A time when they’ve hired a web designer and found the process painful. They didn’t see a return on investment. And the whole process took way longer than expected! 

You’ve probably heard these stories too. 

Or worse, you’ve experienced it yourself. 

And that’s why you want to hire the right agency. 

You don’t want to spend time and money working with an agency only to realise they’re total pants, and you’re not going to make a return on your investment. 

But how do you find such an agency/freelancer? 

How do you know who you can trust? 

How can you make sure you’re not just another business owner with a ‘bad web designer’ story. 

Easy! In this blog post, we’re going to give you a list of top web design agencies from across the world. 

Why Are You Writing This? Don’t You Know You Offer Web Design Services? 

Yes, we do offer web design as a service (we didn’t forget about that). But we know that we’re not for everyone. And there are many reasons we may not be the right fit for you. 

And we’re certainly not arrogant enough to think that we’re the only agency good at web design! There are lots of people in the industry whose work we admire and value. 

So we made a list of who we think are the top web agencies in the world. 

How did we choose these top agencies?

We have followed most of these agencies for a while (at least 12 months) and we’ve always admired what they do. Not only do these agencies create amazing websites, each and every one of them invests in their education to continually improve their knowledge. This was a HUGE factor in creating this list. 

How do we know they are the best agencies in the world?

Obviously, we don’t know every web designer in the world so we can’t include them all BUT we feel confident that the agencies we have chosen will deliver an amazing experience for you and a fantastic website. We fully appreciate that our opinion, might differ from yours and that’s ok but we can only include web designers we know and trust.

The Website Success Framework

This is what we have called the Website Success Framework. It’s something that we created in order to help you understand what makes a PERFECT website.

We’ve selected agencies that have knowledge and understanding of the six key factors that make a website a success. Here’s a fancy-pants wheel for you to see what these are. And you can learn more about the 6 key things that make a successful website in our blog post. 

Ultimately, a good website is not just a pretty website. And a good web designer is not just someone who makes pretty websites. 

Good web designers (like all the ones in the list) have an understanding of these 6 key things. And the web designers we’ve selected also have particular strengths in one or more of these areas… 

1. Appearance

Appearance matters if you want to make an impact, build a brand and stand out from the crowd. Sometimes web developers get a little caught up in the functionality and code, and they fail to make the site actually look good! 

2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is vital to your website’s success. We all want to show up on Google, right? There are particular ways and methods of building websites that make them more likely to rank in search results – such as making them mobile-friendly or fast to load. 

3. Content Marketing 

Content marketing can increase rankings, drive traffic and generate leads for your business. Good web design agencies should help you with content, such as figuring out how a user can view and search your content, or how to convert readers into leads. 

4. User Experience

This is a biggie. Every web design agency should understand user-experience. User experience is essentially how easy your website is to use. Agencies should create websites that will help your users flow through your site with ease.

5. Lead Generation 

If you want your website to convert visitors into customers then you need an agency to help you do that. Everything from call to actions (size/colour/text) to the placement of lead magnets has to be carefully thought-through. A good agency will do this for you. 

6. Website Copy 

We’re not saying that web design agencies also have to be copywriters (although some certainly are!) But a good agency will guide you on how to create your copy and convert readers into leads and sales. 

Web designers you can hire

So now you should have a good understanding of our criteria – agencies with knowledge in all of the above, and particular key strengths in one or more of them. It’s also agencies who continuously learn and improve, so they can pass on that knowledge to their clients, and apply it to their websites. 

The list is in no particular order but we have broken down the different countries to make it easy for you. You can select a country from the list below.

The BEST web designers in the world

*DRUMROLL

Without Further Ado Here Are The Best Web Design Agencies in the World…

UK Web Design Companies

Dickiebirds Studio

What They Do: WordPress Website Design and Development | White Label Services 

Who They Help:
Businesses
Personal Brands
Web Design Agencies (White Label Service) 

Overview:
The team at Dickiebirds Studio Design create phenomenal websites that focus on converting your visitors into leads and sales. They are all about the strategy and user-experience! 

Peter and Paul also have a white label service that can help other agencies create incredible WordPress websites. 

SO The Agency

What They Do: Branding | Web Design | SEO | Digital Marketing 

Who They Help:
Small business owners
The education sector (with a strong background in working with universities and FE Colleges)
Web design agencies offering a white label SEO service. 

Overview:
We’re big fans of Pete and the team at SO. They offer a wide range of services from web design to branding and are super knowledgeable when it comes to SEO. If getting first page rankings is important to you then get in touch with SO and see how they can help. They also offer an amazing white label SEO service specifically for agencies.

Due North Creatives 

What They Do: Website Build | Graphic Design | Copywriting | Website Amends

Who They Help:
Business owners across Tayside, Angus and Aberdeenshire

Overview:
Amanda and her team are based in Montrose, Scotland and offer a wide variety of services from web design to social media management. Amanda has created a wonderful agency with a great group of people. She has a wealth of knowledge and is incredibly passionate about getting great results for her clients. 

Flat Cap Creative 

What They Do: Website Design | Website Support Plans

Who They Help:
Sole-traders to businesses with a turnover of 3million+
They have a particular speciality of working with the education and medical sectors

Overview:
Nik runs Flat Cap Creative. A fantastic, Leeds based agency that is always highly sought after. Although Nik builds websites for all types of businesses, he tends to work mainly with medical companies and education providers. He’s fantastic at website copy too, and does offer as a service. 

Design Box Media

What They Do:
Web Design | SEO | Ads | Content Marketing

Who They Help:
Small to Medium Enterprises

Overview:
Thomas Amos and his team run a full-service agency in Essex, they do everything from paid advertising to email marketing. Not to mention they build incredible websites too. If you need a larger agency to manage all your marketing needs, then Design Box Media will be able to help.

Funeral Director Websites 

What They Do: Web Design & Development 

Who They Help:
Funeral Directors 

Overview:
Gerry King creates websites exclusively for Funeral businesses. This means that he knows his niche inside out and always creates high performing websites. Gerry’s reputation in his industry is rock solid, and although he’s based in Newcastle, he helps funeral directors all over the country build a better online presence. 

Umbrella Digital Media

What They Do: Web Design | Digital Consultancy | Maintenance Plans

Who They Help:
Business Owners

Overview:
Imogen Allen who runs Umbrella has a real passion for content marketing and has a wealth of knowledge in this area. She builds fantastic content-led websites that are extremely user-friendly. Imogen is always developing her skills and investing in her learning so she can deliver the best service to her web design and consultancy clients. 

Fiona Robertson 

What They Do: Branding | Web Design | Logo Design | Graphic Design 

Who They Help:
Small business owners

Overview:
Fiona is such a talented graphic designer and web designer. Fiona has a particular speciality in branding and this is reflected in all the websites she creates. They’re memorable and beautiful, but also extremely user-friendly too! We’re huge fans of her work.

No Label Studios

What They Do: Web Design | Development  

Who They Help:
Solo Agency Owners

Overview:
Oliver runs No Label Studios and offers a white-label, web design service to other agencies. If you’re struggling to keep up with client projects and need an extra pair of hands, then Oliver is your guy. You’ll see from his website that he has a real eye for design. He’s also a genuinely nice guy.

Amber Phillips Design

What They Do: Web Design | Development  

Who They Help:
Service-based Entrepreneurs

Overview:
Amber offers a unique web design service where the entire site is built within 1-2 weeks. Perfect if you’re on a tight time frame. Amber also has a monthly design retainer where you can have some graphic design assistance on a regular basis. 

 USA Web Design Companies

OGAL

What They Do: Web Design | SEO | WordPress Consulting 

Who They Help:
Small Businesses

Overview:
OGAL web design is run by Kyle Van Deusen who’s based in Granbury, Texas. I’m sure you’ll agree that Kyle’s website is AMAZING and so are the websites he builds. But, the thing that impresses me most about Kyle is his complete dedication to delivering incredible content to his potential customers. Every other agency should take note of what OGAL is doing. 

Thrive

What They Do: Web Design | Branding | Marketing

Who They Help:
Service-Based Business Owners

Overview:
I love this agency and their website. Noah, who runs Thrive is a super nice guy and he’s 100% committed to delivering honest help and advice to anyone looking for a website. All Noah’s websites are highly conversion-focused and the design is always fantastic. Noah is based in Seattle, Washington.

Impact

What They Do: Inbound Marketing | Content Marketing | Web Design | Hubspot Training & Support | Video | Ads

Who They Help:
Businesses

Overview:
Impact is a full-service agency based in New Haven, Connecticut. They have 60+ full-time staff members and offer a broad range of services from video training right through to technical SEO and even CRM support. They create incredible data-driven websites that are super focused on getting results. And for anyone who doesn’t know the owner, Marcus Sheridan, they pretty much know everything there is to know about Content Marketing. 

Kriss Did It

What They Do: Website Design | Brand Strategy

Who They Help:
Creative entrepreneurs

Overview:
Kriss creates stunning websites for personal brands and creative entrepreneurs. I love how Kriss just gets how to create a website that reflects your personality and brand. She’s created some AMAZING websites including Marie Forleo’s website and Franchesca Ramsey. In terms of branding and design, Kriss is one of our favourite web designers. 

Canada

Propel

What They Do: Web Design | SEO | Copywriting

Who They Help:
Business owners in Toronto, Canada

Overview:
Propel Digital Media is based in Toronto Canada and is owned by Chris Castillo. First and foremost, I LOVE this agency’s website. I don’t mind admitting… I’m a bit jealous of it. Chris’s design skills are also clearly visible from the amazing websites he builds. His attention to detail means his projects are always breathtaking and conversion focused. 

South African Web Design Companies

Lonely Viking

What They Do: Websites | Branding | Conversion Optimisation 

Who They Help:
Business Owners

Overview:
Lonely Viking is owned by Shane who is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Shane is an incredible designer and is highly sought after. Shane has an incredible brand that you won’t forget any time soon and his web design and branding work for his clients are extraordinary.

1 Day Website 

What They Do: Web Design | Sales Pages | Care Plans

Who They Help:
Creative female entrepreneurs 

Overview:
Chantal offers an amazing service – one website in a day! The websites are aimed at female entrepreneurs, and Chantal does a fantastic job of reflecting their brands and personalities through the website design. And you’d never tell that these websites are created so fast. So if you’re looking for a beautiful website in no time at all, check out 1 Day Website. 

Australian Web Design Companies

Launch Digital

What They Do: Web Design | SEO 

Who They Help:
Small to medium-sized business owners

Overview:
Tina runs Launch Digital which is based in Melbourne, Australia. Tina focuses on building high-performing websites that also look incredible. She can also help with SEO so that you can get more visibility in search engines. As a side note, I love Tina’s own branding, it’s so memorable.  

Elk Creative

What They Do: Web Design | Logo Design | Branding | Graphic Design

Who They Help:
Entrepreneurs to large business owners 

Overview:
Elk creative is based in Victoria, Australia and I can’t help but LOVE their branding. Although they offer web design services, they are super passionate about branding and design. This is clearly obvious when you see their portfolio of work. I especially love how transparent Corey is with his pricing information. You don’t often come across agency websites that are honest enough to do this and it’s, it’s really helpful.

Summary

There you have it, a list of the best web design agencies in the world. Don’t forget, a successful website is not JUST a pretty website. If you want to access our 54-point checklist on what makes a successful website, then download it below.

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post Who Are The Best Web Designers in the World? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Stitcher| iTunes | Radio Republic | Soundcloud

What Is A Start Here Page?

A Start Here page is a way of welcoming a website visitor who’s unsure what to do next on your website. They’re unfamiliar with you and your business, and a start here page gives them a tour of your site and explains what you do.

In this podcast episode, you’ll learn…

• What is a start page and whether you should or shouldn’t have one
• What to include on a start here page
• How a start here page can convert
• How we go against what many others say should be on a ‘start here’ page

Resources

54 Ways To Increase Your Website Sales

Facebook Group

Make Your Mark Online

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Ep 45- What is a Start Here Page and What Do You Include On One? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

“Don’t tell them it’s for a wedding, otherwise they’ll charge you A LOT more.”

I imagine that’s what it must feel like if you work for a larger company. You may think to yourself, ‘Are these guys going to charge me more just because we’re a large business or are well known?’

And you know what, you’re right. We do charge more to larger companies. And by larger, I’m talking turnover of a million+.

Our web design packages start from £4497(+VAT), with the average being around £7,000 – £9,000(+VAT). For large companies, this jumps to £20,000+(+VAT).

But it’s not for the reasons you might think. We don’t sit there rubbing our hands together with glee and pound signs in our eyes when we see you coming. There are genuine reasons why we charge more to larger companies.

In the interest of honesty and transparency and all that malarky, we’ve listed these below.

1. There’s a lot more communication with you

When we work with larger organisations, generally there are more people involved in the process. Yes, we communicate with one, designated person, but this one person has to get input and feedback from the different teams within the organisation.

Often, we’ll have video calls with the different teams to go through what they need from the website, or feedback on the designs, or any particular questions. Each team has it’s own priority. For example, people who work in finance want something different from the website to the people who work in HR.

So, why would this cost more money? Essentially, it takes A LOT longer.

There’s a lot more communication needed when we deal with larger companies. And this isn’t a bad thing. The level of communication with many different members of staff is what will lead a website that serves the company, the individual teams within the company and the customer.

A typical website design project will take us 3 months. With larger organisations, it takes us 6-9 months. When we take on a website design project for a larger organisation, we have to schedule in time in diary, and we take on fewer clients around that time.

The reason we charge more is that you get more of our dedicated time.

2. You need more page designs

All our websites are built from scratch, and we follow a particular process.

The first thing we do is research. We spend time with you figuring out what you need from your website, understanding your brand, your customers, the issues you have with your current website etc.

Once we’ve been through this discovery phase we create a wireframe of the homepage. Once that’s been approved we then design your homepage, and finally, once that’s been approved we move on to building the homepage. We follow this process with every single page on your website that needs an original design.

Larger organisations tend to need a lot more page designs. Not just a homepage, about page and a single service page. Larger organisations sometimes need 10/15/20+ page designs. This is because they tend to offer a wide range of services for a wide range of sectors. This means more time has to go into the project, which is why it costs more.

3. Your website has to serve lots of different people

For larger organisations, a website redesign is not just a way to generate more leads and sales. A website is also a way to make business processes easier and more streamlined. Each team within a large organisation generally has a ‘wish list’ of things they want from a website.

For example, HR might want to make the process of attracting new candidates to the organisation easier. Administrative staff might want the website to do some of the heavy lifting in terms of administrative tasks. The sales team may want an online portal for potential customers to view videos, submit documents, view proposals, etc.

Because each team wants something different from the website, websites for larger organisations usually have more functionality. This all adds to the cost.

4. There’s a lot more integrations/software development

Similar to number three, larger organisations need their website to integrate with lots of different software, for example, relationship management software, apps, internal communication software etc.

