Does your website actually matter? Probably Not.

Does your website actually matter?

The short answer... kinda. I know, weird coming from 2 guys who put food in their mouths by way of building websites for people.

So many times, we see young companies burn too much cash on things that don’t matter. Sure, keep the cold brew on tap and definitely buy company hats (everybody loves those, and company culture is a real thing). But for the love of all that is holy, don’t waste your precious dollar on things that aren’t going to be used.

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DON’T…

• Don’t hire a fancy agency to make you an award-winning website if you don't get traffic or don’t have a plan to.
• Don’t spend dev time building your marketing site
• Don’t hire us (or any other vendor) if you aren’t solving a problem with your website

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Save your cash, stay in business for a few more months, and spend it building something incredible.

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When should you consider taking your website seriously?

The answer… When you have traffic and/or are ready to market. Your website’s value is directly proportional to how many people visit the site. The more people that visit, the more valuable it is… or more of a serious problem it may be. If you get a fair amount of traffic, or worse, you pay for traffic and your website isn’t considered in your growth strategy we might have a problem on our hands. Now would be a good time to fix it. Stop reading this. Go tune up your site.

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DO…

• Do have a website that clearly communicates how you change the lives of people that use your product/service. Have great copy.
• Do track your website’s performance so you can make informed decisions (more benefits to that later in this post)
• Do align your landing page(s) with your specific marketing messaging.

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What metrics we track. And why.

The world of marketing is always changing and goalposts tend to move. Yesterday's average CPC for startups was different from today's. There are a few things that you control and that's what matters. We keep a close eye on the following:

1. Bounce rate
2. Time on page
3. Conversion rate

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Bounce Rate

We want to know if our funnel has any leaks. Imagine you are on a call about to land your largest client and boop boop boop… Your call fails. You scramble to redial but its too late. They are walking into their next meeting. Your deal will have to wait for another day. Defeat… They bounced.

Your website is slightly different but the premise is the same. Your prospect was on the page, then left without next steps. They bounced.

Give your visitor something to do and be clear about it. That simple thought will lower your bounce rate.

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Time on Page

Is what we're saying "sticky"? The point of a landing page is to continue the story… this helps us know if we are doing our job of telling a good one.

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Conversion Rate

Are we getting people to do what we want them to do? Conversions don't necessarily have to be e-commerce transactions or leads for your next big client. The—and yes, I say the conversion event—should change depending on your marketing strategy. For instance, don’t track sign-ups, track “view pricing” clicks. Use this to see if your landing page works to the best of its ability. This is a longtail play but will save you in the long run. And hey, investors will love you for documenting your messaging learnings from these experiments in your data room.

Your website is absolutely something your company can leverage. And in our opinion, it should be part of your plan — whether that plan is for today or next year is up to you.

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