A new website for the company? And you’re in charge of it? The solution is all in your hands, no need for a web agency. Just follow these easy steps:
1. Don’t.
No really, don’t. Trying to take matters into your own hands and make a website with builders like Squarespace or Wix leads only to problems. You may have heard about them, and let me tell you: they are kids’ toys. They can seem like the easy way out, but they are definitely not. Limited number of themes to choose from, very few ways in which you can customize them (you can change the colors, what a treat) and yet they lure you in saying “You can make this too!” while showing a website that’s made by professionals.
With those two out of the scene, let’s go back to square one.
All right, so you are in charge of redoing the company website. Rather than letting yourself overwhelmed with such a huge task, here is some advice to keep in mind when going about this.
2. Happy boss syndrome
One boss would make the whole website the ugliest shade of green just because it suits his “vibe”. Or have all the content of the website on the first page. Or take a particular liking towards the unspeakable font. And while all these design “choices” would make your boss happy, it would, of course, be detrimental to the website and company as a whole. There are better ways to go about things without succumbing to what is known as happy boss syndrome (where you try to keep your boss happy regardless of anything). Employing a team of expert web designers (like these guys) will give you professional advice regarding all things web design, tempering any sort of extravagance your boss might have and reorienting any possible critique they might have to benefit the website. And don’t take this critique like it’s a bad thing. Everybody wants to do the best for the task at hand, so being involved will never in the process will never be detrimental, so no need to judge the boss in this situation.
3. Great expectations
No need to quote Charles Dickens around here, it’s not like the writer of this article has an BA and a MA in English literature. What we are actually referring to is how everybody wants to make things right, as best as possible when it comes to a certain problem at hand; a.k.a. the website. Striving for the best creates great expectations for everybody, especially for the boss (since we were just talking about that). And while wanting perfection is not a bad thing in itself, it becomes quite the unreachable goal when you do not have a professional team that can satisfy those expectations. So, again, our advice is to hire a web agency.
4. Cutting your own hair, the WIX way
We know you wanted bangs, but now look at you. Micro bangs that are worse than Courtney Cox’s in Scream 3. The same situation will happen if you try to use Wix and other Wix-type CMS, as we just said before. Rather than doing it yourself, you really should go and trust your hairdresser to give you the best haircut. This is a metaphor. The hairdresser is us. Make an appointment, we’ll make you look real nice.
5. Conflicts are bad
Conflict avoidance is quite a thing, given that even Charles Dickens wrote about it. “In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.”(Charles Dickens, Great Expectations). But it isn’t as bad as you think it is. Conflict, confrontation and critique can make the product you are working on reveal its strengths and weaknesses, and this only furthers the development of the website. Hiring a web agency can also de escalate any possible disagreements that you might have with your boss. We can take the blame, we are used to it. Almost too used to it, trust us.
5 ½. You are not working with us
You knew that I had to say this. My boss told me to. In all honesty though, we do make some cool websites. We can take the burden off your shoulders when it comes to creating websites and we can make your boss happy. But it’s okay if you don’t. Really. We won’t be mad, there are a lot of great agencies out there. 🙂
So yes, you can have a perfect website. But you need actual expertise and professional advice to get there. No good thing comes easy, so cutting corners with a DIY attitude on the web is not a viable solution in this day and age.
