Show Notes
Most people make this HUGE mistake when building a website.
It’s so common that it’s become an industry norm to create a website because that’s what you’re ‘supposed’ to do.
But the purpose of the website is to either generate leads or sales. Sure, it can be a great business card, but why waste so much time and money on something that doesn’t consistently bring you growth in your business?
In this episode we’re talking about:
- Why performance and speed should be your number one priority
- The correct amount of call to actions you should have
- How to create a personality for your site and the importance of it to create a higher conversion.
Connect with us
Transcript
Aaron [00:00:00] Hey all, welcome to another episode of the Marketing Natives. This is a fun episode, we're talking about Websites, especially if you are a local businesses. It's absolutely crucial, if you've been thinking about a new Website. If you have been thinking about a redesign.Tthese things are absolutely important for you and your business, because if you just build a site and you expect people to go there, you're probably in the majority. But there's a lot of things that you need to do. On this episode we're talking about Website performance and a common mistakes that are slowing down your site. We're talking about why you should have one clear call to action and why personality is crucial for conversions on your site. Enjoy.
Narrator [00:00:38] This is the Marketing Natives providing actual ways to grow, improve and succeed in your business.
Narrator [00:00:46] And now your host Christian and Aaron.
Christian [00:00:54] All right.
Christian [00:00:54] So there are several things here that we're going to talk about. And if you're confused about title.
Christian [00:01:03] It is gonna make more sense now. So, number one, it's performance.
Aaron [00:01:09] Well, I okay. So.
Aaron [00:01:12] For here, I guess when we have our notes, slow Web sites, you're talking about just speed, right, or performance can be. Like the conversion round and say, are we talking e-commerce or we're talking or just in general, e-commerce, informational. So I'm trying to ask from like I'm trying to understand from this snip. .
Christian [00:01:33] Any Website.
Aaron [00:01:33] OK.
Christian [00:01:34] I mean, yeah. I mean, you're talking about, for example. Yeah. You make e-commerce website and you don't care about the performance of it, then this is gonna be really slow. And, you know, things are not gonna be working properly as well. So, I mean, it performance, I think almost equals speed majority of the time. Same with, you know, if you have an informational Website or even a blog post and. Yeah. Performance is not there. You know, things are loading really slowly. Lose people, lose interest pretty quickly. So it's important to not just build a Website and make it look cool and good, but also look at all the things that you're putting in. So, for example, like on a blog post page, you could include things like the share buttons. Right. To very easily share on on social media.
Aaron [00:02:30] Right.
Christian [00:02:30] You could include a bar at the top that as you're scrolling it tells you how far along you're at. On this page.
Aaron [00:02:40] Yes it's kind of cool.
Christian [00:02:42] You could have I mean, you can have a bunch of different things that, for example, if you're not on a WordPress Website, all those little things require different plugins. Right. And there's different plugins. They have to basically connect to those servers and databases. Right. To pull that information. So things like that. Adding plugins to a simple page, like a blog post page could affect the performance of that page. Same goes for you know, if we're not talking about speed, maybe performance could be. How well does it perform on different browsers? Right. How well does it perform on different devices?
Aaron [00:03:19] What do you mean? Like how it's still, how quickly it loads. Or like.
Christian [00:03:22] Yeah. And then like I mean, maybe not the quickness, but also it could be that whatever type of code that you're using on this browser. It doesn't necessarily work the same on this other browser. So like things like I don't like flex box, for example. I mean, it's pretty well known and pretty used on all the browsers. But when something new like that comes up, which flex blocks just allows you to manipulate the content and move it, you know, differently than you used to before. But new technologies like that, the browsers actually have to update to accommodate for that new technology flex box, for example. And if the browser and you're using that new technology because you're using a brand new Website builder. But then there's several browsers that don't support that technology. Then you're kind of dead in the water when your website doesn't look as well to a lot of your customers. So I think performance just needs to be top of mind in looking at things like speed. Looking at things like how does the Website look and react on different browsers and different devices.
Aaron [00:04:32] So my question for you, and I guess people are wondering, too, is how do you make your website faster? Because if I don't, if I'm building something, let's say, for example, on Web flow or Shopify or something like that.
Christian [00:04:43] I mean, I'm going to have to do three other podcasts on how to do that.
Aaron [00:04:47] Well, like, what's the biggest thing, I guess. We'll give them one. Like, that was the number one way to like instantly make your website a little bit faster.
Christian [00:04:55] I guess, like I said, plugins, I would strip down any plugins from from your Website. You probably, especially you're starting out. You probably don't need a lot of the gadgets and features that bare websites have or can afford. Right.
Christian [00:05:13] So I would say, you know, plugins and then obviously images. Images and videos would probably deter from using, like videos on the background where they auto play.
