Epilogue
Whether someone today is a freelancer or the owner of a store or small business, a great website is essential for success.
The same applies to amateurs involved, for example, with a hobby, local club, or organization.
A great website can excellently do two things:
- attract visitors from the vast global internet.
- convert those visitors into your customers.
Creating great websites is a journey!
You will start this journey by studying competitors but mainly the motives behind users’ search queries on search engines like Google Search.
Combined with your business goals—depending on what you want visitors to do on your site—you will choose the battles to fight.
At the same time, you will have a good idea of what success means for you and how far you can get.
All this, without having seen anything related to the site you are about to create!
Then, you will be able to very clearly define business goals and the audience you will target.
This will determine how you choose to communicate, but mainly it will define and optimize the very nature of your business effort.
You will find and analyze what answers your visitors want that you wouldn’t even imagine in the physical world.
You will also be able to think, propose, and test solutions to problems that in your physical store would take months if not years.
Internet users are almost limitless.
And things happen online at incredible speed.
Starting the creation of a great website, you will have the opportunity to choose a fitting domain that is easy to recall and even easier to type. If it relates to a story, even better: you took a great step toward success!
Let your imagination run wild and be creative.
Choosing a domain is one of my favorite steps in the journey to a great website.
You will need to gather and structure as much useful information as possible for your visitors—prospective customers.
This stage will be time-consuming, possibly taking years, and as information and things evolve, you will have a first-class chance to know every little corner of your business world.
You will learn to speak to your audience in a way they understand.
You will learn how to persuade by giving answers to what concerns them.
You will see how to be concise and precise so your visitors don’t get bored.
You will present key information upfront, along with your proposal, and details afterward.
You might learn to find, produce, and edit beautiful images and videos.
The result will be a pleasant user experience.
One that comes through critical multimedia content, proper and clear—reasonable—navigation, and a fast-loading website.
Your visitors’ time is precious.
You’ll learn that the more you respect and value the time visitors give you, the more they will appreciate and return.
The world’s biggest internet companies today, the giants, aim at better user experiences to become more successful.
You will do the same.
You will test and offer info and things the internet giants can’t.
For example, knowledge of local, small-scale info around a place or topic.
Also, you will try and offer personalized experiences that giants cannot provide: direct contact and communication with a visitor—customer in a small business is something no giant will achieve on a large scale.
But there is something else equally or more important.
In a world moving at dizzying speed, being able to change quickly is what can make the difference.
Internet giants, companies with hundreds or thousands of staff, however much they try, will never be as fast and agile as a small business.
No matter how good navigation systems a luxurious giant cruise ship has, a small boat with oars or a small engine will always be infinitely more agile.
It’s the laws of physics.
Finally, through backlink building efforts, you will learn marketing science and how to build a brand.
Marketing is a whole science that brings value and sales.
Lastly, you will be able to register and manage your presence on external platforms and evaluate the quality and quantity of traffic and sales they generate relative to their cost.
Based on all this knowledge and the tools you will have daily to monitor your site’s traffic, you’ll know at every moment the trends, how well you answer visitor questions, and ultimately how well your business is doing.
In the end, the great website you create will lead you yourself to become better—and wiser—professionals.
And the cost you pay for building and strengthening your great website will be negligible compared to the value your business and you yourself will have gained.
The journey to a great website will lead you to ultimately beat the internet giants.
Good journey, Amicos!
Cover image source: Unsplash.com