How To Create A Powerful Website, And Why You Should Care

So you have a product or service that will change the world!

But, alas, nobody knows about it, and compelling marketing is a thing of fairy tails and philosophy books.

You need help, and I want to help you.

So here's, step by step, how we help our clients.

But first, it should be obvious by now that I own a branding and web design agency, and even though we only work with clients who will benefit most from our services, I do believe that a solid brand and a killer website is the most important foundation for any business.

(Note: every business is different, and not everyone needs the same things at the same time. If you fall into one of these categories, then this process I will lay out for you below will work for you, assuming you take it seriously.)

1. You are a new business and don't believe you look as good as you should to really start promoting yourself.
2. You're an existing business with good momentum, but you look like your website was built before the internet.
3. Your website is confusing, doesn't seem to get people to do what you want them to do, and you're not sure how to fix it.

In each of these cases, the work is essentially the same.

It all starts with branding.

A brand should be compelling. A brand is more than just a symbol, some colors, and a name.

To develop your brand, you must first answer these questions:

1. Who is your target audience?
2. What is their #1 pain point?
3. What would life look like for them once you solve their problem?
4. What colors best represent the energy and ideas you are trying to represent?
5. What emotions are your ideal clients feeling before they find you?
6. What emotions do you want them to feel as soon as they find you?
7. What makes you uniquely valuable to your ideal clients, better than anyone else they could talk to?

And based on all of that, you can start developing your brand.

Not convinced your brand is that important? Click Here to find out why you might want to take it more seriously.

Now you need messaging.

These are the words you will use to speak your truth.

What can you say that will convince people that you know what they are dealing with and exactly how to help them?

How can you be unique and original, without losing focus on what you do?

As a company philosophy, we try to build websites with as few words as humanly possible, and that just makes every single word we use that much more important and thought out.

Write down a bunch of ideas, keep it as short and clear as possible, and we will start plugging those ideas into the website as we build it out.

Next step is your website.

Now that you've developed your brand and come up with your messaging, you can start designing your website, and I don't just mean how it looks.

Your website is an experience, and our goal is to make sure that your viewers are led through an experience that will convince them that you are the perfect choice for their problems.

So we need to know the following:

1. What is the exact information they need to know to make the decisions that you want them to make?
2. In what exact order should that information show up so they don't see the wrong thing at the wrong time.
3. How can you design your site to show this information as simply as possible? Perhaps using images, statistics, videos, etc.
4. How can you intentionally guide your viewers through this information so they don't even realize that you are making their decisions for them?

Once we know that we can start building the site.

And finally, we need to make sure your site can be found.

There are many things you can do to ensure visibility, some are easier, some are harder, some are worth your time and $, and some are not.

Here are some general rules of thumb regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

1. If you do not have much competition, and especially not much tech savvy, well-established competition, then you DO NOT need to hire an SEO company.
2. If you are in a very saturated market, with a lot of competition, and plan to rely heavily on organic search traffic, then you should probably hire an SEO company. BUYER BEWARE: There are no shortage of bad SEO companies out there that still cost an arm and a leg. Talk to me first before hiring someone and I am happy to point you in the right direction.

Want to learn a bit more about SEO and how it works? Click Here for our personal philosophy and some tricks you can start using today.

Here are some things you need to do to make sure you show up in all the right places.

1. Claim, verify and populate your Google My Business listing. Go to business.google.com and get started.
2. Upload your website to Google Search Console, just google it and follow the directions.
3. Get to know your website's built-in SEO tools. Every builder is different, but they all have something. Populate everything you can.
4. Sign up for as many online listings as you can, like bing, yellow pages, social media platforms, etc, and make sure they all link back to your site. Do a quick Google search for suggestions, and there is no shortage of websites to link to.
5. Get testimonials. Your Google My Business Listing will provide you with a customized review link that you can send all of your best clients and customers.
6. Learn how to use social media to establish yourself and build your brand (so many ways to do this, so not going to elaborate here, but it's not rocket science, and you can find lots of great ideas on YouTube or Google.

And if organic traffic is not enough, and it often isn't, then paid advertising is going to be your best friend once you figure out how to use it properly.

There are hundreds of ways to do this, some much more popular and recommended than others, but again, every business is different, so reach out and I'll help point you in the right direction if you get stuck.

So there you have it!

That's literally, step by step what we do with our clients, and it's a very in-depth, collaborative process.

If you have any questions about any of these steps, feel free to reach out and I am happy to answer any questions.

And if this all seems like way more than you want to deal with yourself, but you definitely know that you need to do it all, then we can definitely help you and would love to hear from you.

Oh yeah, and why should you care??

Because if you don't, then you will have nothing to care about anyway when you have to close up shop. It's only a matter of time. Period.

So don't put this off any longer, stop convincing yourself that it's good enough the way it is, and start being honest with yourself about how you are stacking up to your competition.

The rest is up to you :)