Marketing + Margaritas Episode 8 - Optimise Your Website
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In this week’s episode of Marketing + Margaritas, we’re taking you through a few simple steps to help improve your website optimisation. Your website is a living part of your marketing. And just like any child, we need to love, care for, clean up and feed our website-babies on a regular basis. Okay, we’re being a bit dramatic - but we do love looking after websites! And with the help of our super informative podcast (if we do say so ourselves), you can too!
SHOW NOTES
Our five top tips >>
Content is king
Website layout
Building a database
SEO basics
Performing an annual website check
Today, we are talking about five tips to optimise your website. Now, your website is a living part of your marketing and it needs love.
All the time. You should definitely be paying attention, it's a very important tool.
Okay, well, all the time is a little bit dramatic. But it's definitely something that you should be checking in on regularly. So, what should you be checking in on?
Good segue for yourself. Actually, before we start on the first one, let me just say that this is obviously not a comprehensive list of every single thing that you can do. This is just really a starting list of some basics that you can have a look at. These are things that predominantly you can actually do yourself, as well. You don't need a developer, or whatever. These are things that you can have a look at, and potentially fix, too. So, just a disclaimer.
And if your website is a particularly needy one, when it comes to coding and set up and you do need to developer, these are things that you can raise with your developer as to what you want.
Good point.
So, you are not limited to that. Number one for optimising your website, content is king - or in our case, queen.
Yas, Queen.
Does your content quickly and easily tell me what you do? And why you are the best option for that when I am looking at your website? Particularly your home page - that's where everyone lands. I want to know what you're doing. So, can I find what I want to know about you? And as your customer, I'm wanting to know what services or products you have. Do you have proof on your website as to why you are the best choice? Whether that be case studies, testimonials, any awards you've won for all your projects, that kind of stuff. It's all creating credibility and reputation.
Another one is what key things people might want from your website? So, if they are visiting, they may want to know how to buy from you. Come in the store or they can go online, or it's a repeat order system. What are your opening hours? And where are you located? Seems like really basic stuff but when we are in our own business, we quite easily just drop off with those easy ones.
Yeah, it's just one of those things. If someone was gonna land on your website, can they tell what you actually do? And do you give compelling reasons as to why you're a better choice than anybody else for that? Then lastly, like Lani said, how do I actually buy from you? Things like having a prominent call to action button. If you prefer people to send an online order, if you prefer phone calls, if you prefer people to come in, you know, whatever is your preferred way of doing business, make that the most obvious and interesting way for someone to do business with you. Make it prominent, make it a major part of what your website tells people.
Lead them to where you want them to go.
Things like opening hours - I know I've told you the story before AIanna - but seriously, it freaking annoyed me so much. One night, it was quarter to 10 and I was really craving some Baskin Robbins. So, I went on to their website, I went to their Facebook, but I could not find the Greenfields in Mackay Baskin Robbins opening hours and I'm like, "There's a chance they're going to be open because I think some of them do stay open later on". But I'm not trudging, getting out of my PJs or pretending I'm not wearing PJs and just putting some proper pants on, going to Baskin Robbins and then them being closed. So, I just didn't go. They just lost my whole waffle cone for I don't know, 10 bucks or whatever it is that they sell them for these days.
Naming and shaming.
It was the biggest ice cream craving and they just crushed my dreams. Okay, slightly melodramatic.
So, yes. Put those details on your website.
That's how people do business with them, is by going in-store or ordering online. This was before ordering online was such a big thing.
And Uber Eats and stuff like that.
Yeah, exactly. And it was just like, if you want me to go into a store, maybe tell me when each of your stores is open. Simple.
Moving on to point number two, McAuley.
Right, layout. You really need to consider your user. So while some people get excited because they're like, "We don't want to have a 'contact', we want to have a 'let's chat'. We don't want to have an 'about us' we want to have a... I don't know, some other crazy term for 'about us' or whatever". People think that they want their website to be different to other people's. Newsflash: think of your own behaviour. When you're there and you're scrolling through three or four different providers for the same particular service or product when you go to their website, do you want to have to click around and figure out where the hell their contact page is? Or do you just want to go onto a website and if you want to contact someone, top right-hand button is a 'contact us' page. Even if you have your phone number, and email in the header and the footer or whatever, we are just trained, we are used to having a contact button in the top right-hand corner of our nav. So, just do it.
