Measure twice, cut once. This expression has been around for generations dating back to some of the earliest carpenters and tailors.
What does this phrase actually mean? Simply put, it means that one should plan carefully and thoroughly before taking action. This is especially true if your actions involve things that have major implications for your business. Things like your hiring practices, your business budgets, and yes, your website.
After being in the web and marketing industries for several years, I can say with confidence that a significant number of businesses, both small and large, don’t plan out their websites well enough. Maybe they are hindered by their budget, maybe the issue is that they are impatient, or maybe the reason is something entirely different.
Whatever the case may be, not adequately planning out your website before developing it can have significant consequences. The following are just a few of the negative consequences that can arise from poor planning of your website.
1. Poor User Experience
We’ve all seen it: the website that was obviously built over the course of a weekend. Minimal thought or planning was given to the project, and it clearly shows. You try to navigate the site, if it loads at all, and you find yourself frustrated by the entire experience.
By not having adequate planning for your site, you run the risk of doing this to your users. Excessive load times, confusing content, and poor user interactions are all things that you will bring upon your users without proper planning.
2. Missed Marketing And Sales Opportunities
Planning out your website doesn’t just provide positive benefits for the technical aspects of your website. It also provides positive benefits for your business’s marketing and sales efforts.
Good planning could mean spending time to map out where call-to-action buttons would be most visible for your users, which could make the click rates increase. It could also mean strategically planning out your landing pages and sales sequences so that your users get placed into the right automated sequence, thus converting them to customers more often than not.
Proper planning could also mean providing easier ways for your potential customers to reach out to you, such as chatbots and interactive contact forms. These are just a few things that you might be missing out on if you don’t take the time to diligently plan out your website.
3. Difficulty Updating Or Maintaining Your Site
Your website should be a living, breathing part of your business. It should be updated regularly, it should be scalable, and it should almost function as a sales-person for you. When you rush the development of your site and neglect the planning aspect of it, you increase the likelihood of future headaches and budget hits for you and your team.
Maybe your company is of a certain size and doesn’t need a certain technology or feature yet, but you intend to offer it once you reach a certain goal. Through proper planning, you would have the foresight to set up your site’s structure so that adding certain features would be a breeze.
Maybe your content needs to be set up in a particular way so that your users will have a better experience while interacting with it. With poor planning, you are at risk of creating a ton of frustration.
When In Doubt, Plan It Out
Measure twice, cut once. Proper planning in a world where users tend to have less patience and forgiveness is a necessity. You can no longer throw together websites and hope to compete with your competitors. You need to have a vision for the long term and plan out every stage of your website.
If you need help planning out your website, schedule a strategy session with ROI Online. Our team of HubSpot and StoryBrand experts can guide you through the process, ensuring your website is developed the right way, the first time. The meeting is free, and there is no obligation or risk.
And if you would like more tips on how to create a functional, lead-generating website that brings customers to your door, download our Digital Marketing Checklist. This guide is designed to help entrepreneurs gain a deeper understanding of what to do and what not to do with their marketing.
