Donna
Choosing the ideal website platform for your business can be a little bit overwhelming, especially with all the options that are available at our fingertips. So today I've got a guest on the podcast who's mastered the art of creating website designs that not only look amazing, but also help business owners to crush their goals. together on the podcast, we're going to simplify the decision making process when picking the platform that is ideal for you. And also learn about how you can maximize its effectiveness. This is the she's in business podcast, where every week I'll explore topics and have real conversations around what it's like to run a regional business, the advantages and the unique challenges. I'm Donna Han, a seasoned regional business owner, and certified high performance business coach. I'm here to make training and professional development easily accessible for regional business women everywhere. So join me and guest experts as we share tools and insights to elevate your business, boost your mindset, and ensure that you never feel alone on this journey. No matter where you live. I'm fired up and I'm here to educate you on what it truly takes to grow your business and your mindset beyond what you thought possible. Welcome back to another episode of the shoes in business podcast. I'm Donna Han, your host and your business bestie between your ears today. And I'm going to be joined by Charlie who is here to help shine a light on the digital world, especially when it comes to developing your website. Charlie's got eight years of experience in marketing and design working in boutique agencies and government organizations, and also big businesses, as well as supporting small business owners like you to better understand brand and website design. When she's not designing stunning websites for her business, Ella Jones designs, which is the name of her business, you'll find her running around after two kids or curled up watching Netflix and indulging in a giant cup of coffee or an iced latte. And I've just finished my almond latte for the morning. So totally aligned with you. So welcome to the cheesy business podcast. Charlie,
Charley
thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1
You are so welcome. I followed you for a while and reached out to you, firstly to present a masterclass inside the Regional Business Women's membership, which is happening next month in May. And I'm really excited about that. But secondly, to come on the podcast because marketing is a huge part of the content that I talk about. And websites are a big part of marketing. And so I'm really excited to have you on the show, but also really super excited to have you in the membership presenting that masterclass. So, in the master classes we've already discussed, you're going to be diving into ways to optimize website design and really maximize the potential for business growth in that way. And I can't wait for that. And I know a lot of our members tune into the podcast each week. So if you're listening to this, you're in for a big treat, when Charlie joins us in the membership in May, if you're not a member, you can definitely jump in, you should be a member. So get in touch if you're interested. But today on the podcast, let's talk about choosing the ideal website platform for your business. Because I know personally firsthand, it can be really overwhelming, especially with all the options that are available at our fingertips. And I've also worked with clients who, you know, started with one platform, and they kind of outgrew that platform or their business model shifted. So they needed something different. And it's a huge decision, isn't it? Like, you know, to really get that, get your website up and running. So let me know tell me a little bit more Charlie about why website development is something that you really chose to niche into and to focus on because obviously, you've got a, you know, a wealth of background and knowledge around marketing and brand. But tell us why why is website development, something that you're really super passionate about?
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's something that I started doing early in my marketing career. I, in a lot of businesses that I was working for, I'd kind of be one of those in house marketing managers that does a bit of everything. So you know, if we needed to update the company website or start a new website for a client, I'd kind of be the go to person for that. And I really enjoyed, I guess, having the beautiful creative design aspect of it. And then also having the technical aspect of coding. And you know, making sure that a website is converting, and all the things like that. And it's something that I kind of continued to do throughout my career was help out in those areas. I know when I was a kid, you know back in the MySpace days, I used to yet really enjoy coding. I taught myself I think like a lot of kids stay in touch. I taught myself HTML Um, to be able to, you know, have my background music at my core colors on my MySpace page. And yeah, never kind of lost that feeling for, you know, coding and design. So, when I started using that, within my work, I found that there was something that I was really passionate about. And then when I went out on my own, in my business a few years ago, I started out kind of doing a bit of everything, because you know, I do have those skills in marketing. And I found that I still really, really enjoyed that website and design side. So in the last, I think year and a half, I decided to niche down just into website design and brand design. And I think last year, I helped over 50 women in business with a website. So thing Yeah, it was a really great year, and I worked with some really amazing businesses getting their website off the ground. And yeah, I've learned so much along the way. And I think throughout my corporate career, I did see a lot of small businesses being ripped off by big agencies. You know, they go with big agencies, because they think, you know, they work with big brands, like Coca Cola, or someone so I can trust them. Yeah. But they ended up just being a number to them, they'd be given to, you know, the intern, the work wouldn't be up to scratch, I would have to rewrite or redo a lot of stuff, you know, that we'd have out of house agency to do. And so I just wanted to, I guess, focus my business, you know, helping those people making sure that they're getting a really personalized service. And, you know, they're having someone that cares about their business, that's going to be a cheerleader for them that doesn't just, you know, give them a website and then runs. And that's it.