Preach, sister. I had a bad experience with this just the other week. I'm a member of a holiday club, I was trying to make changes to a booking that I have, I was all over the membership portal, I was all over the main website, I was looking everywhere for a customer care number to call them to make a change. I was furious that I could not find it. I ended up pulling out a brochure from them that I had stored in my drawer to find it, my husband obviously took over and he quickly made the call because I was in no state to. But I am a member as well. It's not even just their outside page. So yeah, it's frustrating. And you don't want that to be the experience your clients come to you with if they persevere past that point.
Having our nav menus be really clear, having pages like 'about us', 'services', 'portfolio'. I mean, you can play with things a little bit, but just being really mindful of the fact that your website is not for you. You don't need to go in there and get all excited about yourself and feel like you're a special little snowflake. Your website is for the user.
Yes, and there is a certain structure and format to a sitemap for a website, essentially, for where people expect to find things. And that's why, when your website developer or your design team is structuring a site and making recommendations around those things, that's because they're thinking about it from your consumer’s perspective.
100%. Just making sure with your layout, that things are brand-aligned as well. There could be little things, for example, if you have a blocky style logo and font, then you might want to do a right-hand bar with little pullout squares for some quick links, that type of thing. So, it's not just so much of having an image and a blurb and a couple of buttons or whatever, it's actually looking at that layout and going, "How can we make it look and sound and feel like our business?" Because it's like anything with our branding, that's how people get to know us. It's not just before they do business with us, it's even once we're doing business together, that's how I communicate to you who I am as a business. What you can expect from me, whether I'm casual, whether I'm quirky, whether I'm fun, whether I'm professional, whether I'm welcoming, all that kind of stuff. That's what your website needs to say as well, not just from the words that you put in there and the visuals that you use, but also the layout overall.
Yes, absolutely.
And on that quick links thing, too, can I just point out that if you've got certain services in your business that are of high value to you - for example, there could be particular services that just make a higher profit margin for you. Or there could be certain things that your team just loves doing or that you guys are well known for, and you're exceptionally good at...
Or you're promoting them at that time.
You can pull those out. If you think of your home page as a landing page where people first meet you and get to know you, you might have a services page that has the three bazillion things that you can offer. But you might have a tile listing at the bottom of your home page of three really high-value services and products. Or you could have a sliding banner, that is for those three services or products. Just because you have your services page there, really use that home page to promote what's most important to you. We have a client where they're a little bit different. They don't actually need clients, they're set up so that they have one major client that they take care of and that's why their business exists. So, theirs is just really more about PR. So, the things that we promote for them are things like their sponsorships that they have available, and how you could work for them if you wanted to. So, their three high-value things aren't actual services or products. They're other aspects of their business. And that might be the same for you. For example, if recruiting is a big thing for you, don't just have a 'careers' page. You could do a breakout quote, like a breakout section or right-hand pop-up, or whatever it might be. You can provide on that home page what is most important for your business to communicate to your website visitors. I just went on a rant there, didn't I?
You did. But if that's what people are coming to your page for, because you're known for it, or they're looking for it - now, chances are, they're gonna land on your home page. So, that's where you need to start that journey for them and start putting that information. You're leading them through the rabbit hole, you're bringing them through the story. If they only go to your home page and then get distracted or something happens, and they leave and haven't got to your 'services' page or your 'careers' page, you've lost them. You might as well use your home page to the best you can.
Absolutely.
So point number three, building a database. Here, we're talking blogs and eNewsletters. You want them to be easy to find and sign up if you have them and you're utilising them. So, people are coming because they want to find out more about what you are doing, how they can start doing some of that for themselves or incorporating your service, or find out what you're actually selling them so they can start buying from you? You want to make it easy for them to sign up. Jade, I know you have a bugbear story on this and you're itching to tell.
I got a nail UV... No, not UV - LED light thingy with some of the polishes and stuff from this company.
So, a nail set?
Yes, there we go. Wow, you remember my life better than I do. I got a gel nail set. And so when I was purchasing from them, for the first time, there was the option to opt into their marketing material. But I didn't know whether I would like it or not, so I didn't opt-in because I didn't want the emails. But then I really liked it, and then I really wanted the specials, and I wanted to know when they had free shipping and all the rest of it. But I couldn't find anywhere on the website where to actually sign up to the newsletter.
But it's where your cousin was getting the discounts.
It was so crappy. She's like, "Oh, did you see that three for one sale?" No, I did not see that three for one sale!
