What To Do If Your Website No Longer Reflects Your Business
About this Squarespace video tutorial
If you've looked at your website recently and felt like it's for a different, older business, here are some steps I've been taking with my clients to analyze, examine, and refresh their websites without needing to destroy what was already there and build something new. This website process is cheaper and quicker than a whole new build, and can prevent decision making paralysis with your website.
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
0:43 - Overview of Video
1:01 - What I'm Seeing
3:30 - Your Homepage Purpose
4:58 - Social Proof
7:22 - Keeping People in Touch
9:41 - Changes I Am Making
12:48 - What To Try on Squarespace
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Let’s talk about your website. If you’re feeling that your website isn’t evolving at the same speed as your business, first of all you’re not alone, as this is super common. Having designed over 300 websites myself, I see this all the time. Today I want to talk about the identity gap between what your business is and what your website is portraying.
When your site represents who you were instead of who you are now, there’s friction there, even if you can’t define it.
Let’s talk about how to get rid of that friction so your website can accurately portray your business and become something you’re proud to show off.
What I’m Seeing
In these Weekly Website posts, I try to break my discussion down into 3 parts, so let’s get started with the first one.
What I’m seeing over the past month or two is multiple clients come to me and say how good of a year they had last year, BUT their website doesn’t show that or their website is embarrassing to them now and they avoid it.
This is a big part of why I’ve started offering a Squarespace Refresh which lets me come in and adjust an existing website instead of needing to build a brand new one from scratch. If that sounds useful for your business, click here to get started with that service.
If you’re a business owner this can create some more tension, and you’re looking at your website and thinking that this isn’t it, but you don’t have the time or money to recreate it.
In the last episode, I talked about site structure in general and the content traps people fall into, but here I want to get more specific on homepage content you can create to make you feel more comfortable and confident in what you’re putting out there.
Note: if you want t adjust something immediately, I recommend taking a look at your photos if your team has grown or if you just need a refresh. Especially if your website currently has stock photos, now could be a great time to update them.
Your Homepage Purpose
What I really want to get across with these is that your homepage needs to have a purpose. If you’re feeling a lack of that purpose, examine your homepage and see if the central CTA, the main focus of your homepage, is clear.
Your website can do a lot of things, but you need one clear call to action to bring it all together. If you’re at a mall and you walk into a store, you’ll be told the special, not every purchasing decision you can possibly make in that store. You’re given the one important one that the business is pushing.
You need to do the same for your website. Look at what that goal currently is and make sure your homepage is communicating that clearly.
Social Proof
Testimonials, press reviews, any way where other people can speak for your authority is so valuable.
If you’re shopping on Amazon, most people (like me) go directly to the reviews. We want to see what people say about the product before we buy it ourselves.
Recently, I sent an email to my most recent 10 clients asking them if they’d be willing to provide a review on my Google Business Profile. A lot of them did, so with one email (and a history of good work), I now have 5-6 authority building reviews on my GBP.
Keeping People in Touch
In the last video I mentioned how most people only stay on a website for less than one minute. That minute is not long enough to get people to buy or sign up in most cases, so you have to find other ways to stay in the minds of your clients.
If there’s a way to keep communicating with them, the pressure is off your website to do the whole sale with one page. For me, that’s sending people to the blogs or YouTube or socials, but for you it can be any other online platforms. Make those things prominent so after the one minute, viewers can get into those social funnels.
Changes I Am Making
In my redesign of my website, I have to look at my website the same way I’m asking you to, and the big thing I need to adjust is my portfolio.
Over the past year, I haven’t been keeping up with my site and social portfolio the way that I should have, so I’m not shaming you by saying these things need to change on your site, because I’m in the same boat.
Something else I’m trying is using my blogs, this blog, as an SEO engine tool for my services. I don’t want to just be someone who helps your DIY your site, I want to help you design your site. (If that sounds good, you should reach out here for those design services)
What To Try On Squarespace
Click here to read my tutorial on the scrolling text feature that I’m in love with on Squarespace sites, which can be really helpful to draw the eye to those simple CTAs I mentioned at the start of the blog.
To wrap it up, if you feel like your website is reflecting last year’s version of your business, you need to take a step back and make sure your homepage has evolved with the business you’ve built.
*Affiliate disclaimer: Some links may be affiliate links at no extra cost to you.
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