Early in this article we established that every minute of every day there are hackers out on the internet modifying code in websites that are not theirs.  Some do it to be malicious, some do it just to be able to say that they did.  No matter their motive, your website needs to be secure just as you need to lock the front door of your home to discourage hackers to take their mischief to a less secure target.  This brings me to my next point in this article.

#5: Security

It important to use good secure passwords when setting up your websites.  I once made a website for a colleague and used a very easy password for him because he would be changing it to something he could remember as soon as he logged in.  I believed it would be 10 minutes at the most before he changed the password.  His cat threw up on the carpet as some cats will do and he took 30 minutes to clean the carpet.  When he tried to log in, he was unable to get into the website.  He called me and I was also unable to log in!  When I looked at the front end of the website, I knew immediately what had happened.  It looked completely different than when I had set it up!  Not only that, but there was a nice ransom note on the front of the website!  We were able to recover the website but it required setting it up again from scratch and backup media and a MUCH more secure password. 

What makes a secure password?  It depends on who you’re securing your website from and what is being secured.  To just keep the honest folks honest, I suggest most passwords be at least 8 characters long, using both upper case and lower case characters and at least one symbol.  Make it something you can remember.  Change the password about every 6 months.

You will also want to use a form of security software to discourage attacks like automated logins, SQL injection strings and other fairly easy ways of breaking into your site.  Different platforms have different ways of dealing with this and is outside the scope of this article.

#6:  Resources and Tools

The resources and tools of the website designer can run thousands of dollars.  Starting with the operating software of their own computer, to the graphics packages, to media rights, to security packages, to constant training, it all costs money and time to stay up to date on the craft.  Sure there’s lots of free software out there but it still takes time to master it.  Just as the mechanic needs the proper tools and replacement parts to work on your car, the website designer needs the proper hardware and software to be able to build your best website.  If he or she needs to hire the skills to ensure your timeline can be met, that is another cost.

The resources and tools that you have could mean that you need to restore your website from your backup copy.  Let’s say you actually have a backup.  Now what?  What do you do with it?  If you are able to get to the restore facility to do the website restore, what do you do if you don’t get a message of “restore successful” at the end of the restore wizard process?  The answer is, it depends on what went wrong.  An experienced professional will know what to do and where to look for the answer.  Generally a website designer who has already worked with you, will be much more eager to jump on board during your time of need because they are already familiar with your set up rather than trying to hire someone to figure out your crisis during your crisis.

#7: Search Engine Optimization

This is the long heralded holy grail of the website designer.  It is important to know what you’re doing when you’re setting up search engine optimization.  Having said that, it is important to have keywords used in your website so that your ideal customer can find you when they are doing a local search.  If your website is not found on the internet, there is no way that your ideal customer will see your website.  They would need to know your exact website address or business name before they were able to find you.  They would need to already know your business before finding your website.  If you’re going to have a website on the internet, wouldn’t it make sense for you to have key words on the website so that your website would be displayed when your ideal customer types in the exact product category that you business specializes in?  For instance, if you have a newcomer to your area moving to your town and they are looking for your specialty, let’s say your specialty is diamond necklaces.  If they type diamond necklaces and your town name into the Google search bar, would they find your business or your competitor?  If they find your competitor first and they also give great service, you may have lost a customer for life!  This is why search engine optimization is SO important.

When you’re building your own website, you may not even know about these secrets much less be able to implement them in a timely efficient manner so that you can begin to make the money that you need.  When you do decide to have someone else create your website for you, use this list and ask questions so that you can understand just what it is that you are paying for.  This is an investment of your hard earned money that will pay you for many years down the road.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or use the Ask SoftwareGirl area to contact me directly.

In the previous post we discussed, why and how often you should back up your website.  In this continuation we will discuss the 2nd secret of website designers which is:

#2:  A nice looking website doesn’t guarantee you’ll make any money from it!

