Podcast S1:E7 Let’s make your website work for you!
Show notes:
I wanted to end this season with a couple of solo episodes. Just me and you talking about the things that I know the most about in my professional expertise that I think will really help you.
And obviously one of the things I know quite a lot about as websites. I design and build custom Squarespace websites for a living.
And one of the reasons that I've chosen Squarespace is because it's so user-friendly. And damn near impossible to make an ugly website. So if you're getting started on your own. I have loads and loads of resources for you, but this, episode's going to be one really good one.
So I want to provide you with five tips for a website that makes sales or get to clients. A website that actually converts for you.
The very first tip is know how to direct your website, traffic. I want you to think through where are they coming from? Is it social media? Is it google? How are they finding your website? Because that will mean a lot as to what you do from there.
How you direct your traffic around your site... so it could be that, people land on your homepage.
What do you want them to do next? How do you get them from landing on your homepage to the end goal of booking a call with you or buying from you.
Think that through.
And then some other things you want to know is what do the people on your website need to know about you before they close the deal. What do they need to know? So what hurdles do you need to get them over?
What information about your industry do they need to understand? And that is another thing to think through when you're directing the traffic, they might need to hit your about page or a certain part of your homepage. Or maybe you need to have some of that content on your sales page.
Thinking about where they're coming through is really important because it will help you get them from point a to point C maybe, or D or however many steps it takes to really work with you or buy from you.
It can also be really helpful to know where people are coming from, because it might set a different tone for how you direct people or talk to people on your website.
If your clients are coming from Google, you might have more warming up to do with them. They're going to be colder leads. Then say if your website visitors are coming from your social media channels. If they're coming from social media, they probably have a fairly good idea of who you are and you can talk to them a little bit differently around your products and services.
So knowing where the vast majority of people are finding it was really important.
The second tip I want to bring to you today is to keep things super duper simple. This is around your content, around your copywriting, around how many pages and what you have going on your site. Keep things simple. Don't make people work for it. Hiring, you should be a no brainer. Buying your product should be a no brainer.
Make sure there's a lot of white space, that things are kept really clean and simple. Things should feel open. There should be space for their brain to process ideas between content sections there shouldn't be a really text heavy without some things to break it up.
So keeping things really simple. That doesn't mean it has to be sterile. You can still have a really fun and funky website if that's what you're going for, but it still needs to follow having a lot of space and a lot of good lines and a lot of breathing room for people to process your content.
Which brings me to my next point. This is probably the biggest thing on this list. Point three is that your website isn't actually about you!
So in copywriting. It's really important to know that a lot of people will follow what's called the hero's journey. And thinking about the hero's journey you think about, I don't know why, but in my head it's always Shrek. The film, right? So it's Shrek and the hero's journey. The hero is Shrek, right? And he's got some sidekicks he picks up along the way as he's trying to achieve this momentous task.
And. Usually there is somebody that comes along while the hero is trying to solve the problem. That is known as the guide. And instruct the guide is donkey. He's also comic relief, but he's the one that helps him solve the problem. He has his right-hand man.
And on your website, you are not Shrek. You are donkey. You are helping the hero get to the place they want to . You're helping them solve their problem, buy the right product, get the services in place. You are solving the issue with them, but you are not the hero of the journey.
So this means, even when you're telling your story on your website, your about page for example, it should be through the lens of how your expertise and your know how will change their life or their business.
So thinking through all of that. Along the hero's journey. What do they need to know to help them get over the uncertainty of buying from you? That is a really important point. Talk them through the hurdles, the excuses, the challenges they might be facing. Help them see that there is no better option.
And one of the ways you do that in the end. Is to have clear calls to action. This is point number four, by the way. And I talked about this a little bit under point number one. But you want to tell people what you want them to do. You can't expect them to do the thing - whether that be booked the call, buy the thing, sign up for your mailing list or whatever it is.
