A (3:02)

Yeah, I would never have guessed that, like, before we kind of started doing this. Also, seeing you, like, say, walk a trade show, for example, you're very focused, and I would guess most people don't know that you like to giggle. I see. I'm giggling right now. I know. But also, to the person who commented that if you still listen to us, we appreciate your review. We appreciate your feedback.

B (3:28)

Yeah, thanks for the review.

A (3:29)

We're not mad about it.

B (3:30)

The name was, like, awesome. 777-777-7777.

A (3:36)

Okay.

B (3:37)

All right.

A (3:37)

Let us know if you heard this. We'd love to hear from you again. And by the way, like, we'd love your reviews, everyone, and if you leave us a review, just let us know and we'll do something special for you.

B (3:50)

Yeah, and if you do have feedback, we like constructive feedback because we want to make this podcast better, but do it in, like, a gentle way, because our nervous systems are.

A (4:03)

Are fragile, very fragile right now. So please be kind and, you know, everyone's.

B (4:08)

I would.

A (4:08)

I would say that everyone in the world is feeling a little fragile right now. So kindness goes a long way. Yes, agreed.

B (4:16)

So websites. Right?

A (4:17)

Let's get into websites. All right. So why website updates matter? And we're doing this episode because we talked about my little brand refresh last week, and I was just thinking about how important it was and how overdue it was. So. And I know a lot of you, because I've talked to some of you, have kind of implemented some things or taken a look at your websites, and we just kind of wanted to, like, reinforce that because it's a good practice. But your site is often your first impression. Sometimes people are discovering you on social media, but they're also often going to your website, or sometimes they're finding your website first. So it's really important that you show up there in the way that you intend to show up. And I'd say what's most important. And this is where I feel like my refresh was super important, was my site was not aligning with my Instagram content anymore or my newsletter content. So making all those things work together was really important, and I really let that one piece of it go for too long.

B (5:21)

Yeah, but cut yourself some slack right now.

A (5:25)

Yeah, but kind. Kind to.

B (5:27)

But it's good that you had the awareness of that and you, you took action. And I do want to add to what you said too. If you operate solely as a digital business and you don't have a storefront, a physical storefront, you also have to think of your website as if it is a piece of real estate, kind of like it. It needs to represent what would be a brick and mortar location and be merchandise and invite, be welcoming, invite people in, et cetera.

A (5:57)

E and outdated content will turn somebody away. And I've clicked to websites, I usually discover people on Instagram and then I click to a website I've turned away from a site before if their website really doesn't reflect what they're showing on their social media pages or I can't find the product that they're promoting that I'm looking for. So I have turned away from sites before. I've turned away even though I am a potential customer because I will buy jewelry. Granted, like I'm usually looking at jewelry sites, but whatever I'm looking at, if I can't find what you're promoting on social media, I will turn away.

B (6:37)

Yeah. And people, probably the general public probably has less patience than you do.

A (6:42)

I will dig around, definitely. I will spend some time, I will see what's up. But if it's, it's not in alignment or I can't find the thing I'm looking for pretty quickly, I. It's, it's tough. So, you know, making sure, again, like coming back to this idea of alignment which I feel like we've talked about so many times, but if you're promoting a specific collection on your social media or in your email marketing, you need to make sure your homepage reflects that.

B (7:09)

Absolutely. There is a way to measure this too. And if we want to get a little more complex in Google Analytics, there are two ways to look at it. It's either called engagement rate, which is the percentage of people that interact with your site over just like a few seconds. And then bounce rate is the percentage of people that are literally just going and leaving right away. So if your bounce rate is very high, like in the 60s, 70s, 80s plus, that's a sign that either you're not driving the right people to your site or that your site is just turning the right people away because something is not engaging them.

A (7:48)

And it's a hard thing to look at. I feel like a lot of times it's like, oh, well, I'm doing all the things I have, the website, I'm staying consistent on social Media. I'm sending out two emails a month. What isn't working? Why am I not getting sales? And sometimes that missing piece is really looking critically at your website.

B (8:07)

Absolutely. The website is. And people forget this. Sometimes people wonder, oh, why is my email not converting? Or why is my social media post not converting? And by converting, I mean, like, making the sale. The reality is the thing that should be converting is your product page, because that is the last step before someone clicks add to cart. So you have to kind of get them there first and then see what's going on.

A (8:39)

Yeah. And I think that people. Because it's so much.

B (8:42)

Right.

