Websites Made Simple: How to have a successful website design business

If a client has ever asked you "When will my website be found on Google?" — and you didn’t quite know how to answer — this episode is for you.

Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It's a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and "is it just me?" moments.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I’m talking about where your role as a web designer ends and where an SEO specialist’s begins — and why knowing that difference could genuinely change the quality of the websites you deliver and the reputation you build.

We get into:

• The difference between building an SEO-friendly website and delivering SEO services
• What you ARE responsible for in every build (and where the line is)
• How to find an SEO specialist you actually like working with
• Why you should bring them in before the build starts, not after
• What an SEO specialist actually produces and how to show clients the value
• How to handle clients who don’t want to pay for SEO support
• Whether to build the SEO cost into your website price
• Why the relationship goes both ways — and how SEO specialists can become a referral source for you

If you’ve ever felt unsure about where SEO fits in your process, this will help you get clear, get confident, and start building better websites with the right people around you.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

And here’s the link if you want to learn more about Neal and Podknows: https://podknows.co.uk/

Skip to the good bits:

01:15 “When will my website be found on Google?”

01:41 What web designers ARE responsible for in SEO

02:34 SEO-friendly ≠ SEO services

02:57 Nikki Pilkington

03:44 Find an SEO specialist you vibe with

04:44 Bring them in before the build starts

05:03 What your SEO specialist will actually produce

06:14 When the client won’t pay for SEO

07:03 Build the SEO cost into your website price

08:24 It goes both ways: the referral relationship

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

If you’ve been tempted to move to a £99 a month website model — or you’ve been quietly cutting your prices just to get work through the door — this episode is a direct intervention.

Psst! Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I’m talking about why the £99 website model isn’t the sustainable business move it might look like on paper — and what to do instead when the market feels slow.

We get into:

• How the maths of volume pricing simply don’t add up
• The burnout that comes with trying the model
• Why ongoing payment plans are bad news
• The hidden costs that slowly erode client trust
• What to do instead

If you’re a web designer wondering whether dropping your prices is the answer, this episode will give you the confidence to hold firm.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 Why the £99 website model doesn’t work

00:35 Meet Holly: Websites Made Simple

00:46 Who this episode applies to

01:45 The volume problem: you’d need 30 clients for £3,000

04:14 Burnout is baked into this model

04:38 Scope creep and the ongoing payment trap

06:32 Hidden costs and eroding client trust

08:34 Email hosting, DNS, and the chaos that follows

11:19 Content collection in a low-cost model

12:26 Hold your nerve: panic pricing makes it worse

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

AI is everywhere — and so is everyone telling you to use it for everything. But when it comes to your website, your plugins, and the work you ship for clients, the wrong AI shortcut can quietly become a serious liability.

Check out my Sparks Group Training for anyone and everyone involved in the publishing of websites, from copywriters to SEOs: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.

Welcome to a special bonus episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie. (Quick note — my podcast mic was misbehaving for this one, so the audio is not quite up to our usual standard. My producer Neal at Podknows has worked his magic to clean it up, so please do stick with it. The conversation is genuinely worth your time.)

I am joined by senior developer Rob Fisher to talk about where AI actually helps in web design, where it absolutely does not, and the security and stability risks nobody is being loud enough about.

We get into:

Why vibe coding is not a shortcut, it is a stack of technical debt waiting to break

How LLMs really work, and why they hallucinate when you let them

Why your prompt boundaries matter as much as your prompt

The chatbot that gave a customer 85 percent off a 10,000 dollar order

What the October 2025 AWS outage tells us about AI first dev cultures

Why AI tools are junior developers, not senior ones, and what that means for your business

Why vibe coded WordPress plugins are a house of cards

How a “safe” plugin can become a Trojan horse with one auto update

What is actually changing in WordPress 7

If you are a designer or developer trying to work out where AI fits into your business without putting your clients at risk, this one is for you.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 Bonus episode intro and audio note

01:18 Where AI fits in running a web business

02:34 Vibe coding and why it is a shortcut too far

05:12 The flip side, vibe coding as a learning tool

06:48 Tech debt: your vibe coded site is a liability waiting to break

07:45 What AI cannot do for user journeys and design psychology

09:20 How LLMs actually work, probability engines not brains

11:30 Hallucinations and the suspiciously short prompt

13:05 Prompt boundaries and staying on topic

15:10 What system prompts at OpenAI and Anthropic actually look like

17:00 The chatbot that gave away an 85 percent discount on a 10,000 dollar order

19:40 AI first dev houses and the October 2025 AWS outage

22:15 Microsoft layoffs and the AI replacement myth

24:30 Why generative AI is a junior developer, not a senior one

26:20 Vibe coded plugins, the house of cards problem

28:50 The WordPress plugin ecosystem and what it lets in

31:00 How a safe plugin becomes a Trojan horse overnight

33:15 WP Rocket, All in One Migration and the malicious update problem

34:50 WordPress 7 and the new AI APIs, and why it will not feel revolutionary

37:00 Block editor improvements and the abstraction layer problem

38:40 Final thoughts and how to get in touch

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

Imposter syndrome doesn’t care how good you are. It shows up anyway — making you hesitate before you send a contract, stumble over your words on a call, or scroll past someone else’s work and quietly wonder if you’re good enough.

