Kristen Doyle 0:00
Have you ever thought once my website is totally done, I’ll finally be all set and ready to share it with the world? Well, I hate to break it to you, but your website will never actually be done, and that’s not a bad thing. It is completely normal, and the sooner you embrace the fact that your website will always be changing, the better.
Kristen Doyle 0:27
Think about some of your favorite brands and how often they refresh the look of their website or add new features or change out images. Your website works the same way. Today we are going to talk about building your site in phases, avoiding perfectionism and making sure that your website is flexible enough to grow along with your business.
Kristen Doyle 0:53
So whether you’re DIYing your website, you’re working with a web designer, or you already have an existing site, and you’re starting to feel that pull to make some changes, today is all about how we can set our websites up so that those changes are easy to make.
Kristen Doyle 1:13
Are you a digital product or course creator, selling on platforms like teachers pay teachers, Etsy or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you’re in the right place.
Kristen Doyle 1:29
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I’m Kristen Doyle, and I’m here to give you no fluff, tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process. Things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automations, and so much more. Let’s get started y’all.
Kristen Doyle 1:55
The big mindset shift I want you to make is that your website isn’t a one and done project. Your website is a living, breathing part of your business. It should be a tool that adapts to your goals and evolves as your business grows. Like I said earlier, even very established businesses update their website content, the features and even their design over time, so that they can stay relevant and they can continue to resonate with their target audience.
Kristen Doyle 2:26
And your business is no different. There are lots of different changes that you might want to make over time as your business grows, you can expect to need, at some point to add new services or maybe a storefront of your own to your website. You might need to create specialized pages for things like sales pages or lead magnets. Maybe you start a podcast, and you need to build out a podcast hub on your website.
Kristen Doyle 2:54
My client, Erin, added a store to her website when she migrated over to WordPress, and she was able to make back the money she invested on the design and the migration within a few months because of the sales that she made in her new website store. So adding these things to your site, while it might be an investment of your time or your money, really can pay off so well in the long run.
Kristen Doyle 3:18
Not to mention over time, you might need to update the design of the site, or even some of the performance aspects to reflect new trends as styles change over time, and to update to current technology so that you can get faster load times and better mobile usability on your site. Knowing that your website will never really be done and that it will always be evolving and changing will hopefully help keep perfectionism from holding you back when it comes to sharing your site or launching that new thing.
Kristen Doyle 3:52
See, waiting for perfect before you launch is a huge mistake. What we often do is we as business owners, and I am no exception, we often obsess over little details like exact shades in your color palette or an image or a font that you’re just not quite sure is right, or we feel like every feature we ever think we might want to include on our website has to be there and be finished and perfect before we can launch.
Kristen Doyle 4:23
Sometimes we overthink our content to the point that it never gets published. I know we probably all have a lot of blog posts sitting in our drafts that are almost done but never published. And I would love for you to embrace the idea that Done is better than perfect.
Kristen Doyle 4:40
A live website that you are sharing with the world, even if it’s fairly basic, can go ahead and start working for your business, whether that means driving traffic to your product listings, capturing email leads to grow your list, or setting you up as an expert when people read your content.
Kristen Doyle 4:59
Having a website, even if it’s not quite as perfect as you want it to be, can go ahead and start the ball rolling on working for your business, not to mention seeing how your site performs. And getting feedback from real users is going to help you refine your site over time. You really can’t make it perfect before you test it out with real users anyway, so don’t wait for perfection before you launch and start sharing your website.
Kristen Doyle 5:27
I actually got into a situation last fall when I rebranded my own business and was updating the site where I was just running out of time to get all the little pieces perfect, and I decided to go ahead and finish and launch, even though there might have been some pages that weren’t quite rebranded as fully as I wanted them to be. Maybe I had left some old images up there, and what I was able to do is come back and work on those over time.
Kristen Doyle 5:59
In fact, I am still working on replacing some of that old content, some of those old images, but no one noticed, except me. And if I had waited for everything to be done and perfect, well, I still wouldn’t have my rebranded site launched, because it’s still not all complete, even a year later, and that is because I have been too busy to work on it, but it’s also because I have embraced the fact that Done is better than perfect, and that no one is going to leave my website because they saw one image on one page that is old branding instead of new.
Kristen Doyle 6:34
So embrace the idea of doing it a little messy and having it done so that you can share it with the world and start getting traffic to your site.
Kristen Doyle 6:43
When it comes to building a website that can really grow and scale with your business, you might want to think about building in phases, especially if you are watching budget or you don’t have a ton of time. Start with the essentials, the main things every website needs. This is going to be your homepage, where you’re communicating what you offer, who it’s for, and how they can get it.