Speaker 1
Yeah, hence why you're here on the podcast is because that's also like, I share those same elements of wanting to be the cheerleader, and you know, really supporting people not just being a number, because that can happen, right. And small businesses hard enough without feeling that way or without getting the results that you expected from, you know, a website builder, or whatever it is. And websites have come such a long way, in the last 20 years, 10 years, especially, I think, it used to be really hard to build a website. And it used to be very expensive, and hence why people would go to agencies to do it, because it was like, I don't even know where to start. Now, it's so much easier, and so much more affordable. But the trickiest part is choosing the right platform, right? A platform that grows with your business, and is not just like attractive and looks good, and has that great feel, that professional feel, but it's also friendly for both your clients or potential clients. But also as the business owner as well, you know, if you want to tweak and change stuff, that can also be the trap. I know I had, in a previous business, I had a dance studio, and we had our website built out by an agency. And then anytime we wanted to change something, we had to go back through the agency. And it was so heavily coded that it was like, we just couldn't do it without their help and support. And that was really frustrating. Really, really frustrating. Anyway, I digress. If someone's listening to the podcast, who was looking to build a website, maybe for the first time, or they're looking to switch things up, you know, maybe upgrade their platform of choice, because their business has shifted and changed. Where should they start? Where what direction would you give them in choosing the right platform? Because there are just like, there are so many options out there now, which is great, amazing, but also quite overwhelming.
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. So there's a few areas that you kind of want to look at first, you want to look at what your business does. So do you sell products? Do you sell services, how you wanting to, I guess sell these to people, because that's really gonna determine what kind of platform you'll need. So you look at kind of, you know, those needs that you have. Also, you've got to think about your skill level. Obviously, you mentioned there, like, having a heavily coated website, but you can't edit is going to be hard if you're wanting to jump in and make edits. So if you're someone that you know, business changes a lot, or you want to be able to manage your website yourself, you've got to kind of assess your skill level and what's going to work for you the best. You know, it doesn't matter what, you know, other web designers say or they say this platform is the best or this is the best. It's what's going to actually fit for you and be something that you can maintain long term. You've also got to think about your long term goals. So you know, yes, you may only have one product now or you may only be doing services. As for now, but what are your long term goals are you wanting to add in, you know, products that you sell, are you wanting to add in, I guess, the ability to have classes or schedule appointments with you just kind of looking at how you want to grow your business eventually. So that you can choose a platform that's going to grow with you, there's nothing worse, and I have a lot of clients that have to do this is, you know, they build their website, or they get their website built, they spend a lot of money. And then it's in a platform that doesn't allow them to grow. So when they come to that point, they then have to come to lately redo their website in a whole new platform, learn it all again, and kind of start from scratch. So yeah, it's important to have something that, you know, maybe a base or you know, just something basic to start off with, but does allow you to grow an add on as you
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. And also, I think the other point, because I'm working with a client at the moment, who did exactly what you just said, started building out her website, she wanted some different elements. And as she was going through it, when I'm working with her one on one as a private coach, she's like, Oh, and now I have to add this, like I have to get this integration happening. So I have to pay for this subscription, and this subscription. And this. So what started out. And the reason one of the reasons that she chose that particular platform was because it was the most affordable for her at that point in time. But then by the time she added on all the extra subscriptions she needed that had to plug in and all of that kind of stuff, it ended up being the same cost as the more premium one that had everything included. So to your point, get an understanding, like really know where you want this, like what you want to do in the future of your business. But if like this happened with this particular client, I'm talking about, like within a month of getting in there and playing around, it was very evident and clear that it wasn't going to serve her in the way that she wanted it to. So but it's confusing, because when you're looking at the comparisons between different website platforms, particularly if you're not tech savvy, it can be confusing, even at that stage and going well, what does that mean? And oh, it says it does that without realizing that yes, it does do that. But you also have to pay the subscription to the other company in order for that to kind of crossover and happen. Any suggestions? You know, particular questions or things that people in that kind of in that where they're feeling that way that
Speaker 2
