Setting up a web project takes time, skills and budget. But entrepreneur or marketing manager probably already has been faced with the difficulty of setting up (successfully) a web project. Here are some tips for planning your project without failing.
1. Choose a web agency
It is often the first stage of the project: the choice of a provider. In principle, this should not be such a problem. But in reality, what are the criteria that you choose a web agency?
Often, the criteria are:
- A specialized agency of a particular technology (WordPress, Drupal, Magento…)
- A geographically nearest branch
- A creative agency, which will produce high-quality models
This is a recurring situation and for projects of up to several tens of thousands… In any case, the conditions are met to fail: soliciting several web agencies will present all the tools on which they are specialized (CMS, proprietary tools etc…). You will then lose a lot of time trying to understand what are the strengths and weaknesses of these tools. You will look at what your competitors are using… In short, the tools are not a problem, they have to adapt to your project, provided that the latter is a tad thoughtful. On the ‘fun part’ of the agency, this is an important but not sufficient criterion because you’re going to team up with the agency for a successful project. The geographical aspect, with nowadays modern tools you can work remotely without any problem. Finally, the creative side is often highlighted when selecting the provider… Even if it is not important for you if your website will be green or blue in reality, what matters is that it achieves its objectives. And to do this, it is the content of the website that will have a crucial role.
2. Using your entire budget for creating a website
This is one of the most common mistakes! You have a budget of 10k to create a website… You will spend 9.5k on the site and with satisfaction, you think you’ve done everything you can to succeed. You just actually put a stick in the wheel of your project.
Once posted, the website is delivered. And that’s it. And a few weeks/months, you will discover with amazement that “it does not work”… It’s just normal. It’s like having a Ferrari without fuel… You stay in the garage! Then there is a big job of creation and optimization of your site content,
3. Do not work in collaboration with your agency
“It’s normal, given the price of the service to create your website, you’re not going to spend more time with the provider”
This phrase we have heard so often… And yet it is a serious cause of failure of your web project. No interaction with your provider without work on your part in the creation of website content, the site will be a blank line. Or with low-quality content. And therefore, it will not be visible on the web and not effective.
4. Advertise on AdWords
Often, when we put online a low-quality site with little content, we realize after a few months that traffic does not take off. This is normal, and then we look for options like paid search. Again, this is doomed to failure. Because you will have to pay to be seen, but users can doubt the effectiveness of the approach if site visitors arrive at low-quality content. You will significantly increase your bounce rate and the quality of your AdWords ads against your web pages will be low, you will be obliged to pay more than your competitors to position yourself at the same level.
As for buying click with advertising agencies, without targeting, of course, this approach is doomed to failure. You will of insurance to see your engulfed budget and the expected number of clicks, but do not expect any effective approach.
5. Redesign your website
You made your site with a web agency, choosing the wrong criteria, you put your entire budget on the site, without collaborating with the agency and therefore: this does not work. Rest assured, it remains a common approach. But sometimes, the company has a bad idea to redesign the website. On the grounds that it does not work, so often we will change the CMS, or change the design… But again, the main question stays: is it a problem of tools?
In most cases, no, the tools can adapt and it is mainly the content that will make the project a success.
How to make your web project?
To do this, it is necessary to conduct a small reflection of your business:
- Who are my prospects? What is my target?
- What is the functional purpose of my website? IE “what I expect from my site? “And not” what I want my site to look like?
- What are the expectations and problems of my target?
- What content production to address these issues? Articles, images, videos, tutorials…
- What levers used for the dissemination of this content? Emailing, social networking, SEO…
- What are the goals of the site?
As soon as you are able to carry this reflection, you can write functional specifications to give to your web providers. You will have a more clear idea of what to expect from your site and not what it should look like. Technology, tools, and design will adapt to these expectations.
Finally, you have understood, that once the project is launched, and the site is live, the hard work begins: to support the project, update the content regularly disseminate via the appropriate channels, train daily to understand the evolution of web marketing…
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