*Just having a website isn’t enough.
The belief used to be “If you build it, they will come”—but that isn’t the case anymore, especially in the age of AI.
- I’ve audited 11 websites this year inside Studio Sessions.
- Rebuilt my own.
- Managed 3 (plus my own).
- And I’m getting ready to work on my 5th client website this year.
I also did more online research—and hired other service providers—leading up to my own wedding. And now, with a calendar full of showers and weddings ahead of me, I was doing the same thing again literally yesterday.
- I’ve looked at a lot of bad websites.
- I’ve looked at a lot of websites people have paid for that still aren’t built right on the back end (but I’m not throwing shade, because I’m still learning too, and this info hasn’t always been readily available out there).
- I’ve also looked at a lot of websites that are pretty close but just missing the mark.
Much like a contractor can look at an Airbnb and see everywhere someone cut corners (and yes, I am referencing many real experiences with my contractor husband), I can look at a website and immediately see where improvements can be made.
Where the user experience could be better. Where I’m having to dig around for something I shouldn’t have to dig for—and with each click and scroll, that vendor or service is losing my trust and the possibility of my business.
Just having a website and owning your URL isn’t actually enough.
- Especially because how people research is changing.
- How search engines rank websites is changing.
- Some people are wondering if websites will even be a “thing,” if SEO is dead, or if blogging is dead.
A simple scroll through Threads on the marketing corner of the internet, and you will see it all.
So now, this thing that everyone told you you were supposed to have—you built it, but they didn’t come. Now it’s outdated—the offers on it don’t really represent what you do.
You thought that website was a one-and-done task on your to-do list. But in reality, it’s something that wasn’t built properly to begin with. And it isn’t doing the job you thought it would.
I distinctly remember sitting in the booth of our camper—which was, for a period of time, my workspace while we were living in it and still working on the inside of our house.
And I must have been scrolling through Instagram (this was back when I still followed a lot of other brand designers).
And I read a post a web designer had written (I couldn’t even tell you who): a case study citing X inquiries within X hours of launching the site she had designed for her client.
I felt awful. None of my clients had a surge in inquiries after we hit publish.
I didn’t have that kind of a success story to cite.
Therefore, a subconscious story emerged that I wasn’t a good web designer because I wasn’t getting clients these kinds of results.
It sent me down a rabbit hole. Or maybe I would call it a productive spiral.
I wanted to understand what made a website tick.
What made it convert.
I wanted to build a site that clients could get results from—and understand the kinds of changes you could make to a website to make it better—so that the websites I designed could actually do the heavy lifting they were supposed to do.
I’ve learned a lot since then (three-ish years ago).
And AI has changed a lot since then.
Some websites just need an update. I built a beast of a website for Painted Horse Winery a couple of years ago and make updates to it at least once a quarter.
I’m in the process of updating it now because one of their newer offers (something that didn’t exist when they built their site) has become a bigger deal and needs to be integrated into the navigation, the user experience, etc.
Some websites need to go back to basics. Like my client Kath, who is in the early stages of a brand pivot and whose website no longer represented the direction she wanted to go in with her brand. So we created a one-page website that could grow with her in the meantime. Down the road, when she has her offers ironed out, we’ll add to it.
Other websites need a total rebuild. Somewhat recently, I had a very close family friend ask me to take a look at their website. They wanted me to do just a quick update, but upon further inspection, there was nothing there worth updating. It was a total redo.
If you’re wondering whether your site needs a refresh or a full rebuild, I wrote more about how to update your website in phases in Friday’s blog, “Your website was never supposed to be a one-and-done thing.”
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If you build it, they will come (is a lie)
What your website actually needs to do its job
Navigation
When thinking about the navigation on your website, think about the difference between an antique store—where there is no rhyme or reason and you have to dig for treasure—and a grocery store, where most stores are set up the same way, with produce, meat, cheese, and dairy on the outside edges, labeled aisles, and strategic end caps.
When someone comes to your website, do you want them to have to dig for treasure? Or do you want them to be able to find what they need intuitively, even if they’ve never been there before?
I’m guessing you are going with the latter, and that would be the correct call.
Your website’s navigation is made up not only of the menu at the top of your site, but also of the overall hierarchy of information.
The question shouldn’t be what your menu needs, but what pages your website needs and why.
Your audience’s experience and ability to navigate your site are what make up the user experience.
The Pages Every site needs:
- A home page—this acts as an expanded version of your menu.
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An About page—that needs to be longer than one paragraph or canvas.
- You need both of these, not just one or the other.
- You will also need a contact page, terms of service, and a privacy policy—but I won’t go into too much detail, since they won’t have nearly as much content and are pretty low-lift, design-wise.
This is where it gets tricky, because you have all this other stuff: a blog, products, services, etc.
I can’t give you the exact formula for how to prioritize what goes on what page, because every brand is different.
What I can tell you is that if you can understand your buyer’s journey, you can guide them.
Buyer and journey are both kind of gross words, but bear with me.
If you want your website to convert and make you $$ instead of just costing you $$, you have to think about what you are selling.