can help them? And with that? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, budget is really important thing to look at as well. Obviously, you want to be conscious about you know, how much you're making in your cash flow. But as you said, sometimes it's important to kind of invest that money earlier on. Otherwise, it can cost you down the track, you think that you're going you know, the cheaper platform. But then, you know, it ends up costing more initiative just gone with the better, more expensive one. So it gets really looking at those price comparisons, all the costs associated. I know for myself, I'm happy for people to jump into my inbox and ask, you know, does this platform do this? If it dials like, do I need to pay extra for you know, these apps or plugins? I'm always happy to answer questions like that for people. And I'm sure there's many other web designers out there that are the same, that are happy to kind of give you that information. And also, just ask the companies themselves, I know like, you know, Squarespace, Shopify, like they're pretty good with their help centers and responsiveness and able to kind of break that all down for you, what costs will be involved. And also recommend, you know, if it is, you know, if you kind of go for the more expensive one, but you don't have the money to invest a lot of platforms have, you know, monthly payment options, and things like that, which can work better for
Speaker 1
cash flow? Absolutely. Because cash flow is king in business, we talk about that all the time inside of the regional businessmans membership, too. And it can be tricky, particularly at the beginning of your business, or if you're leveling up in your business, and you know that you're wanting to scale and grow. You've got to get this happening first your website happening or it might be another element of your business, and it's a sizable investment. But you know, what we know is that, you know, yes, look after your cash flow, but also sometimes you do have to really make those bigger investments at the beginning that are going to pay off in the end. It's tricky. It is really, really tricky. If you want to discover more about what it's like to be a private client of mine and to work one on one together, then let's jump on the phone and have a 20 minute chat. You'll walk away with a bunch of insights and more clarity for your business direction. And if you love chatting with me on the call, then you can choose to continue the journey with me as your business and mindset coach. Go to the link in the show notes. Fill in the form and book a time and start your journey to becoming a high performing business owner. Or if private coaching isn't your thing. or maybe you're looking for a lower price, but high value option, explore the Regional Business Women's membership. It's just $97 per month and every month we focus on a business theme to help you step into your potential and grow the vision of your business into reality. Now, do you get monthly master classes with me on a business or mindset topic, but also monthly master classes with world class guest experts who are at the top of their game. Every month, we have online networking sessions for you to meet other like minded regional business owners just like you. And we have group coaching to plus 90 Day planning sessions is the one stop shop for regional business women just like you and you can check it out all on my website, don't ahead.com Another thing I wanted to touch on, which I know that you're very well versed in is understanding your business needs. We've talked about a lot, but also understanding your target audiences online habits. Can we talk about that, because that is so important that we need to build out the website with our ideal clients in mind. So let's go down that, let's go down that path. What kind of things do you think you need to be really aware of when it comes to your audiences online habits?
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. So you want to make sure that you have a website, that's obviously going to be high converting. And your platform of choice will really affect that. So you want to make sure that you are choosing something that's going to be fast, that's going to increase your SEO, you want something that is going to I guess make sense for your business and fit so that when customers do come on there, it's easy for them to use easy for them to navigate, they can find what they're looking for. So if you have a product that is easily able to check out, and it's really smooth process for them. And you want to make sure that it's something that you can customize so that it fits in with your brand, there's nothing worse than someone you know, on your socials they see you know, a certain brand and a certain way that you are they go to your website, and then that's completely different and disjointed. It's, I guess going to make you lose that credibility and trust. Same with and I know, a lot of people DIY, you know, will go with free options, or go with something you know, like Wix, or those kind of Startup Platforms. And they may even, you know, not get a custom domain. So they'll have like, a Wix or, you know, Squarespace domain, something like that is going to be really jarring for your potential customers. They're going to look at that and think, you know, if you're not willing to invest in professional, you know, email or in a custom domain, or, you know, investing into your website subscription, why should I invest all my money into you? You know, especially if you do have higher end products, you know, people are spending hundreds or 1000s of dollars with you. They want to know that you're professional, you are putting money into your business, you know, because that means that you're going to, you know, dedicate money and time and things to them as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1
yeah. 100%. And I think like the other thing with audience online habits, when they're looking for services, is that we also need to make sure that it's mobile optimized.
