7 Reasons You Hate Your Website and 10 Steps to Own It!
Recently I attended a virtual workshop taught by Maggie Sterner, a business coach and “brand message detective.”
The subject of the class was creating a concise elevator pitch that tells people who you are and what you offer.
I signed up for it because often in networking situations I ramble on when asked what I do. My communicative style can be wordy and technical. It’s because I’m forever that middle child who desperately seeks validation and to be thought of as smart. 🤓
Every business owner can benefit from sharpening their elevator pitch and learning how to speak clearly.
Own It!
Maggie pointed out our headline “OWN IT” on our homepage. She liked it and said, “I wouldn’t work with clients who don’t!”
This surprised me. Do people take this the wrong way?
I’d never thought “Own It” might be offensive to someone. To me, it’s shorthand for effective and professional. But it is slang.
This got me thinking.
In the context of a business website, what does it really mean to NOT be legit and what does it take to OWN IT?
Define your niche to connect deeper
Design Powers’ ideal client is a 1-3 person, a service-based small business that has been in business for at least two years and wants to use a SaaS platform (software as a service) vs open source. If you don’t know the difference, you can read about it here.
We haven’t niched in a specific industry since we just pivoted to the aforementioned market less than a year ago. We thought it would be wise to build a few more sites before we make that determination.
What we do know is many small business owners have a love/hate relationship with their websites. Let’s uncover some common issues we encounter.
7 Reasons You Might Hate Your Website…
1. DIY Frustration
You tried doing it yourself to save some bucks, lured by the promise of it being simple, only to discover that it’s not your skill set and is time-consuming. Your site has errors you don’t know how to fix, and the content and visuals aren’t working well together.
2. Abandonment
It was built on a platform that is no longer around or hasn’t been updated, and/or the developer has disappeared. One of our clients had a site that dated back to 2005 but they couldn’t recall who did it, where it was hosted or how to log in so it went untouched for years!
3. Sunk Cost Fallacy
You’ve already sunk a lot of money into it, and even though you’re not happy, you can’t justify spending more on it.
4. Abusive Relationship
Your current web developer doesn’t encourage you to add content, charges a lot when they do it and/or takes forever. You’d do more but you’re afraid to touch it. A colleague recently told me that her web person berated her for making content changes to her own site. She also suffers from #3.
5. Website Shame
You pretend your website doesn’t exist, and if someone asks for your URL, you say, “It’s getting updated/under construction.” OR “I’m super busy and haven’t had the time to get to it.” You direct potential clients to your Facebook business page.
This was me long ago when my business was solely graphic design. You can see several of my failed attempts to launch a legitimate website here. I know the feeling of website shame well.
6. Misrepresentation
Your target market has changed, you’ve updated your services and/or the functionality and design are outdated. It no longer reflects your business and expertise at all.
7. Beauty Queen
Your site looks pretty nice, but there aren’t enough calls to action to make it easy for your potential client to buy your services. Maybe the content isn’t structured in a way that takes your visitor on a journey so they understand how you solve their problem.
You have beautiful sliders with on-point messaging that no one sees. It’s called “banner blindness,” and it’s real. Your website has good looks, but it’s not an effective 24/7 sales tool for your business.
Have you experienced any of the above with your website?
^This just hit my inbox 😲
I’m on a DC area listserv for web developers and this email came in right as I was writing this blog post. I redacted the person and organization’s name but I see these kinds of posts ALL THE TIME!
The website suffers from #2 (developer disappeared) and the person who took it over has struggled for 3 years to manage the site.
It launched in 2012 but hasn’t been updated since 2015. This person is now building a companion site on Weebly and posted the link to it, too. The Weebly site, albeit a bit easier for s/he to make changes to, is already showing signs of #1. (Content organization and mobile errors).
I feel sad about the time wasted and the opportunity cost. Helping businesses get a website that’s easy to manage is our mission.
What does Own It mean?
This is where I unpack what goes into building a website and why it costs a minimum of $7k to build a brand and website that markets your business and converts casual browsers into loyal clients.
The Power Plan
The first step with a potential client is a brief chat to decide if we’re a good fit. If we are, we require our web-build clients to do the Power Plan BEFORE we give an estimate.
Why?
This is a foolproof way for the client to get an accurate cost PLUS a written actionable plan that will tell you exactly how the site is going to get built, the schedule, and the post-launch strategy.
During this critical 90-minute call, we discuss:
Business: Your history, buying process, what content and visual assets you have in hand, and what must be created.
Client: Your ideal client (who you WANT to work with even if you’re not working with them YET.) Understanding that ideal client’s problems and your solution(s).
External Factors: Where your biz fits into the market and your differentiator—both perception and reality. Also, your competitors, social media, and Google set up and traffic analysis.
Strategy and Tactics: What kind of opportunities exist for marketing and growth? Email list building, sales funnels and/or content marketing. Also, any other functionalities that need to be taken into consideration.
After our conversation, we do the research considering all of the above. It’s several hours of analysis and strategy.
If someone simply sends you a quote for your website build and knows NOTHING about your business, how can that website truly reflect what YOU do?
Yes, you can use a template with generic content, but it won’t be perceived as legit.
Users are so savvy now they will form an opinion about your website in 0.05 seconds to determine whether they'll stay or leave.
