Transform Your Website into a Conversion Powerhouse

Discover the key strategies for transforming your website into a powerful conversion tool with insights from seasoned marketing expert, Jason. His extensive experience highlights the crucial role of maintaining an updated, engaging website as the central hub for your business, rather than depending solely on social media platforms. Jason shares practical advice on tailoring your website's content to captivate your ideal client, emphasizing the need to feature current, relevant projects. He provides actionable tips on arranging your site's layout to not only capture but also sustain visitor interest, ensuring that your online presence effectively represents your brand.

Learn the essential elements your website should highlight above the fold to maximize impact, including clickable contact numbers, compelling calls to action, and authoritative logos that establish trust and credibility. Jason's expertise sheds light on showcasing testimonials and media features to reinforce your business's reliability. Whether you specialize in remodeling or interior design, his guidance will equip you with the knowledge to present your business in the best possible light, making your services more appealing and accessible to your target audience. Tune in to elevate your website's effectiveness and enhance your brand's digital footprint.

If you would like to get the links and show notes for this episode, click on the link below:​

• https://www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-129-How-to-Optimize-Your-Website-for-Conversions

The links and past episodes mentioned in the episode​ are:

• https://www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-128-How-to-develop-a-digital-brand-for-your-business
• https://developers.google.com/speed
• https://gtmetrix.com/
• https://www.designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/pages/academy

Transform your marketing with Designer Discussions Academy. In weekly face-to-face sessions, we equip busy business owners with cutting-edge PR strategies, marketing insights, and time-saving tools to not just work in your business, but on your business. Join us to outshine competitors and elevate your business.

Join us for our weekly live sessions and workshops: https://www.designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/pages/academy

Designer Discussions is an educational interior design podcast on marketing, PR and related business topics. We also provide in-depth, actionable products in the Marketing Studio including time-saving templates and guides to help design professionals grow their businesses.

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Designer Discussions is a partnership of three experts: Jason Lockhart, CEO of KABMS; Maria Martin, founder of DesignAppy; and Mirjam Lippuner, founder of Get Ink DIY

Episode Transcript

Mirjam Lippuner (00:00):
Welcome to Designer Discussions with Jason,
maria and Miriam.
Today, jason's going to talk tous about how to maximize your
website for conversions.
Welcome to the DesignerDiscussions podcast with Jason
Miriam and Maria, where we talkabout marketing, pr and business

(00:22):
advice for design professionalsabout marketing, pr and
business advice for designprofessionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:33):
This is a topic that we're often asked about is
website, Because if you've heardme on any of the podcasts talk
about marketing, the first thingI say you always got to have is
a website, and I always use theexample of a client we had
years ago that ran everythingout of their social media
channel.
They would send all of theirclients or all of their
prospects to their Facebookbusiness profile to show all of
their work and do everything.

(00:54):
They started to run ads andthey ran ads the wrong way and
their Facebook profile got shutdown for a couple months and
they were in a panic becausethat's where they sent everybody
to.
So I often use that as anexample to say your website is
your hub.
That's where you need to start,that's where you need to send
all of your traffic.

(01:14):
So making sure that you have awebsite and A your website is up
to date is vital, and that'swhat we find a lot of designer
remodeling companies do not haveis they have a website, but
it's years old.
It's five to six years old andif you're an operable business,

(01:34):
you have done projects withinthe last few years that should
be on your website and when wetalk about your ideal client,
oftentimes you are working onprojects that are more relevant
than what's on your website thatthey need to see, and so making
sure that you have theup-to-date images and projects
on your website as title.