A (8:43)

It's so tedious to look at a product page. When I did my site refresh, I read through my whole sales page again. And then once you click to, you know that you're interested. Like, there's another. There's like the final. Like it's the product page, essentially. It's just a little bit different than, you know, a standard jewelry product page. But anyway, I read through all of that and that was so tedious and it was hard to look at it critically. But it is really important. I also looked at recently, which has made a difference. This I can say, like, absolutely has made a difference. Is the way to check out. Like I added in that people can pay on PayPal now or, like, do a quick checkout from PayPal. And I know that doesn't work for every business or it doesn't make sense for every business because of fees and stuff like that, but having the, like, simplified checkout process, I think has made people quicker to commit. Yeah.

B (9:36)

And also, if you are someone that does like to shop online anywhere, it's good to take a few moments to like, reflect on what you like about a shopping experience. I mean, there's a reason why Amazon is so successful and big because it's insanely easy to shop and to click and find what you want and to check out. And there's a lot of different ways to do that. But even on smaller business sites where you shop online regularly, whatever, clothing brands, et cetera, et cetera, what do you like about it that makes it feel convenient and easy for you? And are there elements of that that you can bring to your own shopping experience?

A (10:17)

And I like an easy checkout. I like another option than having to find my wallet and my card and things like that. And that's not to say that I regret those purchases I make quickly, but I have walked away from things I probably would have loved and not regret it because I couldn't find my wallet. And it wasn't. It was kind of impulsive. Ish. Not say that I want anyone to sign up for my program impulsively, but I do want to make it easy. If you do are interested, I do want you to try it out. And I want that whole checkout process to be easy.

B (10:50)

If I'm couch rotting and I see something I want to buy and you're trying to make me get up to get my wallet, I'm xing out.

A (10:59)

I do that with takeout food too. Because there's this one, like, sushi restaurant that's down the street, but they don't do delivery. And if my kid's gone to sleep and there's no one else home and I have to like, go out, I can't go out. They don't do delivery. But I also don't have a PayPal checkout thing. Why did I tell you that they don't do delivery? It has nothing to do with this story, but what I was going to say. Sometimes I. I like the details.

B (11:24)

Sometimes I want take out.

A (11:25)

But if they're not on doordash, I don't. Or are Uber Eats for anything like that. I don't do it because I have to find my wallet and then I just make. Make something at home. See, the delivery part of me had nothing to do with anything.

B (11:40)

It opens a really big can of worms that we could probably do a whole other episode about. Because sometimes enabling these things can be a big expense for a small business owner because it means fees, it means whatever, management of it, et cetera, et cetera. So I want to acknowledge that you.

A (11:57)

Do have to look at it critically. Like it might not make sense for this local sushi restaurant to be on doordash. And I fully respect them for that.

B (12:06)

Yeah, but within your means and what makes sense to you, you should be looking at any way possible you can make it more convenient for your customer.

A (12:13)

Totally. We definitely got on a tangent there. That wasn't even in our notes.

B (12:18)

That's okay.

A (12:19)

And I hope, I hope our listeners are enjoying this because we recorded the insider episode first and now this main episode is feeling kind of insidery, which is fun.

B (12:31)

I kind of like it. We're. We're trying new things and, and you can hear more about why, if you're an insider, about why we are experimenting with new approaches to content.

A (12:42)

Yeah. Because we gotta keep it fresh. But let's get into how. What to audit and how often. So first and foremost, always is your homepage that's outside of the product page. The homepage is a really like the most important page.

B (12:56)

Right.

A (12:56)

And making sure your messaging is current is super important. Making sure you're highlighting the products and collections and making sure that it's all like seasonal. So, you know, especially like sometimes in January or February, I'll see like a holiday shipping deadline on like a banner. And we don't want that. You need to be current in those things because it makes you look like, you know, if I'm gonna spend a thousand dollars on a thing or even a hundred dollars on a thing, you know, I'm gonna trust a business that has those types of ducks in a row rather than someone who hasn't updated their shipping deadline.

B (13:33)

Absolutely. And the homepage is going to end up for 99% of jewelry E commerce websites probably having double the traffic of like any other page on your site. So it is the one people are seeing the most. It needs to be the one you're putting the most attention on in addition to product pages. Because as I said, those are the last touch point before the cartoon.