We sometimes have to work with software developers too, assisting them in connecting the software to the website.

This all takes extra time.

5. We provide you with a lot more training

One of the main reasons larger companies come to us for a website is, well, they’ve been treated pretty badly before. We’re under no illusion that we’re a pretty unusual choice for a large company – who can have their pick of fancy agencies with big offices, teams of staff and one of those coffee machines we’re super jealous of. Whereas we work from home with our cats, a kettle and a tub of Nescafe Gold Blend.

But all the same, we do attract some large companies and one of the reasons why is because we give them access to the entire website. We don’t force them into contracts where we update their websites for them at an obscene cost. Because, quite frankly, that would bore the hell out of us.

But that does mean we have to provide extra training upfront. A lot of different people in the organisation need to know how to update or access different parts of the website. Marketing wants to delve into the blog, administrative staff want to know how to create intelligent contact forms that send information to specific people in the company, HR wants to see the CVs of potential candidates etc. All that needs explaining.

FYI – Don’t worry, backups mean you can’t break the website. There’s very little you can do to break a website if it’s backed up correctly.

6. There’s often consulting too

Once larger organisations have invested £20/30/40,000 on a website, they often want to know how to get the most out of it too. Makes sense.

So, we often consult on things like SEO, copywriting and content marketing during the project and after it’s live. This all adds to the cost of the website.

7. There’s a lot more content

Larger organisations usually have mammoth websites. There are often thousands of pages, some which need to be culled. This needs to be done carefully and strategically. We don’t want to lose any traffic when the new website is launched, which is why setting up appropriate redirects is important.

The majority of the pages though will need migrating over to the new website. And you may think, ‘oh, this can be done automatically, right?’ Yes and no. If it’s WordPress to WordPress redesign, there is some software that helps you pull over the content from one site to another BUT every single page still needs checking. In our experience, this is never perfect. There’s always missing images or incorrect URLs. This all needs to be fully checked and corrected before the website goes live.

If the original site is not on WordPress then the content will need to be moved over manually, and this is a huge part of the extra cost.

8. We have to consider your ROI

Charging 5k for a website to a company that turns over millions quite frankly does not make sense.  We charge more because you’ll get a lot more in return.

In Conclusion

So there you are. These are the reasons why we charge more for large business/public sector websites. If you work for a large business or public sector company, I hope that’s put your mind at ease. If you’d like more help with choosing a web designer, you can also download our free, totally unbiased, website buyer’s guide below. Of if you have any questions, feel free to ask us on our contact page.

P.s. Do you bid for projects?

We also get asked this a lot. Typically, the answer is no. Although we have done. The reason we generally don’t do it is that it takes up a lot of our time.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Why we charge large businesses & public sector organisations more for website redesign appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

That’s always difficult to swallow, isn’t it? Even for us web designers. (Actually, web designers are the worst culprits of making their websites about them.) 

Most business owners generally focus on one thing: how it looks. We want it to look good. Why? Because if our website looks good, we look good. 

And that’s the biggest reason why websites FAIL, even ones that cost 10, 15, 20K+. You’re thinking about how gorgeous your website is, and your user is thinking who the hell is this, where do I go and how can this person help me? If they don’t get those answers in a split second they’ll hit the backspace button. No amount of beauty can prevent that. 

The Perfect Website is a Balance of 6 Key Areas

Your website’s appearance is important, but it is not the be-all-and-end-all. 

A good website (one that will deliver you leads and sales) is actually a balance of six key areas. A lot of websites will focus solely on one area or two, very few will nail all six. 

These elements must work in perfect balance. Too much focus on SEO may mean your copy is flat and dull. Equally, too much focus on creative copy means your user (and search engines) might not understand what you’re talking about. Too much focus on appearance, sometimes means the user and their experience is forgotten. 

You get the picture. 

The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Website

In this blog post, I’m going to tell you what those six key areas are, and how you can improve in all six areas. 

No one can get these areas 100% right all the time because no website is ever done or perfect. By having an awareness of these areas and improving them, you will see much better results from your website i.e. more leads and sales! 

Let’s get cracking…(also, this is one of our stupidly-long, ultimate guide blog posts, so maybe get a brew while you’re at it. And a cookie. Get a cookie too.) 

The Six Key Things That Will Make Your Website a Success 

To summarise this, here’s a humongous, fancy graph. 

User Experience 

This is the biggie. If your users don’t know what to do on your website they’ll hit the backspace button in seconds. 

Users need direction. Do you know those little feet on the ground that show you where to go in Ikea? That’s what you need on your website. Even if it seems obvious to you what to do, remember, you live and breathe your business. Your website users don’t. So they need a little handholding when it comes to your website. 

Why Do People Get User Experience So Wrong? 

There are two main reasons why people get user experience wrong…

1. User experience just doesn’t occur to them 
2. Some people are more concerned with how their website looks 

The first one can be tackled by gaining knowledge of user-experience and making simple tweaks to your website. The second reason is trickier to argue with. 

We all want a beautiful website. But sometimes, we get so obsessed with beauty that our websites are nothing more than pieces of art – looked at and admired but do nothing to inspire action. 

When creating a website, you need a good balance between appearance and user-experience. You can make a unique, beautiful or memorable site through your images, branding, icons, logo, fonts and colours. But when you step away from a standard website layout, that’s when you might hit problems. 

Typical industries that struggle with this tend to be fashion, beauty, architecture, designers – anyone creative, essentially. 

A Quick Wins Checklist For Improving Your User-Experience 

If you want to improve your website’s user-experience straight away, here are some quick wins you can follow…

1.Do your call to action buttons stand out on the page?

Call to action buttons are buttons that say ‘download now’ or ‘contact me’ or even ‘click here’ – they get the end-user to do something. You want them to stand out, not blend in. Make them a different colour and leave plenty of white space around them.

2. Is your homepage broken up into sections?

You want to break your homepage up into sections, and each section should have its own topic (such as about a service you offer) and a clear call to action. Each section can include text, images and/or videos – just make sure they cover one thing. If not your end-user will get confused.

3. Do you have a page for each of your services?

Don’t cram all your services onto one page. Have a page for each service you offer and hone in on everything to do with that service – FAQs, costs, processes, benefits, overview, testimonials etc.

4. Do you give clear names for areas on your website?

A lot of pages or sections on your website have standard names like about or blog. So don’t call it ‘My Journey’ instead of ‘About’, as your end-user won’t have a clue what that means. Same with your services, give them clear to understand names in your main menu – not obscure or pretentious ones!

5. Do you have an annoying, invasive pop-up? If yes, get rid!

Imagine you’re browsing in a shop and a shop assistant taps you on the shoulder. ‘CAN I HAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!’ You shake your head, but she then follows you around the shop repeating the same thing. “CAN I HAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!”

You’d leave the shop, right? That’s the equivalent of an annoying popup that won’t go away.

6. Do your pages follow a consistent design? Or are they all different?

When we use website builders or get going with some nifty coding, it can be tempting to add our styles and layouts to every page. But if there’s no consistency in the design, then it’s only going to end up confusing your end-user. So keep your page designs consistent. For example, make sure your service pages follow the same layout.

7. Do you use relevant images that support the text?

Your images should reflect what the text conveys and vice-versa. Ideally, these images will be of you and your team and not just stock photos.

8. Is your content accessible?

Don’t be that guy who hides some of his content in exchange for an email address. We see this more and more. When you advertise free content, like a blog post, then ask someone to input their email in exchange for it, it’s just going to annoy people.

9. Are your internal/external links underlined or bold?

If you’re linking in your text, it’s a good idea to make those links underlined and a different colour or bold. This makes it super clear to your end-user that it’s an external link. It saves them missing it or accidentally clicking it!

Want the checklist everything you can do to improve your website and get more leads and sales? Click below to download!

Extra Resources/Content that Will Help Improve Your User Experience…

Our Homepage Blueprint 

How to Appeal to More Than One Audience on your Website

Copy 

Website copy is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of web design. Web design agencies don’t usually concern themselves with the words on the page, after all, it’s not in their remit. BUT, the words on the page can make or break a website’s success. 

Your words are a way to connect with the reader – getting them to understand who you are, who you help, how you help and why you do what you do. 

Why Do People Get Their Website Copy So Wrong? 

There are two main reasons why people get their website copy wrong: 

1. They copy what their competition does 
2. They don’t know what they’re doing 

It’s even worse when people copy off the competition…and the competition also doesn’t know what they’re doing. 

The problem is, we can all write. And when we think we can do something, we often don’t spend time or money trying to improve it. For example, I technically know how to sing. I can move my mouth and a tone comes out but Martin still says the words ‘Dear God, please make it stop.’ 

But all is not lost. A lot of people quickly realise that their website just isn’t converting and will improve their writing or hire a copywriter. 

The Quick Wins Checklist For Improving Your Website Copy 

If you want to improve your website’s copy straight away, here are some quick wins you can follow…

1. Do you dumb down your service too much?

Be aware of your audience’s knowledge level. For example, we wouldn’t start by saying ‘Having a good website is essential for your business,’ because, well duh, our audience knows this. Get straight into how you solve their problem instead.

2. Do you use unnecessary jargon?

Equally, you don’t want to use unnecessary jargon. There’s a reason we won’t find CSS or HTML across our website because that means nothing to the end-user. Remember, you’re not writing for your competition, you’re writing for your target audience.

3. Would people know EXACTLY what you do when they land on your homepage?

As soon as someone lands on your homepage, you need to explain what it is you do – ideally in one sentence. And you need to do it in a way that is simple and clear. You don’t want your reader working too hard to understand what it is you do.

4. Is your about page about how you can help the reader, not just about you?

Your about page should be about how you help your visitor/target audience. A lot of business owners ramble on about their degree or experience or what motivates them. As much as this is good, it should not be the focus of the page.

5. Do your service pages go into detail about the service you offer?

There’s nothing worse than a bare service page that offers zero information. People want to understand as much about your service as possible before making a buying decision. You just discuss pricing, your process, features and benefits, the problems you solve, case studies and FAQ etc.

6. Do you avoid big, fancy words?  

Don’t make your website sound like a thesaurus threw up it. It’s better to use simple language than make yourself look clever.

7. Do you use active voice instead of passive voice?

Active voice is far more engaging for the reader. So instead of saying, ‘The letter was posted by me.’ You should follow a subject/verb/object structure e.g. ‘I posted the letter.’ As you can see it’s much more engaging this way. Tip – You can easily identify passive voice if you can add the phrase ‘by zombies’ after the verb. Lessons were learnt (by zombies) – you’ll notice that one now every time a politician says it.

8. Do you include a clear call to action on each page?

Each page on your website should have a purpose, even you 404 page or your terms and conditions page, you should get your reader to do something. Make sure you include a call to action on every page.

9. Have you ignored your English teacher? (I’m looking at you, Ms Cooper)

Shock-horror, it’s okay to start sentences with but or and. It’s even okay to write how you speak. You don’t need to write formally and without emotion or personality. In fact, this is the opposite of what you should do. You should treat your reader like you’re meeting someone in a cafe and telling them about your business.

Extra Resources/Content that Will Help You Improve Your Website Copy…

What Should You Put on Your Homepage?

9 Ways to Create a Big, Bold Statement

How to Write an About Page

How to Master Your Tone of Voice

Content Marketing 

What’s content marketing got to do with your website? Isn’t that just a separate ‘marketing thing’?

No, it’s not. 

The biggest mistake people commit when their website goes live is leaving it. It’s the equivalent of building a shop in the middle of the desert. If you don’t get traffic to your site, it’s not going to perform. And the best way to get traffic to your website? Content marketing. 

It’s also one of the best customer service tools you have. 

Many of us don’t own shops, we have internet-based-businesses. We don’t have that helpful, smiley person to answer all our customers’ questions. This is why you need content marketing to do it for you. 

Why Do People Get Their Website Content Marketing So Wrong? 

There are two main reasons people get their content marketing wrong…

1. They produce generic ‘fluff’ content 
2. They don’t promote their content 

We can’t get away with producing mediocre content anymore. Everyone is upping their game, and that means more noise and more competition. You have to put effort into content marketing, going in-depth on one particular topic or question in order to get results. 

You also have to spend as much time promoting your content as you do writing it. This is why it’s difficult for business owners to see a return of investment with content marketing. It can take hours out of your business. It’s worth, if you can, outsourcing the promotion of your content. 

The Quick Wins Checklist For Improving Your Content Marketing 

1. Do you answer a specific question in your content marketing?

Good content marketing answers a specific question. This could be how much do copywriters charge? Or ‘How to bake a vegan Victoria sponge? Every good piece of content marketing should answer a question that someone has asked. 

2. Do you showcase your content on your website homepage?

People aren’t ready to buy from you straight away, but what they will do is consume some of their free content. The problem is, you need to get your end-user to your free content. A good way to do this is by displaying your content on your homepage.

3. Do you showcase relevant content on your website service pages i.e. related to that service

On each service page, display content that is related to that particular service. For example, if you’re a therapist, you’d lino to content only about hypnotherapy on your hypnotherapy service page.

4. Do you link or give a shoutout to others? If so, have you told them?

If you link or talk about another person in the industry, have you emailed them personally to tell them and ask them to share it? Or have you tagged them on social media promotion? It’s a good way of getting more traffic to your site!

5. Do you have content for every step of the sales process?

A lot of people focus solely on ‘traffic content’ i.e. content that gets you website traffic. But do you also write content that appeals to those who are ready to buy? E.g. how much you charge, what your process is etc.

6. Does your personality come across through your content? 

Do we get a sense of who you are through your content? Does your personality shine through? It doesn’t matter what platform you use – blogging, video or podcast, having some personality will get your end-user to connect with you.

7. Is your content actually helpful to your audience?

Do people really want to know about the latest client you’ve landed and how great you are? Probably not. Your content needs to be helpful not a sales pitch.

8. Do you have a call to action in your content?

Many of us forget to add a call to action to our content. This could be something like subscribing to your Youtube channel, downloading a guide or booking a call. Either way, getting your audience to do something when they’re consuming your content!

9. Have you included social sharing buttons on your website content?

Social media sharing buttons make it super-easy for your end-user to share your content. If you’re blogging using WordPress you can also use ‘click to tweet’ plugins throughout your post too. These allow your reader to tweet something written by you, and it saves them time in coming up with their own message! 

10. Have you given an actual opinion?

We see a lot of content that kind of summarises facts and figures but doesn’t offer much in the way of an opinion. But readers want answers and if you’re an expert in a particular industry, then people want to know your opinion. Don’t be afraid to put it out there.

Extra Resources/Content that Will Help You Improve Your Content Marketing…

How to Write a Blog Post

What is Sales Content?

What is a Content Fortress?

What is a Learning Centre and Why Do You Need One? 

If Your Content Doesn’t Scare You, It Won’t Work

Want the checklist everything you can do to improve your website and get more leads and sales? Click below to download!

