Most small businesses realize they need a website at some point in time and then generally seek the advice of a website designer to carry out their wishes.
What they don't realize is what their website designer is really going to cost them in terms of time, money, and frustration.
This happens for a variety of causes we'll lay out in the article ahead.
The first problem lies in the fact that many website designers are stuck in their own dogma and fail to see the point of your site to you.
Being a small business you have to make your advertising budget count, otherwise you'll go the way of Washington Mutual and their ilk.
Make sure your website has a definite aim be it to get your name and number online, collect email addresses or sell your products.
This will aid in selecting a vendor as well as overall site design.
The next problem centers around logistics.
As you'll soon find out if you hire a website designer they're extremely busy or disorganized or both.
When you hire them to put your site online you give them the keys to your virtual kingdom and get kicked out of the throne.
Should you want to add any content you'll be faced with the problem of constant calls and emails to get them to change even simple things.
A quick priceless tip - be very sure if you do hire someone updates are in your contract, paid or free, because as I'm sure you know the free things go at the bottom of the to do list for every business owner.
The last problem we're going to discuss here is the fact that just because you have a site doesn't mean they will come - this isn't "Field of Dreams" after all.
Most website designers focus on the actual site and not on traffic strategies to get you found in the search engines and put money in your pocket.
Search Engine Optimization should be at the top of your list when designing your site.
We've covered three of the most common failures encountered in small business website design.
There's really many more pitfalls to watch out for but I can't share them all here with you.
If you'll lay out a plan for your website, make sure your contract matches your expectations, and include website marketing in your budget your business website should turn out much more successful than without those three things.