In this episode of Websites Made Simple, Holly Christie gets honest about imposter syndrome in web design. Why it hits so hard in a self-taught industry. Why tech shaming on LinkedIn makes it worse. And what you can actually do to push through it, level up, and stop letting self-doubt quietly run your business.

We talk about:

• Why imposter syndrome affects experienced and award-winning designers too
• The problem with tech shaming (and why the tool you use doesn’t define your worth)
• Why there’s a seat at the table for every web designer
• How to stay in your lane and focus on your own growth
• What to do when your processes feel messy or your designs feel stale
• How to push outside your comfort zone and keep developing
• Why you’re probably doing much better than you think

Chapters:

00:00 Imposter syndrome — it comes for all of us

04:28 When LinkedIn chips away at your confidence

07:35 Stay in your lane and look forward

08:20 Tighten up your processes and onboarding

09:30 What to do when your designs feel stale

10:45 Pushing outside your comfort zone

12:05 You’re doing better than you think

💡 Want Holly’s Sparks Group Mentoring? Find out more here: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/

🌐 Website: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk

📧 Email: [email protected]

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollycchristie/

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

If you keep finding yourself building features your clients ask for that quietly make their websites worse, this one's for you.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I'm talking about popups — why they're usually doing the opposite of what your clients think they're doing, what to say when a client is dead set on having one, and what to do instead to keep conversions high without frustrating visitors straight off the page.

We get into:

• Why popups interrupt the user experience in the worst possible way
• How popup design often looks spammy and quietly damages trust
• The SEO problem that popup plugins don't tell you about (hint: it's your H1)
• Why exit intent popups feel like surveillance — and why that's a problem
• How caching plugins can break popups entirely anyway
• What slide-ins are and how to use them without being annoying
• Floating buttons — how to use them properly (and what not to do on mobile)
• Dedicated signup sections that convert without the disruption
• How to push back when a client is dead set on having a popup

Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/

It's a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and "is it just me?" moments.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 Why popups might be hurting your clients' websites

01:11 Welcome and intro

01:39 Why popups interrupt the user experience

03:26 Popups block content and the SEO problem

06:01 Exit intent, popup frequency and the surveillance feeling

08:11 Slide-ins as a smarter alternative

10:30 Floating buttons done right

12:00 Dedicated signup sections that convert without disruption

14:23 How to push back when clients ask for popups

15:28 Wrap-up and how to get in touch

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

Join my Sparks Group Mentoring Programme

If you're not including links pages and custom 404 pages in your website builds, you're leaving money on the table — and doing your clients a disservice.

Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It's a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and "is it just me?" moments.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I'm talking about two of the most underrated pages in website design: the links page (your on-brand, SEO-friendly alternative to Linktree) and the custom 404 page.

Both are quick to build, easy to position as a value add, and a genuinely great way to stand out from designers who aren't sweating the details.

We get into:

1. Why Linktree and similar tools can actually hurt your reach on social media platforms
2. How a links page on your own website works with your SEO and drives traffic where you want it
3. What to put on a links page to make it genuinely useful — and how to make it your own
4. Why most 404 pages are a completely wasted opportunity
5. How to design a 404 page that gets visitors back on track (and even puts a smile on their face)
6. Why these pages should be built into your project cost, not offered as an upsell
7. The one quick check you can do on your own website right now
8. How showcasing these pages on your own site helps attract the right clients

If you want to impress clients, add real value to your builds, and start standing out from designers who aren't going the extra mile — this one is for you.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 Stop leaving these pages out of your website builds

00:30 Why Linktree and Linke hurt your social media reach

01:02 Build a links page on your own website instead

02:00 What to put on your links page

03:10 Keeping links pages simple but effective on mobile

04:30 Links pages, SEO, and sending traffic to your own site

05:00 How to charge for links pages (don't make it optional)

05:44 The problem with generic 404 pages

06:20 How to check if your 404 page is customised right now

07:20 Adding personality and fun to your 404 page

08:14 Using 404 pages to redirect and re-engage visitors

10:02 Start with your own website first

Mentioned in this episode:

Join my Sparks Group Mentoring Programme

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

If you're wondering why clients aren't buying from you or why the ones who do seem to undervalue your work, the answer isn't always more leads — it's the experience you're creating from the very first touchpoint.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I'm talking about what we are really selling when we are selling websites — and it's not the number of pages or the platform. It's the experience. From the first discovery call to the handover manual, every touchpoint either builds confidence or erodes it.

We get into:

1. Why discovery calls convert better than email enquiries — and how to structure them
2. How to follow up after a call so you stop losing warm leads
3. What your contracts should protect you from (and why so many designers get this wrong)
4. How to keep clients informed and feeling involved throughout the build
5. When to refer out — and why knowing your boundaries makes you more professional, not less
6. What good aftercare looks like (hint: it's not a two-hour Zoom dump)
7. Why you should be checking on the results your websites produce for clients

If you want better clients, better money, and a process that makes people tell their friends about you, this one is for you.