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) 

Search Engine Optimisation isn’t something you ‘do’ to your website one time. It’s a continuous process. Every time you add a new page or blog post, it should be optimised. 

Unfortunately, SEO is presented as this mythical process that only super-techies can master. This isn’t true. Yes, there are advanced SEO strategies, but for the most part, basic SEO is simply good website administration. It’s not exactly sexy stuff, but you don’t have to be an SEO consultant/web designer or techie to do it. 

Just having a basic understanding of SEO and applying that to your website is more than enough to achieve good results from search engines. 

Why Do People Get Their Website Content Marketing So Wrong? 

1. They think SEO is too technical, and don’t invest any time in learning how to do it 
2. They think they need to use super-advanced strategies or get a bit obsessed with SEO 

The first one can easily be tackled by learning the basics of good SEO. We like to think of it like this, good SEO is all about good user experience. Google wants to provide the best service to their customers, so they only show the websites that provide the best user experience. If you focus on user experience, a lot of the time, your SEO will be fine.  

The second one is something we see a lot of. People get obsessed with SEO. They want to understand it all. Know the algorithms inside-out. Now, there’s nothing terribly wrong with that apart from it takes valuable time out of your business and it can impact on other elements too. If you’re focusing on the technicalities of SEO, are you producing content or writing good copy? Or just trying to get backlinks to your website? Ultimately, people get obsessed with Google when they should be obsessed with their customer.

Our advice is to make sure you build your website with an understanding of SEO. And make sure you keep on top of it regularly. But don’t get so obsessed with it that it impacts negatively on other aspects of your website. 

The Quick Wins Checklist For Improving Your Search Engine Optimisation 

1. Have you included a keyword in your URL for each page?

Your URLs for each page of your website should be clear and give the end-user (and crawler) a good idea what the page is about. It’s a good idea to use your keywords here if you can. And you don’t have to worry about making it a sentence. The shorter, the better. E.g. www.example.com/copy-course-beginner

2. Have you done any keyword research?

Finding out what people are searching for is pretty useful when it comes to your content marketing strategy. But more importantly, it’s good to find how people phrase their questions or topics when they use Google. You’d be surprised, as it’s not always what you think. When you have this, you can use your research to help you with your content.

3. Have you included keyword(s) in your H1, H2, H3 etc tags for each page of your website?

In order to make headings on their website, A LOT of people choose to edit the colour/size/boldness of the text. What you should be doing is using your Header tags to break up sections on the page. With H1 being generally what the page is about, all the way down to H3/4/5. This method allows search engines to understand what information is on the page.

4. Is your title tag under 55-60 characters?

A title tag is displayed in search results and when sharing on social, and it’s important for usability and SEO that you create these correctly. It’s best keep your title tag under 60 characters. And use your keywords too!

5. Have you included your ‘long tail’ keywords in your content marketing?

We tend to have a habit of going after one big keyword like ‘small business copywriter’. But we can miss out on a lot of traffic if we don’t consider other ‘long-tail’ keywords. Now, these might not be searched for as much, but they’re more targeted. For example rather than ‘copywriter’ focus on ‘copywriter for creative entrepreneurs’

6. Do you use your keywords naturally throughout your website copy?

Don’t stuff your copy with keywords, instead use them naturally throughout your website copy. But do have an awareness of them before you write your website pages. You’ll notice little opportunities to use them.

7. Is your website mobile friendly?

It’s great when your website works well on desktop but does it work on a mobile device too? You don’t want your end-user pinching their screen to see all of your info. Or images overlapping text! Plus, you will be punished in mobile search results

8. Do you separate words in your URLs with hyphens?

Make sure you separate your URLs with hyphens between words, such as copywriter.com/website-copy This is because Google views a hyphen as a word separator. It doesn’t do this with underscores.

9. Are your URLs short?

Keep your URLs as short as possible. Long URLs confuse search engines. For example, use: businesscoach.com/consulting rather than businesscoach.com/coaching-and-consulting/my-consulting-services

Extra Resources/Content that Will Help You Improve Your SEO…

The Beginners’ Guide to SEO 

The Biggest SEO Mistakes You’re Making and How to Fix Them

Hiring an SEO Agency vs Doing it Yourself

How to rank your service page higher in Google search results

5 Ways to Check Your Keyword Rankings

SEO Checklist for Blog Posts 

Appearance 

Although, yes, I have argued that appearance isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, it’s still important.

People are much more likely to trust an ‘attractive’ looking website than one that looks like the 90s threw up on the page. But it goes deeper than that. Your website is a representation of who you are, and it should reflect your brand. This is what makes you memorable. People often say to us ‘oh you’re the guys with the pink and green website?’ or ‘you’re the guys with those pop-art images, right?’. 

Yup. 

The design of your website doesn’t necessarily have to be brash or loud, a simple black and white, modern website can stand out just as much as one full of colour. 

It just has to reflect who you are and what you stand for. 

There are a couple of things people get wrong when it comes to their website’s appearance…

1. They don’t know what looks good and what looks terrible 
2. They’re the same as everyone else 

Before anyone designs their own website, we recommend they understand the basics of what makes good design. Even if you’re not a designer, things like consistency of fonts or plenty of white space on the page can make your website look so much better. More importantly, it’s a lot easier for your end-user to navigate your website, if you follow some basic design principles. 

The second problem is quite common. We often see websites in similar industries that look exactly the same. A lot of female entrepreneurs, for example, use pastel and gold colours and script fonts. This usually happens because people use website themes, and many themes look the same. 

The Quick Wins Checklist For Improving Your Website’s Appearance

1. Is your text a minimum of 16 pixels?

No one wants to read tiny text, so what is it with some companies doing it? Do your end-user a favour and be kind to their eyes!  

2. Do you have a maximum of two fonts?

The general rule of thumb is, use one font for 95% of all your text and one font sparingly for your main headings. Any more than that is going to look too messy for your end-user.

3. Is there plenty of white space on each page?

White space is your friend. People don’t want to be greeted with war and peace when they land on your website. Break things up with paragraphs, bullet points, headings and images.

4. Is your text clear to read?

Do you know that pretty squiggly font you love so much? Yeah, don’t use that. It’ll be difficult to read! Google actually penalises you too if it can’t read some of your text. Pick clearer, easy-to-read fonts instead.

5. Do you only centralise text for a maximum of two lines?

Centralised text is difficult to read because the starting point of each line is different. That’s why we say use it for a maximum of two lines, any more than that, left align it.

6. Do you use visual hierarchy?

Headings/important sentences/calls-to-action should be larger, bolder, more colourful and have more whitespace surrounding them. Avoid too much bolded and/or underlined text on your website, as this takes away from the important elements.

7. Is your branding consistent?

You want all your web pages to have coherent branding with consistent colours, fonts, imagery, positioning of your menu and logo etc. For example, you don’t want cartoony images mixed with real-life photographs, or different colours on different pages. This is jarring for the end-user and they have to work harder to understand your message.

8. Do you have an image carousel on your homepage?

We usually advise against having an image carousel (it can be quite jarring for your end-user) but if you have to have it leave at least three seconds between each slide.

9. Stick to a maximum of two/three colours

Ideally, you want to use two colours throughout your website with a bold call to action or button colour to get people’s attention.

Want the checklist everything you can do to improve your website and get more leads and sales? Click below to download!

Extra Resources/Content that Will Help You Improve Your Appearance…

15 tips to Make Your WordPress Blog Posts Less Boring 

Lead Generation 

It’s unfortunate, but people don’t generally buy as soon as they land on your website. They have a million things to do, and buying your product or service might not be a priority for them straight away. 

It’s therefore wise to capture someone’s email address before they leave your website. That way, you can keep in touch with them, build trust and just generally remind them that you exist until they’re ready to buy. 

There are two major issues we see on websites to do with lead capture. 

1. People don’t make any attempt to capture someone’s email 
2. People make too much of an attempt to capture someone’s email

It’s certainly tricky finding the balance between the two. If we’re honest, our biggest mistake has been number one. We’ve always put content out freely, and we’ve felt a little icky about asking for an email address. But, this isn’t just about the sale, it’s about delivering your end-user a good service. Most of our email subscribers like to keep up with our blog posts and they like to know about special offers. 

Don’t feel guilty about asking for an email address, as long as you’re helpful when you email that’s only going to be of benefit for your subscriber. And if they don’t like it, they (should!) have the power to unsubscribe at the click of a button. 

The alternative is business owners who harras their website user’s for their email address. Pop-up, after pop-up, a call to action after every paragraph, content that appears public but is in fact only accessible through giving up your email address. 

Don’t do this. It’s just irritating to your end-user. No one built a good relationship with anyone by continuously harassing them (except that weird bloke off 50 Shades of Grey but we’ll just ignore that). 

The Quick Wins Checklist For Improving Your Lead Generation 

1. Do you offer a newsletter? If yes, think about how you advertise it!

If you simply advertise it as a ‘newsletter’ then it won’t encourage your end-user to sign up. Tell your end-user what’s in it, what the benefits of it are and how often they’ll receive one.

2. Do you offer a content upgrade or some form of a lead magnet on every blog post?

On that subject, would you like to download this as a handy little checklist that also goes into more detail? 😉
Ideally, every piece of content on your site should have a ‘content upgrade’ that people can download. If not, at least feature a suitable lead magnet for your readers.

3. Have you updated old content (such as blog posts) with your latest lead magnet? 

Got something specific going on like a webinar? Don’t forget to update your older content with a link to your latest lead magnet. You’d be surprised how much this works for very little effort!

4. Do you promote your lead magnet on your homepage?

Don’t forget to feature a lead magnet on your homepage too. Make sure you do this in the first third of your homepage so people don’t miss it. It’s You can do this subtly, but it’s a good way of attracting email addresses.

5. Have you added contact forms to all of your service pages/case study pages/portfolio pages etc?

Capture people when they are in the mindset of wanting to work with you. Add contact forms to each of your key pages such as your service pages or case study pages – you’ll be surprised how many people come from those pages and not your contact page.

6. Do you ask for the least amount of information possible?

When asking someone to fill in your contact form, book a call, download a lead magnet, do you ask for the least amount of information possible? Long forms put off your users. Requesting phone numbers also turn people off (they think you’ll phone and sell!)

7. Is your lead magnet easy to follow and implement?

A free lead magnet should be relatively straight forward and offer quick wins (like the one we offer here ;)) What you want is for your end-user to get a quick, easy win from your lead magnet, that way, they’ll trust you know what you’re talking about.

8. Do you use landing pages for your lead magnets that sell the benefits of it?

You actually have to sell the benefits of the lead magnet! Yes, it’s free but you’re asking people to invest their time in something. You need to tell them what problem the lead magnet will solve. Do this by using a separate landing page that shows the benefits.

9. Have you created a thank you page when someone signs up?

When someone signs up for your lead magnet, redirect them to a thank you page which tells them when they’re likely to receive it and what to look out for in their inbox. Also, get them to take another action here, such as follow you on social media, or mark you as not spam!

Phew. There you have it, our ultimate guide to the ‘perfect’ website. And we say ‘perfect’ because, in reality, we cannot get all six things 100% right all of the time. 

Extra Resources/Content that Will Help You Improve Your Lead Generation…

The Ultimate Guide to a Lead-Generating Website

How to Capture Leads On Your Website Without Being Annoying

How to take payments online for services. PayPal vs Stripe vs SamCart vs GoCardless

But having an awareness of these things, and implementing as much as possible when we can, can make a huge difference to the leads we get from our websites. 

If you’re wanting to get more leads and sales from your website, then check out our membership. Our membership helps small business owners build AND grow their websites, so they generate leads from your ideal clients. 

Martin & Lyndsay

The post The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

And we find this really sad because we have friends who are great web designers and who are constantly looking at ways to improve their clients’ websites. Yet, so many business owners have horrible experiences with web design. Does it mean the industry is full of ‘bad agencies’?

Probably not.

It’s more to do with the fact that business owners struggle to find the right web design agency for their needs. 

And sadly, that’s why this industry has such a bad reputation. It’s easy to hire an agency because of their ‘wow factor’. We make buying decisions based on their glossy website and fancy offices.

But what if the big agency with the comfy chairs and the shiny coffee machine isn’t the right fit for your business?

Why we aren’t right for some people

Not all web designers are clear about who their ideal clients are, and that doesn’t help consumers who are looking to make an informed choice and pick an agency that works for them!

That’s why we’re so passionate about using our copy and our content to spell out who we’re right for and who we’re not right for. Take this blog post – 10 Reasons We’re Not the Right Fit For You, as an example.

We’re probably a ‘bad agency’ for some people. If someone isn’t prepared to work on their website once it’s live and expects us to write copy and blog posts, change images for them, etc. then we’re not for them.

Because that’s not what we do.

And that makes us a bad choice for that particular client.

As an agency, we are right for people who are quite proactive, want to learn, don’t mind getting their hands dirty and are happy for us to provide them with remote support through training videos and emails. We’re the perfect agency for some people, and a terrible agency for others.

Why big web design agencies aren’t right for some people

Equally, a big agency with an amazing portfolio who will charge tens of thousands of pounds might not be right for someone with a small local business.

To give you an example, we once spoke to a florist who had her website designed by a big agency who worked with the likes of the BBC and Cadbury. They were industry leaders. And of course, this lady’s website turned out to be amazing (and very expensive!).

But in hindsight, she told us she’d have rather hired a freelance web designer because all she needed was a great-looking website that ranked her locally for her keywords. And the agency she hired didn’t help with that – they were almost too big for her business and her needs.

If you’re a small business (with a smaller budget), you’re better off hiring a web designer who cares about your business and will take the time to ask you exactly what you want to achieve with your website.

So, if you’re in the market for a new website or a website re-design, how do you know which web design agency is right for you?

How to Find the Right Agency For You

1. Be clear on what you need from your website

First of all, what kind of support do you expect from a web design agency? Do you want to work with a big fancy agency or a local freelancer?

Both are fine. There’s no right or wrong here – as long as you understand the differences between the various options and the pros and cons of each.

So start by identifying what’s important to you, for example,

• Do you want to rank highly in search results? Then you need an agency with SEO knowledge.
• Are you a luxury brand, and do you need your website to be all about the design? Then find an agency that fits the bill for that, with previous experience of dealing with luxury designers
• Are you a total technophobe and would find it helpful to have lots of face-to-face time with a web designer? A local freelancer might be best for you.

If you want some help in identifying your needs when it comes to creating or re-designing your website, download our FREE Website Buyer’s Guide. It’s an impartial guide that we created to help you find a web designer that’s right for you.

And if you want to hear about the time when we made a bad buying decision by hiring a designer who wasn’t right for us, listen to our podcast episode: Why our first website failed miserably!

But what other signs should you watch out for before you go ahead and hire a web design agency?

2. Stay clear of web agencies with a bad website

This sounds quite obvious, but an agency with a bad website probably won’t be right for you!

