3 Ways To Easily Update Your Website
Have you been feeling like your website is looking kind of stale?
It might be time to refresh your website. Here are the top 3 things you should do to spruce up your site and make it snazzy.
Put your headshot or team photo on your business website.
The first thing that you have to do on your site to get it to convert better is to put your face on it - as awkward as that might be. Trust me, even knowing that it helps businesses (especially service providers) gain traction, I resisted it for so long. But here’s the truth:
People do business with PEOPLE.
So unless you have money to spend on ads and retargeting, you might as well put your face on your website.
Here’s a real world example: A client told me she had chosen me among the other potential agencies, not because my studio was bigger or due to price, but because I put my face on my website. She didn’t trust the other agencies that only had their faces on the team page or, worse, no images at all.
She didn’t feel like she could trust a business with thousands of dollars when they didn’t even put their photos on the website.
Places you can put your headshots and team photos include:
Home
About
Services
Blog
Contact
Yeah, basically everywhere.
Are you an ecommerce business? Perfect. You can still put your image on the home and about pages. People want to know who is behind the brand even when you’re selling a product.
Start collecting people’s emails on your website.
I feel like a broken record sometimes and not just because I keep telling my kids to pick up their damn shoes.
Why is email marketing important?
Imagine this: on the coolest social media platform, you have 20,000 followers. Damn, people adore you. Suddenly, the platform decides they want you, the business, to pay for each of your followers to actually see what you're posting. Or worse, it gets shut down.
No worries. You’ve likely been funneling those folks, and anyone who happens onto your website, into your email marketing, right?
“But Yasmine, people just won’t sign up!”
Have you checked your offering? You need to give me something in exchange for an email address, and, no, it’s not a newsletter to “stay in touch.”
I mean, seriously, would you want me to send you a bunch of spam useless mail to your house like some tree killing politician when they know full well it likely won’t sway you? No? Well, that’s what “Sign Up For My Newsletter” says to your audience.
Instead, offer your people something of value. A 3 day email series? A 5 step PDF? Maybe an excerpt from your new book?
Next, don’t ask for things beyond email and their name. Unless you’re some government website, you really shouldn’t be asking for more than that. It feels odd when you’re giving me a PDF with 5 ways to shut my kids up (I mean, keep them entertained) and I have to give first name, last name, email address, date of birth, and the list goes on.
The time when you should be asking for them is when your target market is a corporation and you’re giving a white paper or report. It’s something that took a lot longer than a short PDF. Depending on your needs, this is when you ask for things like company name, size, number of employees, etc.
Use full-width, edge to edge, images on your website.
First, let’s get this out of the way: sliders are a no-no and text literally in the image is a hell-to-the-no.
So why should you use full-width images on your website?
Your site doesn’t feel as constrained as when it’s using an image that doesn’t make it to the edge. Not only do you utilize the space, you get to truly show off the image. You’re a business owner and likely purchased the stock image or paid for a professional photographer so, yeah, show that baby off.
Note: edge to edge refers to the edge of the browser on the left and right of the screen.
“But Yasmine, I like my slider and the text!”
Listen, don’t make me get the chancla.
Sliders don’t convert well. By the time your on the third slide, your user has either:
Clicked somewhere
Scrolled
Left the website
So why waste your amazing photos on hoping someone sees them on the third or fourth slides?
Text on images (such as literally, if I hit “save image as” and the image saves with text) is bad because if the user is on a slow browser, the image won’t load and they won’t get any of the information within the image.
Have someone with a screen reader on your website? It can’t read text on an image.
Have a Google bot looking at your website to see how you rank? It can’t read the damn text on the image.
So either you get the chancla or you fix it.
Add a pop of color to your website to refresh it.
Time for your bonus tip! You might have heard of adding pops of color when it comes to fashion. Usually it’s a minimalist young gal talking about adding some cute pink bandana on her head while you wonder where your life has gone as your 7 year old eats a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Er, that might or might not be a true story.
Like a bright red lip color to help you stand out on a day when you’ve got a killer presentation, a pop of color on your website helps the important things stand out.
Warning, unlike the 80’s, these are just “pops” of color, not full on colors next to other colors next to other colors. Keep it simple and choose one color from your brand. Add that to your main call to action buttons, headlines, and items you want to stand out.
Comment below your fave color to use when adding a “pop of color.”
