BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 96. 

Hey, hey, hey, my people! Welcome to Bird Means Business podcast. I'm your host, Bird Williams. And today I have the incredible Jess Creatives on the show to talk about, drumroll, please. Websites. Yes! I get so many questions about websites. So I'm so pumped to have an expert on the show. 

I've built several different websites for my businesses. But in this episode, you're going to hear me ask questions as if I were new to all of this. And y'all, Jess gives such great insights. So make sure you get ready to take some notes. All right, let me tell you a little bit about my friend, Jess. Jessica Freeman is an Atlanta-based, and award-winning web designer that helps nutrition and fitness business owners build authority and get more clients. When she's not working with clients, you can find her teaching inside her Better Collective Community, or on her YouTube channel. Jess is someone who I connected with through Instagram. I've loved following her and we've connected there. And I am so pumped for you to learn from her. So let's jump right in. 

Hi, Jess, I'm so glad to have you on the show. 

JESS FREEMAN: Yes! Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to chat. 

BIRD: Yes, this is gonna be so much fun. And I know I get tons of questions about websites. And I remember connecting with you through Instagram and just loving all of your content. And so I'm really excited to share you and what you do with my listeners. 

JESS: Yeah, yeah, I'm excited. 

BIRD: Awesome. Okay, so first, before we get into it, just tell me a little bit about your startup story and how you got into helping entrepreneurs with their websites.

JESS: Yeah, so I always kind of say that, I feel like I almost fell into entrepreneurship because I started Jess Creatives when I was in college. We had to brand ourselves for our senior project. And I was doing freelance work, but it was like designing t-shirts for clubs on campus. And I'd be like, "Um, $10 and give me one of the t-shirts" because I clearly love t-shirts. So that was my first year of quote-unquote, freelancing, was t-shirts. So that's when I started Jess Creatives and because I had got my degree in graphic design. So I really just did graphic design for the first I'd say like three or four years. I was doing brochures and business cards and lots of like little odds and ends kinds of projects. And I started noticing like, hmm, websites are really important. And everyone needs a website. Like, everyone needs a website designer, they need website help. And at my day job, I was starting to do web design projects there. And so that's kind of how I started doing web design was at my day job. Jess Creatives was still on the side. And then I actually had someone approach me like, hey, like an online entrepreneur. And she was like, I really need a website. And I was like, "Yes, I can do that. Yes, I can do that." 

BIRD: Oh, totally. 

JESS: Yeah, I can do that. No problem. And I'm very good, I will say in all aspects of like my life and tech, I'm very good at just like figuring things out. Like, I'm the person that my family calls when they're like, how do you do this thing on my phone? Or like, how do you do this thing on my computer? Even though I had done some web design for my day job, that first client, I was like, okay, like, I'm just gonna give this a go. We'll see if I like it, and I did. So then I really started offering like formally offering web design. And slowly over the years, I've kind of phased out the graphic design. When people asked me to it like, do you do business cards? I'm like, No, go to Canva. I do not want to design any business cards. So yeah, that's how it kind of all accidentally happened. But I also, I mean, obviously with the web design part I really intentionally was like, I mean, I think this is something I should do. And so now we're here. Now I do websites all the time.

BIRD: That's amazing. What I hear in your story is one, I just had to figure it out. Like I was just open to kind of figuring it out. And two is like when you got that first client, you know, just kind of doing it afraid, right? Just saying I'm just gonna go with it. I have some experience in this and I'm gonna just do the best I can and get feedback and then you know, improve over time. And I think so many folks get stuck because it's like, I don't know if I can do this, the perfectionism all those kinds of things. I love that you just kind of explained in your story too how you just kind of went out there and just made it happen.

JESS: I'm not afraid to just like, let's try it. And I've done that with a bunch of different things in my business, not just like services, but different marketing strategies, platforms, like stuff like that. And like, I don't know, we'll just see if it works out.

BIRD: Exactly, I love that so much. So I'm gonna ask you questions as if I've never built a website, you know, I'm new to this, because that's my audience. They are really, you know, either looking to launch a business. Or maybe they're doing something on the side and they're trying to figure out how to make their website the best it can be. So I'm going to ask questions like that. 

The first one is, there are so many different platforms out there. There's Wix, there's Squarespace, there's WordPress, there's a whole bunch. How do you know which one to choose? And do you know the pros and cons of some of these?

