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<\/a>I remember how frustrated, overwhelmed and just plain lost I felt when it came to our website seven years ago. We had a good-looking site, but we just weren\u2019t getting traffic and working with our \u201cwebmaster\u201d was a nightmare; it took months\u2026and scads of cash\u2026to get anything changed.<\/p>\nToday I manage our websites myself. Thanks to the magic of \u201ccontent management systems\u201d like WordPress and Joomla, I can upload new articles and images, add features and make changes on my website when and how I want.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a long, hard journey. So I\u2019d like to share some tips your webmaster probably isn\u2019t going to tell you so that you can avoid some of the painful mistakes I\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n
1. Make sure your domain name and hosting are registered in your own name.<\/strong><\/p>\n When we set up our first website for our wedding business, we just wanted someone to do it all for us. When our webmaster offered to take care of our hosting, we were thrilled that it was one less thing we had to do.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, when we had a parting of ways and wanted to move our website to a new host, we found out that we couldn\u2019t do it because our hosting account was in his name.<\/p>\n If your domain and hosting account is registered in your webmaster\u2019s name, he or she technically owns your website\u2026including all your images, videos and text.<\/p>\n Most webmasters are going to be reasonable about this, but you can prevent any issues over the ownership of your domain and website contents by making sure everything is registered on an account in your name.<\/p>\n 2. You CAN manage your own website.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you can edit a Word document, copy and paste, and send and receive email, you can manage a WordPress website. You don\u2019t have to be a programmer or a tech-wizard.<\/p>\n The old-school website designers don\u2019t want you to know this because they want you to come to them for every little change and adjustment on your website. It\u2019s good for business.<\/p>\n But if you have your website set up on a WordPress platform, you can add and make changes to your heart\u2019s content. You can even limit your own access and do automatic backups to prevent yourself from messing something up.<\/p>\n If you want someone to do everything for you and you\u2019re happy to pay someone for the privilege of not thinking about it, a traditional webmaster may work just fine. But it doesn\u2019t HAVE to be that way.<\/p>\n 3. A website designer is typically good at programming or designing\u2026but not both.<\/strong><\/p>\n When we go to a website designer to get a site built, we expect them to be good at the technical side of the website (programming, coding, functionality) and the design side (graphics, aesthetics, artistry.)<\/p>\n These are two very different activities and few website designers excel at both of them. In many cases, you\u2019ll hire someone who is very good at the technical side, but mediocre or even lousy when it comes to artistic design. Or you may find an artistic designer who isn\u2019t as competent when it comes to building the site.<\/p>\n Keep this in mind if you\u2019re hiring a single person to design your website. Most programmers partner with a designer to cover all the bases.<\/p>\n 4. Templates and themes can get you a beautiful, professional website at a very reasonable cost.<\/strong><\/p>\n A template is a pre-done layout for your website. When most people think of using a \u201ctemplate\u201d they assume it means their website is going to be boring or generic.<\/p>\n However, there are thousands of WordPress templates that are both gorgeous and functional. By choosing one that offers most of the features you want and then hiring a programmer to modify it to your liking, you can have a unique website at a fraction of the cost of a website that is custom-designed from scratch.<\/p>\n 5. I\u2019m not an SEO expert and I don\u2019t care if your website gets you visitors and leads.<\/strong><\/p>\n Just because someone can build a professional website that does not automatically mean they will set it up so that you get found in the search engines. And just because they\u2019re a brilliant programmer, that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re going to design a website that makes money for you.<\/p>\n If your site looks good and functions well, but no one knows it\u2019s there, you have a problem. If visitors land on your site never buy, you\u2019re not going to be in business for long.<\/p>\n Most website designers are in the business of building websites. They don\u2019t teach you how to use them or how to set them up to get targeted traffic for your business.<\/p>\n That\u2019s another reason content management systems like WordPress come in handy. WordPress websites are search engine friendly right out of the box; a few minor tweaks to the settings and Google will love you. It can be more difficult and costly to set things up optimally with your webmaster, and many of them don\u2019t understand or follow the nuances of SEO.<\/p>\n Do you love or hate your website? Leave a comment and tell me about it.<\/p>\n