Studio Lago Design- Claire Owen Cakes Desktop website view

Is it time for a Website Review?

Jan 13, 2023

Is it time for a Website Review? Your website is the window to your business. If you don’t have a bricks and mortar store, it’s your shop front and should act as a marketing machine doing the heavy listing and selling for your business even when you sleep. 

It’s a classic scenario… You start a business, set up a website and then it’s finished and you move on to getting super busy with your business and your website ends up being the most out of date part of your online presence. But your website should be a fluid and ever changing thing. I like to call it a living, breathing beast. One that you’ll need to regularly feed and water to keep it growing as your business does. We all know that as business owners, staying still doesn’t get us far, especially when trying to keep up with an online world. So, is it time your website had a review?

Answer these questions to find out…

Do you have out of date content on your site?

Oh the website shame. You’ve got a website, but it’s so out of date that you’re honestly ashamed to send anyone there. Website shame is A THING. From the number of clients I have had this conversation with, I can tell you, you are not alone. But it shouldn’t be a thing. And in an ideal world business owners wouldn’t allow their websites to go out of date.

 Picture the situation. A potential client finds you on social media and clicks though to your website. They’re really keen to book and you might just have them in the bag… But then they see that you’re still promoting last year’s summer sale on your home page, plus your website is dated 2016 in the footer and the last blog post you added was in the same year. What’s the chances this potential client is going to be put off and assume you are no longer in business. It sounds like one of those ‘Oh I’d never do that’ situations, but it’s surprisingly common. And we are talking about some big companies here too. So don’t let this be you. For starters, get this content updated first and then get a website review session booked in so we can help you come up with a plan for how to never let this happen again!

Studio Lago Design- Abstract Events Desktop website view

Do you want to grow your business and make it sustainable?

Of course you do. A lot of websites are set up with good intentions and then fall by the wayside when business owners get too busy, particularly if they put too much emphasis and spend too much time on social media as their main marketing tool. But if you really want to grow a business and ensure it works way into the future, a website really is where it’s at.

My theory on why business owners put too much work in to social media and not enough in to their website is based on the following: 1. We are all addicted to social media. 2) We get instant gratification through social media in the form of vanity metrics; likes, comments, shares. We don’t get this on our websites. But having a great website that ensures you grow a sustainable business is all about the long game. The website you create now with updated content and even quite basic SEO, can see you getting leads and sales way in the future. You don’t get that from an Instagram post that disappears into the abyss after a few hours.

A website review is a great way for us to take a look at how your website is performing for your business and to take a deep dive into how your website can do better to not only get traffic to your site, but get those all important ideal clients buying from you or becoming quality leads.

 

Do you know how to edit the content on your site?

Maybe you had your site designed for you a while back and you have no idea how to make changes to it. Or perhaps you created your site yourself and it took you a lot of time and took up a whole lot of brainspace and the thought of making any more changes to your site fills you with dread, plus, you just don’t have the time! Either way, your site no doubt needs content edits and updates that you don’t have the control over, or the energy to make.

A website review session will help you come up with an action plan to help get this situation sorted. We can look at options for getting these changes made for you, set you up to have the power to make the changes, or come up with ideas on how you can implement a strategy to keep your website up to date going forward.

Studio and desktop- Studio Lago Design

Can your site be found on Google?

It’s all well and good having a website, but there is zero point if it can’t be found. Even the prettiest, most amazing websites can get lost in the gazillions of sites on the web if they aren’t built and optimised with SEO in mind. The good news is some simple changes can make all the difference to making sure your site is visible to those that want to find your goods or services.

If you book in for a website review session with me, I’ll give you a plan of action going forward that will help improve your websites ranking on Google, plus empower you with all the tools to ensure it continues this way long into the future.

Are you sick of spending far too much time hustling on social media?

I know I keep banging on about socials, but I personally have a love hate relationship ith them. I’m definitely not writing them off though as they play an absolutely crucial part in any marketing puzzle. But business owners tend to put all their effort into showing up on social media whilst allowing their websites to gather dust. It’s so important to reframe this if you want to run the sustainable, long term business I mentioned above. 

The ever changing face of social media platforms can feel exhausting to keep up with. I for one have seen the dramatic change of Instagram since around 2014 and how it has transformed from a photosharing platform that was relatively easy to be found on, to the all-singing-all-dancing place for business owners to seemingly need to start their own video production company that keeps you second guessing alongside all the other things they need to do. Phew! I’m exhausted just talking about it! Instead of feeling like you have to keep up with the charade and become a mime artist or dance superstar, surely making sure your website works hard for your business is a less knackering approach? Absolutely be present on socials, but see that your actions on social media go towards sending people to your website because that’s owned by you, it’s your real estate and there you can engage, inspire and captivate them and turn them into the best kind of paying customers.

Website review sessions are an opportunity for us to look at how you are driving traffic to your website and if you’re not, to come up with a plan to kick start that process.

 

Does your website speak to and attract your ideal clients?

As well as having content that is out of date, your circa 2016 website might be something you threw together because you knew you needed a website. This might be true for your branding too. Maybe you look at it now and realise that your business had grown and changed in that time (and I’d be surprised if it hasn’t!). You might even have a good website, but if it doesn’t speak to and attract your ideal clients, it’s not a great website.

Your branding and your website and in fact everything you put out there in terms of marketing and your whole customer experience shouldn’t be built for you and what you like. It should be created with your ideal clients as the core focus. Questionably, a website that was built by you (not a designer) was probably not designed for your ideal clients. That’s ok, it’s so common for business owners to build their own websites, but it’s so important to consider so many things about your ideal client before you launch in to creating anything for your business. How do they think, speak, learn, digest information, what makes them tick, where do they spend their time and so many more questions. 

So, honestly, is your website packing the punch for your ideal clients? And if the answer is no, get in touch to book a website review where I’ll help you come up with an action plan on fixes you can make to your site to get it to start talking to the right people.

What’s more, I’ll keep you accountable to actually doing the work on your site. I know how long the task ‘update website’ can stay on business owners’ to do lists. Let’s get it done and create a plan for your website to be a winner now and well into the future of your business.

How to book a website review session and how it works…

  1. Get yourself over to the Website review page
  2. Book in a date that suits you
  3. Fill out the form with your deets
  4. Pay the intro fee of just £149 (for all the above you get plus accountability and a website that’ll start winning for your business, that a bit of a bargain!)
  5. I’ll send you over a questionnaire so I can start digging deep on your business, goals and start looking at how we can transform your website
  6. We’ll have a call to go through all the suggestions I have in combination with your ideas for where you want your business to get to
  7. I’ll send you over an action plan.
  8. I’ll keep an eye on how you’re getting on, plus check in on you to see how your action plan is going and make sure you’re actually doing the work.

If you’ve got questions about how a website review could help your business to fly, get in touch and ask me anything or have a read of the FAQs.

 

Don’t believe me?

Find out what some of these business owners had to say about the webns review and how it helped them transform their websites…

    About the designer...

    Hi! I’m Katie. Helping busy business owners create bold online brands and stand-out, non-boring websites is my jam. I’m passionate about giving once-upon-a-time-website DIYers, ambitious entrepreneurs and founders back the time to focus on doing the things they love the most in their businesses, giving them clarity in their online presence and the confidence to grow big!

    Through this blog and on social media I share my advice and best practices with  business owners on how to build strong brands that will start attracting their dream customers and website that work by focusing on strategy and business goals.

    When I’m not working with inspiring business owners or designing wedding cakes, you’ll probably find me dreaming of what my next meal will be, the best fruit garnishes for a gin and tonic or where we’ll travel to on our next adventure.

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