So don’t hire them! Even if you’re friends or if someone you know recommended them to you because they are friends! (Or even family!). If their website isn’t great, chances are they won’t know how to design a great one for you.

3. Make sure you are given access to the backend of your website

You need to have access to the backend of your website.

So before you hire anyone, make sure that the agency gives you full access to the backend (or Content Management System) of your website.

Even if you’re not yet sure how to navigate your way around it, you can always learn. And having access will definitely work better (and be cheaper) for you in the long run. You just don’t want to be in a situation where your web designer quotes you a ridiculous amount of money whenever you have to make a tiny change to your website!

If that happens, you’ll be angry. And you’d have a right to be!

4. Watch out for the web designers who use a lot of jargon

So you’ve been researching web design agencies, and their websites are full of talk about HTML, CSS, and PHP.

Great.

You conclude that having a website is technical and confusing, so you’re better off just handing it all over to these guys who sound like they know what they’re talking about.

Stay. Away. From. them.

They might (or might not) know how to build websites. But their copy is telling something else – they have no respect for you. Because they choose to ‘explain’ things in a way that makes no sense to you!

And you know what?

There’s no need to use jargony language at all – we don’t do it! Just have a look at our website, we’re not writing to impress our peers or confuse you, we try to explain things in a way that’s easy to understand.

We have no interest in wasting precious space on our website using words that mean nothing to our prospective clients. For us, it’s a missed opportunity to connect with our visitors and tell them exactly who we’re right for and who we’re not right for.

5. Beware of those who don’t want to show their face

Have you ever noticed how a lot of businesses seem to hide behind their website and never show their face? We call them hermits. And we feel so passionate about this that we even wrote a blog post a while ago called Show us your face.

We always recommend to website owners that you use professional images of yourself on your website as it helps you to build trust and authority with your audience. You can read more about this in our blog post What is the B.R.A.N.D. website framework.

Think about it. As a consumer, don’t you find it difficult to make a buying decision when you can’t see the person you’re going to be working with?

We find this very off-putting. Why hide? What’s so bad about being able to put a face to a name?

Of course, not having photos of themselves on their website doesn’t mean a web designer isn’t good. Maybe, just like a lot of business owners out there, they’re a bit shy about putting photos of themselves on their website. That’s all.

Just beware of this and do some more research to make sure you’re clear on who you’re hiring for the job.

6. Big or small doesn’t matter, as long as they meet your needs

Equally, we’ve seen plenty of examples of people who started their business from their kitchen table (nothing wrong with that!) who then went on to plaster their websites with stock images of shiny offices and big teams – essentially making themselves look much bigger than what they are.

There’s no need for that. And most people are genuine and honest about who they are and who they’re not, but not everyone is, so just be careful.

If you need a huge company or even just a team, don’t get caught out by one guy in his basement trying to be all things!

7. Stay away from obscure Content Management Systems

What will your web designer build your website on?

You may have heard of WordPress, Magento, Shopify, or Joomla, for example. These are common Content Management Systems.

So if the web designers you’re thinking of hiring use a specialist and obscure Content Management System you haven’t heard of before, do some more research! You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re fully reliant on your agency to support you.

The reason why we only use WordPress is that it’s the most popular and well-trusted Content Mangement System. If you need help with something and for some reason, we’re not immediately available, you can still find answers and resources on the internet. But if your website is built on a rare platform, you may struggle with that!

8. Avoid a web designer with a questionable portfolio

One of the first things we suggest you do when researching web designers is to look at their portfolio to get a sense for:

• what level they’re working at,
• what kind of websites they’re designing,
• and what kind of industries they specialise in.

A word of warning on this though.

If the web designers you’re considering tick a lot of boxes, but you’re not convinced about their portfolio, get in touch and ask them for more examples of their work.

We know from personal experience that keeping your portfolio up to date is time-consuming – we have a lot of websites we’ve built over the last few months that don’t feature on our site because we haven’t had time to add them. So do reach out to a prospective web designer if you want to see more of their work – they’ll be happy to oblige.

9. Watch out for web designers who don’t offer a discovery phase

If an agency or a freelancer doesn’t factor in how they’re going to find out more about:

• your business,
• your target audience,
• what you want to achieve from your website,
• and what kind of goals you have for your business,

stay well clear!

We have what we call a ‘discovery phase’ where we delve into all our new clients’ businesses. We get to know a lot about them during this process, and it’s the only way we get to design a great website for somebody.

So if a web designer doesn’t offer this service, consider this a warning sign that they aren’t invested in your business.

The price you pay will have a lot to do with this too. The agency you hire for £500 might not even know what a discovery phase is. And in a way, that’s understandable – the price tag doesn’t cover for that! But the agency that charges £5,000+ should get to know you as a vital element to the web design process.

10. Be wary of the agency that doesn’t put their prices on their website

We are huge believers in putting prices on your website.

Yes, projects and requirements vary and so do prices. That’s why we use a minimum package price on our websitethat our potential clients can use as an indicator. We even publicly write about the process we use to come up with our prices! Head over to our blog post Why We’re Increasing Our Web Design Prices to find out more.

But a lot of web designers won’t display prices on their website.

And while that’s not in itself an indicator of a bad web designer, you’ll want to get a quote quite early on in your research. The worst thing any business can do is to make you jump through hoops to find out their prices. What happens when you find out that the price is way over your budget? What a waste of your time (and theirs)!

So stay away from anyone who’s putting pressure on you to have several discovery calls before they give you a quote! They’re probably trying to make you feel so invested in the process that you won’t be able to say no to them. It’s an old-school sales technique that no longer works. And frankly, it shows that the other person doesn’t respect your time.

So how exactly do you find someone who’s right for you?

We’ve given you a lot of pointers to avoid picking the wrong web design agency for your needs. But how do you find one that is good for you?

Ultimately, and above everything else we’ve mentioned, look for someone who:

• cares about helping you move your business forward,
• you can trust and connect with,
• you see yourself having a good working relationship with.

We find this always happens with our clients. We get so close to their business that we end up getting to know them really well. And that’s both a pleasure and an honour.

Would you like us to help you with your website?

We are passionate about helping business owners build and grow successful websites. We also understand that people might have questions and concerns as they get into this process for the first time. Or maybe because they’ve had an awful experience in the past!

• That’s why we don’t use code or jargon.
• That’s why we are open and honest about the type of web agency we are.
• We are transparent about the type of clients that are right for us and those who aren’t.
• And that’s why we publish our prices on our website.

We want people to be able to make informed decisions.

So if you’re looking for a web design agency who cares about your needs and your business, and you think we may be right for you, get in touch!

Martin & Lyndsay

The post How to Avoid Hiring a Bad Web Design Agency appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Personal Brand sites should include a number of key elements in order to make them a success. In this episode, we whizz through the eight top things you should include on your personal brand website.

In this episode, we’ll be covering…

• What is a big bold statement and how do you come up with one?
• What kind of images should you include on your website as a personal brand?
• Does including images of yourself on your website make you egotistical?
• How to show you’re an authority through your website
• What is a brand story and why your audience might be bored of the ‘rags to riches’ story
• Why showing your vulnerability helps you connect with your audience
• Why you need to have an opinion, even if you get some haters!
• Why you should avoid the phrase ‘sign up to my newsletter’

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

1.11 – What is a Big Bold Statement?
3.06 – Being clear about your services
4.00 – What images should you include?
6.17 – Is content marketing important for personal brands?
9.12 – What is social proof and how should you use it on your website?
10.43 – What is a brand story?
13.00 – Why you have to have an opinion
15.02 – How to grow your email list on your personal brand website

Useful Resources and Links

Marcus Sheridan: You Ask, They Answer 

The Sales Lion

Content Marketing Academy (Chris Marr is a genius. That is all.)

What To Do Next

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Episode Transcript Below

Martin: Hey guys, welcome to episode two of the Make Your Mark Online podcast. In today’s episode we’re going to be giving you eight essential elements of a personal brand website. So, this is a really interesting topic obviously because we’ve all got website or we all need websites, but far too often people actually get them wrong a lot of the times.

Lyndsay: They do, Yes, Yes.

Martin: I suppose that’s why, that’s what gave us the, especially with the website critiques that we do in our free Facebook group, we see a lot of personal brands in there and certain elements that their missing to their websites. That’s why we suggest you to do this episode.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely, and I think, people actually don’t think there’s any difference between a personal brand website and a normal service based website, but there’s actually quite a few differences between them. There’s definitely certain aspects of a personal brand website that should be there, that a lot of personal brands do miss.
Martin: Exactly, and that’s what we’re going to be going over today. So, let’s get started shall we? The first thing that a personal brand website needs is a big, bold statement. Talk to us a little bit, what’s a big, bold statement Lyndsay?

What is a Big, Bold Statement?

Lyndsay: Well, essentially a big, bold statement is a kind of a summary of what you do, what you offer, and how you can help people. It sounds really obvious when I say it, but we know from the website critiques that we’ve done and the web design that we’ve done over the past I don’t know how many years, that people often miss this. It’s something that should be quite prominent as soon as you land on a website.

Lyndsay: We always recommend that this big, bold statement should go on the first third of your homepage. So, we say above the fold. As soon as you land on a homepage you can see exactly what it is that someone does. A good example of this is actually from Pat Flynn. So he says, “Let me help you build a passive income driven online business.”

Lyndsay: That’s really clear what he’s offering.

Martin: Really obvious, isn’t it.

Lyndsay: Yes, exactly. I think it’s very, very important that all personal brands do this, because you need to tell your audience that they’re in the right place.

Martin: Yes. Isn’t it obvious though sometimes?

Lyndsay: No.

Martin: Okay.

Lyndsay: Definitely not, definitely not obvious. If you’ve got like for example Lyndsaycambridge.com, and someone lands on my website, how is that obvious?

Martin: Yes.

Lyndsay: You know, if you’ve just got your name or whatever. Plus, you can be a bit more specific. If you’re, I don’t know, a business coach, who is it that you coach?

Martin: True, specificity.

Lyndsay: Exactly. Yes, Yes. No one can say that word.

Martin: No one can say, I nailed it though.

Lyndsay: You did, I was impressed.

Martin: Mic drop. I’m not going to drop my mic, it will ruin their ears.
Lyndsay: Exactly, so Yes, think about how you can really hone it in and be very specific to your audience, definitely.

How Should You Display Your Services On Your Website?

Martin: Okay, so big, bold statement, perfect. So, in terms of your actual services then, surely that’s important as well.
I think that’s probably the next big important aspect to it, is what do you actually offer?

Lyndsay: Yes again, and I think people will be going, “Well Yes, duh.” But, we see this all the time, and especially with personal brands. They kind of say, “Okay, well this is all about me and this is all about what I do.” They kind of forget to say, “Okay, this is what I’m selling.” Because, you know, your purpose of your website is to sell your products or services.

Martin: Yes, otherwise what’s the point.

Lyndsay: Exactly, it’s to make you money, so you need to be kind of clear about what services you offer and make that very clear on your website. As soon as someone lands on your homepage you need to be directing them to these particular services. So, if you’re a personal brand that could be say coaching, and then you have that as a service quite prominently on there. Another one could be speaking. You know, those are two very different audiences and you need to make sure you’re very clear with your services and where you want those audiences to go.

What Images Should Personal Brands Use on Their Website?

Martin: Yes, definitely. Okay, so let’s move onto number three, images. Are images of yourself more important and why is that so important?

Lyndsay: Yes I think, well it’s incredibly important for personal brands, and I know that a lot of people do find this quite scary. They don’t like to put images of themselves on their website. It’s really important that you do because if you’re a personal brand, people aren’t just buying your product or service, they’re actually investing in you. They’re wanting to trust you, and they need you to be able to actually see you to trust you.

Martin: Okay, so is it not a little bit egotistical though to put ourselves on our website and make it all big and bold around us?

Lyndsay: I think that’s the biggest roadblock we hit with people isn’t it, they do feel a little bit shy and they feel like they’re being egotistical when they put their images on their website. But, it’s kind of expected. People are used to it and I don’t think anyone would judge you for having a picture of yourself on your website. They need to be able to actually see you in order to trust you, so I don’t think there’s a problem with it at all. I think that’s more peoples own shyness or reluctance to put their own pictures on their website, rather than …

Martin: I think you’re right, because I mean when we’re meeting people in face-to-face meetings, like business networking, it’s so much easier to build up a connection with them because we’ve seen them face-to-face.

Lyndsay: Exactly, Yes.

Martin: I suppose online we don’t always meet people face-to-face, and it’s nice to actually see what they look like so that I know that if we ever did speak I know who they are. I know that weird personality quirks and, do you know what I mean? It’s just one of those things, isn’t it.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely, definitely. I’m not saying have every part of your website with a picture of your face on it, but it certainly is important for personal brands. Again, I would say that the first thing that someone when they land on your homepage should see is an image of you. There’s different kinds of images that you can do. Obviously the normal head shot photo, or you can have an action shot. So, if you work normally in a café with your laptop, then have that action shot picture and have it on your website. But, there’s lot of different things that you can do.

Martin: Yes, it’s a nice easy way to build up some trust, isn’t it?

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely.

Why Content Marketing is Important for Personal Brands?

Martin: I think that leads us on nicely to the next point, which is content. So, how can you build up a little bit more trust to wave your content efforts on your website, what’s that about?

Lyndsay: Yes, I think again for personal brands, content is to important. Because again, people are buying from you, they want to trust you, you need to be an authority. The best way to do that is producing content that proves to people that you know what you’re talking about. You know, having content on your website is important. Don’t hide your content away on a block page, which can only be accessed in the footer or whatever of your website. Actually make your website very interactive with your content.

Lyndsay: So, every personal brand website that we build, we ensure that they’re content whatever that might be, it might be blog posts, it might be your podcast episodes, are actually pulled through to the homepage so people can click directly on your most recent content and go through to that. It’s very important I think that personal brand websites are quite content focused.

Martin: Yes, good point.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely.

Martin: But, I think as well it’s not just about having a lot of people think, when they think content or blog they think oh news, like just news, I’ve got to keep my latest news updated, that’s another job. But, we’re not actually talking about that, are we?

Lyndsay: No, no. We don’t kind of recommend we do the latest news blog post, or add-

Martin: Yes, we’ve been nominated for an award.

Lyndsay: Yay, no one cares.

Martin: No.

Lyndsay: No, I think the main thing with content marketing, and we could spend about a million hours talking about content marketing and what to do, but you know it’s about educating your readers. It’s also about answering questions that they might have about your products and services. Try and think about, okay, well what would by audience kind of object to? What would make them think I actually, I’m not sure about investing in this guy, and actually answer those questions.

Lyndsay: In our our Jammy Digital website we have, “Why are you so expensive?” Another one is, “Why are you so cheap?” “How long will it take to build a website?” You know, those kind of questions that people genuinely have.

Martin: But, nobody else answers.

