Your Website Design Will Never Be Perfect
I open my email to 5 new messages from my web design client and fight the urge to roll my eyes. It's not that she's a bad client — but we've been working on her site for months, and instead of moving forward, she's asking for punctuation updates on already approved pages. I don't think that's what it's really about. I think it's the fear of putting herself out into the world that's losing her time online, which means losing potential business. Which brings me to the hard news I’ve got for you today: no matter how hard you strive, you'll never achieve a perfect website, brand design, or image. So, I want to talk about how embracing imperfection is the only way to move forward.
The Myth of Perfection
Perfection is like a watery mirage you see in the distance that keeps shifting farther away the closer you get to it. It's completely unattainable. And worse, it occupies your time to make you FEEL productive while you're not actually making progress. In the world of web design, striving for perfection becomes a never-ending journey of constant improvements, design tweaks, copy updates, optimization, and every other nit-picky thing you can think of. And when it comes to doing business, time is your most valuable resource. Every moment you spend trying to achieve perfection is time taken away from reaching your audience. You can guarantee that nothing will ever be 100% perfect, that's not changing. So, the thing that actually needs to change is your mindset telling you that you cannot move forward until every little thing is aligned.
Progress, Not Perfection
If you can accept that imperfection is an inherent part of the process that can't be avoided, you can start thinking in terms of progress, not perfection. That's huge! In fact, your website shouldn't be a static perfect thing — it's a tool that should grow and evolve with you. If you're in the starting stages of your business, having something out there is better than nothing at all. And you can continue to add to it + improve as time goes on in every stage of your business. If you're a handful of years in, then you should be updating your website to reflect the improvements and changes in your business. If you're pivoting or niching down, your digital home online needs to pivot with you. Every single step of the way, your website will never be perfect and never be finished. It’s always a work in progress.
The Power of Imperfection
Launching your website before it's perfect can definitely seem counterintuitive, but it can actually be a powerful strategy. Not only will launching before you feel perfectly ready save you time, but it can show your authenticity. Perfection can be cold and sterile, while imperfection shows you're actually a real life human being! Authentic flaws and all! The part that matters is how you continue to build + improve based on that imperfect starting point, and by then you may appreciate not spending so much time focused on minute details that ended up changing as your message changed anyway. I push my client to launch without everything being perfect. The most successful websites are the ones that adapt and evolve based on your real business experiences, not ones that present as perfect from the very start.
If we're really being honest with ourselves, it's not really perfection that's holding us back. It's the fear of failure. Putting yourself out into the online world is hard and takes a lot of guts. But failure is all part of the process. It means that you're trying, and some people never even get to the trying part. So, you're already a success if you really think about it! Even if you're an imperfect one. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, because everything is a work in progress. Your website, your business, your social profile, your life. Nothing. I’ve said it for years, so much so that I’ve considered getting it tattooed, but DONE > PERFECT.
