We’ve all seen the advertisements: “You, too, can have a beautiful website in less than five minutes!” What a catchy teaser headline.
The sad thing is, the headline is totally true. Anyone, anyhwere, can get a website up and running in record time these days. Services such as SquareSpace and Wix are big advertisers and offer users the ability to get up and running very quickly. Some people see value in that. After all, everyone needs a website, right?
Do You Understand What You Want Your Website to Be?
The real problem with this approach is that in order for *your* website to be successful it needs to stand out from the rest. The process of discovery – learning what you want your website to do and how you want your website to look – is a critical part of the website development process. Without adequate time devoted to discovery, your site is not likely to be the successful venture you want it to be.
Once you understand just what your needs are, the execution of a website design that will accomplish your goals is another key ingredient in the recipe for success. Understanding this, do you really think that boilerplate templates from a “Get it done in five minutes” web host will put you on the road to success? Probably not, eh?
It’s More Complicated Than You Think
Your website needs to be meaningful, beautiful, clean, uncluttered, dynamic, full of great content, offer a great user experience, be easy to update, be coded properly, be designed to be search engine friendly … the list goes on and on. Your website simply needs to standout from the rest of the clutter on the web.
There’s both a cost and a time element associated with achieving this success. Certainly, some can accomplish this with little investment and a do-it-fast template website at SquareSpace. But you are probably not going to be that lucky.
If you think developing a website is cheap and easy, you’re right. If you think developing a website that is effective is cheap and easy, you’re wrong. SquareSpace and Wix have helped a lot of people develop a fast web presence. Most of the time, you get what you pay for.