Lyndsay: Exactly.

Martin: That’s what’s great. We do, we can’t take the credit for this, this wasn’t our idea. We actually got this information from a book They Ask, You Answer, which is by Marcus Sheridan.

Lyndsay: The guru himself.

Martin: Yes. We wouldn’t know about Marcus without Chris Mar, so big shout out to him, because he helped us really hone our craft when it comes to content. Definitely if you want to see how they do it, then check out those resources there. We will leave links in the notes, in the show notes section as well.

Lyndsay: Yes, absolutely. Because it’s absolutely changed our business and we help our clients now with it don’t we as well.

How to Use Social Proof on Your Website

Martin: Definitely. Yes. Great stuff, so Yes, content obviously helps with building trust and educating. Another great way to build trust is with social proof, which is our next point. This is number five, social proof. What is social proof?

Lyndsay: Yes, it’s a bit of a strange phrase actually, social proof.

Martin: Yes, confusing.

Lyndsay: It’s essentially about proving to your audience that you know your stuff and you can be trustworthy. The best way of proving that to your audience is not by saying it yourself but getting other people to say it about you. Lots of examples with social proof would be testimonials, you’ve got reviews, case studies. Even things like, “Join 5000 of your peers on our mailing list.” That’s kind of social proof. It’s saying 5000 other people just like you have joined us, so you should, too.

Martin: Exactly.

Lyndsay: There’s lots of ways of incorporating this into your website, but I think it’s very important, again, to have this on your homepage.

Martin: Yes, it kind of shows, it builds the trust, but it also says, “Other people have been in your situation too, and this is how they’ve benefited.”

Lyndsay: Yes, exactly, exactly. I think that we’ve seen a lot of websites actually forget this. I think we’ve done some critiques recently where personal brands have been featured on the BBC and The Guardian, and we’ve only found that out when we’ve gone done like a deep dive into their website. We’re like, “Why isn’t this on your homepage?” Now, I’m not saying that you have to have the whole article on your homepage, but just a logo of you know these kind of corporations that you’ve worked with.
Martin: Can have a big impact.

Think About Your Brand Story

Lyndsay: Exactly, exactly. So, have a think about how you can incorporate that into your website, but make it prominent.

Martin: Yes, Yes, great idea. Okay, so number six, have a brand story. What’s a brand story? Sounds like one of those like kind of fluffy marketing things that we talk here about.

Lyndsay: Yes, I mean I can understand why someone would think that, definitely. Again, I think this is one of those things where we could spend 10 hours talking about it. But, essentially, people want to know why is you do what you do. What is it that drives you. What is it that made you get started with whatever it is that you’re doing, and how has your product or service helped you?

Lyndsay: I’m talking about, so we do see a lot of these brand stories that start with, “I started on my mums couch and then I worked my way up and now I’m a millionaire.”

Martin: Yes, exactly, “I had four dollars in my bank account and I was broke and out on the street.” Yes, don’t do that. It’s been done to death.

Lyndsay: No, don’t do that, it has been done to death. It’s very much like ’90s marketing.

Martin: Exactly, and nobody believes it anyway, so.

Lyndsay: No, no. I think the thing is with a brand story you have to make it believable, and you have to make it realistic, Yes. I think stating that you had four dollars in your bank account and now you’re a millionaire, people are just board with it. Just be honest.

Martin: Exactly, we’re all, we’ve been on our own journey’s, haven’t we. We’ve all got two different places based on the decisions that we made in the past. You’re saying it’s about actually displaying that kind of story on our website.

Lyndsay: Exactly. I mean, with us, we started out because we actually started a business, we got a website. The website as totally rubbish, we invested loads of money, and it was crap. That’s actually how we started, and then we started looking into webdesign and SEO, didn’t we?

Martin: Yes, exactly.

Lyndsay: There’s no magic at the end, we’re not millionaires now, but we work from home with our cats and we love it. You know, it just has to be kind of realistic and normal, and you don’t have to go kind of overboard with it. But, people do like to know these things.

Martin: They do.

Lyndsay: They do find it interesting.

Martin: It’s about being vulnerable as well to a certain extent, because that does literally just allow people to say, “Oh, they’re not just trying to sell me something, they’re actually being honest about it.” It cuts out a lot of that friction that you might have if you’re trying to sell your products and services.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely.

Martin: Okay, so we’re talking about putting that maybe on the about page?
Lyndsay: Yes, I mean we always say don’t talk about yourself too much on the about page, but certainly reserve a section for your story, definitely.

Why Personal Brands Should have an Opinion

Martin: Yes, no good idea, okay. That leads us on nicely to the next point, which is to have an opinion. Have something that you can stand behind.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely. I think this kind of scares people, because we don’t want to offend anyone do we when we’re in business. When we don’t want to offend people, sometimes we end up sitting on the fence and we end up being a little bit boring. We’ve all done it. You know, there’s times where I’ve thought, “Oh, I don’t really want to say what I think, because you know, it might polarize things.” But, as a personal brand, you need to have an opinion. It sets you out from your competitors and it also helps strengthen your following.

Lyndsay: Now, if you put other the people off, that’s fine, because hopefully they’re not your target market so why would it bother you anyway? So, with us, I mean we’ve had some instances because we don’t, we say we refuse to wear a suit and we refuse to meet the clients face-to-face. Now, that’s actually annoyed quite a few people because they’ve said, “Well, that’s not how I work.” We’ve gone, “Well.”

Martin: We want you to come to us.

Lyndsay: Yes, exactly. But, they’re not our target audience, so it doesn’t matter to us that they’re offended by that, because they’re not people that we would work with. And them, you know, on their point of view, we wouldn’t be a good fit for them anyway.

Martin: No, they want an agency that will just be yes men and turn up in suits and wine and dine them. That’s not what we-

Lyndsay: We’re not good at wining and dining.

Martin: No.

Lyndsay: Not unless you just want pizza.

Martin: Yes, or a kebab.

Lyndsay: Yes.

Martin: Well, it’s true. It’s a great way for you to say, to connect with people you actually want to connect with, and repel the people you don’t want to work with. It’s quite a simple way for you to do it. You can do that just by saying, “I don’t wear suits, and if you do that’s fine, but I hate wearing suits.” You know what I mean, it’s just one of those things.
Lyndsay: Yes, exactly. Exactly, Yes, Yes. It’s a good way of, as Martin said, strengthening your followers and repelling those that you don’t really care about anyway.
Martin: No, exactly. So, once we’ve got the people to our website. We’ve got all this amazing traffic and we’ve got a brand story and we’ve got an opinion, what do we need to do then?

Building an Email List Through Your Website

Lyndsay: Well, we always say to personal brands it’s so important, it’s actually important to every business but particularly personal brands that they build an email list. Now, a lot of people come back to us and say, “Well, I’ve got a Facebook group, or you know, I’ve got a really great Twitter following, I’m really great on Linkedin. Why do I need an email list, I’m fine.” The reason being is an email list is in your control. You decide how you communicate with your subscribers, as long as they’re within GDPR rules.

Martin: Oh, god, she said it. Two episodes in and she’s mentioned GDPR. Boo.

Lyndsay: As long as it’s in those rules, but with social media you’re at the whim of Mark Zuckerberg or whoever, and they may change their rules. You might find that you’re not hitting as many of your followers as you were the day before. With your email list it’s completely yours, and it’s your way of communicating with your followers whenever you want, with whatever offer you want, too. You don’t have to boost your post or anything like that to your email subscribers. So, it’s very, very important that you put an effort into building that list.

Martin: Because, it is important in general for all businesses to have a pipeline. A list of potential customers, or people you’ve worked with in the past, and having an email list and actually focusing on building an email list is a great way for you to have some level of control. I mean, we go on websites all the time and you never go on them again. You click on for whatever reason and then you click back and you never really go back to it again. But, if you’re giving something away for instance, or you’ve got like a special offer and you want to get people on your email list, then again, that’s a great thing to do to keep people to come back to your website.

Lyndsay: Yup, exactly, exactly. There’s a good point that you’ve actually touched on there, is that you should give away something for, in exchange for an email. We have a hatred of the words … Martin knows I’m going to say this, that’s why he’s laughing. We have a hatred of the words, “Subscribe to my newsletter.” This is me having an opinion right now, like I said in number seven.

Martin: I can’t wait, I mean subscribe, I’ve never heard that before, let’s join this newsletter and subscribe to see all the gloriousness.

Lyndsay: It’s just Yes, it’s just not appealing enough to get people onto your email list.

Martin: No, but we’ve all done it.

Lyndsay: Yes, we have.

Martin: We even started, well we’re seeing this on this website, maybe we should have it, too. So, it’s understandable and we’re not poking fun but it is something you definitely want to fix.

Lyndsay: Yes, definitely, definitely. It’s much better to give something away in exchange. It might be a video, it might be an email series where you walk through a course with your email subscribers.

Martin: Yes, or a website buyers guide, like what we’ve got on our website.

Lyndsay: Exactly, yes, a website good plug.

Martin: A bit of a push there.

Lyndsay: A website buyers guide, exactly, Yes. So, you need to do that on your website, and don’t forget to actually do that through your content marketing as well. We drop a normally a call to action in the middle of a blog post just to say, “We’ve got this website buyers guide, it might be interesting to you, but pop your email in here.” That’s in the middle of a blog post, so don’t forget to do it not just on your homepage and other pages but also through your content as well.

Martin: Yes, makes a lot of sense. Okay, sounds like a great list. I mean, now we have eight essential elements of a personal brand website, and it doesn’t actually matter whether or not you’re building the website yourself or you’re paying a webdesign agency. Just by making sure that you include these essential elements, you’re going to be onto a real winner, really. Just by including these elements and making sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, like what we discussed, and you’re doing it the right way like what we’ve been through in the episodes. So Yes, you should be able to generate more customers and more traffic to your website.

Summary

Martin: I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you’d like more advice on anything to do with webdesign or even SEO or content marketing, then please join our free Facebook group at jammydigital.com/facebook. As we mentioned in the previous episode, we are at the minute doing free website critiques. Every Wednesday we will spend an hour on a video call and we’ll review your websites live.

Martin: Usually we review six within that hour, and then if we decide to go on longer, which-

Lyndsay: We generally do.

Martin: … has been known to happen.

Martin: Yup, we love the sound of our own voice. So, by all means drop your name in the Facebook feed and we will happily review that for you, no problems at all. Another thing we really, really would love you to do, is please subscribe to this podcast episode and leave us a review based on what you think about the episode as well. It really helps us reach out ideal customers, and we’d be very, very grateful for it. So, that’s it, we’ll see you next time on Make Your Mark Online.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post Ep 2 – What Should You Include on a Personal Brand Website? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

You’re ready to get the ball rolling and kick off the new project.

Just one more question…

How long will it take?

It’s one of the most common questions we get asked.

In this blog post, I’ll be breaking it down so you get a clear understanding of when your new website can go live.

So, how long does it take us to build your new website?

The short answer is websites that we build take, on average, 8-12 weeks.

The long answer is, it depends…

In all honesty, there are two parts to this question

How long will it take us?
How long will it take you?

That’s right, in some cases, the length of time it takes US is not the right question to ask.

More often than not, websites tend to take longer due to things outside our control.

Additional website features

For us to give you an approximate amount of time, we’ll need to understand exactly what you need from the new website. What extra features might you need that aren’t included in the core package?

Understandably, the more features you want us to build into your website the more time it will take.

What extra features add time to the website?

These are just a few examples of the kind of features that will add time to your website.

• A shop – we design your shop from scratch which needs your approval, plus we transfer all your products, including descriptions, images, stock levels etc.
• Specific page designs – such as a bespoke design for your about page or speaker page
• Portfolio – we’ll need to design this from scratch
• Website content – we can write your content for you if you wish
• Landing pages – we can either integrate Thrive Themes or design your pages from scratch. The costs vary but either way, this takes time
• Features like a booking calendar, email marketing integration, video library etc.

We understand that you want your website to be perfect and some, or all, of these features might be needed. Be aware that the more features you have, the longer it will take to complete the project.

Based on your requirements, we’ll always make you aware upfront how long we think it will take to get your website live.

Top tip

Be very specific at the start of the process with exactly what you need. Knowing all the information upfront will allow us to build this into the package and give you an accurate timescale. Changing things, later on, will delay the project further.

How many people are involved

This is something we’ve noticed over the years, the number of people involved in the project WILL impact the timescale of the project. It’s just a fact.

Dealing with one person will be quicker as there is only one person giving feedback and making decisions. On the other hand, if there are more people working on the project, they’ll generate more ideas and opinions. This is a great thing, as you get a wider range of perspectives and ideas. However, it does take more time.

Top tip

If you are part a team who is working on the project in-house, try to have one key person who will act as the contact and liaise with us throughout the process. Dealing with multiple people from your company might cause information to missed and feedback to be different.

Try to get your team to agree with feedback and suggestions before sending them over to us. In the past, we’ve been sent information from multiple team members with dramatically different suggestions, which has delayed the project.

How long does it take for you to get back to us

You want your website to be perfect (we do too). This is why you might take your time getting feedback to us.

While working on your website, we’ll send you some video updates, screenshots and emails. We’ll ask you questions, and we might need you to give us some feedback so that we can move on to the next phase of the project.

The time it takes for you to give us feedback can dramatically affect the timescale, and in some cases, it can halt the process entirely.

In the past, we’ve waited two months for someone to tell us they were happy with their homepage design.

Top tip

It’s important that you take some time before offering feedback on designs, sleep on it and take another look the next day. It’s surprising how much your opinions might change the next time you look. However, if it’s taking longer than a few days to hear back from you, this will delay the process.

Waiting for stuff from you

During the web design process, we’ll need some things from you to allow us to complete the website.

This could include;

• The copy for your website pages
• Images for the different pages
• Contact information
• Videos that you want to include
• Your logo in the correct file format
• Product information and pricing (for online shops)
• Staff timetables (for booking calendar)
• Event information (for selling tickets)
• Login information (e.g. your website, Mailchimp, Stripe)

In the past, we’ve been waiting 12-18 months to get content from clients. Meanwhile, your website project has completely stalled.

Top tip

Try to be extremely organised and proactive with this task. The quicker you get this done, the fresher it is in your mind, and it will keep the project on track. When it comes to getting the information together, use one main tool for storing all the documentation such as a Google Drive or Dropbox folder.

We do offer website copy as a service. If this is something you’re struggling with, then we can build this into the website package.

We are constantly testing new methods to make this process easier too, and we’ll have more information about this coming soon.

Things change dramatically throughout the process

The benefit of our process is that you get to see all page designs before they’re built. Nothing is done without your prior approval. That way you can have a look, make some notes, give feedback and we’ll make amendments.

Once you’re happy, we can then build the website based on those designs.

There are bound to be changes you’ll want to make, and that’s completely fine, but these are usually small tweaks that don’t impact the overall structure of the site.

