Finishing Touches? Consider “Good Enough”
We see it all the time at OneFirst HQ. A firm is so close to the finish line, but they postpone and even postpone again, wanting to make sure every last piece of their new website is in place.
The saying “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”, generally attributed to Voltaire, is our frequent refrain here. We get so caught up in the quest for the perfect website, whether waiting for another blog post or waiting for the final staff bio, that we miss the forest through the trees – the quicker your new or improved website is up, the better!
Here are a few reasons to consider launching your website now, or as soon as possible, even if (or when) it’s not perfect.
Begin Building Credibility For Search Engines
Search engines need time to find your website. When a new site is launched, the search engines will begin to crawl and assess your site. This doesn’t happen overnight. Even “perfect” sites will take several months to rank well. So it pays to start building credibility with search engines as soon as your website is useful to potential clients.
Search engines also look favorably on it whenever you add content to your website. So whether you’re planning to add additional blogs or pages or have other content revisions planned, now is actually a great time to launch. Just add that content as it’s ready, and the search engines will take notice.
Launch Early And Gather Feedback
While we may intuitively fear putting our website out into the world prematurely, the truth is that one of the best ways to test the effectiveness of your website is to put it to work. A live site is actually a great source of feedback from visitors and your colleagues.
Once your website is online, even if it isn’t completely finished yet, you’ll be able to start collecting feedback, analyzing it, and modifying your site where changes are needed. In addition, with your site live, you can use a heat map.
A heat map is data analysis software that displays visually the areas of your website that are getting the most attention from visitors. With the site live, you can use the heat map to analyze who is visiting your website and whether they’re navigating the site as you intended.
Maintain Momentum
Maintaining momentum on a complex, time-consuming process like building a new website for your firm can be a challenge. We see this all the time.
Early on, the firm signs the contract, eager to get started. But as work piles up and cases are heading to trial, it’s easy to let a website development project take the backseat.
Launching your site is a great way to keep your foot on the gas. With the site launched, firms tend to feel a continued sense of urgency to complete the project since the site is already live.
The healthy pressure that comes from launching the site can contribute momentum and help your firm cross the finish line.
A Few Essentials Before Launching Your Attorney Website
Here are a few final suggestions to consider before you launch an “in-development” or “beta” site:
- Make sure that all of your ethical requirements have been met. In particular, review your state’s Rules of Professional Conduct in light of your new website.
- Set milestones and deadlines for continuing the project before launching. It’s important that there’s a plan in place to continue enhancing and perfecting your website. Carve out time for this weekly.
We hope this has given you some confidence to launch your site, even if it isn’t at 100%.
