Building and owning a website can and should be a positive and rewarding experience. But just like starting a new business, it’s tempting to focus on the easy and positive aspects of the new venture, and to ignore the hard (or even negative) parts!
Here’s our top 10 list of the “hard parts” that existing website owners know about, but new ones might not. Forewarned is forearmed!
- A website is never finished.
- Testing and bug fixing is a normal and necessary phase of your website. It will take longer than you expect.
- There’s no such thing as a bug-free website.
- There’s no such thing as an unhackable website, even when your site is fully updated with the latest security patches.
- Ensure your website is fully updated with the latest security patches. Either DIY (if you have the time and skills) or pay a professional to do it for you.
- Estimating (software development) is difficult. It’s not an exact science, even when your project is clearly defined.
- Even when your project is clearly defined, you will almost certainly want to change the scope during the project lifecycle.
- 100% future-proofing your site is impossible given the extreme pace of change of technology.
- Your site will likely have a lifespan of about 3-7 years before a major upgrade or rebuild is appropriate.
- If your website needs lots of people to visit your site to be successful, it will most likely require a marketing investment that is substantially greater than the initial cost to design and build it.