If we agree on a design and later down the line things change dramatically, this will, understandably, extend the process, and in most cases, the cost of the website.

Top Tip

Before starting the project, make sure you are fully aware of what you want. This includes…

• The features of your website
• Your key messaging
• The key products and services you want to promote
• Your brand and style
• Your target audience

If you haven’t already, check out our website buyers guide for extra help on this.

The more preparation you do, the better the starting platform for us to build you a high-impact website.

Much like the previous point, it’s always best to take some extra time before giving feedback on the initial designs. It’s important that we have included all the features you need at this stage to avoid adding more time to the project later on.

Website timescale examples

Below, I’ve given some examples of how your project might look depending on your requirements

10-week example – Core package

• One person involved
• 2-3 unique pages designs
• Feedback within 1-2 days
• Three online meetings
• You already have content for the new website

16-week example – Core package + Additional features

• Two people involved, for example, an extra designer
• 3-6 unique pages designs
• Feedback within a week
• 3-5 online meetings
• 3-5 additional features, for example, a video library, booking facility, email marketing integration
• You might need to create new content and send images for the new site

26 week example – Bespoke package + 3+ staff

• 3-5 people involved
• 6+ unique page designs
• Feedback within two weeks
• 6+ online meetings
• 5+ additional features, e.g. video library, booking facility, online shop, email marketing integration, event calendar
• New content pages

Summary

As you can see, the timescale of your web design project depends on many factors, and it can change dramatically during the process.

There’s no clear answer to how long it will take. It could take eight weeks if we have everything we need upfront or it could also take 18 months+ if we’re still waiting for things from you.

At least now you have some handy tips to keep the timeline as short as possible so we can your new website live sooner.

Plus, we’re always super excited about getting your website on our portfolio, so it’s our best interest to keep you on track.

Over to you

Do you have any top tips you want to add? Maybe a productivity hack or a team management tool? We’d love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below.

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post How long will it take to build your website? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

A ‘personal brand’ is someone who markets themselves and what they do as their brand. Their knowledge and expertise IS their product and they’re able to charge money for it. Examples of personal brands include Pat Flynn, Amy Porterfield, Chris Ducker and Janet Murray.

With the rise of social media, it’s now easier than ever for personal brand businesses to connect with their audience, however, it’s also becoming increasingly competitive.

What’s the difference between a personal brand website and a standard website?

Personal brand websites should have their own set of unique features. These features should help you:

• build an audience
• build trust
• inspire action

Ultimately, there’s no difference between what a personal brand website and what a service-based/ecommerce website should achieve. You’re still aiming to solve your customers’ problems. The goals are the same, but it’s how you get there that’s slightly different.

What should a personal brand website include?

Your website should reflect you and be unique, but if you are a personal brand, you might consider including some or all of these on your website.

1. Images of You

This is a no-brainer. I’d argue that EVERYONE must include pictures of themselves on their website, but for personal brands, I’d say it’s essential.

What’s the difference between images of you for your personal brand website and images of staff on a service-based/ecommerce website? Remember, you’re selling ‘you’. People need to buy into you and trust you, so your image needs to be displayed prominently throughout your website.

A service-based/ecommerce website can get away with having images of the team on the about page, but you can’t.

How to Display Images on a Personal Brand Website?

If you’re planning on having a photoshoot for your business, check out our blog post on What We Learned on Our Business Photoshoot, for some hints and tips.

– Images need to be on brand

You need to think about who you are, and who you’re not. Your images should represent you. If you’re relaxed, fun and adventurous, then don’t, whatever you do, dust off your suit for your photographs!

You might think this is obvious, but we often see people get this wrong. I get why. It’s ingrained in us to look our ‘best’ for a photographer (especially a professional one).

If you are suited and booted for your work, then great, but if not, avoid looking too smart and causing confusion about who you are as a brand.

Finally, think about the setting of your photography–what do you want your reader to see? What props/set best get across who you are?

– Images need to be of good quality

Investing in high-quality images for your personal brand is a good idea, and ideally, you’ll use a professional photographer to do this.

For service-based/ecommerce websites, I’d say they could get away with just using a good quality camera, but for personal brands, your image is everything. If you’re deciding where to invest, I’d say professional photography should be up there on your essential list.

Good Examples of Imagery on a Personal Brand Website: Amy Porterfield

We love the use of images on Amy Porterfield’s website. She hasn’t overloaded her site with too many images of herself, but the few that are there are of good quality. They’re relaxed and give you a sense of who she is.

2. You Need to Build an Email List

Every website should encourage your end-user to do something, whether that’s sign up to your email list, give you a call or hit that ‘buy-now’ button.

However, more often than not, personal brands focus on their email list.

Your email list is important because it’s yours. You don’t have to rely on a platform like Facebook or Google. Even if you’ve got thousands of Facebook followers or impressive search results, things could change in an instant.

Your list is controlled by you, and it’s a base where you can grow and nurture your followers. For personal brands, nothing is more important.

How to Grow Your Email List on Your Website

Your website is the main platform you’ll use to grow your email list. Below are some ways you can do it.

– Call to Action Above the Fold

You should also include a clear call to action in the ‘above the fold’ area of your website. This is the first section of your website your user will land on, and, if you can, you’ll want to encourage them to sign up for your email list.

We always recommend giving something away in order to encourage sign-ups (just make sure you’re GDPR compliant!). One thing we don’t recommend is a generic ‘sign up to my newsletter’ call to action. One, it’s boring, and two it says nothing about how you’ll help your target audience.

– Add Your Call to Action within Your Content

Content is particularly important to personal brand businesses, and I’ll talk about that in a little more detail later.

Each piece of content you produce, whether that’s a blog, podcast or YouTube video, should encourage users to subscribe to your email list. On a blog, that’s fairly easy as you can include little reminders throughout your blog post, encouraging your end-users to sign up.

Example of Building Your List on A Personal Brand Website: Chris Ducker

Chris Ducker does a great job of encouraging users to join his email list. He hits you with it as soon as you land on to his homepage and he clearly outlines the benefits of joining. He also has call to actions throughout his content as well.

3. A dedicated speaker page

A lot of personal brands want to showcase themselves as leaders in their industry, and there’s no better way of doing that than through public speaking at events, workshops and seminars.

If this is something you’re doing (or want to do in the future) then it’s worth having a dedicated speaker page on your website.

What Should Your Speaker Page Include?

A speaker page is slightly different to the other pages on your website and should include some different elements, including:

– Images and video

For someone to book you as a speaker at their event, they’ll need to see you speak confidently on stage and deliver an engaging presentation. That’s why it’s important to include images and video on your speaker page.

Even if you’ve only spoken at small events, it’s worth getting someone to take pictures or record a video of you in action. Just seeing you speak to a crowd builds instant credibility.

Many successful personal brands have a speaker reel (a short, snappy video of them on stage) or even a full forty-five-minute keynote.

– Topics you cover

Don’t assume people will know what you speak about. It’s helpful to give people an idea of the topics you cover and also the kind of talks you deliver, e.g. are they workshops/seminars/presentations etc.

This is where you can be ultra-specific in what you offer, and the more detail you can give, the better.

Also, try to give an indication of how much you’re likely to charge. There’s no point people contacting you with a budget of £100.00 when your price is £1000.00. Learn more about why you should add your prices to your website here.

– Call to action

Don’t forget to include a call to action on this page. This is your opportunity to get people to get in touch with you directly or check your availability. Encourage them to book a call with you to discuss how you can help them.

Example of a Good Personal Brand Speaker Page: Ann Handley

Ann Handley has a fantastic speaker page. She encourages you to check her availability and she outlines the kind of topics she covers. She also features images and videos of her speaking.

4. Put Your Content at the Forefront

Creating consistently good content is a sure-fire-way to position yourself as a leader in your industry. How are you going to build loyalty and get people to trust you, without proving you know your stuff?

Content marketing works to benefit most businesses but for personal brands, I’d say it was essential.

How to Showcase Content on a Personal Brand Site

Content is a key component of the websites we build for personal brands, and it can be somewhat different to how we present content on service-based or ecommerce websites.

– Feature Your Content on Your Homepage

To show your readers that you are knowledgeable, it’s a good idea to showcase your content on your homepage. This could be in the form of your most recent content or the best resources you have. The reason it’s important to put it on your homepage is so it’s easily accessible for your end-user.

This is better than having a simple ‘blog’ link in your main menu, as (hopefully) your content will encourage your user to click through.

– Build a Learning Centre

If you want to get really fancy-pants, then build a learning centre. I’d like to say this was my idea, but actually, it came from Marcus Sheridan, who we’ve learnt so much from in terms of content marketing.

A learning centre houses all of your content (podcast, blog, videos, guides etc) in one place. It’s a space for people to explore more about what you offer and how you work, as well as learn from you.

Example of a content-driven personal brand website: Andrew and Pete

Andrew and Pete are expert content marketers, so it’s no wonder they feature content marketing at the forefront of their website. Their website is a showcase of their (vast) knowledge and expertise. It’s a great resource we use often to learn more about marketing.

5. Online Shopping page

A lot of personal brands also sell physical products as well as their coaching, speaking or membership. But even if you don’t sell physical products you might want to sell event tickets and ebooks. It’s, therefore, a good idea to include an online shop on your website.

How to present your products on your website

This will depend on the platform you’re are using but here a few tips to ensure your shop works well.

– Use amazing photographs

When it comes to selling products on the web, good quality photos are essential. People won’t buy your products if you don’t take the time to showcase them properly.

If you’re selling books and diaries, pay a designer to create mockups. Alternatively, pay a professional photographer to make your shop items look amazing.

Even if you’re selling eBooks or event tickets, make them look good. Just because they’re not physical products doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put the effort into presenting them well.

– Create great product descriptions

We wrote an entire article on how to perfect your product pages and product descriptions are one of the most important elements. Creating persuasive descriptions for your products will go a long way to convincing your visitor to buy from you. Not to mention that the words you use will help you get found on search engines.

Example of a Personal Brand Shop Page: Janet Murray

Okay, we’re not just saying this because we built the site! But we love Janet Murray’s online shop (and the products too!)

The effort that Janet puts into marketing her products is incredible and the items on her shop look fantastic. Janet knows that the products need to look the part for people to buy, which is why she takes the time having them professionally designed.

6. Sales Pages

Most personal brand websites sell online products such as video courses, memberships, eBooks, etc. As a personal brand, you’ll need to be able to create sales pages quickly and easily in order to promote your products.

How to Create Sales Pages

Sales pages are quite different to content pages. Rather than having a very helpful page with links to other pages on your website, you want your visitor to stay on the page and take just one action.

– Get Rid of Distractions

You’ll need to change the layout of your page so it’s more conversion friendly, potentially getting rid of menus and other links across your site. This is the page where you need to maximise conversions, so you need your reader to do just one thing.

– Think about the Copy

The copy on a sales page is often slightly different to the copy on your main website. You’ll want to feature stories from people who have benefited from the specific product or service you’re offering (rather than just you in general). You’ll want to use persuasive and emotive language, and an exclusive offer to hook them in.

These are just a few of many examples of what you can do on a sales page!

Example of a Good Sales Page: Gavin Bell – Amplify

Gavin Bell’s Facebook advertising course is an excellent example of a sales page, it includes video testimonials, persuasive copy and impressive social proof. There are no distractions in the form of links to other pages or social media. It convinces you to take just one action.

7. Include Social Proof

Social proof is important for every business. Having testimonials, reviews, press, expert endorsement and awards etc, all go a long way in building trust in your brand and products.

This is doubly important for personal brands as the key to your success is showing that you have the knowledge and skills worth investing in.

How to use Social Proof on Your Personal Brand Website

Social proof is essential if you want to build instant credibility for your personal brand website. Here are some ways you can use social proof on your website:

– Media/publication logos on the homepage

It’s quite common to see media/publication logos on the homepage of a personal brand website, usually within the first third of the page (right under your big, bold statement).

These logos are usually from places you’ve been featured in the press, such as the BBC, Guardian, Huffington Post etc, or where you’ve been speaking, such as Social Media Marketing World. People trust these brands so if you include these on your website, you’ll be seen as an authority in your space.

– Genuine Testimonials

Make sure you feature GENUINE written or video testimonials on your homepage.

Video testimonials are golden, and if you can get video testimonials from your clients, it shows clear evidence that you know your stuff. And of course, you can create text testimonials out of these too.

If video testimonials aren’t possible, then try to get someone’s picture at the very least, include their full name and maybe a link back to their website.

Example of Good Social Proof on a Personal Brand Website: Content Marketing Academy

Throughout Chris Marr’s (Content Marketing Academy) website, you see little video testimonials dotted through the copy. This is a great way of integrating social proof. Chris clearly has a lot of fans (including us!) who are more than happy to get themselves in front of the camera and sing his praises.

This is really powerful stuff that goes a long way to building trust in your brand.

8. The Copy Must Reflect You

This is your opportunity to speak to your audience. When your users read your web copy, they should have a sense of who you are. Your reader should feel like they’re having a conversation with you personally.

How to Write the Right Copy for Your Personal Brand Website

This is vital for personal brands to get right. You’re selling you, and it doesn’t matter whether you want to develop a friend, teacher or influencer relationship with your audience, they still need to feel some kind of connection.

– Talk to them like you would your clients

It’s tempting to go formal when we start writing, but often this isn’t a reflection of how we communicate.

Before you start writing, have an idea of who you’re talking to. I create a profile of my ideal client. I give them a name, think about their goals, their issues and what keeps them up at night. Only then can I speak to them on their level.

– Make it about them

The word ‘you’ is your new best friend. You need to consider what problems your audience is having and address them within your website copy.

Don’t say generic stuff like you’ve been doing what you do for twenty-five years and blah, blah, blah. It’s dull. Address your audience’s issues head on and tell them how you can help.

Examples of good personal brand copy: Hot Content

Natalie from Hot Content is a great writer. When you read Natalie’s writing, it feels like you’re in a coffee shop talking directly with her. In this snippet, you gain a real sense of who Natalie is. Her writing is informal yet professional. She doesn’t patronise. Or like she says, make you feel stupid. She does a great job.

9. Give a Personal Touch

The majority of the copy on your website should be geared to your target audience (what problems they’re facing and how you can help). However, for personal brand websites, it’s nice to have a personal touch too.

How to Add the Personal Touch to Your Personal Brand Website

It’s cliche, but people do business with people, so give your readers a glimpse into who you are.

– Talk about your story

A good story is a great way to build a connection with your reader, especially if your story starts with the same problem your audience is facing. You can tell them how you overcame your problem and how you like to help others do the same.

Make sure the story is genuine. It’s easy to spot someone who’s disingenuous. We know that you need to make a living and you’ve not set up your company out of the goodness of your heart. However, it’s also good to show people that you do care about their problems, that you’ve been there and that you have a genuine solution that can help.