A (13:56)

And this is such a, this is kind of a small thing, but something, something fresh is or something to mention that trends in websites are changing and you know, kind of the same way like Instagram best practices are changing, but we don't always look at them. So for example, the, your header image, like we're not doing slider header images anymore. That's not best practice. So that's something to look at. And I find that to be like an easier way to like update your, your, your header more freque. Because we don't have to worry about having multiple sliders like just the one and it can be current and then right under that your highlighted product of like whatever product you're featuring on social media now. So that those things are in alignment. But like set a reminder every quarter, update it.

B (14:44)

That's a great point, Liz. In any way, putting too much can slow down your page load times anyway, especially on a mobile device. So lean towards simple, as long as it is descriptive and current.

A (14:57)

And then with product pages, like making sure it's so tedious, but going through and making sure that your pricing is correct, that you have sizing information available, like measurements of product is super important. The number of times I've seen a product that I have no idea how big it is is wild. I mean, like, I understand that you can't. Like not everyone has the bandwidth to have model shots. Although I would encourage you to even take just like a photo on your ear if you're doing earrings or like, you know, photo on your hand, I know it's tricky, but figuring out how to do that can be really helpful. But if you cannot do that, having measurements of what size these things are.

B (15:39)

You'Re just protecting yourself by doing that. Because if the customer's surprised, they're going to be unhappy, they're going to try to return it. And do you want to deal with that? Like, that's going to end up being the expense that you pay instead of paying that expense to have pictures that represent size accurately.

A (15:57)

Right. And it also builds trust. It's like the last destination before somebody adds something to cart. So if I'm going to spend, you know, money on something, I want to understand fully. Like, I want all the information there that I might want as a customer.

B (16:14)

Definitely.

A (16:15)

And then another page that I think everyone should just go look at now is your bio. Because I was kind of shocked when I was looking at my about page. I was like, oh, wow, my bio needs to be updated. Like, not in a big way, but in a little way. Like, little changes that reading it before I changed it, I was like, oh, wow. This makes me feel like I, like, pretty obviously haven't looked at this in a while.

B (16:44)

It's a thing that gets neglected. This comes up a lot for us when, since we do a lot of welcome flows for clients. Obviously in a welcome flow, you're introducing, you're telling the story of the brand. Sometimes it's linking to an about page and the client will be like, oh, why isn't XYZ in the welcome email? And we're like, oh, because it's not on your about page. And it kind of starts this realization that, like, there's so much more that could be said that needs to be said that hasn't been updated. It. I mean, it comes up so much. I'm sure that the majority of people listening could stand to go to your about page, check it, make sure it's updated, add things to it, and you're welcome.

A (17:28)

I mean, your welcome emails and your welcome flows, that's like next on my list. As soon as I feel my nervous system calm down and I have brain space to do something else for my own personal business, I'm going to look at my. I have one welcome email, but I want to do a flow and I want to make sure obviously that welcome email aligns with the changes I made to my website.

B (17:54)

Absolutely.

A (17:55)

And then just check, checking all of your links, make sure your forms are working. Are, you know, are you answering like faq. So like maybe I know a lot of you are doing a lot of in person shows right now because it's kind of like show season. Are you getting questions there that maybe could be good to incorporate into your FAQ section?

B (18:17)

FAQs can be really good for SEO too, if they're built out pretty comprehensively. So that's like a side benefit you can get from them in addition to them just being helpful and helping you. Shortcut answers to customer questions that happen frequently. Frequently asked questions. There you go.

A (18:37)

And that's the last thing.

B (18:37)

Questions that happen frequently. Totally.

A (18:40)

Very good. Larissa. I'm glad if you're still listening, we appreciate you. If you're a listener, if you've been here for all 135 episodes, please let us know because we really appreciate you. Yes, the last thing we want to say before we wrap up is just that something to check is SEO in the back end. You know, this is another thing that I'm going to get to eventually. I did not do this with my refresh, but looking at like making sure all the meta descriptions are there, page titles are optimized, alt text for images is something I need to go through and do. Making sure like this would be a whole episode too, and I'm not an expert on it. But accessibility, making sure your fonts are strong enough and you know, there's the contrast is strong enough that people can read it. So that's another thing to kind of think about. But also go through and check all of your links. Just I think I said this already in this episode, but check all of your links. Make sure they're working.

B (19:41)

Yeah, that's a common thing too, especially if you are a designer that is frequently refreshing products and collections, taking things off your site. Like if there are frequent changes in your inventory, you're bound to have broken links somewhere. So yeah.

A (19:57)

All right. When is the last time you audited your site? Let us know. Visit successwithjewelry.com and if you love the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message message or leave us a review. Thanks for being part of our community.