Aaron [00:05:26] So don't upload the video to the Website?
Christian [00:05:29] Do what?
Aaron [00:05:29] You know what I'm saying like, where do you see sometimes where people literally like upload the big video on their website and it's like it just takes forever to either like load that page or start it. I don't know. I've just have seen it myself where you go there and there's a three minute video that they expect you to watch, just like at the very first thing you see is like the three minute video. Either push players or already started to load.
Christian [00:05:51] Yeah. I mean, the ones that auto load to just play in the background, I mean, yet again they look nice and whatever, but I mean, is that really was going to move the needle forward on a Website.
Aaron [00:05:59] Right.
Christian [00:06:00] Convert. So sure it might look cool. But you always need to look at how is it affecting the speed of the Website? How is it affecting, you know, the performance? You know how people navigate through the Website. So that's more important. And that's what I would say. That's more important than having a cool video. You can probably have an image replaced. And you would still get the conversions that you want and point and. Have your point come across on the Website. A lot of times these videos, they're just they're just there for looks, right? They don't really serve a purpose. They don't tell a story.
Christian [00:06:35] Some of them might.
Aaron [00:06:37] A lot of it's just like a drone shot of something. For whatever reason, there's a drone shot at your building.
Christian [00:06:42] Yeah. So, again, I think that performance just needs to be a priority over some of these other things where it just looks cool or you want that feature. I will say focus first on the performance. Make sure that your website is fast. And then of the one place that I would tell you to go to to check for speed and performance would be G.T. metrics dot com. Yeah, you can run a free speed report in there and it actually will give you a list of different things that you can do to your website. It'll probably tell you some things about images. It will tell you about the JavaScript and different plugins that you have installed.
Christian [00:07:22] Yes, performance needs to be a priority.
Aaron [00:07:24] All right. Number two, we said here to have a clear call to action.
Aaron [00:07:29] And maybe there's too many that are on the site. So, like, whenever you're like. So walk me through. I guess, Christian, if you were like designing a site, when you're saying a call to action, you're saying like, all right, this is what we want people to do when they go to that here image.
Aaron [00:07:42] But how many call it actions or what does it mean by what do you think is not a clear call to action, I guess?
Christian [00:07:49] I mean, maybe having again too many. I feel like that's the biggest drawback that we see on auto Websites. It's having too many call to actions specially like on the homepage instead of the home page, should be able to sell something.
Christian [00:08:04] Right. Either tell a story to sell something or give you enough information about this one particular thing in order to convert that person.
Aaron [00:08:15] Right.
Christian [00:08:16] And that's like. And I mean, we talked about this, you know, with like story brand and how websites they need to be able to walk the customer through some sort of journey in order to understand your product a little bit better. So including things like testimonials, including the.
Christian [00:08:36] Well, we call it the. Oh, my gosh. Why session time?
Aaron [00:08:43] Social proof.
Christian [00:08:44] Social Proof, yeah. OK. Including logos like, you know, including logos that are that your customers will recognize that enhances and social proof of that particular page. So just having a clear call to action. A lot of people also want to have, for example, two or three buttons. That's like, oh, call us. Or you can e-mail us. Or, you know, you can also click on this email button that will just open up your email client on your computer.
Aaron [00:09:12] Right.
Christian [00:09:13] So having just that one thing that's like, OK, maybe it's scheduled, this phone call.
Aaron [00:09:17] Right.
Christian [00:09:18] Right. And that will take that button. It's throughout the whole Website. And no matter what service, no matter what product you're interested in, it's always you're going to schedule that phone call with them. Does not have to schedule a phone call. I could be, you know, fill out this form or.
Christian [00:09:33] This application. Yeah.
Christian [00:09:36] So, yeah, just having a one clear call to action through the Website and making a consistent throughout.
Aaron [00:09:42] Yeah, definitely. I think like you said, it's more so just confusing. Like I go to other marketing Websites too, or like anybody else, like we're looking at something and it's just. Yeah. Do this. And then there's other this other option. I think restaurants are obviously the worst, too. It's like, do you want me to call you? You want me to look at the menu? Do you want me to go get delivery? What about takeout? Like they just want. I think restaurants are just sorry for the restaurant people they just want. All right. I want you to do everything. And this is just super confusing. And then I can't even find their menu, side note. But there's no button for their menu. And or if you do click it, it's like download this PDF versus look at it. So call actions, absolutely. So should they like to clarify? You're just saying, like, if there's one, if you want them to do one thing that call action should be the same, like, hey, schedule the call and it's all the way down or whatever. Like that's the main thing. Not three different options, I guess.
