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💭Why Beautiful Websites DON'T Always Convert · Marketing For Tradies

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're creating a website that is just beautiful, then you're probably going to be looking at complexities around features, functionality, animations, and these things actually come at a cost.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you have complexities of the software you're creating and how you're designing the website, then you're going to need additional maintenance.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you're creating something that you want to look good, the first step is to always create or have really well thought out branding.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because Welcome to Websites That Convert, the podcast where your website stops being a liability and transforms into your greatest asset.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Shannon, and I'm going to guide you through the strategies and insights you need to build a website that not only attracts but converts.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Are you one of those people that wants to have the most amazing, aesthetically pleasing, beautiful website in the world?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you stress over the little things and become a little bit of a perfectionist about your website and the way it looks.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in today's episode, I'm talking about why beautiful websites don't actually convert.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And even though we want a website to look amazing and it is a part of our process to ensure that that happens, it's not the actual thing that's going to make someone become a client or customer.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to talk about the reasons why beautiful websites don't convert or it's not a key factor in conversions, and how you can get that balance of your website looking good, but also functioning, giving your user an amazing experience, and most importantly, getting them to become a client or customer.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, like I said, making your website look good is a part of our process.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's something I believe in.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think that ugly websites are impacting conversions as well.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a matter of being the opposite being true, as in if beautiful websites don't convert, then do ugly websites convert?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, that is not true.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a spectrum, but there's a lot of other moving parts that you need to get right as well.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what I really want to drill into this episode and to everyone listening right now is that aspiring just to have a beautiful website and nothing else isn't something that's going to help you grow your business.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Looks are just one piece of the puzzle, if you will.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, it's something that we definitely look at, but we have a nine-step process or things that we implement onto a website to ensure that it converts.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the actual look of that website is one-ninth of that whole process and that whole puzzle, I guess.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a part of the strategy around how we want the website to look and feel.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, the visual part of a website does help people go through that journey of knowing, liking, and trusting you.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: But if you focus just on that, then you're not going to get the results that you want.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, in our process, for example, we look at strategy being the design, look and feel, the messaging and the calls to action, the traffic.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So how you're going to get people there, and then the systems behind how you're converting people into leads and into customers and clients too.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So just focusing on design would mean that you would miss out on all of those other things.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're focusing a lot of emphasis on the pretty stuff, then you're probably taking away energy and focus from those other things that matter too.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are all those puzzle pieces, there are all those moving parts to creating a website that converts.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if that is your goal, if your goal is to get clients and customers and have a website that helps you do that, then just having something pretty and nice to look at or a piece of art that yes, you would be proud of, which is another factor in it too.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be proud of your website, that is important, but it's not going to do the job for you.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to do the selling for you.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's just going to be something nice for people to look at.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're creating a website that is just beautiful and you're ignoring all of the other aspects of creating a website that converts, then you're probably going to be looking at complexities around features, functionality, animations, and these things actually come at a cost.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean at a financial cost as such, although if you aren't converting as many customers, then it is going to be opportunity costs that's lost.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm also mean is that you're going to have a cost of the speed of your website.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a lot of like plugins, a lot of animations, a lot of moving parts on pages and changing things and things that are like, wow, that looks amazing, then that is actually going to add more bloat to your website and the structure and the software that your website is built on.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what that actually does is slow down the loading speed.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So when someone goes to the website and loads the page, the page has to physically load all of these other things too, which means that there's a delay of getting those images and those animations and that text up on the screen, and as well as that your hosting provider and web space and all of that kind of stuff comes into that too.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the more things that you have, the slower your page loads, which is bad for user experience and as a result, bad for conversions, right?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that is something to think about when you're pursuing having a beautiful website.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing is that all of these plugins and animations and things that maybe additional features and functionalities onto a website also comes at a technical maintenance cost as well.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have complexities of the software you're creating and how you're designing the website, then you're going to need additional maintenance of the software because anything that's built on WordPress, anything that is custom created, it isn't just something that you can build and then never think about again.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of other softwares and systems and technicalities that come into having something like that too.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the more software, the more complexities, the more uh animations and other features that you have, then the more things there are to manage, and the more likely there is going to be something that breaks at some point.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't want to sound like I don't like beautiful websites because I do, but having a beautiful website and having a website that converts doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: What I see too many people doing though is pursuing just a beautiful website and forgetting about all of those other puzzle pieces that I mentioned previously in this episode.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it is possible to have a great-looking website, a beautiful website, but you need to be aware of what just pursuing that may mean in terms of your ability to convert traffic into leads and those leads into clients and sales.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we always want your website to match your brand.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is the most important thing.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are thinking about having a website and you're someone that is a perfectionist, they want something that is visually amazing, yes, that's great, but remember that is just one puzzle piece.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Although what you should be pursuing is to have a really well thought out brand guide and style guide and brand strategy that your website can reflect because everything comes back to your brand.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're trying to create a beautiful website that doesn't match your brand, then you're actually going to have something that isn't congruent with the rest of your business and the rest of your marketing.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're creating something that you want to look good, the first step is to always create or have really well thought out branding because everything will come off the back of that.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you really want a website that looks amazing, you always have to have some type of branding as the baseline to go off because what you're actually probably pursuing is a website that reflects your brand and reflects your business accurately and looks amazing and converts visitors.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're only just focusing on something that looks good and has no congruency into your brand and has no way to convert people, then you're just looking at that one puzzle piece.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of designers do this because they're creatives and they want something to put into their portfolio that looks nice.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: But again, it depends on what your priorities are and if it is something that is nice to look at or you want something that's going to help you grow your business, in which case you need to look at all of those other puzzle pieces as well as making it look good too.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So having a website that converts and having a beautiful website doesn't have to be mutually exclusive, but you do have to keep in mind that it isn't something that you can pursue and think that it's going to get you the results that you want.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So all of this always comes back to what do you want?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like what are your actual goals?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you need a website?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is one of the most important questions, and it's amazing how many people don't ask it is why?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you need a website?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because that opens up so much more understanding of what you're actually wanting, of what you may need to help you get from A to B.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: So don't get caught up in the hype.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we want something that's going to look good, but we want it to convert to if that's your goal, but it always comes back to what it is that you want.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that you need a well-thought-out brand in order to create something that's congruent with the visual aspects of your business and your website is a huge part of that, but it's a huge part of also getting people in, getting more leads, and getting more clients and customers too.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's your priority, then pursue something that looks good, but make sure you're mainly pursuing getting something that's going to help you convert traffic into leads.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Websites That Convert.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you found value in this episode, please give us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Follow us on all social media, and if you're a service based business owner that's looking to double their website conversions, book a call with my team using the link below.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.