Make Your Website Work For You

With the web becoming more and more influential in people’s buying decisions, you can can no longer afford to get your website wrong – it could literally be the difference between a flourishing practice and struggle street.

The good news is that it is pretty easy to ensure your website becomes your hardest working salesperson.

In this session we will break through the technical mumbo jumbo and help you understand how to maximise the potential of your website. You will learn:

How Smartphones and Tablets are changing the way your visitors see your site – are people seeing you in your best light?

How omitting this one crucial part of your site can mean your visitors won’t ever return to your site – AGAIN! Resulting in loss of revenue & reputation.

Why these 5 things will make visitors leave your site as quickly as they arrived – as well as how to change them to keep visitors for longer and start building loyal fans.

Transcript

1. Websites Aren’t Just
   Pretty Pictures
   Make Yours Work For You
   

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2. A Bit About Me
   • Co-founder of DIY Website
   Coach
   • Building WordPress sites
   since 2008
   • Regular speaker at
   WordPress conferences
   • 15 years as a business
   analyst
   • Not a designer :(
   

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3. The Importance Of Responsive
   • > 50% of all browsing now done on mobile/tablet
   • Miniature versions of your site are a turn-off
   vs
   

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4. The Importance Of Responsive
   Mobile friendly options:
   • Adaptive
   • Separate site for different devices
   • Multiples sites to update / branding inconsistencies
   • Responsive
   • Elements on site moved and resized to fit available space
   • Consistent site branding across devices
   

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5. The Importance Of Responsive
   Make sure you test your site
   Test your website here: http://ami.responsivedesign.is
   

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6. Opt-Ins And List Building
   Importance of building a list
   • Bring people back to your site
   • Build relationships
   • Promote your services to a warm audience
   • Opens the door to joint venture opportunities
   

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7. Opt-Ins And List Building
   Place opt-ins where they are most likely to be seen
   Opt-in positioned at the top of the sidebar - visible
   when visiting pages within the website
   Opt-in positioned below the main header picture area
   - visible when first arriving on your site.
   After your posts is also a good option
   

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8. Opt-Ins And List Building
   To bribe or not to bribe?
   • Tend to get higher conversion rate with a bribe
   • Bribe needs to be relevant
   • Can end up with a lot of “tire kickers”
   • Go with your gut, then test, test, test
   

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9. Opt-Ins And List Building
   The pop-up balancing act
   • Shown to massively increase signups, but can also
   turn many users off
   • General guidelines:
   • Allow a reasonable time for a visitor to see your site first
   • Don’t display again for 7 days after a visitor closes it
   • Target to the page (or exit intent)
   

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10. Opt-Ins And List Building
    Recommended opt-in tools
    Genesis eNews Extended
    

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11. 5 Ways Lose Visitors In 10 Sec
    • Slow page loading
    • Confusing navigation
    • Inconsistent or un-professional look
    • Content that doesn’t appeal
    • Too focussed on Google
    

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12. #1 - Slow Loading
    Why page load speed is important
    • Visitors hate waiting
    • Short attention spans
    • Plenty of other options
    • Big factor in Google rankings
    

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13. #1 - Slow Loading
    Common Causes:
    • Too many images and/or fonts
    • Unoptimised images
    • Too many plugins
    • Poorly coded and/or feature bloated theme
    • Cheap hosting
    

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14. #1 - Slow Loading
    Common Cures:
    • Caching (plugin or hosting level)
    • Offload file delivery (use a CDN)
    • Image optimisation
    • Better hosting
    

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15. #2 - Confusing Navigation
    • Visitors don’t want to have to think too hard
    • Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for
    • Use terms they are familiar with (don’t get too creative with your
    menus)
    • Mimimise the number of choices (use sub-menus if necessary)
    Simple menu
    

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16. #2 - Confusing Navigation
    Resource boxes make it easy to find your core
    content
    Resource boxes in a
    website sidebar
    

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17. #3 - Unprofessional Look
    • A visitor’s impression of your site affects how they
    view your products/services
    vs
    

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18. #3 - Unprofessional Look
    Common cures:
    • Consistent use of (minimal) colours and fonts
    • Get a branding expert to create a style guide -
    and stick to it
    

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19. #4 - Content That Doesn’t Appeal
    • Topics not of interest
    • Difficult to read due to layout
    • Difficult to read due to language usage (eg, jargon)
    • No personality in your writing
    • Too focussed on you
    

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20. #4 - Content That Doesn’t Appeal
    Common cures:
    • Hook in to THEIR problems and emotions
    • Use stories instead of lecturing
    

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21. #5 - Too Google Focussed
    • Over “optimised” content is hard for humans to
    read - it doesn’t flow
    • Picking the wrong keywords can attract the wrong
    crowd
    

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22. #5 - Too Google Focussed
    Common cures:
    • Write for humans. Google will rank you if you
    provide value
    • Use meaningful page titles
    • Useful meta description (2 line ad)
    • Provide Google with an XML sitemap (use a plugin)
    

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23. Help Your Readers Promote You
    • People like to share things that make them look
    good to their friends & followers
    • Write content that is worth sharing
    • Make it easy for visitors to share - social sharing plugins
    • Don’t go overboard - focus on those channels that
    your target audience will use
    

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24. Help Your Readers Promote You
    Recommended plugins:
    • Jetpack
    • Floating Social Bar
    

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25. Behind The Scenes
    Security and Monitoring
    • The good news is most hacking attacks are
    automated - it’s nothing personal
    • A few simple steps will protect you from most attacks
    • Monitoring will alert you should the worst happen
    

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26. Behind The Scenes
    Security and Monitoring Recommendations
    

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27. Behind The Scenes
    Backup
    • Make sure you can recover should something happen
    to your site
    • Don’t rely on your host to backup/recover
    • Store backups offsite for extra protection
    • Make sure you can restore easily from your backups
    

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28. Behind The Scenes
    Backup Recommendations
    

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29. Need Help
    

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30. Business Boost Pack
    • Secure WordPress installation
    • Backup and Security configuration
    • Premium responsive theme, fully configured
    • Opt-ins integrated to your list(s)
    • Migration of your content
    • Styling to match your brand
    • Integrated training videos
    

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31. Business Boost Pack
    Bonus: 1 hour customised training session
    Investment: $1,199 + GST
    More details:
    http://www.diywebsitecoach.com/services/
    

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32. Questions?
    

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33. Connect With Us
    www.diywebsitecoach.com
    facebook.com/diywebsitecoach
    

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