At Charley Grey, we've built 100+ websites for businesses of all sizes, industries, and goals. Along the way, we've picked up hard-earned lessons—mistakes avoided, wins multiplied.
If you're planning a new website, redoing one, or just want your site to actually work for you (not just look pretty), these are the lessons we wish every business owner knew up front.
14 Most Important Lessons We Learned
1. Clear Goals Before Design Saves Time & Money
Too often, clients come in wanting a "beautiful site" without agreeing on what success looks like. Is your goal leads? Brand awareness? Sales? Local visibility?
When objectives are vague, design and content bounce back and forth. Having clearly defined goals from the start (e.g. increase quote requests by 25% in 6 months) gives the entire team direction and prevents scope creep.
2. Content Strategy is NOT Afterthought
We've seen clients spend heavily on visual design while tacking on content as an afterthought. Then months later, the site is live but has thin pages, poor SEO, or irrelevant messaging.
Lesson: build content strategy early. Write user-focused copy, plan blog topics, map service pages to user questions. It pays off fast.
3. Mobile First Isn't Optional—it's Essential
More than half of web traffic comes from mobile. If your site feels clunky or slow on phones, you lose visits—and revenue.
We've rebuilt sites where mobile issues were costing clients major conversions. Prioritize mobile navigation, speed, and touch-friendly design.
4. Website Speed = One of the First Impressions
Slow websites feel unprofessional. Every extra second to load increases bounce rates.
We learned that optimizing images, clean code, caching, and good hosting are investments—not costs. These optimizations often translate directly into higher engagement and leads.
5. SEO Needs Early & Ongoing Attention
SEO can't be "added later." We've seen sites that look great but don't rank because metadata, URL structure, page hierarchy, internal linking, keyword research etc. were neglected.
Sites built with SEO baked in from the start don't just rank—they get compounding visibility.
6. Don't Underestimate User Experience (UX) & Conversion Paths
A beautiful homepage doesn't matter if users get lost, can't find the form, or don't know where to click next.
We often audit sites that have weak CTAs, confusing menus, or forms that ask for too much info. Simplify. Make the next step obvious.
7. Manage Expectations About Revisions & Updates
Clients sometimes expect a site to be perfect out of the box. Reality: feedback rounds, changes in business offerings, and new ideas emerge later.
Planning and budgeting for revisions and ongoing updates avoids frustration. Subscription-based models (like ours) shine here—because they account for the evolving nature of websites.
8. Reliable Hosting & Maintenance Matters
A site crash, plugin conflict, or security issue can undo everything.
We've learned the hard way that selecting good hosting, doing regular backups, security patching, plugin/theme updating are critical. These are often invisible to clients—until something breaks.
9. Strong Analytics & Monitoring Helps You Improve, Not Just Measure
Many businesses deploy a site then never review the analytics again.
We always set up tracking (Google Analytics, Search Console etc.) from day one. Then monthly reviews: what page is losing traffic? Which blog posts perform? How many visitors convert? These insights drive future improvements.
10. Template + Customization Balance is Smart
Fully custom websites are beautiful but expensive and hard to maintain. Templates can speed up build time and reduce cost—but they risk looking generic.
Our best results come when we customize templates with branding, layout tweaks, and custom features. This keeps costs reasonable without sacrificing uniqueness.
11. Communication & Feedback Cycles Matter
Websites are collaborative. When clients wait weeks to respond or give vague feedback ("I don't like it"), the project drags.
We learned to set clear milestones, ask specific questions, and give guided feedback (e.g. "Which of these three layouts do you prefer?"). That builds efficiency.
12. Scalability Should Be Built In From Day One
Even if your business is small now, you may grow to add locations, new services, or need e-commerce down the road.
We've built sites that needed to be reworked later because they weren't designed with expansion in mind. Plan for scalability: easy page additions, flexible layouts, modular design, reusable components.
13. Prioritize Security & Data Privacy Early
Security isn't glamorous, but every business faces risks: malware, hacks, outdated software.
We make sure SSL, secure hosting, regular updates, backups, and privacy policies are in place from launch. This both protects clients and builds trust with their customers.
14. Ongoing Support & Ownership Transition Is Key
Launching a website isn't the finish line—it's the starting line. We've seen clients treated like "finished" after launch, then left to their own devices for content, changes, SEO.
The best websites are those paired with ongoing support—updates, monitoring, adjustments. And training clients or providing a team that listens makes all the difference.
Putting It All Into Action
These 14 lessons come from real projects at Charley Grey. When combined, they change the difference between "website done" and "website doing work."
Here's how we've used them in our workflow to deliver high-impact results:
- Before kickoff, we run a website readiness checklist with the client: goals, audience, content plan, analytics setup.
- Every build includes mobile & speed tests.
- We set up monthly reports to track traffic, conversion, page speed, content performance.
- We perform scheduled website maintenance for all our client websites.
- We roll in continuous improvements—never wait for a redesign to make small optimizations.
Why These Lessons Build Trust (And Why Business Owners Should Care)
When you know these lessons up front, you avoid common pitfalls that cost money, time, and lead to disappointing launches.
Knowing what to ask, what to expect, and what areas always pop up as issues (content, speed, scalability, SEO) helps you hire better, budget better, and get more real value from your investment.
How Charley Grey Helps
Building 100+ sites taught us not only what works—but how to build websites that keep working. If you want a website done right the first time, with ongoing support, here's what we offer:
- Expert web design + development combined with content & SEO included.
- Managed website subscription plans so you get unlimited updates, fast support, security maintenance, and a partner who cares about your online growth.
- Transparent pricing, clear goals, and a process built for scale.
Ready for a website built by a team with experience? Contact Charley Grey and let's build a site that delivers.
Real-World Stories of These Lessons in Action
To bring some lessons to life, here are quick examples from past projects:
- For a service business, we discovered clients were leaving the site before contacting because the form asked too much info. Simplifying the form boosted leads by 40%.
- Another client had a gorgeous design but no blog. When we launched monthly content and SEO tweaks, their organic traffic doubled in 6 months.
- A multi-location business realized late that managing multiple Google Business Listing pages was messy. Including local directory listing in the subscription plan solved that scale issue
We Leaned From Our Experience & Mistakes So You Don't Have To
Over the course of building over 100 business websites, Charley Grey has learned that the difference between a site that just exists and one that truly serves your business lies in attention to detail, anticipating growth, prioritizing content & speed, and building in ongoing support.
If you want a website that doesn't just launch—but keeps working, growing, adapting—then building with someone who's done it many times matters.
Don't settle for a site that looks good but underperforms. Start your managed website build with Charley Grey today.
