Its quite common for people and business owners to get the wrong idea about creating a website for your business. There are many common myths surrounding building a website, website ownership, hosting.

In this blog, we’ll highlight some of those key misconceptions and give you real website knowledge, so you can learn to make your website work for you.

1. Once Your Website Is Online, You’ll Automatically Attract Visitors

Creating a website for your business and getting it live and online is only half the work in getting a website working. Lots of people have a misguided expectation that their website will automatically just start attracting visitors the moment it’s online. They believe that, since they’ve invested money to build a website, leads will simply and naturally start flowing in. 

It’s not that simple.

So what does happen? 

In reality, attracting a good amount of website visitors takes time, knoweldge, and resource. You need to focus on things like search engine optimization, paid ads, guest posts and social media —it takes a lot to generate traffic for your site.

Once you get started, you’ll find out which strategies work best for your website. The bottom line is, you have to take action; when you do, you’ll begin seeing an increase in traffic.

2. Only Online Businesses need to create a Website

Many people think that creating a website for your business is only for eCommerce businesses who are selling products or services directly online. Often, these people own their own business with a traditional office or shop front. They don’t necessarily see the value in having a website and are happy to generate leads through word of mouth like they always have.

In any small town, the vast majority of the construction or trade based companies will not have a web presence at all, and that’s because of this myth. 

Whether you own a shop, a plumbing business, or a medical/beauty clinic, people are searching for you online. Most people use apps like Google Maps to search for businesses in their immediate local area and learn more about those businesses. While some small/micro business owners may be able to get away with not having a website, if they have competitors who are on the web, not having a website will, at some point, start to hurt sales.

All types of businesses need a website and not just to attract new people. Having one helps build a relationship with customers, too. It provides prospective customers with validation and confirmation of who you are and what you do.  The more information you provide for your visitors, the more trust you’ll earn, and that’s critical when you’re trying to grow your business.

3. If Your Website Looks Good, You’ll Start Making Sales

A well-designed website might be visually appealing, but it won’t necessarily account for an increase in sales. Some people think the design of their website has more to do with the overall performance of their business than it really does.  Sure, a good-looking website can be of use, but there is more to the technical build elements and the overall structure/layout of the website to help it deliver customers, this is known as user experience

Beauty is only skin deep?

A beautiful website is great for attracting new people and providing a pleasant and visual user experience when they visit the site. However, it’s the quality of your products or services and ultimately your reputation in the market that really matter.

If you concentrate on creating real value for your visitors, your site will serve its purpose, and there’s no need to overdo it where design is concerned.

4. Once Your Website Is Up, the Work Is Done

When you build a website, that’s only the beginning. While most people understand the need to nurture and maintain other aspects of their business, they sometimes fail to grasp the fact that their website needs ongoing attention too. A website is never finished, it just has a ‘go live’ date.

So what is needed? 

You’ll need to maintain your website. That includes renewing your domain registration on time, protecting your website from viruses and cybercrime, updating its design to keep up with current trends, and investing in traffic promotion, so people actually visit it.

5. Creating a Website for your business Is Too Expensive

Many people are afraid to create a new website, because they think it’s a very expensive exercise. They’ve been made to believe that creating a website is also a long process, requiring them to hire a developer that will charge lots of money.  Its also too much of an unknown for many people, so they decide its better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

So how much is it then? 

The reality is, building a website is very affordable, and ultimately you can do it yourself, without having to hire an expert. With the availability of website-building platforms like WordPress and professionally designed website builders like wix or godaddy you can build your website in one day with no coding knowledge.

Templates are a great way to get a nice website, save time and money, and find a design that perfectly reflects your brand and business personality.

6. You’ll Top the Search Rankings from Day One

If you think you can get your website onto the first page of Google search results overnight, you’re fooling yourself! You’d have to be very lucky to quickly rank as the number one website, even if you were in a unique niche that shows up when people search for uncommon keywords.

What’s the Truth? 

Getting your website on the first page of Google search results is like every other aspect of growing a business—it takes time! You need to invest a lot of effort into identifying the right keywords to optimize your website, building relationships to earn backlinks, and establishing your site’s authority. Don’t think there are any shortcuts when it comes to SEO.

7. The More Features, the Better

It’s a misconception that having more features on your website will make it better. Sometimes, people add features to their website without considering their value. They end up offering a whole array of things to their audience that aren’t really needed. More features mean more choices, and that just makes it tougher for consumers to make an actual decision.

I recommend that you keep your website simple. Ultimately your audience doesn’t care about all the functionality and features. What they care about is the value they get from your products or services. Too many features on your website will detract from the site’s main purpose, so it’s best to leave out any features that don’t add value for your visitors.

So what to do next.

You’ll hear people say a lot about what it means to have a website. Listen to them, but take the information with a pinch of salt, because myths like the ones we covered here are very common and also very personal to each different type of business and business owner.

You should do your own independent research about how to create the type of website you need. By making informed choices, you’ll avoid all the myths and stick to the reality of what it takes to have a great business website.

Maybe take a look at our website design section and maybe we can help with your website project