One of the questions I get asked most often by new (or soon-to-be) entrepreneurs is: “Soooo, website. Where do I start? What do I do?”
It’s one of the most daunting things to create in your new business.
Here’s what I tell them:
In situation A — Your website is your home. Imagine a friend stops by on short notice and your sink is full of dishes, there’s toothpaste in your sink, and dog hair lingering in every corner…Not a good feeling, right?
Now, situation B — Think about when you arrive at a five-star tropical resort. Someone takes your bags. They put a lei around your neck and promptly hand you a beautiful cocktail. You feel like you have ARRIVED.
Wouldn’t you rather your website be situation B instead of situation A?! The goal of your website is for it to feel like a destination. But unless you’re a CSS expert, you may be intimidated at the thought of building your website, but with the right resources it can be a lot easier than you think!
When I first started creating my site, I tried various platforms and made approximately 0% progress after hours of trying to build out only the basic pages. I couldn’t make it look anywhere near as beautiful as I wanted to. I wanted a platform that was intuitive to use, minimal and modern, and easy for someone like me (with no coding experience) to update — without sacrificing important functionality.
Once I found GoLive I knew I needed them to help bring our online space to life. GoLive creates easy-to-use Squarespace website templates that are easily customizable for any business. Not only are they a team full of skilled women, but all of their templates are beautiful and easy to use. Plus, they offer a service where they build out one of their templates in your Squarespace account, which was the perfect blend of knowing what my site would look like and infusing custom elements unique to our brand. The best part: my website was ready in five days! Their process was super structured and systematic — which, you know I live for.
If you choose to use their templates and build the website yourself, the process is still super easy. They provide all the assets you need to create a look-alike site to match the template and extensive video tutorials that walk you through how to install and edit them in Squarespace. Of course, if you’re new to website building (don’t let that hold you back!) there is a time investment, but as you work through the templates, you’ll get more and more comfortable with the back-end of your site, which comes in handy as your business scales and evolves.
The 3 pages you need to launch your site
You don’t need a crazy-full site in order to get started. You just need a home page, about page, and work with me page to start. I go into full detail about how you should approach these in the LAUNCH program. Everything else can come later!
Know your ICA so you can speak to them in your copy
By knowing who you are speaking to you’ll be able to hone in on your copy to make the viewer feel like you are speaking directly to them. Point out their struggles, their pains, and show them how you can help them with your unique solution.
Create Hierarchy
Strategize how you will use your brand fonts. You’ll typically need at least 3 fonts styles. Header, subheader, and body copy. If you’re using Squarespace, the interface allows for a header 1, header 2, header 3 (header 1 is typically the largest and most pronounced of the 3) and normal.
Remember: fonts should be easy to read on both desktop and mobile. Stay away from thin script fonts if you are relaying very important information — these can be difficult to read (i.e. the viewer will just pass by it if it’s difficult to read).
Calls to Action + Social Proof
Sprinkle your calls-to-action (like a button) and your social proof (testimonials) throughout your site, on multiple pages if it makes sense, to give more opportunities for your audience to opt in. Viewers are not going to go look for a call-to-action that they don’t know is there. Place testimonials at every fold on every page, which validates your credibility and proven success.
Make the opportunities to express your services, mission, and credibility abundant. GoLive can help you create your online presence with ease and purpose that will work for you over and over again.
To shop all the GoLive templates click here. Use code: CURATE10 for 10% off your purchase.
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