The Three Little Pigs

Remember the story about the Three Little Pigs? One little pig built his house out of straw, one little pig built his house out of sticks, and one little pig built his house out of brick. We all know how this story goes so where am I going with this? Well, when you are building a website, you can build a site out of ‘straw’ or ‘wood’ or ‘brick’. Which one are you going to do?

A ‘Straw’ Website

“The first little pig built his house out of straw because it was the easiest thing to do.” As we all know, this straw house didn’t stand a chance when facing the Big Bad Wolf test, the house crumpled to the ground and the pig went fleeing to the stronger stick house of his brother.

This kind of website is one that really doesn’t do much for you. It was most likely purchased off the shelf as a ‘make it your own’ or ‘plug and play’ type of website. It was easy to throw together and chances are it looks that way.

Do you have traffic to your site? Are you generating leads from your site? Making sales from your website? Probably not. There is more that goes into promoting your business online than just putting up a quick website.

A ‘Stick’ Website

“The second little pig built his house out of sticks. This was a little bit stronger than a straw house.” In comparison to the straw foundation, sticks are much more durable and will withstand the Big Bad Wolf test for a time, but not for long. With sticks comes weak areas and in the end it crumbles, leaving two pigs fleeing for the brick house of their last brother.

At this point, you’ve probably realized that you are not an expert at the web and have decided to seek assistance. Although, you are not quite sure where to look for help, so you end up working with the first person who said they’d help you. Maybe this is someone who dabbles in the web world and made their own website once. Or, this person has a skill-set that is crucial to putting a website together (such as a designer, but lacks development and marketing skills).

A stick website is strong in some areas, but leaves gaping holes in others. So, you’ve got a little bit of a stronger base, you get your website up and running, but then after a year you realize, you have zero traffic, zero leads, and the time/headache you put into your website is showing no return on investment for your business.

A ‘Brick’ Website

“The third little pig built his house out of bricks.” At this point in the story, all three pigs are huddled in the brick house of the third pig, hiding from the Big Bad Wolf. He comes to “huff and puff and blow the house down” but the brick house owner knows that this won’t happen. He has invested in his bricks to create a strong, secure foundation that serves its function exceedingly well. No matter how much the Big Bad Wolf huffs and puffs, that house is not coming down.

Speak to your target market and generate traffic, leads, and visible ROI.

As you can see, a ‘brick’ website is the way to go. Getting to a ‘brick’ website is not something you are expected to do on your own. At this point, you should be working with a team of professionals from web developers and designers to online marketing strategists who know how to build a secure, aesthetically pleasing site that will speak to your target market and generate traffic, leads, and visible ROI.
You will want your website platform to be a content management system (CMS) as well as a content management framework (CMF). This will allow you to customize your content while still providing building blocks to get you started. This type of platform will make a ‘brick’ website attainable, no matter if you are looking to build a personal blog or a full blown website with a multitude of applications and features.

Stuck with a straw or stick website? Make a change to brick TODAY before you run into your own Big Bad Wolf.