Unless you actually tell them to do it. You need, people need to be told. They need the big button that says "Here it is", "Buy the thing", "Book the call". And you should have that in more than one place because people need to see things a few times before they feel ready to commit. So having clear calls to action and not having too many of them.
Having really one to two per page or section is really important.
And the final of the main tips. It's to provide social proof to position yourself as the go-to person for your offering.
Providing social proof can take a lot of forms. It can be having testimonials or reviews on your site. It can be having a portfolio of your work. It could be having a featured or as seen on wall or page where you list logos or descriptions of places that you have been featured.
You can also provide value based content. So that could be this podcast. It could be my newsletter. It can be a YouTube page. It can be a blog. Having content that people can learn from you learn her style, trust you is a really good way to provide some social proof.
And now I have a couple of bonus tips for you. The first is that your website does not have to be perfect. This is something I talk about all the time, because I think in business we have this tendency to think if it's not perfect, I can't put it out there and not just with websites. We do this with a lot of stuff.
But websites should evolve as you evolve and as your business does, so you will be updating it over time. Your copywriting doesn't have to be perfect. I can not even tell you the number of iterations of the copy on my side has had, and the images I've actually had more than one website. I fully completely rebuilt my website back in March.
Don't worry. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can update things as time goes on.
And then. Bonus tip number two. To get some of this information we've talked about, where are your clients are coming from, what they need to know before they buy from you, those kinds of things.
Do a really deep dive into who your audience is and exactly what they need from you. If you take that time to think it through... maybe question, some people really think through who some of your very best clients have been and where they were at before coming to you and starting working with you or buying your product. I have a lot of clients that are like, I feel like this kind of language doesn't fit me because I sell products and not services. And I do tend to work more with service based businesses, but product based businesses, people need your product for a reason.
They're wanting it for a real purpose. They might not need it in the same way that we need a website , professional copywriting, or photos or something done in our business or accounting. But they still need the beauty or the ease or whatever it is that your product is bringing them. There's a real reason and it will ring true for them if you can dig deep into it.
And my final tip is to get some feedback when you build a website or do an overhaul on your website. Get some feedback. That can be from an expert like me. Or you can reach out to clients or mentors that you trust. Ideally someone in the business world, at least, because as much as our loved ones are amazing - and you might show them too - they don't always know what the right thing to do or say is when it comes to the business world. We're out here doing this weird thing that most people in our lives might not be doing.
So those are my eight website tips. I hope that you've enjoyed them. If you want more information. I have loads and loads of it on my Calibrated Concepts blog. So that's my other business. That is my money-making business right now is Calibrated Concepts where I build websites. I also offer a course on how to build Squarespace websites. And if you have built one yourself, I offer review and edit sessions. Where I will help you tidy and fix up and change or customize things for one hour. And it's all recorded so you have access to every thing and all that information for life.
If you have any other questions about Squarespace or technology or what you're doing in business, how to make things easier, how to create systems. I have created a place for women in business who want that too. So we are called the Capable Collective - shocker. We have a free Facebook group. We also meet currently twice a month. Where we have a meeting and talk about various areas of streamlining and simplifying business.
That can be content creation. It can be websites. It can be social media. We've done lots and lots of newsletters. The kinds of things we sometimes find overwhelming. Creating templates, creating systems, using the right tools, software integrations. These kinds of things. And we talk about it and we have a group where people can put in their questions at any time. Or you can wait til one of our calls. And get your questions answered by me personally, live on the call.
Additionally once a month, we have a guest expert. And those videos are recorded and saved for perpetuity so you can watch them anytime. So far we've covered sales processes. We have covered launching. We have covered streamlining and automating. We've just had a guest who talked all about budgeting basics for business! So it's a really good free resource. For you to get the nitty-gritty bits of business, sorted out with some help.
I hope you have enjoyed these website tips. And that's it for now. I can't wait to hear from you next time.
