This is a question I am asked several times a week. The short answer is yes but with qualifications. It is uber important to have a website in this day and age (see my post regarding the Phone Book Is DEAD!) and then there is the question of the quality of the website.

Okay so having a website is important and necessary but will just any website work? I was just at a conference where a woman saw my work and approached me about her website. Apparently her brother-in-law created her website and he isn’t a web designer. Okay, I am not saying that all websites created by family members or non-designers are bad. I am saying that sometimes, most of the time, they are not professional looking. With that in mind, I asked her if she was happy with her website, and did it accurately represent her business? She replied that it wasn’t and realized that it wasn’t what she wanted. Whether or not she hires me to create the new website is irrelevant for this discussion but what is important is that a well designed website gives a new or small business what it lacks, credibility.

Think of it this way, in the not to distant past, companies had sales people that were the first contact with new clients. They worked really hard to get “in” and make that first impression. Now its our websites that are doing the heavy lifting of impressions and the clients come to us. In that same thinking, if your website were an employee, what is the “duties” you want it to do? Is it doing them? What kind of first impression is it making?

Here is my new way of evaluating whether or not a website is working. Give your website a performance review. You heard me, performance review, just like you would one of your employees. Rate it. Then choose whether or not your website deserves to stay on or be fired!

Yes, I said FIRE YOUR WEBSITE! If it doesn’t make that great first impression, or generate the clients that you want, FIRE IT! You wouldn’t keep an employee that had such a poor performance so why keep your website? Why put up with it?

Now here is the kicker. If you have fired your website, then you need to make a list of all the duties you want your website to do for you. Then figure out how much would it cost to hire someone to do those duties. I know that the yearly salary of that person, costs a lot more then having a professional designed website.

There is not comparison and no question that websites cost money. Think of how much money you could be losing by not having one or having one that doesn’t work for you.