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. And that plays in with your SEO as well. So Google will penalize you if you don't have a website that is responsive across devices. So it's something that's really important. And, you know, it's Yeah, way more than 50% of users nowadays, access websites via mobile devices. You know, gone are the days of people looking at their desktops at work. So it's really important yet that your website is mobile optimized. And a lot of designers will actually design mobile first, because, you know, most users are using mobile. So they'll actually design your website in a mobile size first, and then design out the desktop. Whereas it used to kind of be the other way around, or it used to be an afterthought, yet something that is, you know, 100% important.
Speaker 1
Yeah. And also like going back to if you're wanting to edit your own website, or at least make tweaks and changes, here and there, having a really simple way to do that on the backend of your website. I use Kajabi. And they do have like, it's quite easy to go from a desktop view to a mobile view to a iPad view or whatever or tablet and that has been so helpful for me because I'm always in there like changing up my lead magnets and changing out my banners and stuff like that. So I need it to be easy for me to jump in and do those small changes frequently. And that for me has been great like that mobile view option on the back end has has made things really simple. So definitely, if you're looking at developing a new website, whether it be you're doing it DIY, or you have the help of someone like Charlie doing it for you ask the questions like when you design the website, are you going to be making sure it's optimized for mobile view? As well as the SEO? So can you explain a little bit about SEO? Because I think a lot of people will be like SEO don't even know No, it's important, but don't know what it is. Don't understand it. And I am just going to cross my fingers and hope that I'm doing what I can. Can you explain a little bit? What is SEO? How does it work? Like, I know, it can be a really big topic, but let's try and kind of contain it to be, you know, the the essentials? And then what can people do the basics to make sure that their SEO is performing for them?
Speaker 2
Yeah, as you said, SEO can, you know, be massive, and there's obviously, you know, hundreds of SEO experts out there that, you know, you can hire to I guess overhaul that side of things. But I know with my website packages, I always do the basics. And it's something that I kind of recommend. And it's pretty easy to I guess implement yourself on your own website, and something that's going to get you seen. So looking at, I guess, at your keywords, and you know, you can go really in depth with your keywords. But basically, it's just you know, where you're located, what service you provide. And I guess, like what kind of things your clients will be searching for. So if they went on to Google right now, and they were like, you know, I need a photographer in Coffs Harbour, that search photographers Coffs Harbour, so you want to make sure that those kind of words in your website, and when I say in your website, you want it to be in your copy. So with all your words written on your website, and then you also want it to be in what's called your meta title and meta description. So most website platforms these days will allow you to go in and edit meta Titles and Meta descriptions pretty easily. And basically, your meta title is what shows up, you know, at the top of your web browser, and then your meta description is what shows up. If someone searches you in Google, that'll show up as that little blurb that you can see there. And so in that, you want to not only have your keywords, because that's important for I guess, you know, Google's machine to find you. But also have it be coherent, coherent. A lot of SEO experts kind of go the route of pleasing the machine, I call it pleasing Google, and forget about the human experience of using search and using websites. And so you know, you don't want to load it with a bunch of keywords that makes no sense. You want it to be a coherent paragraph that makes sense to your potential clients and kind of cause them to action to click on your website link. You also want to make sure that Google is indexing your page. So once you have, I guess, finished your website published it, you can then submit your sitemap to Google. And it is a little bit technical. But there is plenty of help guides out there on how to do that. And that's just one single way that you know, is going to allow you to get seen is going to allow Google to crawl your website. And you know, then get you see it on those first few pages. And I guess, as we've talked about before, is Yeah, responsiveness as well is absolutely key. And load times of your website. So you want to make sure you don't have too much video or, you know, images that are really, you know, high quality, but kind of dragging that website speed down.
