So, you hate your website, now what?

Liz and I were having our weekly Ivory Edit meeting.

‘I wish I knew how people feel about their websites?’ I wondered out loud, thinking about our clients, followers and anyone else who’s joining the Ivory Edit journey. 

I mean, were they in website heaven or website hell? 

“Let’s do a poll on insta Liz suggests, and before I can say anything, she’s whipped out her phone, creating a poll with questions, cute emoji’s. You know, the works. 

I’m still getting used to this rapid, let’s make it happen and get stuff done immediately. Especially after many years of corporate life, where there are so many levels of approval needed to get anything done. 

In about a minute, Liz created a beautiful poll on Instagram, the information superhighway and in just a few seconds the results started rolling in. 

Here’s what we discovered… 

• 17% of people HATE their current websites 😩

• 39% of people LOVE their current websites* 

• 44% of people don’t have a website at all** 

*noting that people may have responded that actually don’t need or want a website 

** full disclosure, some people who responded here are people we have built websites for 😉

To the ‘I hate my website’ crowd… 

I want to just reach out over Instagram and hug these people, because I’ve been to that place. 

It’s not a happy place really. It’s full of thoughts that go around your head like… 

• I really need to do something about my site 

• I don’t even know where to start  

• Arrggghhhhhh 

For anyone who is in this spot, some of the reasons you might not be in love with your website could be… 

• The vision of how you want it to look doesn’t match up to the reality  

• It doesn’t do what you need it to do (lots of reasons why), creating loads of extra work that could be automated  

• It’s outdated and daggy. Online moves fast and keeping on top of your website takes review and effort; or  

• It’s too hard or costly to manage 

I’ve been there too!

In my case, the website I was DIY-ing was taking forever to build, I kept getting stuck and it looked terrible, and I hadn’t even got to the bit I’m good at yet (the writing). 

Truthfully, the best thing I ever did was to reach out to Liz and get her design advice, and before I could say ‘Squarespace’ she’d… 

• Replaced the ‘creative’ stock images I thought were cool with on-brand ones until I could get some proper photos taken. 

• Reformatted the page, so I had clear blocks, headings and call to actions. Instead of big slabs of text for people to wade through.

• Created a beautiful logo that captured me and my work.

How we’re changing that.

In the coming months, we’ll be developing some more guidance and content on how to get a website that you love and works for your business and not against it.

In the meantime, if you are in website despair or thinking it needs a makeover, here are some key questions to think about before you go any further (trust me, it helps!) 

1. What do you want your site to do for your business? Generate sales, capture bookings, promote or capture emails for marketing? – Everything! 

2. How do you want your website to feel when people visit? Calm? Happy? Raring to buy? Or all of the above… 

3. How much time do you have to maintain a website? Do you want to hand it all over to someone else to deal with, or do you want to be able to manage it yourself? 

Answering these three questions can really help you narrow down what you need in a website – even if you aren’t in website despair, these are key questions to ask yourself as you continue, pivot or keep moving along your business journey.

But if there is anything bugging you about your current design, copy or websites, please schedule a call now.  

We offer discovery calls that are for FREE. You can talk to us about what you’re currently stuck with or where you need support. We want you to love your website and have it work for you (and not the other way round).  

We 100% LOVE Squarespace for how easy it is to use for our clients. Our clients love Squarespace because they’re able to manage it and update it themselves - minus the stress.

At Ivory Edit, we build all our websites from scratch using this platform, so they

1. Don’t look like a stock standard template every other DIY-er is using.   

2. Don’t look like everyone else’s.

So, if you’re in the website hater camp, we’d love to talk to you and help get your website off the ground and into the ‘love my website’ realm. Or, if you’re thinking about a new design, or you need some copy written schedule a call now.  

We love to chat, so reach out, it will be worth it!