Meg Casebolt 0. 00. Over the past couple of months, I’ve had a lot of people who know me in real life, confess that they’re starting businesses And they’re a little bit concerned about how to create their websites in a way that makes sense Now these People have come from all areas of my life, One of them I’ve known for 25 years, because I went to middle school with or another. I worked with at the architecture firm another as a parent at my kids school and another is my next door. Neighbor, And so I’ve met with them for coffee and the bus, stop and replied to a bunch of questions via email, And what I realized is that, even though each of them is running a very different business, one is building a nonprofit website. Another has a nutrition consultancy, one is becoming a licensed architect and the other as a therapist. The advice that I was giving in all of these conversations was incredibly similar And once I realized that I did what every content marketer would do and say, let me consolidate this into one place, So I’m not typing the same thing into all these emails And my google doc just kept growing and growing and growing, And the next thing I knew it was like 3000 words, 12 pages long. I was like, I think there’s something here. So all of these conversations and resources have been consolidated into a free guide that I’m launching this month. It walks through the three stages of creating a website from scratch Step. One is planning the website figuring out what software to use and what’s gon na go on it Step. Two is the actual building the website, figuring out, all the words and all the systems that need to tap into it And then step. Three is the optimization expanding the role of that website in your business, so that way it can become a lead generation machine. This video is all about stage, one everything you need to plan so that when it comes time to build your website, it won’t. Take forever you’ll know exactly what, where it lives and what you need it to do. We’ll get started with that right after this man, you’re Unknown Speaker 1, 47 near near near near near near near near near near near you. No! No, no! No! No! No! You’re gon na put that me on Toronto. Meg Casebolt. 2. 03 Hi. I’m Meg Casebolt From love at first search, where we help online entrepreneurs to show up in search results and then turn those new visitors into leads. Subscribers and sales for this video In the next couple of videos – I’m, going to be talking about web design, specifically how to plan and create and optimize your website, so that Google can find it Now. This particular video that I’m recording right now is going to be mostly Web Design Foundations. It won’t be a ton of SEO, which is the stuff that Google cares about, But this is the stuff that we need to have in place in order to have a website that gets found by your target clients. I know that for a lot of us, we want to leap into the fun stuff where, like let’s, grab some colors and fonts and design the logo, And I get that. I really do That’s, where I started with my website to eight years ago, feels like much longer than that. But there are a lot of things that you need to figure out before you can leap into that stuff And if you spend the time, planning and organizing you can launch your website a whole lot faster, because you won’t need to figure it out. As you’re going stage, one is all about that website. Planning Here are the five steps that we’re going to talk about here: Number one: we’re going to choose the software that you’re going to use to build your website, So whether you build it on WordPress or Shopify or Squarespace or Wix, Or wherever you build it, we’ll talk through what your different options are And who should choose which of those options. Number two: we’re going to talk about your domain, which is the part that comes after the www and before the com or jatco. We’re gon na talk about whether it actually makes a difference. What your domain is and where you should buy it Number three. We’re going to talk about the pros and cons of DIY in your website versus hiring somebody to do it. For you and some questions that you can ask yourself, when you’re making that decision, It’s worth saying that a lot of people think that this stage should come first, But I really want you to have ownership over your choice of software. So that way, you’re not pigeon holed into a software, because that’s what their designer wants, not because it’s what’s best for your business Number. Four, we’re going to figure out the minimum viable amount of information that you need on your website and how to organize it into just a couple of pages. We’re going to set it up this way, Because we want you to be able to launch this relatively quickly. You don’t need a giant website right now. What you need is a place online where people can find you, They can learn about how they can work with you or buy from you, and they can take the next step And then our final step is mapping out your customer journey. What is the next step that you want people to do? I’ve seen so many websites out there that just come and say It’s me. I’m great without saying – and here’s how you can work with me Here:’s how you can buy for me here:’s, how you can learn more, So we’re going to talk about how to make sure that people don’T find you and then leave your website right away, But they take whatever that next step is to become your customer, Alright, so step one. How do you choose what software you want to use for your website? Your website is your digital home on the internet. So just like, when you’re buying a home in real life, your real estate agent would tell you that the most important thing is location, location, location. That same is true for your website. Choosing the software that you’re going to use is like buying that piece of land or signing that lease. Now I’ve created a couple of videos about this already I’m gon na create another one when I’m done with this series to really talk about the difference between these platforms and why you would make these decisions in a lot greater detail, But here’s the 30 000 foot view of it. There is no one software that Google likes best. This isn’t like if you build on Shopify Google will love you. What Google actually cares about when it comes to your website is the technical SEO performance. So it cares about things like how quickly the website loads and whether it’s secure and how good it looks on a cell phone, But some options out. There are better than others So because of those criteria of what Google looks for in a website, we have three recommended platforms. The first platform that we recommend is WordPress Over a third of the internet is built on WordPress over 500 sites. Every day are built on WordPress And there are