Occasionally, we deal with clients who want everything on their website pixel perfect before they launch.
It sounds sensible, but there’s a price for waiting too long.
Some people think website visitors visit their website to be awed by graphics and design.
And while design certainly is important, the truth is, most people visit a website with one thought in mind, accurately captured in the acronym, WIIFM (what’s in it for me).
With that in mind, it’s essential to launch as quickly as you can.
Let users provide feedback
When you run session recordings on a website, you clearly see how people interact with a page. They scroll and click and search for things. They’re looking for something they think the website might offer them. They’re not there to be awed by your amazing masthead banner.
So for you to wait until your website is perfect (whatever that means), means you’re wasting an opportunity for it to start gaining traction in search engines.
When it gets traction in search, you allow Google, and other search engines, and people to provide feedback on your site. That means you’re letting the market tell you what the site should be like, in lieu of what your ego thinks it needs.
Let Google provide feedback
Obviously, if you want Google’s feedback, you need to give them access to your site. That means building a site with a content structure that makes sense for your niche, and installing analytics.
Once you start generating traffic, your analytics report becomes a wealth of information on what people and Google think of it.
Naturally, the more valuable your site, the higher it’ll rank in Google.
The higher it ranks, the more traffic you get. The more traffic, the more market insight.
If you wait too long, you won’t build momentum.
Be the expert
Experts rule their niches.
By establishing yourself as the expert in your field, you’ll draw people to yourself, and consequently, to your products or services.
How do you establish yourself as the expert?
By consistently adding relevant content that makes people return.
This path only makes sense if you launch ASAP.
The longer you wait, the more room you grant your competitors to set themselves up as the go-to source of information and the solver of your clients’ problems.
In conclusion
Leave the niggles for later. Launch your site, get into the market, and let the market tell you what’s wrong with your site.
You don’t have to launch a mongrel. Make sure your site looks good. But you’re not entering a beauty pageant; you’re becoming a solution.
The longer you wait, the longer it takes for you to become market oriented.