First a story, then the lesson:  When I was working in Corporate America, I sat in what is commonly termed as a cube farm today.  A cube farm is rows and rows of cubicles that have desks for people to work at.  The company I worked for literally had acres of cubes for people to sit at doing their jobs each day.  We were chained to our desks by the wired headsets that we wore so that we could participate in the many teleconferences that we had to attend each day in order to do our work or we were speaking with our clients to obtain information about one of their systems.  I worked on a core team of individuals who each specialized in a part of a greater system.  We had contractors who would help us out during busy times so that we could meet our deadlines.  Contractors were just as important as the core team and would often work in different teams over the course of time.  There was a contractor that worked across the aisle from me and because of the nature of my work, I was co-located between Colorado and Georgia, I was unable to get to know this contractor very well, which is to say, not at all other than knowing his name.  Apparently whatever he was working on, required him to be away from his desk a lot during the day which was not unusual so we didn’t know each other very well.  One day, my manager was about to introduce some new international interns to our teams and he ran down the aisle and asked me where the contractor was.  I told him I didn’t know but I would page him and have him return to the area as soon as possible.  He then proceeded to ask me what the contractor did and my response to him was, “I have no idea what he does, but he sure is pretty!”. 

I share that with you to impress upon you that you, as the business owner, need to know what your website should be doing for you.  Is it just something to look at and read content and move on or do you want it to actually to showcase your products and allow customers to purchase immediately?  The old adage of “the eye buys” is entirely true.  I find it incredibly frustrating when I see a product online and have no way of purchasing what I see because there is not a Buy Now button right on the website.  If I have to call a number to speak to a human, I get concerned that there will be a language barrier, they won’t get my billing and shipping details correct, they’ll get the item number wrong or they’ll use my credit card information inappropriately.  If I call and I have to press “1” for English or go through one of those hideous phone menu labyrinths, it’s much easier for me to just go to the next website in the Google search list to get the product that I want.   Basically, the fewer hurdles you put between your product and your customer’s wallet, the better chance you have at making a sale!

#3:  It takes longer than you think to create a website!

Even when you have all the graphics, website copy, your incredible offer, know exactly how to hook in your shopping cart and autoresponder, social media links and everything else it takes to create a well functioning website, it still takes time.  Just as it took you longer to get across the room when you were learning to walk compared to someone who was experienced in walking, so it will also take you longer to build your website.  If you are not gifted with the knowledge of technology, it will be even longer and possibly more frustrating.  Will you eventually figure it out?  Maybe…maybe not.  That’s not the point.  The point is that you’re now trying to figure out how to put together a website when that is not your core knowledge so you’re now not concentrating on your core body of knowledge. 

How much is your time worth?  Let’s say you’re  a cake decorator and you sell your cakes for $10 each.  This is an extreme example because if you’re a master cake decorator, you can easily make more than $10 per cake but you get the idea.  How many cakes does it take to pay for a basic website?  A basic one-page website may cost $300 or 30 cakes.  Even if it takes 2 hours, you can probably fit 4 cakes at a time in a normal oven which is 8 ovens full.  Eight ovens times 2 hours is 16 hours.  A very full day of doing what you love!  Raise the price of the cakes, put more cakes in one oven or use two ovens and you’ll reach your goal of $300 much quicker with the added benefit of doing what you love so it’s not a chore!  How much non-income producing time do you have to throw at learning how to put together a website?  When I learn new things, I expect to make mistakes and it’s part of my learning curve.  How much time and money do you have to through at a non-income producing venture?  If you need to make money fast, you want to move through everything that doesn’t produce money fast so that you can concentrate on what does make you money and that is your core competency whether than is personal fitness or cake decorating.

#4:  If computer technology is not your core skill set, you will be learning to do a lot of things one time and never use that skill again before the technology changes.

