If you build a website but keep it hidden in a development environment, is it truly a website? No—it’s just a draft, like an unsent email or unprinted photos.
Too many businesses delay launching their sites, chasing perfection. But in today’s fast-moving digital world, getting your site live is the real starting line. As the author of Do It Right: A CEO’s Guide to Web Strategy (Amazon link), I’ve seen how launching a minimum viable product (MVP) website can transform businesses. Here’s why you should put your website on the internet—now.
The Old Mindset: Perfection Before Launch
Many website projects grind to a halt just before completion because, for over two decades, people have been conditioned to believe that once a website goes live, it’s done. Finished. Complete. They think every detail must be flawless before a single web crawler or user sees it. There’s fear that post-launch changes will be complex, costly, or take as long as the entire build—or worse, that their web development team will vanish, leaving them stuck with a single imperfect word on a page, forever unchangeable. AAAGGGHHHH!!!!
But that’s no longer the case!
Today, websites aren’t intimidating walls of code requiring a computer scientist to decipher (at least, not the parts you interact with). Modern content management systems (CMS) like HubSpot, Drupal, and WordPress empower even non-technical users to update text and images easily.
Another game-changer is the ability to collect real-time data on how users interact with your live site using heat mapping and site recording tools. When building a website, you and your team start with assumptions. Working with a skilled web development company, especially one with deep marketing and user experience expertise, means those assumptions are informed by experience. But no matter how many best practices you apply, the only way to truly know what drives conversions is to let real users engage with your site.
That’s why launching your website isn’t the end—it’s just the BEGINNING!
For more on building effective websites, see my post on How Long Does It Take to Build a Website?
Done Is Better Than Perfect
I absolutely embrace the philosophy: done is better than perfect. This doesn’t mean sloppy or broken—it means launching a functional site and improving it based on real-world data. This approach, often called Growth-Driven Design or WebOps, replaces the old model where sites took months to build, launched “complete,” and then stagnated for years.
First, let's establish what “done it better than perfect” DOES NOT mean:
- Sloppy is better than perfect
- Broken is better than perfect
- Incomplete is better than perfect
The idea here is to get away from the old way of doing things where website development projects used to take, on average, three months, though sometimes much longer. And then once a site was launched, it would sit stagnant for up to three YEARS (though, too often, much longer).
That. Is. Crazy.
Get it live, then make changes based on real data, rather than speculation.
The Power of the Minimum Viable Product
Your minimum viable product (MVP) website—sometimes called a launch pad site—should include only what’s essential for functionality. Skip the bells and whistles for now. Focus on core features, then add to your wish list for later. An MVP lets you test your site’s effectiveness and make data-driven improvements.
Disneyland’s MVP Success
In my book, Do It Right: A CEO’s Guide to Web Strategy, I discuss the early days of Disneyland. When the theme park opened in 1955, it featured iconic attractions like Tomorrowland, the Jungle Cruise, and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle—classics everyone loves today.
But it wasn’t complete. For example, It’s a Small World didn’t debut until 1956. Rather than waiting for every attraction to be finished, Walt Disney launched the park when it was good enough to deliver value to visitors. If Disney had delayed until every detail was perfect, Disneyland might never have opened.
In other words, Disneyland launched with a minimum viable product (MVP). Your company’s online presence should follow the same approach.
Too often, businesses stall their marketing efforts, obsessing over website extras. This is like keeping Disneyland shuttered for decades until Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or Avengers Campus were ready.
Instead of chasing perfection, prioritize your MVP. Build the essentials first and save the extra features for a wish list to tackle later.
Worst-Case Scenarios: Launch vs. Delay
Still nervous about launching an imperfect site? Let’s compare the worst-case scenarios of launching an MVP versus keeping your site offline.
Scenario 1 - There is a typo in your content.
- The worst thing that could happen if your site is live: Someone will see it and say, “tsk tsk tsk… I will not work with someone who can make such a mistake” and you don’t get the business.
- What will probably happen if your site is live: Someone will call or email and say, “Dude, did you know there is a typo on your site?” and you will feel a little embarrassed but will fix it right then and there.
- What will happen if your site is NOT live: No one will see your typo or any other words that are spelled correctly or any of the improvements you’ve made from your old, dated, non-responsive website.
Scenario 2- You didn’t pick the best image to represent your product or service
- The worst thing that could happen if your site is live: Your site visitor won’t fall in love with your product instantly.
- What will probably happen if your site is live: When you find a better image later, you’ll change it.
- What will happen if your site is NOT live: No one will know that you even offer any products.
Scenario 3 - Your call to action isn’t compelling enough to convert visitors to leads
- The worst thing that could happen if your site is live: Visitors won’t convert into leads.
- What will probably happen if your site is live: You’ll notice that visitors are not converting into leads and you will try testing different language and images until you find what works best.
- What will happen if your site is NOT live: Visitors CANNOT convert into leads because you don’t have a website they can visit. Or the site they are visiting doesn't have that call to action to convert them at all.
The real risk isn’t launching with flaws—it’s staying invisible. A live site, even with kinks, lets you learn and improve. An unlaunched site does nothing.
Take Action: Launch Your Website
Your website isn’t a one-and-done project—it’s a living tool that grows with your business. Launch your MVP, gather data, and optimize based on real user behavior. I’ve seen clients double their conversions by testing and tweaking post-launch, something they couldn’t do with a site stuck in development. Don’t let perfectionism hold you back. What’s stopping you from putting your website on the internet today?
Ready to simplify and succeed? Let’s make it happen—because your business deserves practical, no-nonsense wins. Find me on LinkedIn.