10 Steps to a Website that Owns It!
1. Choosing your business name and domain name (URL)
🤔 Even if you currently have a domain name or several—is it TRULY the one you want? We recently had a client who had eight registered domain names, all were long and none had the extension (.com) he really wanted. His company name is his last name which is short with a unique spelling.
I asked him during the Power Plan why he didn’t use his last name .com? He said it was already taken. I checked here and could see it had never been used. I suggested he try to buy it.
It turns out he knew who owned it—a family member whom he was reluctant to ask. The family member was happy to let him have it for free. My client just needed a little encouragement and afterward thanked me for the nudge.
The lesson: Go for the web address you want, even if it costs a little money. This is your business! The worst that can happen is it’s a “NO” which is where you’re at right now. Often, if it is priced high, you can negotiate it down significantly.
2. Hosting and Security
🔐 We use Squarespace to build sites and it’s a SaaS platform, so this is built-in. We have written about it here. So far, we love SQSP, and so do our clients. It goes down (rarely), but it’s never been for more than an hour—some downtime is inevitable.
3. Custom Content Created to Convert
✍🏽 Content IS the most essential part of your website after hosting and security and that’s a designer telling you this! It’s where your potential client gets to know your services, and it shows how to buy those services.
A framework is involved where each section is necessary to pique your visitors’ curiosity and get them to realize that your service(s) will solve their problems with direct and transitional calls to action.
We focus A LOT on content and provide it for our clients. It’s essential not only for brand and marketing messaging but also for basic SEO and search. If your budget is tight, allocate as much as you can to your content.
4. Effective Design
📐 A professional design is attractive and easy to read and comprehend. It has intuitive navigation, web-accessible color contrast, white space, minimal line lengths, and an effective color scheme that syncs with your company’s niche and ideal client’s needs.
The typography, photography, and/or illustrations evoke the desired emotional responses and solidify your brand identity in your potential client's mind.
Organization and composition are pleasing to the eye and make sense on all devices. This is where many non-designers get tripped up because responsive design usually requires some CSS to execute flawlessly on mobile.
5. Branded imagery
📸 Custom photography may seem like a luxury, but custom content can make or break your site looking legit. Often, small businesses rely on stock imagery with concepts and models we’ve all seen a hundred times!
Before we launched designpowers.com, Emily and I had professional photography done. It did help us clarify our brand.
You won’t regret having authentic photography—it’s yours, and you can use it repeatedly. It engenders trust and connection because clients see YOU! (not the bearded man in the blue suit drinking coffee—you know the stock model I’m referring to, don’t you? 😉)
If you absolutely cannot do custom photography, go for illustration, and if that isn’t feasible, at the very least, manipulate stock consistently to make it your own.
6. Functionality and Usability
⚙ Your website HAS TO LOAD FAST. People bounce if it doesn’t. Other considerations are contact and feedback forms, necessary info like hours of operation, opt-ins, subscribing to your newsletter, social sharing, and displaying services clearly and concisely.
Sites that are easy to use are more likely to keep a client on it and encourage further exploration.
7. Active Blog or News
📰 An active blog tells your clients you care about keeping them informed of your latest events, services, and industry-related information. It also helps to establish you as a trusted resource and an authority. It’s critical to helping your online ranking, too.
Google's search algorithm relies partly on fresh content and page duration time visitors spend on a web page. The more time spent on your site (dwell time), the more engaged visitors are in your content.
We help clients with this when setting up their blogs right from the start and implementing keywords, categories, and tags and finally, meta descriptions and proper URLs for search.
People who don’t build websites for a living often don’t know how to do this when setting up their blog. Emily just wrote a detailed how-to blog post about blog posting; look here.
8. Third-Party Reviews
👏🏽 You want to include review services such as Google and Yelp to help generate qualified local leads for your business. Third-party reviews provide social proof and build trust.
This adds to your company’s credibility while making it easier for potential clients to feel confident that previously satisfied clients have thoroughly vetted your services.
9. Client Testimonials
🤗 Video and written testimonials can be used throughout your website to promote your business. It also demonstrates your skills, services, and commitment to your clients.
The more genuine and detailed the testimonials, the greater your chances of gaining clients. You can leverage their usefulness by cross-posting them on your social media channels.
10. Google Setup
🔍 Google offers free tools you can use. All business owners should set up and regularly update their Google Business Profile page. Utilize Google Search Console and Google Analytics to see who is coming to your website and where they’re coming from.
You can also see which pages and posts are the most popular and what’s getting the most clicks. Use your analytics and traffic data to strategize, see what’s working, what’s not, what needs to be changed, and how to spend your marketing budget.
Conclusion
There are many factors to consider when you decide to OWN IT. I didn’t even touch upon marketing functionalities, but that must be its blog post. To borrow a line from Forrest Gump: “I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now.”
Oh, and the one-liner I created from Maggie Sterner’s Pitch Perfect class: “I'm Evelyn Powers, a strategist and web designer. I help service-based small businesses OWN IT with a website that doesn't just look professional but has killer content, is easy to manage and has all the Google setup needed to connect you with your perfect clients.”
Maggie does a master course if you need Pitch Power!
What do you think? Comments, suggestions. I’d love to hear them!
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