Did you see these new season colours that just came out? Oh my god.
And it was crazy because she actually forwarded me one of their sales emails with the promo. And even from that, there was nowhere for me to subscribe, because they didn't just use 'MailChimp' or whatever, they had some other email client. But it didn't actually have a place where I could subscribe to it from there, either. So, I ended up sending them a contact form on their website saying, "Hi, as a previous customer, I'd really like to buy more from you. Could I possibly be signed up to the newsletter list?" Which then happened and I bought way too much. And I really need to sign out because it's bad.
Okay, so don't expect your clients to get in touch with you and ask for your permission. Jade's case is not gonna happen, we all know that she's just a little bit eccentric too - is that a nice thing to say?
Yeah, that's alright. I'll take that.
So, can you make these things easy people? We highly recommend putting in a freebie or a lead gen, give them something for nothing. They are signing up to your information, and will potentially help spread your word, buy your services, share your products.
Yeah, that's it. One side of it is making sure that signing up to your database is super easy to find. But then the other side of it is that the nail place had a very compelling reason, they had sales that were only available on there, they were not available on their socials, you could not find out about them unless you were on their newsletter mailing list. Not all of us have that. We don't do specials and discounts and shit like that. Oh no, we do. Anyway, for someone to want to sign up to our database, you might actually want to offer them something for free in return for getting their details. And again, if you offer something, like a freebie that's really high-value, really useful, you're automatically starting off with that trust factor. If you have something available for download, and I just had to put my name and my email in, but then I get a really great checklist on how to do XYZ, or here's the step-by-step process for how to make this happen or whatever it might be, you're helping me before we even really getting to know each other. You've just offered me a ton of value and all I did was give you my name and email.
Even if it's five or ten percent offers to a new customer, that stuff goes really well and I find I end up signing up to a lot of eNewsletters and I'm constantly unsubscribing because I'm like, "Oh, I like that. I wonder if they'll send me a discount?" "Would you like ten percent off your shopping?" "I don't know yet. I haven't got anything in the cart, but we'll hold on to that discount."
Or that one they have now where it's like - so if you've ever been in like a shopping site, and they have...
The spin-the-wheel?
Yeah, the spin-the-wheel and see what you get. You've got to put in your email. It might not be obvious to everybody, but that's actually a database builder. That's how they're getting email sign ons. They're offering you something in exchange for your details.
Okay, so point number four, McAuley?
Yes, SEO basics. I've just got five really quick things here that are really just a very brief snapshot of some basics you can do to improve your SEO - which is search engine optimisation. We did do a previous podcast on...
Tips for improving your SEO.
If you're interested in that, just to put a few things in mind that you might not be aware of. One is that you need to be mobile responsive.
What does that mean?
I was just about to say. So, that means that your website needs to adapt based on what device I'm looking at.
To size down from desktop screen to mobile?
Yeah. So basically, when I say mobile responsive, it means it responds to whatever device it's on and it shows you that version. So, if I'm on a desktop with my big, I don't know whatever size screen I've got, then it needs to be optimised for how I'm viewing it on my desktop. But then if I was on my mobile, we wouldn't have that big full screen on your mobile. Quite often you'll know if someone's website isn't mobile responsive because you've got to pinch and zoom. Honestly, even some of the government ones are still pinch and zoom. And I'm like, "Dude, that's just sad."
So, mobile responsive, a really easy way to tell that is, well, first of all, you can actually go look at your iPad or look at your phone and does your website look good? Cool, it's probably mobile responsive.
An easy way to tell just from your desktop is that if you've got your browser window open with your website on there, if you start shrinking the size of your browser down so that the screen gets smaller and smaller, you can see your website shifting and changing as that window gets smaller and smaller, and that's how you can see if it's responsive or not. On that as well, this happened - I think it might actually be a couple of years ago now, to be honest - but the reason why this is an SEO tip is because Google marks you down if your site is not responsive. I'm pretty sure - it's been so long ago, I just can't remember - but I'm pretty sure they don't even show in search results for websites that aren't mobile responsive. Really, it's a huge thing.
So, how does one set up a mobile responsivity on their website?
Mobile responsiveness is through your actual platform. So, it depends. If you've got a hard-coded site, then it will be something that you would have manually done. We use Squarespace a lot, with that one, it's just a part of it. We do some tidying up because what Squarespace automatically does, we don't always like the look of, so we will actually update the design for the mobile one, as well as the desktop one. A lot of them have it inbuilt.
