The Create a Better Website Podcast with Brenda Cadman

Ep #20: Choosing a website hosting company can be an overwhelming decision. It’s important that you select a reputable home for your website to avoid problems and website down time.

In this episode, I'll walk you through some of the most important factors to consider when selecting a website host that’s going to be a good fit for your business as it is now, and as your business grows.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What website hosting is
• Why cheap hosting is not worth it
• Which hosting companies I recommend
• What 5 key items should be your priority when selecting a website hosting company

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/20
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Ep #19: Christie Osborne is back and together we're once again talking about ways you can improve your website this year to help your website turn visitors into leads for your business.⁠

This is the second part of a two-part series on this topic (part one was last week) and ⁠by the time you finish listening to these episodes, you'll have your website action plan steps that you can take to ensure your website is the best it can be!⁠

In this episode, we'll cover the latter 10 things you need to do in 2020:

• #11: Stop BS'ing yourself!
• #12: Put a transactional CTA on your Homepage for your services
• #13: Add appropriate CTAs on each subpage of your website
• #14: Install Google Analytics
• #15: Create goals in Google Analytics
• #16: Create a great lead magnet 
• #17: Create a dedicated landing page for your conversions
• #18: Create a dedicated thank you page for your conversions
• #19: Put a transitional CTA on your homepage for the lead magnet
• #20: Start blogging, even if it’s just once a month

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/19
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Ep #18: Christie Osborne is back and together we're sharing 20 things that you can do in 2020 to help your website turn visitors into leads for your business.
⁠
This is the first part of a two-part series on this topic (part two is coming next Wednesday!) and ⁠by the time you finish listening to these episodes, you'll have your website action plan steps that you can take to ensure your website is the best it can be in 2020!⁠

In this episode, we'll cover the first 10 things you need to do in 2020:

• #1: Make sure your page speed is on point
• #2: Always think mobile first
• #3: Ensure you have SSL installed on your website
• #4: Properly protect your website with security and backups
• #5: Check and regularly test your website forms
• #6: Use your website as part of your sales system
• #7: Make your contact information easy to find
• #8: Learn to use your forms more effectively
• #9: Make sure your website isn't outdated
• #10: Ensure you have the keys to the kingdom

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/18
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Ep #17: This episode is a holiday gift from me to you in the form of a plan to take care of your website in the new year and to ensure that you don’t have to deal with any nasty unexpected website problems in 2020!

You may think your website isn’t big enough to be targeted by hackers, but you would be wrong, but with 6 simple steps, you can better protect your website from becoming vulnerable to a hacking. 

• Why you should be concerned about hacking.
• Why hackers bother to hack
• The key steps you can take to prevent a hacking attack
• Why you may need a website health checkup

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/17
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Ep #16: As we head into a brand new year, it’s a great time to focus on refreshing your website to ensure you're taking the steps necessary to help your blog to help your SEO!

SEO specialist Shea Bailey is back to give you a quick list of actions you can take to improve your blog so that is increases your expertise, authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of Google.

• Why you need to create focused "cornerstone content" on your website and how you can do that.
• How you can build authoritative back links.
• The importance of creating video content and how it can improve your website's engagement and SEO. 
• Why you need to understand the importance of page speed for SEO
• The potential SEO impact of doing a blog post and image clean up (hint: it could improve your website traffic dramatically)

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/16
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Ep #15: Even if you're DIYing your website now, as your business grows, there's a strong likelihood you will have a website built for you at some point.

If you plan to have that website built on WordPress, it is important for you to understand clearly what to ask for and what you are getting from your website professional.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The difference between a website that is custom designed and one that is custom developed.
• How a custom website is different from a customized website
• The potential concerns to watch out for when using a customized theme
• How to increase your chances of choosing a reliable WordPress theme

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/15
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Ep #14: Building a new website often requires a very large investment so it’s important to do your due diligence before you take the step of formally hiring a web developer to support you on your website project. 

By simply asking your prospective developers a few key questions, you can significantly improve the likelihood that your website journey will be as smooth as possible, and leave you with a website that will effectively support your growing business.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What key questions you need to ask before you hire a website developer
• Why you don’t want a jack of all trades (and what to look for instead)
• Why you can’t make assumptions about the developer's portfolio
• What specific questions you should be asking a developer about their portfolio

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/14
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Are you familiar with the saying, "People buy you before they buy from you?"

Social proof is an important part of marketing in general, and that includes your website as well.

Reviews and testimonials give potential clients the confidence to seek out your services, but there's more to it than just putting up a testimonials page on your website. You need to think about how to collect your testimonials, how you use them, and how they can benefit the growth of your business.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The difference between reviews and testimonials
• The best way to request reviews and testimonials from your clients (and *when* to ask for them)
• Why most people don’t intuitively think to provide reviews and testimonials
• Why continuing to gain reviews is important, even when you think you have enough
• How to tackle testimonials when you are brand new to your business

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/13
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Many of you probably already know that you can use Google Analytics to see how visitors to your website are behaving as they explore your site, but did you know that you can use Google Search Console to find out how Google is interacts with your website? 

Search Console is a very useful free tool that you can use see if Google is encountering any problems with your website that might impact where you rank in their search results. You can also find out what keywords you are ranking for, and you can see where Google is ranking you.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What Google Search Console is and why you need it. 
• How Google Search Console differs from Google Analytics. 
• How to use Search Console to find out what keywords you are ranking for.
• The important metrics that Search Console can show you and how it can help you fix errors on your website. 
• How to use Search Console to ask Google to crawl your site, and why that’s so important. 
• How to find out who is linking back to your website. 

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/12
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community

Today I’m going personal. I'm still talking about business ownership, but not about websites specifically.

This Friday, November 15th, marks the 2 year anniversary of my Dad’s passing, and that experience taught me some very important things about how I run my business.

We lost my Dad quite suddenly in 2017, less than a month after his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis. It was on one of those days in the hospital cancer ward, probably a couple weeks after his diagnosis, that I pulled out a notebook and wrote down a bullet point list of the 6 things I’m going to share with you today.

I remember at the time having absolutely no idea why I was writing those notes down, but it poured out of me so quickly that I knew I didn’t want to forget the lessons.

In this episode, I want to share with you 6 lessons that losing my dad taught me about my business:

• Lesson #1: Cultivate loyalty with your team
• Lesson #2: Having systems in your business is essential
• Lesson #3: You need to have an "if something happens to me" plan
• Lesson #4: Be sure to explore passive sources of income that don't require you to exchange hours for dollars
• Lesson #5: Life is too short to do work that doesn't bring you joy
• Lesson #6: You are stronger than you think.

Get the show notes at CreateABetterWebsite.com/11
Join the FB community at CreateABetterWebsite.com/community