over 400 million websites on the internet that are built on WordPress software. The reason that people love WordPress is that the actual software itself is free. WordPress org gives you the software for free now, wordpress com, We’ll, do another video about that difference, But wordpress org will give you that software for free And then you can customize it. However, you want to using themes and plugins and different coding mechanisms in order to make it work really well for you. So in our real estate metaphor, starting your website on WordPress is like buying a piece of land and then building the dream house that you want. You can customize it and optimize it. However, you want to. There is also a downside to that, which is that when you buy a house versus say buying a condo or renting an apartment, you are responsible for the maintenance. No one,’s gon na come mow. The lawn for you, you, don’t, have an HOA to build the pool for you. If you decide to build a WordPress site, there’s a greater learning curve, And you may need to do more work to make sure that it’s working really. Well So there’s more opportunities, but also more responsibilities attached to WordPress The other two options that we recommend are Squarespace and Shopify. Those are software as a service. In our real estate, metaphor, WordPress is like buying a house software as a service tools is like having a condo where you have an HOA that will take care of the maintenance for you, But you also have limitations on what you can do. You can go in and you can maybe paint the walls, but you have your specific parking spot And you don’t get to make decisions about how everything looks within your complex That’s, the trade off that you get to choose. If you want to build your site on Shopify or SquareSpace, they have templates that take care of a lot of things for you. They have very specific protocols of the ways that you build, but you don’t get as much customization, And so, if the idea of WordPress and how open ended it is and how many decisions you have to make sends you into a panic spiral, then maybe WordPress isn’t the right choice for you. If you’re, not tech savvy, and you just want something that works, then I would go for either Squarespace or Shopify. If you’re running a service based business or you,’re a coach or you just want to have a blog, but you don’t want to deal with the tech stuff of WordPress. I would suggest going to Squarespace If you are an E commerce shop. If you’re going to be selling a lot of different products, whether those are physical or digital, I recommend going straight to Shopify. Shopify is such a robust platform. It takes care of it.’s so many different things for you. You know if you’re selling internationally and you need to worry about different tax rates and inventory and credit card payments. It is worth the investment for E commerce businesses to just have that all taken care of. So those are our three top recommendations for software. If you’re wondering about other platforms like Wix or Kajabi, or something that’s really industry specific for you definitely go. Take a look at this video where I talk about who those are good for and who they might not be a good fit for, Because those are not SEO first platforms, They’re user first platforms, Alright step two is to buy your domain. Your domain is like your address on the internet, So if you you know, you go buy that house or you have that condo your domain is what people would write on an envelope to send you a letter. It is essentially when you tell people to go visit. Your website, your domain, is what you’re telling them. So my domain for my business website is love it for search com. How much does your domain matter Honestly? Not that much At least from Google’s perspective, they don’t really care what the words are in your domain, So you, don’t need to be like Dallas interior designer com to show up for Dallas interior design related keywords. So if Google doesn’t care that much about what the words are in your domain, what does it care about? It cares about the words on your website how many high value links you have pointing to your website. We have a couple of videos. We’ll link to below to explain what I mean by that and also how Long that domain has existed. So, if you’re not sure what your domain should be, you can always choose a domain and change it later. You might see a little bit of an SEO bump when you make that change, but it shouldn’t impact your traffic too much And honestly, it’s more important to get your website live relatively quickly than to go. Oh, I want to start a business, But I can’t find a domain that works, So I’m just going to sit on my hands. The immediate follow up question that this is almost always. Where should I buy my domain? If you know that you’re just going to have this one website, probably the easiest place to buy your domain is where you’re building the website. So if you’re on WordPress, you can buy your domain directly from your hosting service. If you’re on Squarespace or Shopify or platform like that, you can buy your domain directly through them And that way you don’t have to think about it. If you’re like me, and you like to hoard domains, because you get lots of ideas and you’re not sure exactly when you’re going to use them, then you should buy all of your domains in one place and then point them to Where they need to go based on where you’re building these websites, You may have heard me say before I have a domain seller where all of my domains are aging like a fine wine Right now that seller is on Google domains, Because I know I Trust, Google, Some people like to buy their domains from places like GoDaddy or cheap domains. I like to buy my domains on Google domains, because that makes it really easy, But I’m actually moving them over to Cloudflare Lately because it’s less expensive to renew them. And when you have a giant domain seller, you don’t want to have to pay forever, But that’s a story for a different day. All right. So you know what software you’re, going to use you’ve selected the domain that you want. You’ve made your that’s available. You’ve purchased it Now. It’s decision time, Step. Three is figuring out whether you want to DIY your website or outsource it to an expert. The real decision here, isn’t so much about DIY or outsourcing it’s about resource management. If you are really curious about website design – and you have a lot of time or you want this – to be a side hustle – you can play with on the side, but you don’t necessarily have a budget for hiring it out. Then there are tons of DIY resources out there, that you can figure out how to create your own website and set it all up. You don’t necessarily need to hire a designer, especially on some of the more