It's not enough to simply have a website. It has to be optimized to convert so you can turn those website visitors into bookings, buyers, and leads.

Here's a summary of our convo below:

What’s the difference between a website that’s optimized for sales and one that isn’t?

That’s a great question.

I had a realization recently that there’s a lot of talk about sales-optimized websites, sales pages, templates, etc. which to me, as a web person, that language totally makes sense. But then I started to think, I bet there are a lot of people who aren’t really sure what that actually means.

• Like how does that actually play out on a website?
• How do you tell if a website is optimized to convert or not?

I think a puzzle is a good visual example here.

Let’s say that every website is a 50-piece puzzle. When all the pieces are there, it’s a sales-optimized machine. It checks all the boxes. It generates leads, sales, and bookings.

But let’s say, the puzzle is missing 5 puzzle pieces. It’s probably doing a pretty good job.

Now, say there are 25 missing pieces. When you look at the puzzle, there are a lot of open gaps. It’s probably hard to take in what you’re actually looking at. You might have to use your imagination to fill in the spaces and you might have a lot of questions.

When it comes to your website and website visitors, this is a really big deal. When people are confused, they don’t buy. They don’t feel confident about purchasing. They have a lot of unanswered questions. They’re not likely to take that risk with their hard-earned dollars. It’s great if they reach out with their questions, but it’s probably more likely that they’ll just leave your website.

So we want to build as complete of a puzzle as we can to make your website as optimized as possible.

What are those puzzle pieces that make for a sales optimized website?

I’m going to list 10 big ones here because I think it could get kind of monotonous if I rattle off all of them. But, you can download the full list here.

A lot of these are probably going to sound really simple, but they’re still often missed.

• It’s clear what you do

  • We want to make it clear to your website visitors what you offer. Remember, you have just seconds to capture and retain a website visitor’s attention. If they’re confused about what you do or how you can help, they’ll likely just leave.

• It’s clear who you’re for

  • Who is the audience you’re targeting? Some call this your ideal client avatar. Others call it target audience. The language you use, your branding, and the images you use are immediate indicators of your target audience is, so you want to make sure those are on target and that your target audience feels at home when they land on your website.

• Talk about your unique selling proposition, what makes you different, why they should choose you

  • With so many options to choose from, you have to make it clear what sets you apart.

• Outline your process and show people how you’ll get them from Point A to Point B

  • Help them imagine that journey to their desired end result.
  • I once had someone tell me they chose me over another option because I included my process on my website.

• FAQ

  • Here you’re going to answer questions that your audience does actually ask you. But a smart strategy is to use FAQs to provide info you want them to know, even if they haven’t asked it yet.

• Testimonials / Reviews

  • Testimonials and reviews are now a baseline requirement. To me, if you can take it a step further and do case studies, that’s where you’ll really stand apart.

• Clear calls to action

  • It sounds so simple, but having clear call to actions is so impactful. In the simplest sense, these are buttons on your website that tell people what to do next. Like Book a Consult, Enroll Now, etc.
    

• An easy way to contact, book, or buy

  • I share this one because you really have to make it so easy for people to contact, book, or buy from you. Go through your own process and note anything that seems harder than it should be. Or maybe there are too many steps, for example. Anytime you can reduce the number of clicks someone has to make here, that’s great.

• If you’re local, definitely include your address or city, and state at a minimum

• You need to include a photo of yourself.

  • This is non-negotiable. People want to know who they’re going to be working with. It also establishes a trust factor that you’re a legitimate person.

A common mistake that hurts your website experience

The biggest mistake I see is leaving things out that might not seem that important. Small details have a big impact.

Excluding an About page:

I recently watched a video by a blogger on YouTube who said she spent like 30 minutes on her about page because it doesn’t make her money.

While your About page might not be a transactional page, it plays a huge part in establishing trust in you. If you are able to create a great About page in 30 minutes, that’s great! With templates and AI prompts, you certainly could. But if you’re posting a photo and a paragraph about you, I would recommend taking it further and really beefing it up. If you’re considering skipping an about page altogether, I would encourage you to reconsider.

The About page is typically the 2nd most visited page on a website, after the Home page.

How do you know if you should choose use a template or get a custom website?

I saw a quote recently that was, “Custom is no longer king,” and I loved that.

There’s always a time and place for custom design. As a designer, I love doing custom designs.

But for so many businesses, especially for those just starting out, it just isn’t necessary. For example, if you’re still validating your offers and getting your business off the ground, I would stay away from custom. Your business will likely change a lot over the first year or two, and you don’t want to invest a lot of money into something that your business may quickly grow out of.

Also, I’m a huge fan of moving quickly and gaining traction and momentum quickly.

When you’re starting with a really solid template that’s beautifully designed and also has strategy built into it, you are saving yourself so much time and money.

A custom website will often take at least 12 weeks and depending on your designer, you’re probably looking at at least $2,000. And I would even say that’s pretty conservative.

With a template, you can often find great options for as little as $200-$400 and you could get your website done in less than a week.

I actually had someone reach out to me recently and said she was going to challenge herself to build a website in 24 hours, which I loved.

It’s really so doable if…

• You choose a solid template to start with
• You have copy already or you use AI prompts to help you write solid copy
• You don’t get caught up in perfection

What should entrepreneurs look for to find the best template possible?

There are a few key things I would recommend you look for:

1. The template includes as many of those sales optimization puzzle pieces as possible. Again, go ahead and download that list from my website.
2. You already like how the template looks and works. Check out the site demo. Make sure it’s like 95% of the way there and all you have to do is swap out colors, fonts, images, and copy.
3. Does the designer offer excellent support? Read their reviews to find this out.

How can entrepreneurs use AI to write website copy that’s actually good?

AI tools like ChatGPT are getting better and better everyday.

Also, ChatGPT is only as good as the prompts you feed it, so you want to start out with great prompts.

A good prompt often includes a lot of contextual details upfront and very clear directives to really guide ChatGPT in the right direction.

You can also keep prompting ChatGPT with follow up prompts to push it even further.

What are some prompts people can use right now to write copy?

Get my Google doc of 16 AI prompts to write your site here!