects that require bespoke coding, rather than just visual design. Programming unique behaviours and processes into a website takes a lot more time than visual design and a very different set of skills.
Either way, the less you invest in the site, the more you’ll need to invest in marketing — and you run the risk of not investing enough to succeed. Don’t understate your budget — offering peanuts will only attract monkeys. Instead, consider realistic web design price ranges and be honest and up-front with designers about what you are prepared to invest to succeed. Above all, do not expect weeks of skilled work for less than the average employee makes in a week (currently over £600).
4. Fire-And-Forget Website Projects
Many sites get launched and then neglected. Yet unless your only goal is “to have a website”, launching a site is just the start. Without marketing, it won’t get many visitors; without visitors, it won’t generate sales or leads for your business.
Successful marketing is built on regularly analysing stats. Sadly, Google Analytics now focuses on supporting Google Ads with limited data samples. Still, alternatives exist, so experienced web designers should be able to help you work around these limitations whilst remaining legally compliant.
Either way, active website management based on reliable data is essential. So make sure your site has good stats and website compliance systems installed, and learn how to read and use those stats in your marketing. This is an ongoing task, as market trends and your competition’s tactics will change constantly.
5. Playing to the Wrong Audience
You are not your target market. So a website built to meet your personal preferences isn’t that likely to connect with those who buy from you. Yet that’s how most websites are built.
Likewise, your target market isn’t “everyone”. You can’t please everyone. In fact, the more precisely you can identify your target market, the easier it is to sell to them. It’s easier to connect with one person, or a very small group, than it is to connect with a whole crowd.
Every part of your website should put the needs of your target market first. Answer their questions, in language they will understand. Create content they will find valuable. Figure out what will help them to trust you and take positive action — then do that.
6. Bonus Risk — Becoming a Zombie!
This is a long-term risk, so not as obvious as the others. Still, many small firms end up struggling along as “zombie” businesses.
In the early stages, many business owners aren’t even aware of their problem — and by the time they are, it’s hard to cure. So you can learn more about zombie businesses here.
Conclusion
Those are the top five website project risks that I’ve seen over 20+ years of building websites. There’s a lot more to getting a website right, of course, but most lists focus on visual web design mistakes. The issues outlined here are less obvious, run deeper, and can undermine entire projects.
So, I hope this helps you to reduce the risks to your website project. If you’d like an even safer web design process, just book a callback, or simply use the link below to tell me what help you need.
Note: The small fee I may get if you buy from external links in this post doesn’t affect my recommendations.
