It cannot be overstated that whom you choose to build and maintain your website is of critical importance. In this case, what you do not know can hurt you. The primary reason for this is business owners by definition are not web designers or developers, meaning they are not tech experts and are more or less shopping blindly. To illustrate what can go wrong I choose four real-life examples of problems I have seen you so may avoid them.

Do You Legally Own Your Domain?

The most significant issues I have seen and potentially one of the most costly to remedy is not legally owning your domain. If your current website is a “free website” or a very low-cost website and under some other circumstances you may not be the registered owner of your website domain address. In the lifetime of your company you will want to update and upgrade your site, and if you choose a new web developer or agency, you can run into problems getting control of your domain address. If you as the owner of the company purchased your domain independently with your credit card and paid the annual fees, and provided that domain to the developer you are probably safe. To be certain go to https://whois.icann.org/en and check the “Registrant” section. If you find that you are not the registered owner of the domain contact the registrant listed and request ownership. In most cases, they will work with you.

Do You  Own Your Website, and Is It Transferable?

Because business owners are not tech experts, they almost never know if they own their websites. In other words what platform is their site build upon and if they decide to change the hosting can they transfer the files of the site elsewhere?  In many cases, especially the low cost or no cost websites, sites are built upon a proprietary CMS (content management system) owned and controlled exclusively by the website supplier. In those cases, business owners are in a real jam. When you stop paying that company, your website will be lost along with its SEO ranking, and history. Sites build upon open source code CMS like WordPress is portable. Always ask the developer if you own the data/files and what happens if you decide to move your website hosting to another hosting company and if there are fees involved and how much those fees are. Find out if your site is built with an open source CMS like WordPress  https://www.isitwp.com.

Is The Website SEO Optimized?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization on the web pages themselves is essential for ranking higher on search engines. Google and other search engine bots routinely scan your website for information. We help the bots with on-page SEO consisting of a sitemap, H1, H2 and H3 tags, meta and image tags, descriptive web page names and well-written content. Many web designers often scrimp when it comes to on-page SEO, and most of the free sites have no on-page SEO at all. Read more on my blog post- The-Top-Six-Considerations-for-Updating-Your-Website.

Do You Have a Plan To Use Your Website?

Years ago most business owners started realizing that they needed a website, but very few ever thought about website usage for growing their business or a strategy for the promotion of the site. To be sure of, having a website that functions as a company brochure has some value. People can find you through your domain address on your business card or look up your business online if they know the exact name and spelling of the company, but a well thought out design and promotion plan can make your online presence a strategic part of your company’s success. By asking questions like what do I want people to do when they reach my website such as making a phone call, chatting, texting, booking an appointment online or requesting a quote, it is possible to make your site a viable sales tool to grow your business with the right strategy and tools. Second, you need a plan to promote your websites, like social media linking and Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Reviews Generation Marketing, Listing Distribution Services, Blogging and more.

Conclusion

There is literally more than meets the eye when it comes to website design and promotion. Do yourself a favor and save time, frustration and money by hiring a trusted expert to handle your online marketing, you’ll be glad you did.

Tony Roland is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Trusted Partner Marketing, Inc in Buford, GA.  His passion is helping local entrepreneurs grow their businesses. www.trustedpartnermarketing.com