I visited a divorce lawyer website yesterday, clicked on a link at the top of the page and a “Coming Soon” sign popped up. The material for that section hadn’t been written yet.

I was disappointed. I’m guessing that most visitors feel much the same way when they see that page.

You don’t need to disappoint me with a coming soon page. If you don’t have the material, don’t put up the link. That way I won’t know what I’m missing. Just don’t put up the link until you’ve got the content ready to go.

If you’re managing the website yourself, it’s easy to wait until you’ve got the material done before you add the link and the page. If you’ve got a web person handling things for you, ask them to create two versions of the page and have them slap up the second version, with the link, once the material is ready.

After I stumbled across the “Coming Soon” sign I did some digging. The copyright date on the site hadn’t been updated since 2008. I’m guessing that every visitor since 2008 has seen the sign. That’s not the way you want to present your firm, especially for two years.

Most of your visitors are coming once. They check things out and, if there’s a bunch of useful material, they bookmark the site. If there isn’t much there, they aren’t coming back. They especially aren’t coming back if they bump in to a bunch of signs making it obvious that you aren’t ready for prime time.

Don’t elevate expectations by making promises of material you haven’t yet written. Promise less, deliver more. That’s a safe path to follow and it extends well beyond your website.