The cost of NOT launching your website

It’s not uncommon for new website projects to get placed on hold for one reason or another. Sometimes this can result from bottlenecks with the content or from a client’s internal challenges around budget, causing the new website to be paused indefinitely.

While it might seem like the sensible solution to pause your new website project, we’re here to explain why the cost of not launching can often far outweigh the cost of launching a half-finished site.

The disadvantages of NOT launching your website

The design goes out of date

If your website was designed two years ago and the site has been on pause for half of that time, the design may no longer reflect market needs or your business’ offering.

It’s not making money

All the time your new website is sat on pause and not live, it isn’t making you any money. But, in most cases, even a half-finished site will be better than your existing (or non-existent) one.

It’s a constant reminder

With time, your unfinished website project will start to niggle and serve only as a reminder of your internal challenges and frustrations, breeding negativity and serving as a problem rather than a solution.

The launch will be unfulfilling

After your website has sat around for months (or even years), its eventual launch will feel unsatisfying and unfulfilling when it should be a momentous, exciting time for you, your team, and your customers.

It will start to need changing

In the same way that the design will go ‘out-of-date’, the needs of your stakeholders will change with time, meaning that even when the website does eventually launch, it won’t have the same impact you might have hoped, and will no doubt need reworking in some way or another.

The benefits of launching your website now

If you find that your business’ website project is running into trouble, regardless of the reason, we suggest working with your developer or agency to produce an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to get your site launched.

There are several reasons why launching your site, instead of putting it on hold indefinitely, can be beneficial to your business:

You’ll start generating a return on investment (ROI)

As we mentioned earlier, launching your new website will help you generate new business and ROI, even if it’s not finished. This is because even a ‘not quite finished’ website will be better optimised and a better representation of your organisation than a severely outdated one or even no website at all.

You can use feedback to enhance and optimise

Once your website has launched, you’ll still have development hours in the bank ready to be used once you have the budget or content (depending on what your blocker is) to use them. Your new site can also benefit from early consumer feedback, which can then inform any future changes, and it might mean making design or navigational tweaks for the better.

You’ll be able to launch with a bang

Getting your site across the line before it becomes an internal taboo and burden means that its launch will be a festivity for your company to celebrate. As a result, your team will be more likely to shout about it, share it online and provide proactive feedback.

You can optimise and improve as part of an evolutionary process

No website is ever finished, so getting yours across the line allows you to work with your agency or developer on a roadmap of future ideas based on the elements that didn’t make the MVP, as well as any future vision, feedback, and ideas.

It will motivate people to get things finished

If you’re waiting on internal content to get your website live, launching it without the finished product can also provide some added motivation for your team to get this across the line.

Key takeaways

Putting your website on hold has multiple disadvantages that can cost you more in the long run. If your new website is stalling, we recommend working with your agency or developer to launch an MVP to get the site launched so that your organisation can start reaping the benefits, including ROI that can be re-invested in finishing it.

We hope you found this content useful. To speak to one of our consultants about how Supersonic Playground could support your website project, please get in touch. Or, if you’d like to stay in the loop with our latest insights, please register for our newsletter.