When a website is put together, once the initial structure is put into place, you rarely need to touch it again.  If it’s not done correctly, it will need to be done again.  That is also known as wasted time and energy.  Anything that you stack on top of it will also need to be replaced as well.  Technology (i.e. hardware and software) are constantly being updated.  By the time you need to use that knowledge again, the technology will likely have changed.  Why would you take the time to master it in the first place if you don’t need to?  You didn’t go out and take an automobile assembly course when you needed to learn how to drive, right?  So why do you need to teach yourself how to build a website if you’re a cake decorator?

Time is your most precious commodity.  Most people that I interact with who are starting their own business need to make money and they need to make money FAST…like yesterday!  They may not know what they’re doing but they know that they need to make money and they’re passionate about it.  I love the enthusiasm of a budding entrepreneur!  I generally speak to two types of people about their website and you’ll laugh when I tell you who these two types are:  those that have a website and …. wait for it, those who don’t have a website.  That’s pretty obvious; however, they share something in common which is the topic of this post.  Neither group knows the secrets of website designers.

Sometimes when I speak to my potential clients, the very first question they will ask me is how much it costs for my websites which is the WORST question they could ask me!  My websites currently run anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to several thousand but what does that really tell you? I’ve answered the basic question without going into a diatribe about what it is that you really need but I haven’t helped you to make a decision.

Sometimes when I speak to a potential client, they assume that they cannot afford my services and tell me as much.  I’m always mystified when this happens because they don’t even know my website address which is not the same as my company name s I know they haven’t done any research on what my offerings are, much less have any idea on how a website could help with their business.  If you’re thinking that your website is just a digital billboard on the information highway, you couldn’t be further from the truth!  This is usually the time when folks will also tell me that they can create their website using a free new tool or they have a brother-in-law that does websites or what I do really isn’t that difficult because they heard someone else talking about it.  I will always tell them to sign up for my Website Performance Tool which I offer for free on my website and wish them well on their endeavor.

Thinking of Creating Your Own Website?

Their are secrets that every website designer knows that they typically will not share with their clients or even potential clients.  They are secrets because we all know them and accept them as part of being what we do and we think they’re rather uninteresting to our clients.  Not knowing these secrets can put clients in a precarious position if one of these things happens and the website designer has not taken the proper steps to mitigate the risks.  What?!  My website (and potentially my entire business) could be at risk?  Yes, yes it could and that’s why you need to hire a website designer who not only knows the secrets but also know what to do about the secrets.

Secret #1:  Backups are essential!

Prior to speaking with a business owner about their website, I will often do my homework about what they already have in terms of a website.  I already know what it’s written in, where it’s housed, how long it’s been on the internet, what it’s worth, how fast it is, can it be seen on the newer technologies like the iPad and an entire list of things that I check out before speaking to the business owner so that I can have an intelligent conversation with them! 

One of the very first questions and the most important question that I ask them is where and how often is your website backed up?  They have spent considerable time, effort and money creating this website, you would think that it would be important for them to secure that investment, right?  I would say that 90-98% of the business owners I speak to do not have a back up of their website!!  

Disaster recovery is one of the first concepts taught in formal education when someone is getting an information technology degree because it is not a matter of if your data disappears or becomes corrupt, it is a matter of when you lose your data.  It never happens at a good time.  Think about it for a minute.  How much time and money would it take for you to recreate all the content, programs, lists, custom graphics, logos, custom code that you have invested in your website currently?  Every single minute of every single day, there are hackers out there who are thrilled when they can bring down someone else’s website or take it over and use it for their purposes. 

For me, it first happened during finals week when I was in college and had 7 projects due that I’d been working all semester on.  What resulted as a result was 7 uncomfortable conversations with professors about why I didn’t listen to and apply the knowledge gained in the discussion about disaster recovery, total embarrassment, countless hours recreating a semester’s worth of work in under a week and a lesson very well learned!  Ever since I have lived by the creed of “Backup frequently and often!” and some of you may have picked up on that statement being redundant.  Yes, it is and so should your backups be redundant!  For the rest of my college days, I had a minimum of 4 copies of my work.  Why 4 copies?  Because one time, the first 3 failed!