The Captain Coder Podcast

If you're helping clients create the content for their website, you have to do the necessary keyword research. After all, if no one is searching for the way you're talking about things, you won't get that organic traffic.

Keyword research for on-page SEO can feel overwhelming, though. It's hard to know where to start and frankly, a lot of us get bogged down in trying to please Google.

But that's not what keyword research is even about. Google isn't performing those searches - the customer is.

In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through the basics of determining the keywords you should use on clients' websites, how to do the competitive research, and how to use keyword research tools to refine your strategy.

This can get a bit technical, but I'm going to break it down to be easy to get started. This is the perfect episode to have your Notes app or a notebook handy, so take a second and grab something to write on.

Mentioned Resources
Google Keyword Planner
SpyFu
Moz Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs Site Explorer

The main goal of any website is to drive conversions of some kind. If you want to command the premium fees for the websites you're building, you have to be providing the value that matches those fees. About the only way that you can provide value with website design and development? Make it convert!

For many of your customers, conversions can be direct product sales. But if you're working with service providers, coaches, or even local businesses, a conversion might be defined a little differently. For many of my clients, conversions can look like getting a contact form, a phone call, or a person walking through their front doors.

You can't just throw a website up and hope it converts. You have to follow proven steps that take a browser from cold lead to interested buyer.

While a lot of that is done through the copy (we talked about how to write website copy that sells in episode 9), there are plenty of things you can do with the design of the site to increase and improve conversions.

Especially if you're not a trained graphic designer, this episode will help you to create websites that sell with just a few simple design tips.

Make sure you listen all the way to the end, because #7 is my absolute best tip for improving conversions.

Mentioned Resources:
Contrast Checker - https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

This episode is definitely geared more for the web developers, but it's certainly applicable to anyone who's building websites.

There's a trend in our job market right now to stick to what's on our "responsibilities" list. With web developers, that means we think we code and we only code.

We get told to specialize and not learn too much because we can't be a jack of all trades or we'll be a master of none.

You know what, that's kind of bullshit.

There's a lot to be said for specializing and this all depends on the career path you really want for yourself. However, in today's episode, I'm going to get a bit personal and talk about my own dev journey and how my non-conventional approach has not only positively impacted my career and earning potential, but how it's made me a better web developer.

We're about to get a little personal and I've got some tangents to follow but I swear it's worth it. You ready?

So you want to charge more money for the websites that you're building? Then you know that you have to provide the value to be able to charge more.

Well, you should be anyway.

We talked in episode 40 about adding value to the websites you're building and the first thing on that list was to improve your upfront planning.

Yea, the super boring part of any web design process (and I love planning!).

But, doing the upfront work does a lot to improve the websites you're building and helps you to have happier customers, so it's all worth it I swear.

Today, we're going to dive a bit deeper into that planning process and talk about how you can create one of the first steps to any website build - the sitemap.

Deciding on a website's structure with a sitemap not only makes your job easier because it's all laid out upfront, but it helps your customer feel aligned with the process and help to clarify the site's goals.

Ready to learn the most effective way to create a sitemap?

Mentioned Resources:
Search Engine Journal URL Structure Guide

You're probably a web designer and web developer because you like the work, but isn't it nice when the work is actually profitable?

There are a lot of web design business gurus on the market. I'm certainly not the only one trying to help website agencies make more money and provide a better product. But what I typically hear from those other "experts" is that you should simply charge more money for the websites you're building. That's how you become more profitable. That's it. Just raise your prices.

While yes, I think Wix, SquareSpace, and other DIY builders have certainly made us as an industry race to the bottom a bit, we can't just ask for more money if we're not providing more value than those DIY website builders.

The biggest problems I see with these gurus? They tell you to charge more money and add more value, but they rarely tell you how.

Well today, I'm going to take you through 8 ways you can add more value to the websites you're building so that you can charge more. Not only can you raise your prices, but you'll be raising the level of customer service you're providing and improving the results your customers get with their websites. That can mean more recurring revenue and more referrals for you. Frankly, that's all a win win win to me.

Let's dive in.

Resources

• Episode 35 - Writing Website Copy
• Episode 30 - Web Accessibility
• Bootstrap Responsive Framework

Does social media and posting for your web design just utterly baffle you?

One of the things I hear the most from students is that they're never sure how to talk about themselves. When you're working for a company and you have some emotional distance, social media management can be a lot easier. But how do you talk about a business that is 100% about you? Especially in the beginning when it is just you?

After all, your web design business is your baby. And if you're a freelancer, a lot of it is about YOU and what you do for your customers. That can be really hard to separate and talk about, especially if you're an introvert. Bragging just feels wrong, right?

You're not alone. In fact, one of the main reasons I started this podcast was because I saw a lot of my fellow web designers and developers making a ton of mistakes on social media. We tend to default to what we know and don't get out of our heads.

In today's episode, I'm going to take you through the top 7 mistakes I see other web designers make on social media and give you a few tips on how to fix that in your own business.

Not only will you be able to avoid these mistakes moving forward, you'll have more confidence in your social media strategy and posting consistently will become a lot easier.

Helpful Past Episodes
Episode 32 - Discovering What Your Target Audience Wants
Episode 33 - No One Cares How You Build a Website

Last week in episode 37, we talked about where you can find web design clients.

The problem is, now that you've found them, how do you actually make those sales?

I'm certainly no sales professional. I am, quite frankly, an awkward, stereotypical web developer who's never been the best an interpersonal communications.

But my sales closure rate is ridiculously high.

Want to know exactly what I do to improve my sales rates?

In today's episode, I'm going to break down exactly how I run my sales communications and sales calls that get me from a browsing to a yes and the top 3 things that I do every time that work like magic.

Whether you’re new to freelancing as a web designer or web developer, or you’ve been doing this for a minute, you know that one of the toughest parts isn’t doing the job you love. It’s finding the clients to work with you and pay your rates.

We’ve talked a lot in this podcast about how to take care of clients, but I bet a few of you have been asking back – “Yea, that’s great, but where do I find people to begin with?”

In today’s episode, I’m going to take you through a few options in how to network and find clients, even in a COVID-affected world. Let me be frank – some of these methods take time for them to turn into business for you. However, if you do a few of these, you’ll build a few revenue streams to gain clients.

And in case you’re wondering if it works, I’ve made more money in the last eighteen months as Captain Coder than I ever have in any other position or agency (even the full service agency I co-owned).

Let’s dive in.

It's the first week of 2022 and chances are you told yourself this is going to be "your" year. This is the year your business grows. This is the year you start to scale.

This is the year you're going to get your shit together.

Look, if you're a web designer or even a developer, chances are that you might be a bit on the creative side. And creatives, well, we're not so great with the whole organizational, processes thing.

In the years I've been in business, not being great with the processes and or treating my business like the actual business it is is the reason I've failed before. I tried to freelance years ago, and I could never get to a consistent revenue.

Because I wasn't treating my business like a business.

One thing you can do to improve all that? Implementing some processes - or Standard Operating Procedures - into your business.

Let's talk about building websites for other businesses.

Chances are, you started building websites for one of two reasons - you either like to code and love creating a full project, or you're a designer who had clients asking for websites.

The thing is, no matter if you're a web developer who turned to freelance or a graphic designer who creates websites for their clients, you're doing them a huge disservice if you're not taking care of this one big thing.

The website copy.

Your client doesn't know how to get you copy for their website. They might know their business, but they likely have no idea how to translate that into effective website copy that's geared for SEO and conversions.

In today's episode, we're going to talk about why the copy matters so damn much, how to write copy that sells, and what you can do about it in your own business. Ready? Let's go!