Kristen Doyle 7:06
Your about page, where you’re sharing your own story in a way that builds trust with your audience and establishes you as an expert. And then, depending on your business, if you’re a service provider, you’ll need a work with me page that highlights your main service that you offer to people. If you are a blogger, you’ll need a blog set up, and you might need a contact with me page as well get those essential pages done first and go ahead and launch your site.
Kristen Doyle 7:32
Then, over time, you can add extra functionality to meet whatever goals or changes are happening in your business. Maybe you have some more offers or services that you want to add. Maybe you need to add a podcast hub if you have started a podcast, maybe you want to add a shop, if you sell digital products, and you want to go ahead and start selling them on your own site, instead of relying on your marketplace platform for all of your sales.
Kristen Doyle 7:59
After you’ve got your essentials built out, you can always come in and add those advanced features to continue improving your site. Another client of mine, Ashley, we redesigned her entire website, and then she came back for an update when she wanted to start a podcast, because she knew she wanted something better than just throwing her podcast show notes into a blog post with an audio player.
Kristen Doyle 8:22
So we added a strategic podcast hub with custom fields for things like her transcripts and separate podcast categories and archives so that she had this great custom home for her podcast. But we didn’t do that in the beginning. We added that down the road. If you are working with a web designer on your website project, then choosing the right designer and the right tools really matters, because not all web designers focus on creating a site that can grow with you.
Kristen Doyle 8:52
Some web designers create overly custom websites that are really hard, if not impossible, to update. So make sure you look for a good designer who asks about long term goals and builds planning for those changes down the road. When it comes to themes, you need to look for themes that are lightweight and adaptable. There are some themes that are kind of like cookie cutters that box you in to specific layouts and specific sets of plugins that you have to use with their theme, whereas others let you create whatever you need.
Kristen Doyle 9:27
So make sure you’re choosing a theme that has lots of growth potential and isn’t going to box you into certain layouts, so that you’re able to add functionality down the road. And if you’re not sure what theme to pick, ask your web designer, because he or she can point you in the right direction based on your goals.
Kristen Doyle 9:44
The big red flags to watch for are overly customized code, where your designer is hard coding lots of updates, because that can make simple updates really difficult or even impossible sometimes, and platforms or themes. Really lock you in to very limited functionality and won’t let you grow.
Kristen Doyle 10:05
My client, Ashley, that I just told you about when she came back to add the podcast hub to her website. It was a really easy project, because we had planned and built her site up front so that it had room for growth. The site was adaptable, and it was ready to add that functionality without needing a total redesign. And this podcast hub wasn’t even something on our radar at the time, but we knew we wanted to build a site that was flexible and that could grow with whatever she decided to add to her business.
Kristen Doyle 10:34
Some important questions you should ask any designer that you’re thinking about working with would be how easy it might be to add new features or new functionality later on, and whether or not you’ll be able to make small updates yourself, or if you’ll need to come back to them for all the updates.
Kristen Doyle 10:53
When you’re thinking about updating your site, I know a lot of times we can focus on the visual updates that we want To make, but I would encourage you to think beyond just design and focus on functionality that really supports your business over just making updates for the sake of design ideas. For example, things like adding a shop or creating a resource library, adding a podcast hub, these things can help to improve user experience and to drive conversions on your site.
Kristen Doyle 11:24
So when you’re thinking about things to add and update on your site, make sure you’re focused on those conversions and improving that user experience. Keep in mind that your website is a tool that grows and changes, not a static one and done project. Remember that waiting for perfect before you share your site is just going to hold you back and make sure that you’re building your site in phases so that you can grow your site along with your business.
Kristen Doyle 11:56
When it comes to the tools that you’re using and the right designer, make sure you’re focused on having a scalable website that can adapt and grow with you, and you’re planning for those long term updates and growth over time. Make sure you’re choosing a designer and a set of tools that really set you up for future success. Your action step for today’s episode is, if you have a website already, go take a look at it with objective eyes.
Kristen Doyle 12:25
Think about what is on your site that needs to be improved. Maybe you’re one of those people who has your podcast episodes listed just like a blog post, or maybe your storefront doesn’t look as good as it should. Or what are you doing in your business that isn’t even on your website right now?
Kristen Doyle 12:45
So often I run into clients who have added new services or a membership, or course, to their offers, and those things don’t even exist on their websites unless someone really goes digging for them. So take an objective look at your site and see what there is that you could be working on to improve or change your website.
Kristen Doyle 13:07
And if you’re looking for a designer who’s going to build setting you up for that future success with an adaptable, scalable website, you know, I’m your girl. I would love for you to reach out to me on Instagram or set up a strategy call where we can talk about what you need for your website and how to get it done. Talk to you soon.