New brand photos, a new brand identity, and/or a professionally designed website won’t fix an unclear offer system.
- When thinking about how to guide people through your site, you have to understand your audience and where they are starting (the ways they enter your brand’s world).
A new website also won’t fix brand positioning—you have to know who you are and what you do, who you do it for, and how to explain it to them.
If you need to take a step back before tackling the website, revisit my newsletter, [The Brand Foundations that Come Before Positioning]
SEO optimization
You need to have a basic understanding of SEO and how to optimize your website/build your website correctly to account for it.
This isn’t just about the metadata, page title, keyword you are targeting, or blogging (but we will talk about that a little further down in this newsletter)—it’s also about the SEO decisions you are making when you design your website in a drag-and-drop builder like Squarespace, Showit, Wix, or WordPress.
Most people—and too many designers and templates—ignore this part.
That heading section on your site builder where you can toggle between H1, H2, H3, etc.? That is NOT just for choosing font treatments and making design choices.
Every time you choose a type of heading, you are rewriting a piece of code on the back end that search engines use to understand what your website is about.
The headings communicate a hierarchy of information. Each page should only have one H1. This piece communicates to Google, etc., what the page is about. The H1 also needs to be at the top of the page in the first section/canvas—above the fold.
From there, your page will have multiple H2s and H3s that organize the hierarchy of information.
A canvas could have 1 H2 and 3 H3s.
But 1 H3 with 3 H2s underneath is confusing to Google.
Note: I often see heading misuse and abuse on Squarespace specifically because it is a DIY-friendly builder—and you can’t edit the font size per text box (which is real dumb and one of my biggest pet peeves about SS). Design- and aesthetic-wise, this doesn’t always look great, so people end up using H1 or H2 inappropriately because it looks better. SquareKicker is a third-party plugin that you can add to your SS site so that you can edit the size of text in individual text boxes without code—while still keeping them correctly labeled for SEO.
If SEO is the part that makes your eyes glaze over, my go-to gal is Mariah Magazine. Her free SEO Roadmap is a great place to start if you want to understand what to focus on first—without trying to figure it all out at once.
“If you build it (correctly for conversion & SEO), they will come”… is actually still not the case
Strategy
You still have to have a strategy for driving traffic to your website.
- You could have a pro-designed website.
- You could even hire a copywriter to write it.
- And an SEO strategist to create the keyword strategy.
You could then publish said site with your base pages and service/sales pages and still…
You won’t just wake up to 10 magically aligned inquiries the next day.
You built it—but they still won’t come without a marketing strategy to get them there.
Just think about how many sites get published every day. The internet is not out here saying, “Tonya just rebranded and launched a really cool, all-new website. Let’s send it to the top of the list for everyone searching for her thing.”
Organic traffic from search doesn’t work that way.
Your website needs to build a score and authority with search engines first, which is where your blog comes in.
But blogging for organic traffic is just one way to get people to your site.
You can also launch your website through your social channels, create sales content that points to your website regularly, get PR, and get backlinks. There are lots of different ways to get traffic. You don’t have to execute them all at once. You just have to do something to get people to your website so that it can do its job.
Optimizing your website’s design and content for SEO and conversion creates the foundation for your website to be able to do its job selling—and creates the foundation for organic traffic through SEO.
A checklist: what your website needs to do its job
Your website doesn’t just need to exist—or look good. It needs a clear foundation, an intuitive experience, and a plan for getting people there.
- [ ] Clear brand positioning. Make it easy to understand who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters to them.
- [ ] Offers that make sense. Get clear on what you’re selling and how your offers fit together. A new website can’t fix an unclear offer system.
- [ ] A path that reflects how your audience buys. Think about where people enter your world, what they need to know, and the next step you want them to take.
- [ ] Intuitive navigation and a clear hierarchy of information. Help people find what they need without digging for treasure. This goes beyond your menu—it’s how you organize the whole site.
- [ ] The right pages for your brand. Include a home page, a substantive About page, a contact page, terms of service, and a privacy policy—plus the service, product, or blog pages that support your offers and your audience’s next steps.
- [ ] An SEO foundation built into the design. Pay attention to page titles, metadata, keywords, and a logical H1, H2, and H3 structure. Headings organize information for search engines; they aren’t just font styles.
- [ ] A strategy for driving traffic. Give people a reason—and a way—to visit through blog content, social posts, sales content, PR, or backlinks. You don’t have to do everything, but hitting publish isn’t the whole plan.
- [ ] A way to understand what’s working. Set up Google Analytics so you can see where traffic comes from and whether your site is helping people take the next step.
- [ ] Ongoing updates as your brand evolves. Keep your offers, content, and navigation aligned with what you actually do now. Sometimes that means a small update, sometimes a simpler site, and sometimes a rebuild.
Build the foundation. Give people a clear path. Get them there. Keep it current. That’s how you give your website a chance to do the job you built it for.
If you’re planning a build or rebuild and want to break it into smaller steps, grab my Ultimate Website Build Checklist. It walks you through the foundations, prep, content, design, and final checks before you hit publish.
