fbpx

Does your website suck? How to tell for sure.

You know, when most of us think about getting up and running online, we think “websites.”

And we will go to so much darn trouble getting our website up and running, often before we’re even sure about:

  • What programs we want to offer
  • What types of people we are marketing to (single moms? all moms? what about dads?)
  • What our website needs to be doing in order to actually make a difference

…Because here’s the thing: The most important thing is NOT that your website is pretty. If you’ve got a pretty website, well, that’s nice. But what I care about is whether or not your website is working for you. So, I want to ask you:

Is your website actually set up to attract leads and nurture them into clients?

…or…

Is your website just a super-spendy business card?

“Kathryn, I haven’t spent a dime on my website,” you may be saying. “I built it by myself with a cool DIY website builder.”

Okay. So maybe you didn’t spend money on your site… but how much TIME did it take you? (Yeah, that’s what I thought.)

And if you DID spend a whole bunch of money getting your site developed for you, well, are you happy with it? Is it getting you as much visibility AND as many clients as you’d hoped for?

How to Tell If Your Website Is Working

It used to be that you could put up a website, any website, stuff it full of your keywords (e.g. put the words “stay-at-home mom jobs” 50 times at the bottom of each page), and you’d be found on search engines.

It doesn’t work like that anymore.

These days, having an online business is actually not about whether you have a website at all, but actually about whether you are growing an email list.

So. That means that what we REALLY want your website to do is:

  • Make it easy for people to get in touch with you
  • Have a way for you to grow your email list (e.g. you want people to be able to give you their email addresses right there on your website)
  • Set you up so you can run Facebook Ads to people who visit your website

…In other words, we want your website to be a communication and list-building tool, something that makes it as easy as humanly possible for you to get people’s contact information so that you can stay in touch with them.

Here’s what this looks like in real life:

1) Make sure you have your contact info easily findable, as well as a “contact us” form.

This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many websites I come across where I have trouble figuring out how to actually get in touch with someone. Make it easy. One great place for contact info is in the footer of your website… on every page.

And then a contact form is great, too, because people send you a quick email when they don’t really feel like picking up the phone and calling (which is less common these days). Also, it gets you the person’s email address, which makes it easier for you to stay in touch – just make sure you aren’t using their email address for anything they haven’t given you permission for.

2) Have an opt-in form on your website.

An opt-in form is just a techie term for “email address getter.” It’s a place for someone to put in their name and email address to be put on your mailing list.

In exchange, they usually get a freebie from you of some kind. A free e-book, a free report, a free checklist… something of value that will help them with the types of problems that you solve in your business.

Free gifts are super important. These days it’s usually not enough to just say, “Hey, sign up for my newsletter so we can stay in touch.” Newsletters don’t feel very generous these days because they. are. everywhere. I’m not saying don’t have a newsletter; I am saying that give people something for free in exchange for them giving you their email address. Make sense?

(Have a free gift already, but it’s not working as well as you’d like to grow your email list? Here’s what you can do about that.)

So. Make sure you have a place on your website for people to give you their name and email address. Have it linked to your email list so you can start capturing email addresses and sending out your freebies automatically.

(If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please check out my free masterclass where I’m talking about all this stuff. I explain exactly how all the puzzle pieces fit together, why they’re so important, plus I share the exact steps I’ve taken to start and monetize multiple online businesses, sometimes in as little as a week.)

3) Set your website up to be able to run Facebook Ads.

This is a longer-term strategy, but it’s super important. And if this is above your paygrade, just hire someone to do this for you because it’s pretty easy for a tech-savvy person to do (shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours).

What I’m talking about is installing something on your website called a Facebook Pixel.

If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, then gone over to Facebook and noticed that half of the things you were looking at on Amazon are now appearing in your newsfeed on Facebook, well, you’ve been on the receiving end of the magic of the Facebook Pixel.

I want you to put that same magic to work for you in your business. Basically it’s just a teensy piece of code that gets added to your site so that people who visit your website can be advertised to, by you, on Facebook.

Cool right?

Now, it will usually take some time for Facebook to gather a large enough audience of people from your website so that you can advertise to them, which is all the more reason for you to get that pixel on your website right now. Then later on when you’re ready to start advertising on Facebook, you’ll be in a prime position to do so.

(FYI – If you’ve run Facebook Ads without a pixel before, that’s likely a huge part of the reason your ads didn’t do all that well. But that’s a topic for another post.)

Gah! This is a lot! Now what?

The good news is this: It can feel like a lot… but it’s actually not a lot for someone who knows what they’re doing. I teach this stuff to my members every day and they get this stuff set up pretty darn fast. And, if it feels overwhelming to you, just get someone else to do it.

Now the other thing is this:

Today I’ve shared my top 3 things you need to make your website a success and I actually have 7 more. So, if you’d like to know my complete top 10 list for websites that actually help you GROW your business – instead of just being a pricey line item – click below:


Click here to get my essential website checklist so your website’s actually helping you get clients. (← my gift to you)

I really hope you’ve found this post helpful. If you have, please leave me a comment. And I would love it if you spread the word. ?

I appreciate you,

Kathryn

2 Comments

  1. Fran

    Thanks for the tips….I know my website needs work, now I know more about what I need to do. One of my sites is a blog (actually 2 of them) and one is my site but needs a lead capture.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *