7 Small Business Website Myths That Will Limit Your Success

Key Takeaways

if you believe any of these common website myths you could actually be holding back the success of your own business so I'm going to go over all of them and we're starting right now if you want to transform your website into a customer or lead generation machine I'll show you all my best tips tactics and secrets to get there fast let's dive in hey there welcome and West McDowell web strategist for the deep end and if you're not subscribed to our channel yet you're not gonna want to miss out on any future videos if you do two a week and you're just gonna want to click the subscribe button and the little bell icon next to it so you never miss another video you need to succeed online so I talked to many small business owners when they're getting the process started of getting a new website and there are certain mindsets that I see over and over again that can actually lead to a really underperforming website there's just a whole lot of misinformation out there and a lot of really limiting beliefs that can really hold your business back from reaching success so I want to get real with you and talk about these myths and the truths that you actually need to know so as you're watching this if any of these sound familiar to you like maybe these are beliefs you have I want to know about it in the comments below so go ahead and leave those as we go and the first myth is all I need is something so potential customers can come and check us out online in other words there's a whole bunch of business owners out there who think that it's not important for their website to have a goal or that it should be expected to drive action of any kind but the truth is your website can and should be much more than a digital brochure that's just talking at your customers and the problem with people are just coming to you know check you out online is it that's passive you know what you really should be focusing on instead of talking about you know the history of your company and going into all your team member BIOS so your goal is to make it as clear as possible these three things and people come to your homepage you know they need to know what it is you offer how that helps your customers and what is the next step to get started with you alright so myth number two is potential customers need to know a lot of information about us before they'll be able to make a decision this is such a common myth especially with certain types of businesses which really leads to an unnecessarily large website that's bloated and it really feels more like an information warehouse rather than a clear path to a conversion because the problem with including too much information on your website is what its gonna do is really lead to inaction on the part of your potential customer the truth is you want to include just enough information to be really persuasive and show your authority and as quickly as possible get people to either buy from you schedule a consultation booking whatever a conversion looks like for your business or to at least get them on your email list so that you can stay in front of them throughout the time it takes for them to make that decision you know when your website visitors are left you just kind of wander around aimlessly through your website on their own they're likely just to not know where to go next and they're gonna feel overwhelmed and they're probably just going to back out of there and go to check out your competitors who speak more succinctly and clearly about what it is they offer now I really want you to ask yourself this question about every single piece of content on your site ask yourself is this piece of information helpful toward getting a lead or closing a sale and if the answer to that is no then it's actively working against your goal so you should probably just get rid of it all right miss number three I want my website to get me a bunch of social media followers the idea being they want to attract people to their website so that they can grow their social media following but the truth is you probably want to be thinking about this the other way around strike that reverse it this lately in almost every case you want to drive people from your social media posts to your website and that's because a visitor on your website is only one step away from taking an action you want like getting on your email list or actually scheduling something with you or buying from you you know once you send them back to Instagram or Facebook or YouTube they're probably just gonna get started with watching cat videos or looking at pictures of their friends new baby and you're unlikely ever to see them back on your website again so you can still include those social links but what I would recommend instead of keep putting them up in the header and making them really colorful and bright and enticing to click on we're going to want to do is just put them to in the footer and make them a more muted color possibly disgraced scale to where they're there for anybody who is looking for them and wants to find them but they're not going to be enticing to abandon your site for at the end of the day you don't want them clicking on those buttons you want them clicking on your call to action button all right number four is I need a custom website and a wordpress theme is just a creative cop out you know so many small business clients come to the deep end with a million ideas of this really super cool creative website they want but then at the end of the day they just don't have the budget for that then I explained our semi-custom option which saves a lot of time and money in the design process because we don't have to design mock-ups because we get to just start with a really nice-looking premium WordPress theme a theme that serves their content and can be customized with all their colors and branding and photos and text but when I tell them about that option many people just kind of shake their head because they hate the idea of a template because they think this is just gonna be generic and I want something that no one's ever seen before now there's a lot to unpack there a lot of misinformation and that thought process first of all the content and the overall customer generation