Speaker 1
Yep. And that's the tricky part, right? We want all the fancy things. But it does slow it down. And do you know what the, the stat is? It's like, point five. I don't know how many seconds we have. But like now our brains are so wired and trained to want a super fast response. Do you know what that stat is? I can't think of what it
Speaker 2
is. It's under a minute. It's under a second. Yeah. It's yeah, like point five seconds but you know, we kind of go so we usually say you want to have it under 1.7 seconds, your website speed. Anything over that Google's going to penalize you. But for user experience. Yeah, people expected in a Second, if they don't, and I've done it myself, like I've gone to websites that are too slow to load and like, no, yeah, click out of it. I don't have time for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1
yeah, absolutely. And how do you check that stuff? Like if I was to go and try and check how long my load speed is? Are there tools online that people can use to do that?
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of free SEO checkers out there that you can use, there's also some paid ones. And most website platforms will also show you that in the back end. So I know as Shopify they show you your page load speed, Squarespace as well. And they'll also show you things like, you know how many users you're having come to your website, and your bounce rate as well. So that can be a good indicator, if something is going wrong, if you have a really high bounce rate. So if it's over 90%, there may be slow low times. People, you know, may not be, you know, your website may look, you know, terrible on mobile or something and people are just clicking into it and then going out straightaway, that means. So yeah, looking at that can kind of help you determine if there's some barriers there.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Which brings me to another, like you've raised a really great point there around really measuring and tracking your results through your website. So what are the three key things that you think people should be paying attention to? Yeah,
Speaker 2
so definitely, that bounce rate. Looking at how many, you know, obviously, traffic is a good indicator. But I guess it's not, you know, the only metric that you should measure by you should look at how long people are spending on your page. So if they're actually reading your content or not, and then looking at kind of your conversions. So. So if you had an e commerce website, you would look at how many people add your products to cart. And then how many people actually check out because that can show you really important things as well, if you have a lot of people adding things to cart, but then they're not checking out, there may be some destroyed there, maybe you're shipping is too high, maybe your checkout process is too hard. For those kinds of things. Same with if you're a service based business, if people are going on to your contact page a lot, but they're not, you know, booking or not sending an inquiry, maybe, you know, check that your form is working, you know, check all those kinds of things. So yeah, there can be some really important metrics to look at.
Speaker 1
Yeah, 100% and easy to just like, build a website set and forget it. You know, and we've all been guilty of that. I certainly have been that important. Yeah. Because like, it's busy, right, we're wearing all of the different hats of business plus businesses, that the only thing that we do are also raising kids and, you know, sometimes managing property and stuff like that. And it can be easy just to go, oh, well, it looks pretty, it's going like but you know, measuring, testing, measuring, really important. We talk about it from a financial perspective, and the regional business woman's membership, like every month going through, like, where are you sitting? What's the income, what's the expenses, all of that kind of stuff. But also, we need to do that for our marketing. And we, you know, we're so often like, consumed with how many followers we've got all that kind of stuff, how many people on our emailing list, and there are important things to keep a track of and we want to be seeing that growing 100%. But we also need to be making sure that those those are becoming converted clients and customers. And if your purchasing process goes through your website, then you 100% need to be keeping track of your numbers and measuring. And then testing as you say, like, sometimes it can be a bit of guesswork in going well, I can see there's a problem here. But where's the problem? What's what is the problem? And it might be one of your links is broken, or you know, there's something that's sticky for clients to pass through in the checkout. Maybe it's postage if it's a service based up a product based business. But like you said, what we're figuring that out. So it's about changing something and just giving it time to see whether that change makes an effect. Okay, maybe it wasn't that let's change something else. If you change everything, you don't know what it was that was maybe even working like there might be an element that was working. And if you go in and change that, then you have created even more problems for yourself. Yeah, but that can be hard, because it's like, well, what what do I tackle first? It's a bit of a guessing game, isn't it?