Christian [00:10:37] Right. Exactly. Yeah. It's all about having that one call to action, then being consistent through the website by having the same schedule now throughout the website where it takes you to the same place. And then it doesn't mean that you don't, you can't have options, for example, like in the contact page. Sure. You can have your phone number, any other additional information, maybe a different type of form. And they read contact you about something.
Christian [00:11:00] But I would say anywhere else on the website, you need to have that one call to action that will take then to that one place.
Aaron [00:11:15] Local business owners, if you're ready to grow your business online without having to work more in your business. And you can spend more time on it. We created a free training on how to attract, qualify and convert more leads online. It's 38 minutes. It's gonna take a little bit of your time, but it's going to have a huge benefit. It's completely free. Make sure you click below and the description, whether you're on Facebook, whether on YouTube, whether you're on the podcast, everything's there that you need. Go grab the training now.
Christian [00:11:47] Number three, it's websites usually don't have any personality. So, again, a lot of people.
Christian [00:11:56] A lot of people maybe create Websites that are heavily templated, you know, like from Squarespace or Wix and they just want to have a Website up and running and that's it. And then negate things like what you're actually going to say on the Website. Right. The copy that, your story, how you're actually selling people into your product, what makes you unique? What are your benefits?
Aaron [00:12:17] Right.
Christian [00:12:18] I think, you know, the copy copyists super, super important on how you say things. Because. I think that's one of the best ways to portray your personality. I think you can do pictures and videos and links to videos and things like that. But I think the copy is very important and it will highly differentiate you from someone else because everyone else is going the old boring route. Of.
Aaron [00:12:46] Please, would you like to contact us? Fill out this form versus like, yo, let's get in touch. We can't wait to party with you or something.
Aaron [00:12:52] You know.
Christian [00:12:54] Yeah. Just adding cool stuff like that in your copy will definitely make you very unique. And like we're saying here, I mean, we're trying to tell you that, you know, putting this out, putting a Web site out and just leaving your regular old copy in there. It might serve the purpose, but actually focusing on that copy and your personality and inserting that personality into the Website. It's going to go leaps and bounds, it's going to do way better than your competition or other Websites.
Aaron [00:13:25] Right.
Aaron [00:13:26] And why would you like redesign the site to do the exact same thing? Like or if you're starting from scratch, why would you go and just put something out to put something out?
Aaron [00:13:36] Or if you're redesigning and you know you need a redesign, why would you put the exact same thing back on the site.If it didn't work before? Why is it going to work now? Just because it looks a little bit better? And I guess from what you've said earlier, like, OK, it's slower and then I'm clear to call the actions and then the call to action or the copy is the same. Getting a new site doesn't even make sense. So it's like the Website. You need a new Website. So it's time to make those changes, too.
Christian [00:14:01] Yeah. And I think I mean, it doesn't have to mean it's really just a copy. You can insert, like I said, personality you know within the picture that you use. I think the most common thing that you see when people put personality into the Websites, it's like the profile photos.
Aaron [00:14:16] Yeah. Where you have a little fun their.
Christian [00:14:17] Yeah. You have a little fun picture to show. So that's probably the most that you see when people are maybe putting in a little bit more their personality.
Aaron [00:14:25] They're trying to be a little edgy, like we're professional ish.
Christian [00:14:28] Yeah.
Aaron [00:14:29] I think 10 years ago it was probably different than what it is now. Like, people were a little bit more lenient, like we would hire an accountant who said, like you know, hey look, we're gonna crunch the numbers. We're going to help your business grow. Like, if they're just like this is what we're gonna offer. But then they were fun with the text. I think it's more like accepting now than it was probably 10 years ago where I was like. And so I guess it's more so get along with the times of you know what people want and to keep them entertained I guess too.
Christian [00:14:56] Right.
Christian [00:14:57] Yeah. Yeah.
Christian [00:14:59] Yeah. Copy images then ideo are all great ways to insert personality.
Aaron [00:15:07] All right. Next one we have here is high quality design helps you make a big impact. And I think I can't remember what the number is or like how they measure it, but like a good design will make people purchase more.
Aaron [00:15:21] So, like, if it's the packaging, if it's like a like I think of just going to McDonald's, they're going to target or some like that. You see it everywhere. But even on a Website, it just looks like I was on a Sky site last week. It was a insurance site. It was made in 2011 and it looked like it was made in 2011. It's just like boxes and like half of it didn't fit the screen. I'm like, does this guy even still in business? But if he would add a nice, clean, sleek, like our insurance guys are actually have a very 2020 type of website. It's like you want to buy from those guys because, like, they know what they're doing. They know whats going on and I know what it is, but we're just drawn to it if you know more about, like, the psychological part of it or not.