strategy of your website is much more important than the framework that it's built on but so many businesses are happy to skip over the strategy and the content part and they want to get right into the design phase because that seems like a much more fun place to start not only that but building your website on a pre-existing framework like a premium WordPress theme does not mean that it's going to look like anybody else's site that's using that same theme when it's customized correctly and third there's a certain kind of shorthand that comes with websites a certain understood layout the most web sites adhere to because it makes things easier for the user so it's generally better to stick to those kinds of layouts that people understand and intuitively know how to navigate around versus you know just going rogue and into left-field for the sake of just having a really creative website just remember creative websites don't sell services a clear message that tells your customers exactly how you can help them that's what's going to sell and honestly starting with a framework like a well-designed wordpress theme is gonna help you stretch a smaller budget and get you a greater ROI because you're not having to pay for that lengthy design phase and you can just get right into it alright myth number five if people aren't ready to buy today that's okay they'll just come back to the site when they are but the sad truth is 95% of your website visitors will never return again you know most of them are just in research mode so they're checking out you and probably three to five of your competitors so unless you can make the most memorable impression or transition people onto your email list where you can keep in front of them while they're making their decision you're likely just never to see them again and that's why it's so important to really dial in and clarify your messaging so that all these people who are coming to your site for the first time know exactly why you're the best choice to help them rather than your competition and it's why it's also really important that you come up with that really compelling transitional call-to-action which basically again gets them onto your list so you can continue marketing to them so start brainstorming on topics that can truly answer a question or solve a problem that your prospects are likely facing and then you can offer that piece of content it can be you know an article a video a podcast episode anything like that and offer that in exchange for their email address so then what happens is they give you their email address you deliver what you promised in an email and then you follow that up with weekly helpful content that way you know you'll build up numerous touch points with them and they'll come to start seeing you as a trusted guide that they really want to work with ok myth number six this is a big one I can't afford a good website any business requires a certain amount of investment to be successful and a good customer generation of website is probably the best investment you can make in your business because it really can and should be the central hub of all of your marketing so a lot of businesses who don't want to really invest in a website what they end up doing is going to something like wicks or Squarespace or a DIY web builder or even a more inexpensive freelance designer who may actually give you a really nice looking website but they probably don't know anything about marketing principles and all the things that really go into a customer generation website so a website like that while it might be cheap to make if it doesn't bring any money in for you on the back end that's the true cost of a website and by the way I get it money is a finite resource if you truly don't have it you don't have it and I did make a video how to prioritize a tight website budget so you can click right up here to get that and that basically will give you ideas how to best spend the little money you do have to at least get something that's gonna generate customers for you no matter what all right website myth number seven I get all my business from referrals so I don't really need a customer generation website I hear this one a lot generally from clients who just kind of want that simple brochure site they just say we need something to put up there but it doesn't really need to do anything for our business and honestly referrals in word-of-mouth are great but there's one problem with them and that's they're unpredictable you really never know how many new customers or clients you can get on a monthly basis through traditional word-of-mouth advertising it just fluctuates too much and you're really not in control of it and it opens you up to a very limited scope of audience and with this method you don't really get to control your message you know who knows what your current customers or clients are saying to their friends about your business do you trust them to get all the important persuasive elements right when they're selling you you know the truth is with a strategic customer generation website you can get in front of new people every single day closely control what you're saying to them and then ultimately drive them to take action not to mention that when you do get a word-of-mouth referral what do you think they're gonna do first you know they're gonna go to your website right so what you don't want waiting for them there is a really vague overview of your business you want a tightly crafted sales funnel and a compelling call-to-action all right so now I want to hear from you and I want to know if any of these myths in particular resonated with you maybe it's a belief you held on to maybe you still do I want to know about it just leave it in the comments below along with any questions or any other comments you have I'll read through everything and answer all the questions I possibly can and if you're not subscribed to the channel yet just go ahead and click the little circle icon right here to subscribe and if you're ready to step up to a more strategic website there's many ways I can help you so just click this box right over here to see the different ways you can work with the deep-end on any budget all right guys I'm West McDowell for the deep end I'll see you in our next video