(01:56):
So that's the first thing Iwant to talk about in terms of
conversions on your websitemaking sure that you have
up-to-date information on yourwebsite.
Making sure that you haveup-to-date information.
A I'm going to always head backto know who your ideal client
avatar is so you can createcontent that is relevant for
them, because once you know theclient avatar now the content
that's on your website you canmake sure it's relevant for your

(02:19):
end user and you can change itaccordingly and you can match
the projects around your idealclient accordingly as well.
So making sure your site is upto date is first and foremost.
Next, having the basic elementsin the above the fold area.
Above the fold means, when youhead into a website, what the

(02:44):
end user sees before they haveto scroll.
So the main elements you needto have is your name, all of the
contact information in terms ofa number, so you need to have a
clickable number.
You need to have the navigationin there.
You need to have some type ofCTA call to action.
What you want them to do,whether it's to contact you,
whether it's to get a free quote, whether it's to sign up for

(03:07):
your newsletter, whatever yourCTA is for you, you need to have
that in the above the fold areaand some type of wild image
that showcases what you do.
Whether it's bathroomremodeling, whether it's kitchen
remodeling, whether it's wholehouse remodeling, whether it's
interior design, whatever it isfor you, you need to have one
image that speaks a thousandwords, that shows exactly what

(03:30):
you do.
Normally that's a newer project.
That's why I also said I'mreferencing back to what I said
earlier having up-to-dateprojects is vital.
So if you had a project you didfive years ago that you have on
your website, look at yourprojects that you've done within
the last year to see if any ofthose are more representative of

(03:52):
your company now and switch itout.
That's all.
Just switch it out, okay.
So those are the main elementsyou want to have.
You want to also look at makingsure you have authoritative
logos that show who you are,whether that be if you're in the
ASID, the NKBA, the NARI, theAIA, whatever those are.

(04:14):
Have those logos on your site.
Whether it's the BBB orwhatever it is.
For you, those are logos thatshow trust in the end user, that
you are a real business.
If you've done any type ofmedia, if you've done any type
of PR, have those logos on thereas well.

(04:35):
Ok, one of the other things youwant to have testimonials.
So if you can link your site toa live link whether it be
Google, yahoo, whether it behouse, where they actually have
the actual testimonials, youwant to link that so the end
user knows that what they'rereading is authentic.

(04:58):
We know that you can writeanything on your website, but if
you can link to the actualtestimonial, that's best,
because now they know they'rereading something that's
authentic and if they click onit and they see it takes them to
a live review.
Now they have more trust thatanything else you have written

(05:18):
on your website is real and it'sauthentic, and that gives you
trust in the end user.
You want to ensure that you haveCTAs, call to actions,
throughout your website.
Okay, there are a number ofwebsites that we work on that do
not have a CTA.
You got to tell people what youwant them to do, ok, whether,
like I said, whether that's toreach out to you or through your

(05:40):
contact page, join yournewsletter, whatever it is.
Make sure throughout every pageyou have some type of CTA and
if you do not have one on acertain page, have the page go
to your contact page, whereusually that's where you want
them to go to either reach outto you for contact, to let them

(06:01):
know about a project that theywant you to work on.
And also making sure in theheader that you have a clickable
number, because 80%, over 80%of search now starts on a mobile
device.
So if they are looking at youand they see what they like, you
always have that number at thetop that they can click on and

(06:21):
call you.
We have done numerous teststhat have proven by having your
number at the top and making itclickable increases conversion
substantially.
Okay, so making sure you have aclickable number at the top not
in the footer, but at the topmakes it easy for individuals,
for end users and homeowners toreach out and contact you.

(06:45):
If you are open to it and youcan do a video, having a video
on your site, this will helpdifferentiate you from others in
your area, because oftentimes alot of design and remodeling
business owners are hesitant todo video.
But if you're not, if you cando a video that showcases who

(07:06):
your company is, that will helpyou stand out.
It does not need to be a longvideo no more than two minutes
long but the elements of thatvideo you need to have.
Who long video, no more thantwo minutes long, but the
elements of that video you needto have who you are, the history
of the company, what's yourunique value proposition, what
are your values, whatdifferentiates you from
everybody else in your localarea, and then having some type

(07:28):
of CTA call action.
So that's basically all youneed in the video.
It does not need to be long,like I said, no longer than two
minutes but by having thisinformation, the end user or the
homeowner now understands whoyou are.
If they are in the right place,they can now connect with you
on a different level as opposedto reading text.