user friendly platforms, But there will be a learning curve, as you,’re learning a lot of those design best practices. It will take more time and more of your energy than hiring it out to somebody who’s done it hundreds of times, But on the other hand, if you’re like No way I don’t want to learn any of this. I don’t want to have to figure it out. Then you don’t have to That’s. What designers and developers are here for That’s, how I started my business was building websites for other people. If, instead of investing your time to learn it, you have a budget where you can hire somebody else go for it. It will make your life a whole lot easier And they’ll guide you through a much smoother process than kind of trying to cobble it together yourself, If you’re, not sure, then head over to love at first search com website and take a look At everything that’s involved in that website design process, Or we’ll link to video number two in this series, when it’s ready, so that you can get an idea of all of the steps and stages that go into website design. And that might give you that push of Oh yeah – I can totally do that versus no way. I want someone else to take care of all this. For me, you can also head over to love at first source com website to get a link to our list of designers that we worked with, And that is organized by the software that they use. So you can find somebody that fits that software choice that you have. Maybe they also have an industry specification, and you know that they know me so they can come. Ask me any questions about SEO. Okay, so we’ve got the software and tech sort of figured out at this point. The next thing that we need to figure out is what’s the basic function of the website and what’s, the minimum amount of information that we need to put on it, because your experience with websites might be a more advanced website. You might feel like you need to have a lot of stuff on your website in order to launch it, But the fact is that your website really only needs three things to get started. You need to introduce yourself to your audience. You need to share what your offer is, and you need to find a way for them to take the next step That’s it You don’t need to overcomplicate this any more than that. If you want to get this website up and running quickly, If you just want to be like This website’s ready tomorrow, you can actually put all this information right onto one page. It’s usually a pretty long page, because you need to explain who you are talk about. What your offer is and then give that contact form or email, signup or products that they can buy from you all in one place. So it’s. Typically, pretty long, And I think that one page websites are a really good landing page to get your website up to share your services, especially if you’re trying something new And you’re, not exactly sure how to explain it. Yet. A one page website is a great way to share it with the world, to start to get feedback to get people to work with you, so that we can get more information. But if you want Google to share your information with other people, you’re going to need more on your website than that. I would say that a minimum viable website has four pages. The first is your homepage, which should be a general introduction and a space where people can navigate around the site. The second is your about page, where you can talk about how you work with clients and what’s in it for them When they work with you. The third is your offer thing that you’re trying to sell should go on your website somewhere right. So if you’re an E commerce business, this can be just one product or it can be a small shop with a handful of products. If you’re a service provider or a coach, you may want to have a page specifically about those services, And the last thing is your contact page. This gives you a certain level of credibility that you are a human that they can get in touch with, and especially if you’re just getting started, and you don’t have all the mechanisms in place for, like. Oh here’s, how we do the lead capture And here’s our delivery systems, Just let them email you Don’t overcomplicate this, let’s make it as easy as possible. This is also a really good time to start thinking about your keywords. So, for each of those pages, maybe not the contact form so much, but your homepage, your about page and your offer. You want to think to yourself. What is the thing that people would search for to find this page and then think about the search term that people would look for and integrate those phrases that people would search for into the words on your pages and also into the search engine pieces. So your SEO title and your meta description – I don’t want to get too detailed on beginner keyword, research here because I already have created so many videos around it, but we’ll make sure to link those up below Or again. You can go to love at first search com website In order to get to the full guide that has all of those links in it to get started And the final step step. Number five of our planning phase is mapping out your customer journey. We don’t just want people to come to the website and be like, Oh that’s cool And then leave. We want to give them some next step to take, depending on your business model and your goals, and the way that you want your visitors to engage with your brand. It may be buying a product, it may be filling out a contact form joining your email list. Subscribing to your podcast following you on social media, In fact, I would put those next steps in that order of priority. So let me repeat that back to you buy a product fill out a contact form join. My email list subscribe to my podcast YouTube channel. Whatever your content, marketing is and follow you on social media and then just start to think about what comes next after they take that step. So if they fill out your contact form what’s the reply going to be If they buy that product. What’s your delivery mechanisms? You know how you’re going to sell it and ship that product If they join your email list? Where are you collecting that email address We’ll actually do the setup and integration of that phases in the next stage, But I just want you to be thinking about when people find me. What do I want them to do And that’s the end of stage, one which is all about planning your website If you want to go check out that entire website guide head over to love at first search com website? If you want to make sure that you don’t miss future videos, you can subscribe to our channel and make sure to check out the next video in this series, which is all about. Actually, you know building the website that you’ve planned out. I’ll see you, then Transcribed by https, otter, ai
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