So, it's important to research what platform you do have your website on?
And how they handle mobile responsiveness. The next thing for a quick SEO basic is having a security certificate - it's known as an SSL certificate. If you don't have a security certificate on your website, then Google deems your site as a potential security threat. For example, our IT guys have us on Webroot as our antivirus and Webroot actually puts little green ticks and red crosses beside website listings on Google to let us know the security risk of it. But if you don't have an SSL certificate, if you try and click on your website, and it comes up on a warning, that could potentially be from that as well.
Is this something they can do themselves?
Again, I use Squarespace examples, it's the one we most commonly use at the moment. At Squarespace, the security certificate is just paid for an inbuilt with your yearly hosting. It's just a part of it.
God, I love Squarespace.
Whereas if you have something like WordPress, you need to purchase and install your security certificate. It's a separate cost and you need to do that once a year, I think it's once a year that you need to renew it. It just depends on the platform. But that's definitely something that you need. And you can tell if you've got it, if you type in "HTTPS://" and your website name. So, when you're on a site, sometimes it's just "HTTP", sometimes it's "HTTPS". The 's' means it has a security certificate. Some browsers also have a little icon beside the URL of a little green lock, to let you know that it's secured. Again, that's variable depending on the browsers. A big thing that affects our SEO is how quickly pages load. Again, this is on mobile. When you're on mobile, you don't have the same size processor memory as you would on a desktop computer. It's a very, very small device. And so if you have video, images, documents, all that sort of stuff on your website that aren't optimised, then your page load speed will be slow. And when things load slower than our mobiles, we quite often don't hang around.
We don't want to deal with it.
Exactly. And Google knows this, so page load speed is really important. And, this goes for desktop as well. But the majority of internet usage these days is on mobile That's why it has such an impact on your SEO. Also, make use of your high-value SEO spots. So, on a page - your page heading, and subheadings and the first line of a paragraph - they're your prime SEO spots. I'm pretty sure that's in order. So it's heading one, heading two, and line one of your blurb or whatever that you're writing - they're SEO spots to pay attention to. So sometimes, we've seen websites come across from people when we're redoing them and they don't even have page headings. So, we'll go to the 'about us' page, and there's no actual 'about us' or whatever on the page.
And that comes down to formatting, not the copywriting. It's how it's been set up.
Yeah, well, if there was a copywriter, they should have written that, and then the developer would have brought it across. It's much of a muchness. But you just want to make sure that you make use of those high-value SEO spots, rather than just ignoring them completely.
And that's where we were talking about structure before as well.
Yeah, it comes down to your indexing by Google and that sort of SEO crap as well.
And so high-value SEO spots, we're talking about putting things like your business name in the first sentence, key services?
Yes, yes. SEO is related to the keywords that you want to be found for. First and foremost, we do want to be found for our business names, because there will be people who are searching for us directly. We don't want to not show up for them. It's pretty sad when someone else is showing up on top for your business name. I think Rebel Nation is like some anarchy shop in America, or the UK, or something that's been around forever, that comes up first.
I did have a website email sent through, like on our website contact form, someone sent us an email this week, telling us they ordered a confederate ring in the wrong size, and they needed to change the order.
That's the anarchy store.
I was like, "Dude, you were on our website. Did we not look like what you were shopping for?"
Or maybe we do outrank them now, if we're above them.
Or maybe they searched "contact" and "Rebel Nation", and that's where they landed.
But yes, you definitely want to show up for your business name. Even though it's your name, it is a keyword. Then yes, your services or your products, you know, those kinds of search terms, they're the things that you want to be putting in those high-value spots.
Fabulous. And metadata? Is that English? What are you talking about?
Metadata is the page title and description, that sort of thing.
Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about.
You know when you do a search? And it comes up - so say, "Rebel Nation", and then will have a little blurb about us. Then it might have indexed our pages so there'd be 'about us', and then another line about that, and then services and a line about that. That is pulling on our metadata. That's on the back end of the website. Again, it's specific to the platform that you're using. So, Squarespace has all of the SEO components built into it. I think Wix and those kinds of ones do as well. I'm not sure about GoDaddy. Whereas WordPress, if you just use the Yoast plugin - spring for the paid one, it's not very expensive, it's $80 a year or something - it does the SEO component for you if you build a WordPress website.
Okay, so there's some really good tips on what to actually look for if you are changing platforms or building on a new platform.
