Margie Dana

Last week I spoke to an audience of printers at the Print show in Chicago. My first session was all about creating a web site that WOWs. It went very well. Honestly, the feedback’s been tremendous.

One point I made (over and over) is important enough to write about it here: your web site will never be 100% done. Honest. Business owners, including printers, often get overwhelmed when they think about their web sites. The work involved seems insurmountable. They don’t know where to begin or how in the world they’ll ever get it done so it’s exactly right.

For all of you who might be feeling this way, take heart. Your web site is a work in progress. Once you accept this, you’ll feel the enormity of the project – along with your stressing over it – dissipate.

Thanks to easy-to-use content management systems (like WordPress, which I use), your web site can be updated in a heartbeat. Have a new page? Easy. Brand-new blog to post? A breeze. Find a typo? No worries. Snap-snap, you’re done.

Maintaining/updating your WordPress site is a little slice of copywriting heaven. Take it from me. I used to have HTML sites and worked through a designer for every bit of site copy, every single change, every mistake I found, every photo I wanted to upload. It took forever, was painfully inefficient, and so frustrating.

Here’s the most important part of this message: nobody’s site is “done” once they’ve made it live. Expect to change your site, in large ways and small. The good news is, you can do it over time. No, that’s not right: you SHOULD do it over time.

Only when you “live” with your web site for some time – weeks, a few months – can you know what needs to be changed. There will be pages you might want to rethink or delete altogether. There may be corrections to the navigation. There may be adjustments to your home page that will improve it.

The best analogy I can think of is this: it’s like moving into a new house. Don’t be in such a hurry to furnish it all at once. Rather, focus on the rooms you use most, and put the important furniture in so you’re comfortable.

Then live in it for a bit. Only then will you know what sorts of lighting will work best morning, noon and nighttime. Only then will you know what the perfect window treatment will be. Only then will you know where you want to hang your collection of family photos.

Get the basics of your web site written, polished, proofread, and ready to roll. Focus on the key sections for starters (I can cover this in a later Tip). Go live. Then live with your new site for a while to see what needs tweaking. I’m going through this myself now, having lived with my margiedana.com site since last Spring. Some things are fine. Others need some tending to.

Don’t wait for the ‘perfect web site’ before you go live, or before you undertake a site update. That day will never come. A web site is dynamic. Accept that fact, and you’ll feel a whole lot better about starting the project.

PS: Get in touch if you want me to give this 90-minute presentation to your audience of business owners.