– Use Your About Page

Don’t talk about yourself on your homepage. Keep it reserved for a section (not all, just a section!) of your about page. Not everything should be about you, but it’s good to give an insight into your life if you feel comfortable.

A Good Example of Including a Personal Story on Your Personal Brand Website: Pat Flynn

I love Pat Flynn’s about page. I love how he talks about the downturn in the economy in 2008 and how it impacted his life. He also shows pictures of him and his family. From this, you get a sense of what he’s like personally, making it easy for you to develop a connection with him.

Summary

Your personal brand website should be unique and be completely different from other personal brand sites. However, there are many similarities when it comes to how your website should work to promote your products and services. Hopefully, you now have a list of things you can add to your website to improve it.

What do you think?

I hope this post has helped you think about your personal brand website. Do you think there’s anything I’ve missed off the list? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post 9 Essentials of a Personal Brand Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

We’re a web design agency. We charge thousands for websites. You might think we’re a tad strange for dissuading brand new businesses from investing in us. But there’s method to the madness.

This isn’t something we’ve come up with on a whim. Every phone call or enquiry we get now, we ask: are you a brand new business?

What Do We Mean By Brand New Business?

We define a brand new business as business owners who have never owned a business before. We often design websites for business owners starting a new venture, but that’s slightly different. We’re talking about people who are completely new to business.

Do We Not Trust New Business Owners?

Of course we do! Everyone starts off as a new business owner. We started off as new business owners. This isn’t about not having faith in your business. It’s about doing you a disservice.

When we set up our first business we invested thousands in a website and we made HUGE errors that cost us both financially and emotionally. All worked out well in the end. But at the time, we would’ve appreciated someone telling us straight: investing thousands in a website right now might not work.

I’m going to tell you why investing a boat-load of money into a new business website might not be a good idea.

You’ve Got to Test Your Idea

Ideas are wonderful, aren’t they? Sometimes they just pop into our heads at the most inopportune times (usually when you don’t have a pen) and they light a fire within us.

You might think you’ve got a great idea, but do people fully understand what you’re offering? Are they willing to pay you money for it? Is the business viable long term? You’ve got to test your idea out first.

How to Test Your Idea

1. Start by setting up a cheap website

Yup. That is what we recommend! In fact, Martin tells you how to set up a cheap website in his blog post.

2. Get to grips with social media, content marketing, email marketing and SEO

Think of your website as the heart of your business, but you still need to get blood to it! This is where your marketing efforts come in. Now is the time to learn as much as you can, create a buzz about your business and drive traffic to your site.

3. Join membership groups like Content Marketing Academy and Atomic

Not only will they teach you more about content and social media marketing, but they’re also great places to gain feedback, ask questions and make friends. There are plenty of membership sites out there but we’re personally part of these and they’ve transformed our business for the better!

4. Evaluate

Once you’ve underway with all of these things you can evaluate how successful your idea is. Most of the time, businesses stay within the same industry but they tweak their offering to something more desirable for their target audience. They often niche down too, offering more targeted services.

I’m not going to lie, when I started out I felt so overwhelmed with all the information out there. That’s why it’s good to start off slow without the pressure of spending huge amounts of money on a new website.

If you’re looking for helpful advice and support about web design and SEO, why not join our Facebook Group – Website Tips for Non-Techies.

2. Things Change

Businesses are constantly evolving, but nothing changes quite so quickly than in the first twelve-eighteen months of business. Imagine investing thousands in a website, only for your business to change a few months later?

You might think, not such a big deal, I’ll just change the text on my website, right?

Wrong.

Any good website (and, in particular, one that’s going to cost you thousands!) should be informed by certain key factors.

Things that Might Change Early On in Your Business

1. Your target market

Not just the age, sex and location of your target audience, but other stuff. Deeper stuff. Things like what issues are they facing, what’s their ultimate goal, what’s their biggest fear? Your website should be designed in a way that appeals directly to your target market.

2. Your key services

As I said before, a lot of business owners change their offering within the first twelve-eighteen months. They often niche down. In fact, we did this very thing. Over a period of five years, we’ve gone from offering web design, social media marketing, SEO, email marketing and graphic design to just WordPress web design.

3. What you want your users to do?

It’s not always as simple as ‘buy now’. Often people need a little more coaxing to invest in you, that’s why we encourage our clients to think about their users’ journey. Should they sign up to your email list first for example? If so, every page has to be geared towards this action.

These are just a few examples of what we take into consideration when we build your website. There’s a heck of a lot more that goes into it. As well as a lengthy video call with our clients, we also send them a website questionnaire and undertake our own research too.

So if you’re not clear on the answers to these questions, the likelihood is, you’re not ready to invest.

And that’s okay! It’s expected that within the first twelve months of business these things will change. If you have a website professionally designed before then, you might find yourself spending money again to put it right, or your website won’t speak to your target market. Either way, its lose/lose.

3. There’s Less Pressure

We never underestimate the cost of our website packages. £3500 – £6000 is a lot of money to spend for most small business owners, so they have to be confident they can make that money back. If you want to find out why we specifically charge what we do, then read Martin’s post, Why Are We So Expensive?

The likelihood is, investing thousands in a new website will put a dent in your business finances.

You might think, what do you care, we have the money to spend!

Well, actually, we do care. We want our clients to be successful, and you cannot gain success from a website alone. The days of ‘build it and they will come’ are well and truly over. If you invest in a website straight away, you’re already thousands down, with no knowledge of content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing or SEO behind you.

Now you have to spend your time learning about those marketing tools.

If you have an existing platform behind you, you’re at an advantage. You’ll already know how to promote your business and use content management systems. You’ll know exactly what you’re selling and who your target audience is. You might have even built up a loyal audience already. This takes the pressure off when investing in a new website because you can focus on what’s important: your business.

4. You Need to Establish Who You Are

If you’re going to invest thousands into a website, you need to understand who you are and what you stand for.

Before we design your website we ask you to describe your brand using certain words like cheeky or funny, bold or innovative. How you position yourself within the market informs everything from the design, images and copy.

Even if you think you have these nailed down, you’d be surprised how much your business will change. When we first started, we were ‘yes men’, designing websites for under a thousand pound for anyone that would come through the door. As our skills and knowledge has developed, so have we. We now see ourselves teachers in our industry.

This process takes time, and there’s a lot you need to consider when it comes to brand. Of course, this includes your logo, fonts, colours, branding and style. But it’s also your tone of voice (i.e. how you speak to your audience).

Are you formal or informal? Do you incorporate humour? Do you have a teacher relationship with your audience or more of a friend relationship?

It takes time to solidify your brand, and there’s no point having a website designed if you haven’t considered who you are and how you present yourself to your target market.

Conclusion

Recently, a client approached us about having a website designed. He was a brand new business owner, and instead of taking his money we recommended he set up a website himself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we’re angels here. We want our clients to be on the same page as us: with a strong sense of who they are and armed with the knowledge they need to make a successful business. He was thankful for our advice, and we’re pretty sure that down the line when he’s ready, he’ll come back to us.

Successful clients are happy clients, and they’re far more likely to trust us, work with us and recommend us in the future if they gain success from their website.

Over to You

Have you ever invested thousands in a brand new website? How did you find the process? Or perhaps this article has made you think twice about investing thousands? If so, I’d love to know your thoughts.

And don’t forget, feel free to join our FREE Facebook group to help newbies get to grips with web design and SEO – Website Tips for Non-Techies.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Why New Businesses Shouldn’t Spend Thousands On A Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Thinking about the colours, the styles, the layout, the endless possibilities.

It’s understandable that you would want to jump into it feet first and hire an agency quickly to build your new website.

Before you do, I wanted to make you aware of a few hurdles you might face.

I’ve been running a web design business for over five years, and I’ve noticed a number of frustrations and problems with other web design companies.

I’ve made an effort to listen to what people say so I can understand their frustrations, that way I don’t make the same mistakes with my business.

What are the main problems you might face when hiring a web design agency?

1. They don’t put their prices on their website

Most web design companies don’t display any pricing information on their website. They expect you to call them up or fill out an online form to be able to find out what they might charge. This is pretty frustrating.

You might have a budget in mind, it might be high, it might be low but if you can’t find any information on their website you could spend hours contacting a number of companies and explaining what you want, only to find that they are way out of your price range.

Obviously, websites are not all built the same, they have many different features, and the price for one can be completely different for another. However, wouldn’t it be easier for everyone if they gave you some indication at least without having to contact them. Even if they said “starting at £5,000” if you only had a budget of £1,000 you would know they are not the right company for you.

What we do instead

Like many other companies, the price for our web design packages varies depending on what you want. But we know that most of the websites we build cost between £3K–£5K. This is why we clearly state this information on our website. There are rare occasions that we might charge outside of this range, but at least you know what kind of figure we’re likely to quote.

We’ve also written a number of blog posts about our pricing structure and what you get for your money. We allow you to compare our service with other companies in your own time. You get to see our entire process from start to finish and make your own decision.

2. They might use a lot of jargon

Website design is a technical skill, and it can get pretty complicated at times. Web design companies like to use lots of jargon, some of which ends up on their website.

Phrases like CSS, HTML5 and PHP may sound impressive, but they don’t mean anything to ordinary business owners looking to hire a web designer for their new website.

It’s more likely going to confuse you and leave you with more questions.

What we do instead

We know that your website needs to look good, work well and deliver traffic and customers. You shouldn’t need to worry about the technical aspects of how it’s built. You just want results.

We understand that what we do may seem complex. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be complicated for you. We do our best to eliminate the fancy jargon when speaking to you about your project via Skype, email and phone and make things easy to understand.

We also created a jargon buster on our website which will help you understand all the fancy lingo that techie folk like to use.

3. They might not understand SEO

Search engine optimisation or SEO will play a big part in the success of your website. It’s about how well your website follows the guidelines that Google set.

Some web design companies focus entirely on DESIGN. They tend to focus on making your website look good and leave the SEO stuff to you.

That’s ok if you know what you’re doing but wouldn’t it be good if your web designer at least thought about search engines while building your website.

After all, you could have the best-looking website in the world but if nobody can find you on Google then what’s the point.

What we do instead

We have an extensive knowledge of SEO and have been lucky enough to work with hundreds of clients over the years. We teach SEO, run workshops and offer 1-2-1 private coaching.

We build every website with SEO in mind, everything we do will have some impact on your search engine rankings. This is why we take our time throughout the design process. We think about website content, page layout, menu structure, technical SEO, page speed and much more.

Yes, we STILL design great looking websites, but we also build search engine friendly websites too.

4. You don’t get the support you need when you go live

Another major problem with web design companies is the level of support you get from them once your website has gone live.

It’s only natural that you’ll have a few questions once your new site is live and you’d expect to be able to contact your web designer for a little support.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Some agencies feel that once your website is live, you are now on your own. They may even try and charge you hourly for any additional support time, every email or phone call.

It’s sad, but it happens.

What we do instead

We love helping clients with their website. Especially after you launch. There may be the odd tech question you want to ask, or maybe you want some advice about blogging. We are always happy to help.

Depending on the level of support you need, we may suggest taking out a maintenance package with us, but this is optional.

Some of our web design packages include a 1-2-1 coaching session once the website is live so we can help you make the most of your new website.

We also send you a series of video tutorials showing you how to update your website yourself without having to speak to us.

Whatever you need we are here for you.

5. They don’t take the time to understand your business

A lot of web designers don’t take the time to truly understand your business. They tend to focus on surface-level information, e.g. how many pages do you need, what do you sell, how can people get in touch.

By only focusing on the basics, they will miss some really important information that could lead to you getting more enquires and sales later down the road.

To design a high performing website your web design company should understand:

• Your target market
• The features of the products/services you offer
• The benefits of these products/services
• What makes you different from your competitors
• Your future goals for the business
• Any much more

Without gathering this information, it’s pretty much impossible to create a website that’s good enough to do what you want it to.

What we do instead

Before we start building your website, we arrange a video call so we can gather as much information as we can. This usually lasts for an hour.

Once we have done this, we’ll send you a questionnaire to fill out where we ask more questions about your business. This will allow us to get a clearer understanding and set an action plan for moving forward.

Once we have all this, we’ll then do our own research into your competitors and your target audience and come up with a plan to designing a website that truly works for you.

Summary

As you can see, there are many key issues you will want to look out for when approaching web design companies about your new website.

Be very careful to do your research before hiring a web design agency for your new project.

Over to you

Have you ever hired a web design agency? What were the problems that you faced? I’d love to you hear from you, so please leave a comment below.

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post 5 common problems with web design companies appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

A lot of these mistakes occur on the homepage. Most people spend the majority of their time thinking about their homepage design, how it will look and what impression they want to give. But they forget the simplest rule:

The purpose of your homepage is to get your user to the next page.

It’s rare that someone will land on your homepage, pick up the phone and buy from you. Your homepage should act as a hub for your website. A reception area, if you will, which is designed to guide your user to the places you want them to go.

So, with this in mind, what are the most common errors we see on homepages?

1. You don’t make it clear what you do

This is the number one error we see. You haven’t told us what you do and why we should care.

The second we get to your homepage you need to clearly describe what it is that you do.

We call this a BIG BOLD STATEMENT.

Thinking of one for your business is harder than it sounds, so I’ve included some great examples below.

Freshbooks

Freshbooks say they offer ‘Small business accounting software that makes billing painless.’

You gain so much information from this one statement alone: their target audience (small businesses), what they do (accounting software) and their USP (painless billing).

Imagine if they didn’t have that statement and you had to figure out what they did from their business name?

Content Marketing Academy

CMA asks, “Ready to grow your business with content marketing?” and their sub-headline is “At the CMA we teach forward thinking business people and marketers to master content marketing, get better customers and increase revenue.”

Again, you get so much information from their statement: their target audience (forward-thinking business people and marketers), what they do (teach you how to master content marketing) and their USP (help you get better customers and increase revenue).

Users are lazy and impatient, and I can get away with saying that because I’m the worst. If I don’t see what I’m looking for within the first 3 seconds, I’ll hit that back button and go to another website. Don’t lose potential customers through something as simple as not explaining what it is you do!

How to fix it

A handy little tip to create a big bold statement for your business is to think about your products or service as a solution to your prospective customers’ problems.

We help [these types of people] get [this solution] by [feature of product]

We help [kids] get [more exercise] by [making it fun]

We help [business owners] get [invoices paid on time] by [sending reminders automatically]

There are many ways you can come up with your own statement, but the most important thing is clarity. Do you make it obvious who you can help? And how you can help them?

2. No Call to Action

Remember what I said earlier about your homepage acting as a reception? We’ve come across so many websites that give their users no clear direction.

I’m not talking about the top navigation bar; I’m talking about the pages you want to show your user. It’s best to keep these call to actions above the fold, so your users know where to go once they land on your homepage.

You could send them to service or product pages or your latest blog post. But think about the buying cycle. Don’t just shove your about page there because you feel that’s where it should go. Your user is on a journey and your aim is to shimmy them along to the end.

