How To Improve Your DIY Website for Conversions
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Most small business owners build their own websites when getting started. I did! It was ‘good enough’, and made me look legit enough on the internet to get my first several clients.
However, my business grew up, and it needed to look the part. So I kept making updates to it until I had the motivation and money to hire a designer and strategist to overhaul it.
If you’re still rockin’ a DIY website, I see you! And if you aren’t ready to hire a copywriter and designer just yet, then this is the blog post and podcast episode for you!
A NOTE: I do not do ‘full websites’ - as in, I don’t do everything that I helped my friend with in the following story.
As a copywriter, I do understand how a website works in its entirety, so I was able to help a pal out.
When you’re ready to work with a copywriter who understand the whole website shebang:
First, A Story:
A friend of mine is a local business owner. We met at a run club, and somewhere between mile 3 and 4 a few weeks ago, she hit me with the, “So… would you take a look at my website sometime because I don’t think it works. At all.”.
As a permanent makeup artist and tiny tattooer, she’s genuinely great at what she does. She's built her client base through word of mouth and Instagram. I’ve hired her a few times!
But her business’ online presence? Google didn’t know it existed (seriously - I googled her name, permanent tattooing in our area, microblading in california… nothin’.).
And the website? GIRL. I could only find it because I knew the exact URL. But I couldn’t figure out how to book online, so I ended up texting her (most of her clients do). It’s a sloppy process that has probably cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last several years.
Back to her ask
She asked me to take a look at her website. I think she was expecting me to make a few design suggestions, but it quickly turned into a two-hour deep dive into what a DIY website actually needs to function as her business’ best closer.
Here's what we found, and what we fixed.
Problem 1: She Didn't Exist on Google
You cannot search "microblading Northern California" "permanent lip color" in our town or even her name to find her business. She is, according to the internet, invisible.
Two reasons for that:
First: no Google Business Profile.
This is the single most important thing a local business can do for SEO, and it's free. When someone moves to your town and searches for the service you offer, a verified Google Business Profile is what puts you on the map (literally this is how you get onto Google Maps). My friend didn’t have one.
Second: her website had almost no copy.
It was mostly images. Beautiful images, but Google and AI searches can't read a photo. Without text, there's nothing for search engines to index, which means nothing to serve up when someone is searching for what you do.
Hint, hint: this is one of the many reasons copywriting is so valuable!
Solution 1: Get Set Up On Google Business & Write Copy
We set up her Google Business Profile and mapped out a plan for her to collect Google reviews from the hundreds of clients who already love her work.
Then we wrote copy for her homepage that names her location, her services, and the keywords her clients are searching for. Because she’s local, this includes her address, and she’ll make it ‘clickable’ once her Google Business profile is set up.
Problem 2: Her URL Structure Was a Mess
When you’re DIYing your website, you’re probably concerned with how ‘readable’ it is by people.
Every slash in your URL is called a slug, and the structure of your slugs signals to Google what your site is about. If you have a million slugs following each other, it’s unreadable by the internet.
My friend had URLs with four and five slugs stacked behind each other, probably from an earlier attempt at SEO that didn't quite land. Something like: jessieswebsite.com/makeup/california/microblading/tiny-tattoos. It was a structural mess that made the site harder to navigate and harder for search engines to crawl.
Solution 2: Redo The Main Pages & Optimize for SEO
We wiped the sub-pages and rebuilt them from scratch.
Her site now has five clean AF pages: Home, About, Services, Portfolio, and Booking, each with one clear slug and copy on each that makes sense to the humans reading it.
Problem 3: Nobody Could Figure Out How to Book
The goal of a website is to get sales. In my friend’s case, she wants people to book with her without reaching out. But the path to booking was so unclear that clients were skipping the website entirely and just texting her, or DMing her on Instagram.
It was a manual time-suck.
Part of this was a design problem (buttons that didn't look like buttons, links that went nowhere). But part of it was a copy problem.
For example, she had a ‘contact’ page, when her clients didn’t want to contact her, they wanted to book with her. She wasn’t using almost any copy, and the copy she was using wasn’t clear to her ideal clients.
Solution 2: Optimize Copy For Bookings & Sales
We renamed the booking page, and added clear booking links throughout her website.
We also added other calls to action to help people get to her portfolio, about page, and more. The primary CTA is the same: to book
What Good Above-the-Fold Copy Looks Like for a Local Business
The section at the top of your homepage (what people see before they scroll, or the Above The Fold), is prime real estate.
For a local service business, it needs to do a few specific things:
State clearly what you do and where you do it
Include your location and hours (and eventually, link it to your Google Maps listing)
Give people one obvious action to take
For my pal that meant: permanent makeup and tiny tattoos in [Town Name], with a "Book Now" button and her address linked to Google Maps.
It was clear what she did, who for, and how to book with her.
We also added a secondary line for returning clients: "Already scheduled? Click here for before and aftercare." Because people visit her site for two reasons: to book, or to prep for an appointment. Her website now answers the two biggest questions people have!
The Bigger Takeaway for DIY Websites
This about more than my running buddy’s website. It's a story about what happens when your website becomes your best salesperson.
If your website isn't getting you bookings, it's worth asking:
Am I showing up when people search for what I do?
Do I have a Google Business Profile set up and verified?
Is it obvious within three seconds what I offer and how to hire me?
Are my page names based on what my clients actually say?
If you’re not ready for a full rebrand, or don’t have the thousands of dollars to hire me, this is a great way to audit the basics on your DIY website.
But if you're ready to stop guessing and get your website working the way it's supposed to, that's where a I help you shine. I’ll look at the full picture of your website and help you decide what to keep, what to change, and exactly what words you need to be an easy ‘yes’ for future clients.
If you want my full brain on your copy, reach out at nomadcopyagency.com/contact.
Not sure if you're ready for a full project? Grab an hour or two of my time at canyouwritethisforme.com and we'll tackle what's most urgent.
And before you go — grab the Forgotten Launch Emails checklist and use code PODCAST to get it for $1: https://nomadcopyagency.thrivecart.com/launch-emails-checklist
