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Building a website for your business is extremely important to reach your growth goals. Without a website, you are missing out on a large portion of your client base. Close to 90% of people search for local businesses on the internet. If you don’t have a presence, your business doesn’t exist.
You waited until you had enough money in your marketing budget, but now you need to get moving on this project. It can feel overwhelming, especially since so much is at stake. An attractive website with effective SEO management [LINK TO SEO BLOG] can blow up your business, but it can also pull resources out of your business, and there is no guarantee on the size of the return.
Your first priority for website development must be to get through this project as quickly as possible and end up with a functioning website that you can begin marketing. Web development can be complicated with lots of moving parts. You’ll want to develop a solid plan before you get started.
The first step to your website development plan should be to hire a virtual assistant for website development. This can be a short-term hire for the length of the project, but you’re going to need help from an experienced professional. Your virtual assistant can manage the project for you, tracking all of the pieces and keeping you informed of important deadlines.
A virtual assistant can also handle all of these tasks related to your website creation project:
Analyze competitive websites to see what information and functionality they feature
Research keywords for SEO
Solicit bids from website developers
Create a framework for your website structure
Track progress and make milestone payments to contractors
Develop website content
Collect necessary files and information and distribute to contractors
Check reviews and past performance of web developers
Coordinate graphic designers, web developers, and content writers
Communicate your feedback to all contractors when necessary
Get contracts signed and maintain copies
There are so many pieces to a website development project that you are going to need help keeping track of everything. Without a project manager, your website could end up taking twice as long as necessary and cost three times as much as planned. Even a hands-on manager like yourself doesn’t have the bandwidth to handle all of this.
Unfortunately, website developers are not usually turn-key operations. Just hiring a company to create your website does not guarantee a finished product. It may, in fact, guarantee a canned website they pull off the shelf that has no customizations for your unique business. Best case scenario, the developer builds you a customized website but peppers you with questions and requests which hold up the development timeline and cost you a lot of money.
Using a virtual assistant to manage the developers and other contractors needed to get your website up and running is the best use of your time and resources. Your virtual assistant will plan and track the project from the beginning, be there to translate your vision for the creatives and keep the project on a strict timeline.
While your virtual assistant is managing the web creation project, you are free to continue running the other aspects of your business, helping your clients, and developing new services. A business owner’s job is to run the business, not chase down deliverables from graphic designers or explain to programmers why your clients will be annoyed by a pop-up window. Leave that to a virtual assistant who is experienced in website project management.