Christian [00:16:01] But you know what I mean. It's a it even goes to you know, we say high quality, like having, like, fuzzy images or fuzzy logo.
Aaron [00:16:11] Yeah.
Christian [00:16:12] That draws you back. You're like.
Aaron [00:16:15] Turns off. Yeah.
Christian [00:16:16] It's a huge turn off on websites. So again, I think the the high quality also taking into consideration like the conversion rate of these people who were visiting your Website. So when we say high quality, yeah. We're looking at the type of fonts that you're using and using something more unique than maybe open sans or Monserrat, which like.
Aaron [00:16:39] Arials.
Christian [00:16:39] That arial. So, like, yeah. Using something, you know, other people are not using. Make sure that your images are high quality images, while the same time going back to number one performance. Right. To make sure that it's not bogging down the Website. As far as speed. Yeah, we think like high quality design. Translate. I guess high quality design mixed with that, keeping the conversion in mind and how your audience is going to navigate this Website.
Christian [00:17:09] It was really going to make big impact on the website overall. So those are things that.
Christian [00:17:18] Again. You're not just making a website. You need to.
Christian [00:17:22] Take into consideration, you know, the high quality images, the high quality videos, high quality. I was thinking about performance and then translating that into. OK. How is this person, once they land on my home page, what do I want them to do? All right. Again, going back to the call to action and why would they click on that call to action? What do I need to tell this person about me, about the company, about my products that will make them. Ah. Yeah. And.
Aaron [00:17:52] I have a solution.
Christian [00:17:53] Yeah, I have the solution. And you need this from me.
Aaron [00:17:56] Right.
Christian [00:17:56] Because of these things that I'm showing you. So it's important not to.
Christian [00:18:02] Look at the competition and maybe the competition has. They have a video on their hero section, then they have a maybe.
Christian [00:18:11] These are our products. And then they have testimonials and then they have a photo. And like, I think it's good to look at the competition, but it's also good to look at how your customer is going to navigate through the website, someone who doesn't know anything about it. Why would they purchase from you? Why would they click that to schedule a call button?
Aaron [00:18:28] And if they don't have any reason or you have nothing to pay us off the fact that the competition is like, oh, dang, we're looking at you like, oh, we're looking over here, will come here. And then you create the exact same thing. Which is like why we talked about an episode one sixty nine, which is standing out from the competition. So go listen to that. All right. Our last one here is probably one of the most important parts, especially for Google and for you to be found is to have a blog or a means to add continent is is absolutely crucial. So we have our podcast, which guys are listening to or watching. We put that on the Website, which is kind of considered a blog. So we update the content that way. And we also do have a blog page. But, you know, have something that updates your Website consistently. So the Google. Hey These guys are doing something besides, like the insurance guy I mentioned earlier, the 2011 guy. He's never had a blog. I don't see who's ever touched his Website. He told me as a sidebar, he told me he hasn't been able to log into his go daddy website builder for a couple years. So I know for sure he isn't updating his site. But that's I mean, neither here nor there. But the point is, if you're not publishing your content, Google's like you're just kind of like you're out there like we're not gonna give any, you know, rankings to somebody who is an added value to their customers.
Christian [00:19:45] Yeah, I think I mean, a lot of a lot of business owners who like that were OK with the Website and they expect traffic just to pour in.
Aaron [00:19:51] Yeah. Well it doesn't work that way.
Christian [00:19:54] So that's why, you know, we always encourage them to have a blog and just, you know, you don't have a huge strategy or anything, like, really well thought out. Like you still put out content.
Aaron [00:20:06] Something.
Christian [00:20:07] And do something where again, going back to the previous episode. Consistent. Right. Be consistent with the way that you're posting on your Website. But absolutely, just having the Website with information, that's not enough. You need to create something like a blog or a podcast or make videos where you're constantly updating the content on on your Website.
Aaron [00:20:31] Nice.
Aaron [00:20:33] Awesome. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I know you've got a lot out of this. We're gonna have show notes. And also, if you're watching on YouTube, you've got to see some some visuals. But if you are listening on the podcast and you have been listening for a while, please make to make sure to leave us an honest rating review on Apple podcast. That's how we grow. And if you've been watching on YouTube, also make sure to hit that subscribe button at the time of this recording, we're probably over 2000 subscribers, but we'd love for you to be one of those as well. And we put out new content for local businesses to grow their business every single week. We could be talking about Websites and what you need to have there. We could be talking about online marketing, but it's everything focused on local businesses. So if that's you, make sure you subscribe and we'll put out content every week to help you do that. All right. We'll talk to you guys next week.
Narrator [00:21:20] The Marketing Native's podcast is a production of BitBranding.