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I think people get hung up on traffic. You know, like followers, they're like, you know, if I get 100,000 people to see my website, that's great. But if none of them are converting, what's the point? Instead of to have you know, 10 people visit your website, then follow through and submit an inquiry, you know, then you've got 10 leads rather than you know, 100 that wasn't people viewing your website? Nobody actually submitting an inquiry. And that's going to not going to make any meaningful, you know, change or difference in your business. Yeah,
Speaker 1
exactly. Right. And going back to what we said that kind of the beginning of our conversation was that cash flow is king. And so you're not going to get the cash into your business. If you haven't got leads, and you're not converting those leads, I think, you know, as you said, website visits and traffic and follow us on Instagram and Facebook. And that's a vanity metrics, we actually want to be looking at what are the conversions and, and tracking that because that's where we get cash flow into our business. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Well, we've talked about a lot of good stuff here today. And I'm really excited to have you in the membership, because we're gonna go deeper in on this stuff. So if you've been listening along and you're a member get ready, the session that we're going to have with Charlie is going to be really great for you, as far as you know, really leaning into marketing when it comes to your website. And if you've been listening, and you're like, oh, I want more of that, you can definitely join the Regional Business woman's membership, we'd love to have you reach out to me if you'd like to become a member, all of our master classes that we do inside the membership, they get recorded, and they go into our library. So any of our past master class, guest experts who've already been through, you will get access to all of their master classes as well, as well as people who are just coming in, like, Charlie, who's joining us in May, talking all about really optimizing your website. So thank you so much for sharing your knowledge today. I can't wait to have you inside the membership later. But we're gonna go, I just wanted to also highlight the fact that you have a free, would you call it a webinar or a masterclass that people can go and watch if today's our podcast, that stuff that we talked about around choosing the right platform is something that you're listening along and thinking I'm really struggling with that. Tell us a little bit about that, which is available on your website, and we're gonna make sure that it's all linked in the show notes if you want to reach out to Charlie, but tell us a little
Speaker 2
bit about that. Yeah, so the masterclass I guess breaks down, you know, what we talked about in the start with, you know, your goals and what your business does. And then it goes deeper into a couple of the most popular platforms. So, you know, we look at Shopify, we look at Squarespace, we look at WordPress, and kind of break down the pros and cons of each platform and talk through, you know, what's going to work for you. And I really encourage you in the masterclass to kind of take notes, and think about what it is your business does, what are your goals, you know, how tech savvy you are, and how each platform could kind of work for you. And it'll kind of make it really clear by the end of the masterclass, you know, what's going to be the right platform for you to be able to grow to be able to set up, whether it's, you know, you get someone to do it for you, or whether you do it yourself. It's going to kind of give you that clarity and make sure you're starting off on the right foot. Amazing,
Speaker 1
amazing. So go check that out. If you want to have more of a get your head around more about how to pick your ideal platform. But if you want to go deeper into optimizing and really maximizing the marketing potential of your website that we're going to talk about that inside the Regional Business Women's membership in May, thanks so much for being on the show. It's been lovely chatting to you really appreciate your time. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up today?
Speaker 2
Um, notice yeah, as I said, I'm always happy to answer any DMS from anyone. If you have questions or anything like that, please feel free to drop in. I also post a lot of content on my socials, you know that I hope is a value to people giving you little tips and hints and tricks. So then
Speaker 1
it is great value because I follow you. So what's your handle on on Instagram?
Unknown Speaker
Yep, that's Ella Jane's design.
Speaker 1
Amazing. Thanks for being such a wonderful guest. Really appreciate it. Thank
Unknown Speaker
you so much for having me.
Speaker 1
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the shoes in business podcast. Make sure you hit follow so that you are the first to know as soon as a new episode drops. And if you really want to deliver me smiles, send me a DM find me on Instagram at Donna Han underscore coach and tell me what you loved most about this episode. Also, feel free to let me know what topics you need to learn more about. If you are a regional business woman ready to rise and soar towards success. I'll see you back here next week for another episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