Check out: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It's a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and "is it just me?" moments.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

Skip to the good bits:

00:00 What you're really selling (it's not a website)

01:30 Why discovery calls convert better than email

03:00 Screen sharing and building confidence on the call

03:41 Following up after the call — and why timing matters

05:00 The follow-up email template Holly uses

06:00 How many times to follow up before letting go

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.

If you keep attracting bargain clients, it’s usually not because you need more leads.

It’s because your pricing model is less than optimal... mostly because your brand signals are a bit muddled, and your website is not doing enough heavy lifting before someone ever speaks to you.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I’m talking about why charging hourly for your web design projects is holding you back — from better clients, better income, and a calmer business.

We get into:

1. Why hourly pricing puts you in a race to the bottom
2. How project pricing builds confidence on both sides
3. Why clients feel cheated when hourly quotes run over
4. How scope creep is easier to manage with project pricing
5. What bundled pricing looks like in practice
6. How to work with freelancers and white labellers without losing money
7. Why the clients who can't afford you aren't your people
8. How to quote higher and still win the work

If you want better clients, fewer arguments over invoices, and more peace of mind about your income, this one's for you.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

00:00 Stop charging hourly — why it hurts your income

01:09 Why everyone has an hourly rate (and why that's the problem)

02:55 What project pricing actually looks like

03:42 How project pricing helps you prioritise your work

04:34 Scope creep and why hourly makes it worse

05:48 Bundled pricing: what goes into a project quote

07:23 Working with freelancers and white labellers

09:44 If they can't afford you, they're not your people

10:31 How project pricing creates better clients

11:43 Sparks Group Mentoring and how to join

Mentioned in this episode:

Websites Made Simple Courses

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

Join my Sparks Group Mentoring Programme

If you’ve ever delivered a well built, SEO friendly website and then found yourself being blamed when it doesn’t rank or generate leads, this episode will feel very familiar.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

Check out my new offer:

https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/

It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring real questions, tricky client situations, fuzzy boundaries, and those moments where you’re thinking, “This isn’t actually my job, is it?”

In this episode, I’m joined by SEO specialist Nikki Pilkington to talk about the difference between SEO friendly and SEO optimised, and why that distinction matters so much for web designers.

We dig into how good websites end up being labelled “not working”, how easily expectations drift, and why web designers often carry responsibility for outcomes that sit firmly outside their role.

We get into:

• What SEO friendly actually means from a web design and build perspective

• Why SEO friendly is a baseline, not a ranking strategy

• How “just add the keywords” quietly sets you up for problems later

• Where your responsibility as a designer genuinely starts and ends

• Why selling SEO as a one off is a trap, even when clients ask for it

• How blurred roles damage trust between designers, SEOs, and clients

• The conversations that protect you before a project even begins

• How to stop your work being judged on results you were never hired to deliver

If you want clearer boundaries, more confident explanations, and fewer projects where everyone looks bad six months later, this episode will help you put language around things you probably already feel.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk

or email me at [email protected]

00:00 Why designers get blamed for SEO results

01:21 SEO friendly vs SEO optimised (what you are actually delivering)

02:40 How client expectations quietly drift

03:49 What is and isn’t a web designer’s job

08:10 Why SEO can never be “done”

11:00 Where projects start going wrong

15:24 The danger of saying yes to everything

17:13 What good SEO collaboration looks like

20:40 Protecting trust in your work

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

Join my Sparks Group Mentoring Programme

Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments.

If you keep attracting bargain clients, it’s usually not because you need more leads.

It’s because your brand signals are a bit muddled, and your website is not doing enough heavy lifting before someone ever speaks to you.

Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie.

In this episode, I’m talking about how to level up in your web design business by building a stronger brand, showing up with more intention, and making more money without trading time for money.

We get into:

1. How to make your website properly represent the work you want more of
2. Why constantly rebranding can quietly damage trust
3. How to show up consistently without spreading yourself thin
4. What strategic content looks like (not just personal updates)
5. How to use FAQs and pre call emails so clients arrive already informed
6. Why your network matters, and how to grow it without cold pitching
7. How to get known for one or two things so you stop being “just another designer”
8. Why podcasting and email can support long term marketing, without the daily noise

If you want better clients, better boundaries, and fewer awkward sales calls that start from scratch, this will help you tighten things up.

Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at [email protected]

And here's the link if you want to learn more about Neal and Podknows: https://podknows.co.uk/

00:00 Level up your web design business

01:09 Brand consistency and your website signals

03:41 Showing up consistently on social media

04:42 Strategic content that makes your work obvious

08:00 FAQ content that answers buyer questions

09:00 Let your website do the heavy lifting before the call

09:56 Networking without cold pitching

12:35 Get known for one or two things

16:01 Why web designers should start a podcast

17:34 Use your email list properly

19:00 Start now, not “after this project”

Mentioned in this episode:

Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass!

Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass

Blogging masterclass

Join my Sparks Group Mentoring Programme