Good examples of this include:

SEO Moz

SEO Moz does a fantastic job of this. They combine both a call to action and clear instruction. As soon as you land on the homepage you have two options: one, ‘Get Started with Moz’ and two, ‘Get my free listing score’ – a very tempting call to action, especially with the word free!

They’ve clearly thought about their user’s journey, which goes a little something like this…

Homepage ——– Get Started With Moz ——— Start My Free 30 Day Trial

And that’s it. 3 steps and they have your details (including your card details).

Hotel Chocolat – ‘Exam Success’ Call To Action

Marks and Spencer ‘Back To School’ Call To Action

I always hear how e-commerce websites are different to ‘standard sites,’ but there’s no reason e-commerce businesses shouldn’t be directing their customers to their preferred web pages.

Both Hotel Chocolat and Marks and Spencer do this well. On their homepage, they’re predicting what their users will need. It’s Summer holidays, so both have identified that ‘exam success’ chocolates and ‘back to school’ supplies, will be something that their users will be looking for. Instead of having to traipse around the site, the user is presented with exactly what they want on the homepage.

Of course, getting a designer to design new images and then uploading them to your site can cost time and money, but it’s worth it.

How to fix it

Think about the one thing you’d like your users to do when they visit your website. How will you convince your visitor to take the next step with you?

Ideally, it would move them closer to becoming a customer, e.g., book a free consultation, check availability, etc., but at the very least your call to action would allow them to build up more report with your business and help them to consume more of your content.

3. No Lead Capture

Your website users will very rarely buy from you straight away. You’ll need to build up some trust before they do. This is why it’s a good idea to offer them something in return for their contact details.

This could be in the form of a tempting offer such as a discount on the first order, free delivery, free trial, free e-book/video, etc. Not only do you get their contact details but you also build trust, getting them comfortable with potentially making that first order or enquiry.

Good examples of this include:

Hubspot

Like Moz, Hubspot instruct what they want their users to do with an attractive call to action, offering free access to their products with a clear ‘Get started’ button. From here, they capture your details, and you’re now in Hubspot’s (very helpful) email machine!

If I could only critique one thing, it would be to make the text, ‘Free versions of every HubSpot product. Start now and upgrade as you grow’ larger, as I didn’t spot it right away. But, hey. They’re Hubspot. They know what they’re doing!

Also, notice how they also use the same, ‘Get Started’ button on the top right and bottom left? As the user’s eyes roam the page, they’ll be hit with both call to actions loud and clear.

Mum’s Meal Planner

We did a similar thing when we designed the Mum’s Meal Planner website. We crafted the words ‘Weekly Meal Plans Straight to Your Inbox’ along with a tempting lead capture offering a free sample in exchange for the user’s email address.

Notice again how there are buttons to sign up on both the top right and bottom left? Similar to how Hubspot does it, and yet they look completely different.

How to fix it

To be able to capture your prospects contact information, you can use anyone of these popular email marketing tools;

Aweber – Free Trail
ConvertKit
MailChimp

Each of these services will allow you to add an email signup form to your website and start gathering contact information.

Don’t forget to tempt people with a freebie of some sort in exchange for their information. And yes, it does need to be more appealing than “join our newsletter”!

4. Contact details

How would you like your customers to contact you? A phone call, contact form, carrier pigeon?

Whatever you decide, you need to make it obvious for your website visitors. I can’t tell you how many websites get this wrong.

If you want someone to pick up the phone and give you a call, put your phone number in a very prominent position on your homepage (and on every other web page for that matter).

Good examples of this include:

Jammy Digital

On our website, we feature a clickable phone number and option to contact us for a ‘quick chat’ via our contact form.

You have to be careful not to overwhelm people with too many ways of contacting you, but it’s a good idea to feature two or three. This is because some people may prefer phone or skype, but they might like to email instead.

How to fix it

You need to respect your visitors time, and making them scour through your website to find your details is going to frustrate them. This goes back to your call to action. Make your intentions clear and direct people without pissing them off.

Get your web designer to add your contact details on the top of each page including your homepage. 50% of searches are now completed through a mobile device. So please, make it easy for people on the go! Display your phone number clearly (as text, not an image) and make it clickable for people to call you

5. Attack of the logo

Logos are important. There’s no doubt about it. They encompass everything you are as a brand. People are proud of their logos, and I get that. But your web user is looking for information fast. You don’t need a humongous logo on your homepage, taking up all that valuable space!

Have a look at the brands below with logos hailed as the most iconic logos in the world. Look how small they are in comparison to the rest of the website. That’s exactly how logos should be displayed.

Good examples of this include:

McDonalds

FedEx

BMW

How to fix it

Speak to your designer or web developer about resizing your logo if it’s too big. Our logo at the top left is 317px by 65px.

It’s big enough to see and read but not too intrusive.

6. No Unique Selling Points

Yeah, I know, industry jargon. But highlighting your unique selling points is a grand idea. You don’t have to do this high up necessarily but have it somewhere on your homepage. And actually think about what makes you different from others. This does NOT include the following:

• Delivers excellent customer service
• Have been in business for over fifteen years
• We provide solutions to your problems

Think about what makes you stand out from your competitors and list them on your homepage.

Good examples of this include:

Grammarly

Take Grammarly, for instance. They state that they’re far better than a normal word processor and they that they can correct your grammar and spelling in email and everywhere across the web.

How to fix it

Think of what will appeal to your target audience and what concerns they may have about working with you – address those concerns head on.

You’ll need to think about what you do that no one else in your industry does and shout about it.

7. Social Proof

The term ‘social proof’ is not to be confused with social media. Social proof is about influencing people in a positive way. In business, social proof is used to make your potential customers feel more comfortable investing in you. It’s about gaining trust by providing proof that your product or service will be valuable to your audience.

Good examples of this include:

Social Media Examiner

Social Media Examiner uses some compelling phraseology to get you to sign up to their free report. They say ‘Join more than 620,000 of your peers’.

How powerful is that? It’s the kind of thing to get you thinking, well if so many other people like me have joined, why shouldn’t I? It’s a hugely influential phrase, added in bold for extra oomph!

Marie Forleo

Okay, so it might not be possible to get a photograph with Oprah Winfrey or Richard Branson. But Marie Forleo does a great job at presenting her social proof on her homepage.

If you can gain the attention of industry leaders, then it’s certainly a good idea to feature them on your homepage. This also goes for big companies you’ve worked with too.

How to fix it

There are many different kinds of social proof you can feature on your homepage, including:

• AUTHENTIC Customer testimonials
• Links to case studies
• Feeds from review websites such as Tripadvisor or Trustpilot
• Think about what will build trust in you and your business and showcase this prominently.

Summary

These are just a few examples of common mistakes people make on the homepage of their website.

However, please be aware that we’ve barely scratched the surface!

If you’d like us to tell you what costly mistakes you’re making on YOUR website, then book a website critique and receive a 30-minute, personalised video.

Over to you

Have you encountered any of these mistakes on your website? Or, is there anything you think we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below…

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post 7 mistakes you’re making on your homepage and how to fix them appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

But just how much does a website cost? And how much should you spend on a website so it delivers what you need, without paying over the odds?

My personal guide to how much a website costs

I’ve experienced what it’s like to invest in a website. Eight years ago, before Jammy Digital was born, I paid a company £1400 to design me a website for my first business. This was a huge amount of money for me at the time. After stock, it was my biggest investment.

However, my return on investment was pitiful. I barely made a thing from the website and what I did make was mainly from kind friends and family who felt a bit sorry for me.

Why am I telling you this?

Ultimately, I’m going to tell you what I tell all my clients and potential clients. My service and price might not be right for you, and that’s okay. There are plenty of options when it comes to website design, all with their own pros and cons.

I don’t want any client or business owner to experience what I did eight years ago.

Why do you need a website?

It’s tempting to start researching or contacting web designers straight away. Before you start looking for a solution you need to identify what you want to achieve from your website. Every website should have a purpose aside from being just another online business card.

You need to be sure that your site is generating a return on investment. It shouldn’t be written off as a business expense. Your website should come equipped to provide enquiries and sales on an ongoing basis.

Here are a few ideas for your own website purpose…

• Collect website enquiries
• Increase the number of phone calls you get
• Sell your digital products online
• Showcase your work
• Increase donations
• Build an online community
• Promote your event
• Share your knowledge & expertise
• Build an email list of prospects

You may need your website to do numerous different things but it’s important you know what they are before you build your website.

Your website should be crafted around the overall purpose of your business. So every aspect of the website’s design, copy and usability should be focused on driving your end user to do what you want them too.

What do you get for your money?

Self-build DIY services like WIX, Godaddy, Weebly etc.

Approximate price: free – £20.00pm

Building your own website using a service such as Wix, GoDaddy or Weebly is an attractive solution to many business owners, bloggers and entrepreneurs. And it’s easy to see why, these websites are usually free or cost very little on a monthly basis.

Limitations with Self Builders

As attractive as these low cost websites are, they do come with some limitations. The first one being design. These services work by getting you to choose a template from a selection of prepared designs. This means you’re usually working within the limitations of that particular design.

The good thing is, these website builders are generally very easy to use with their ‘drag and drop’ features.

Attractive Designs

Some templates are very attractive. Some not so much. And some are downright awful! But from personal experience, I’ve had a lot of clients’ approach me having tried a DIY service and failed to get anything remotely like what they want.

Some of my clients have had success by starting out this way, but as their business has grown they’ve wanted something a little more tailored.

How Search Engine Friendly Are DIY Websites?

There’s also the small factor of SEO. There’s a lot of talk about DIY builders and what impact it has on your search engine rankings. Does it work? Or does Google dislike DIY builders?

If you’re thinking of building your own site using this method then make sure you consider this beforehand to prevent any headaches later on.

Pros and Cons of DIY Websites

What to do before investing in this option:

• Research what people say about the company. Forums are a great place to see what people are struggling with!
• Look at what others have done with the templates. Templates look great when designed by a professional, so check them out after a novice has looked at it!
• Check the other costs – URL, hosting, email accounts, help from a coder/designer if you need it etc. It all adds up!

A Basic Business Card Website

Approximate fee: £99 – £500

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of website design companies in the UK who offer website design packages within this price bracket. Unlike the first option, these are suitable for those who simply don’t have the time or skills to invest in building their own website.

These websites generally display your information, just like a business card. They are usually built using pre-made html templates.

They tend to be very basic in terms of design and they’re not usually built with SEO in mind. That doesn’t mean they won’t rank highly in search engines, it just means that certain things won’t have been considered before or during the build. This means it might take a lot of work on your part to get the site up to scratch once it’s been built.

The low cost might be appealing to some but there are a few things I recommend you ask before hiring a company.

Firstly, does the website come with an easy to use CMS (content management system). This enables you to easily update your website once it’s been built. The likelihood is, you won’t be able to edit anything extensive, but you should be able to edit the text and images with ease. If not, the company may charge you for this, so you’ll need to ask them how much they charge in order to avoid costly headaches in the future!

Secondly, you’ll need to make sure the website is mobile/tablet friendly. Almost 50% of web searches happen over a mobile or tablet. Google have actually said they will favour mobile friendly websites in mobile search results! If your website isn’t mobile/tablet friendly, you’ll be missing out on potential customers.

Pros and Cons of a Business Card Website

What to do before investing in this option:

• Make sure the website comes with a content management system. Even ask to see how it works beforehand. If it doesn’t, be clear on how much it will cost to update your site.
• Check that the website is mobile/tablet friendly
• Check what is included! Will you get a blog, social media integration, URL, email accounts, hosting, images (stock photos cost) etc.

A template website using WordPress / Joomla / Drupal.

Approximate Fee: £399 – £1200

Sometimes, website designers will build your website using pre-existing templates on WordPress, Joomla or Drupal.

These kinds of websites usually achieve a more polished and professional look than those who go for the DIY or basic options. In fact, I used to use this method for some of my clients, as it was an affordable alternative to the more expensive options. However, even though the website looks better, it’s still a template, and therefore still quite restrictive.

The appeal of this option is you get a decent looking website (designer depending, obviously) along with the easy-to-use CMS of WordPress, Joomla etc.

Pros and Cons of using Wordpress Template

What to do before investing in this option:

• Ask the designer what they can do with the design, how much can they change to tailor around your needs?
• With any design company – check that the website is mobile/tablet friendly!
• Check what is included! Will you get a blog, social media integration, URL, email accounts, hosting, images (stock photos cost) etc.

A Custom Made Website

Approximate Fee: £999 – £5000+

Many web design agencies and even some freelancers will charge within this price bracket for a custom built website, myself included.

At this price, you should expect more for your money than the three options above. Your website should be designed in line with your branding and should appeal to your target market.

Your home page should be completely bespoke, along with your standard pages and perhaps your blog/contact page.

The agency or freelancer can often spend a lot of time in the research and preparation stage, making sure everything is to your liking and set up for ultimate conversion. Every element of the design should encourage your reader to do something, such as contact you, fill in a form, or hit that buy now button.

You may also get added extras to the option above, such as a bespoke blog, email marketing integration or even copywriting and on-page SEO.

Pros and Cons of Custom Made Website

What to do before investing in this option:

• Ask the web designer what their process is. Will they show you a version of their design before you invest? Or will you receive different design versions to choose from?
• Ask if the website also comes with a CMS
• Check what is included! Will you get a blog, social media integration, URL, email accounts, hosting, images (stock photos cost) etc.
• Will you need to provide the stock images or will they provide some of them as part of the service.

Big Project Website

Approximate fee: £5000 – £100,000+

This option is suitable for those looking for the ultimate bespoke website design service. You may find you need every single page of your website to be tailored to your needs. Or you may need a website that fits within your business’s internal processes.

These websites are generally very technical and intelligent. They have a large amount of functionality and attention to detail…hence the price tag. You’re paying for a knowledgeable and experienced team of people who can build you every single thing you need from scratch.

Pros and Cons of Custom Made Website

What to do before investing in this option:

• Consider whether you really need this level of support and technical help
• This is a big project, I’d certainly recommend meeting the agency!
• Put a full proposal together and go out to tender. It’s more time consuming but it’s worth it to get the right company for you.

Final thoughts.

You may be tempted to head over to Google and type in “cheap web design” and try to save some money in the short term. I would ask you to consider the REAL cost of getting a cheap website. What will a basic online presence do for your business in the long run? The amount of business you lose from not having a high quality website may leave you worse off.

On the flip side, think about your average sale amount, how many customers will you need to pay for a £5000 website. If the numbers seem out of reach then it may be worth going for one of the cheaper options to begin with.

My advice is to spend some time doing the research and find a web design company you can rely on, someone who truly understands what you want to achieve and can build a website that performs well and delivers a return on your investment.

Over to you

What is your experience of hiring web design companies? Have you found it to be an easy process or have you had a few catastrophes along the way? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post How much does it cost for a website? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.