(07:51):
They now have a video on eitheryou as the owner or one of your
employees that can help to showwho you are as a company and
what your values is and whatdifferentiates you from
everybody else, and so thathelps you a lot Okay.
So having that on there helpsand making sure your site is
optimized for mobile devices.

(08:13):
If you haven't done anyoptimization or any edits to
your website within the lastfour or five years, nine times
out of 10, your website may notbe optimized for a mobile device
and if you heard me earlier on,I had talked about over 80
percent of search starts on amobile device.
So you want to ensure that yoursite is optimized for mobile

(08:35):
users because nine times out of10, they're going to search you
on their mobile device first andyou want to have all this
information.
But you want to make sure allof your best information is
shown more so on a mobile devicethan a desktop, because that's
where the search will start.
You want to ensure that youhave some type of speed

(08:57):
optimizer or you've optimizedyour site for speed.
I'll have in the show notes alink to a free site from Google
where you could check the speedof your site and you can have
your site in there to see howfast it runs.
If it's slower than about an 85, you want to check that.
It's going to also have someoptions in there on how you can

(09:19):
speed up the site, oftentimesfor designer remodeling
companies, it's the images thatwill help slow it down.
Check on that.
But the faster your site loadsthe better, because we've all
been to websites where it loadsslow and after a while we're
just like, ok, we're just goingto head to a competitor.
You do not want that to happento your website.
So make sure your website loadsfast and, like I said, I have a

(09:43):
link for you to put yourwebsite in so you can check the
speed of your site.
You want to also do some typeof audit on your site to see if
there's any issues.
Now I'm not going to talkheavily on SEO because you may
not have time to do all of that,but I'm going to have a site in
there.
Gtmetrix, I'll have that in theshow notes as well, but have

(10:06):
your website in there.
It's going to show youeverything that's right and
wrong and it's going to hand youa grade from A to F.
If you're not at a B or higher.
Look at what the suggestionsare for enhancing your site so
you can get to a B or higher,because that's going to affect
site speed, that's going toaffect the user experience and

(10:28):
that will lower your conversions, like I had talked about at the
start.
I'm going to end with this samething making sure all the
content is up to date andrelevant.
Making sure you have all of thenewer projects that you worked
on within the last year or sothat are relevant to your ideal
client, that matches your brandvoice you heard us talk about

(10:52):
that earlier, or you heard ustalk about on last podcast
episode.
You heard us talk about brandvoice.
Make sure all of the images andthe projects match your brand
voice and when you have all ofthat and all the other elements
I had talked about, you're goingto have a website that stands
out from the competition,because I can almost guarantee
you, most of your competitionare not doing a lot of these

(11:16):
things because they don't havethe time.
I know you don't have the timeeither, but you need to find
some time to make sure you canupdate your site to have these
elements in there so you canincrease conversions overall.
If any of this information isover your head, we are talking
about all of this informationthis month in the academy, so

(11:37):
click on the link below andlearn more about the academy,
because we're actually talkingabout how to optimize your site
for conversions and we'rehelping you, walking you through
the elements you need to knowto help you in this.
So hopefully this is helpful.
Like I say, look at the shownotes for all of the links that
I talked about in here, and wehope to hear and see you all

(11:58):
here in two weeks on DesignerDiscussions.

Maria Martin (12:00):
Did you know that your client learns 80% of what
they will know about you beforethey ever contact you?
Now imagine when your potentialclient searches for the perfect
kitchen remodel.
Will they find you or yourcompetition?
We can help you make sure it'syou.
Our Designer DiscussionsAcademy membership with your
favorite podcast hosts provideweekly steps to simplify your

(12:24):
marketing and boost yourbusiness.
Sign up atdesignerdiscussionscom or follow
the link in the show notes.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of Designer Discussions
and all of the helpfulinformation.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review and share it with
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We look forward to having youback next week.
For more information on thepodcast and the marketing studio

(12:46):
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