Honestly, you would think it would be standard but I guess it's like anything - you don't want to assume things you just want to double check because your website, for most people, that can be quite a big investment.
It is as important as your shopfront, I think.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, who doesn't look online for stuff? And whether that's particularly about your services and products - people's online behaviours, it's part of how we live now. So, you just want to accommodate for that.
Absolutely. Right. Last but not least, tip number five is an annual check. A) Minimum of an annual check. Like I said at the start, your website is a living part of your marketing, and it needs love. A lot can happen in your business in one year. If you haven't been updating your website, I will think you've not done a great deal. B) We might even think you're not even there. If no one's updating it, you're not worrying about your stuff, you're not worrying about what you're putting out there. This is where the consumer perspective needs to come into it. What you want to do on your annual check is look for any broken links. Go through your website, from 'home page' through to 'contact' page, take that journey, make sure all the links are still going to pages. If you've referenced third-party sites or someone else and you've directed them away from your site...
That's such a good point, too.
Yeah, you need to check that they're still working, make sure your information is correct. So, if you have moved address, or you've added a new PO Box, or you have another branch or store, make sure that information is there. If you talk about your staff in the about section or have team profiles on everybody, make sure that that is up to date if anyone has left or moved or changed position... Or you got new people.
Yeah, that's a good point, too. I actually was reading a website the other day where the contact, it was about one of the specific services with “For more information, contact blah blah on this email address”. So I went to and I got a return email back saying, "Blah blah no longer works here." There was not even a “contact this person instead”. So, I went back to their website, contacted them, and said, "PS, you may want to update this because it doesn't look real good." You're directing your site visitors to someone who no longer works with you, and their OOO doesn’t have where to go instead.
And again, with Jade's special little way of doing things, not everyone will do that. Don't expect your clients to do that.
I like to help people, I think they should know these things.
I know, it's good, it's what you do. I'm just saying that is not what everyone will do.
Yeah, you can't expect that someone's gonna turn around, go back to your website, and try to, first of all, contact you again. And secondly, let you know what mistakes you have made.
Also your services available - if they've changed, if you have pricing, if you have availability on details, if products have been updated, it's a good time to check that that is all current.
And that stuff might sound simple, but honestly, the amount of refreshes, or redos of websites that we do, and we'll rewrite someone's website, or whatever...
And they're just like, "I'll just use the current copy. It's all the same thing." And you're like "This says 2006."
Or they'll go through it and they're like, "Oh, no, we don't do that anymore" or "We don't have that anymore." And it's like, "Okay, well, you know that you're just promoting it to the world that you are? Maybe you should check it every now and then." Even like the broken links thing, we were doing a website quote recently for someone to redo their website. And their loyalty card - so the actual part where they want people to sign up for their loyalty card - it was a blank page. There was no information available.
It seems so genuine.
I'm like that one thing, that one thing!
Be friends with us.
We care about you. PS, blank page. I guess it sounds kind of pretty basic. But you'd just be surprised. Just go through and click on your links and stuff. Treat your website like it's the first time you've ever been there when you do that review.
Get someone in your team that's new, or doesn't work on your web development, or content that goes out - so it's a different perspective.
Or even if you've got a business friend or something, that you can send it to and say, "Hey, I'd really appreciate if you could just have a look at this with some fresh eyes. Is there anything that doesn't make sense? Is there anything that's not working?". Going back to that first point about making sure that it's really easy for me to tell what you do, why I should choose you and how I can work with you - sometimes when we've been in our industries for 20 years, or whatever it is, we know what we do so well and we can sort of forget that other people don't necessarily know that. I remember going to a financial advisor's website once and it was so full of jargon. I was immediately like, "This is complete gobbledygook to me, there's no way I'm reading it, let alone contacting you."
That's it. They don't resonate with you, because they're not speaking clearly.
They weren't relatable. I couldn't even understand it. So, getting that outsider's perspective is really useful for that.
If that's the audience you're targeting, though, if they are that higher level...
That's a good point.
And that depends - if they do talk jargon, your audience does talk that way, then that is totally fine. But if you're talking to everyday people or just at least think about your target market...
That's it. This one, they were financial advisors who were trying to target small business owners. I am a small business owner but that does not mean I'm a financial geek in the slightest!
Small business owners wears so many hats as it is, make it easy for them.
Are you trying to say it's okay that I'm shit at money?
Anyway, thank you for joining us for Marketing + Margaritas.
Cheers!