JESS: Yes. So my first piece of advice is to not use Wix. It's like the hill I will die on. Do not use Wix or Weebly. I know they are marketed as like, super easy, set up your website in a few clicks, and all that kind of stuff. And I know people are probably on Wix and like, "But I love it. It is so easy. My website looks great." One, it's not fully responsive. So that's not like a good user experience. I've literally gone to Wix websites and been like, oh, they don't have a contact page. And it's because it's like out of the screen because it's not fully responsive. But the second like the biggest, biggest reason is Wix does not let you export your content. That is the biggest downfall. And if you are new to business, you may not have experienced this yet, but as business owners, I find that most of us like to hop between platforms. Like I'm going to start on MailChimp. No, I want ConvertKit. No, I went ActiveCampaign. Oh, I'm going to use this. I'm going to use all these different schedulers. I'm going to ... like we just try different things. We find different price points. New software comes out. And so with Wix if you're like, hey, I want to move to Squarespace, WordPress, like whatever, you have to manually move everything. If you've only done like home, about, and services, not a huge deal. But a lot of business owners like to blog.

BIRD: Yes. I have like ninety-something podcast pages, landing pages. So yeah.

JESS: Yeah. So do you want to move all ninety of those?

BIRD: No. No, ma’am.

JESS: So that is the biggest reason because your content is one of the very few things that you own. Like your Instagram profile can be shut down, it can be hacked, etc. Instagram can go away. I mean, I don't think it will. But like that content on your website is one of the few things you actually own. So you want to have full ownership of it and be able to do what you want to do. And so I just don't want people to get stuck in Wix because they're like, I don't want to move ninety blog posts. 

BIRD: Uh, gosh. 

JESS: Yeah. So I really, really point people to Squarespace and WordPress.  Showit is also good, but it's a little more techie, and a lot more design skills are needed. And then Shopify is good if you're a product business, especially if you are like physical products or if you sell in person a lot. You can sell products on Squarespace and WordPress, but Shopify is really only for products. So Squarespace and WordPress are usually the main two that most people use. And the differences really are when it comes down to design capabilities. They both have lots of options. You can make beautiful websites. I say it's really hard to screw up a Squarespace website. 

BIRD: Yeah, yeah. 

JESS: It's really hard. WordPress, it can be a little more tricky, but it really comes down to the theme that you choose. WordPress itself is pretty basic. It's the theme that you use. So when people are like, I hate WordPress, I'm like, you probably hated your theme, not WordPress itself. And Squarespace is a little easier to use. WordPress, depending again, on the theme can take a little more of a learning curve. It's also a common misconception that on WordPress that you have to like, know how to code. Not true. You can code some things and with every single theme you can like, go add some little code in the backend to like, ooh, I'm gonna, like do this extra customization. But that's extra. Like if you really want to like jazz things up or like really, really customize things. But that's also one of the big pros of WordPress is you can really, really customize things. There are endless options. Endless integrations. I feel like every single platform out there integrates with WordPress. Like anything you possibly use out there probably has an integration with WordPress. Squarespace is getting better about integrations. And that list is growing, but it's not as robust. So I usually say if you're not tech-savvy, you don't have a large budget, you're not wanting something super customized. Like, you don't have this like super specific idea of what you want for your website, you could probably go with Squarespace. If you're like, I want to do lots of things with my website, like webinars and pop-ups and a-b testing and like all getting into like all this tech jargon, or you just have like really specific design ideas, then I'd probably point you to WordPress.

BIRD: Oh, that sounds so helpful. I love that you laid it all out. I know with my gym business, I own a gym here in Houston called The League. And when we first launched it, a friend of ours helped us create the website and it was on WordPress. And this was like 2013, so a long time ago. I remember when I'd have to go make changes, there was like code and I would literally be like, Jesus, please like, I hope I'm not missing it up. 

JESS: Don't let me break anything. 

BIRD: Yes, I was so terrified. And so whenever we redid our website, another friend helped me put it on Wix. And so I didn't even really know how to use Wix. But it's funny that you say that about it's not fully responsive because I know what you're talking about when things are kind of off on the side. And then when I launched this business, I went with Squarespace. And it is like a thousand times easier to manage. So I can really, you know, relate to all that you're saying. And it's good to know that WordPress isn't as techie as I thought it was because, from my experience, it was just like a bunch of code. I was like... 

JESS: Yeah, and it depends, like whoever set up your WordPress site originally, they probably used a theme or they are what would someone would call more a developer, not just a designer. And so yes, there are people out there who custom code websites. And yes, you do have to know code to like edit anything. But I'm not one of those people. I want people to be able to edit their website and maintain it. The last thing I'll point out is there are actually two different WordPress out there. There's wordpress.com and wordpress.org. 

BIRD: Really? 

JESS: So yes. So wordpress.com is very, very limited. It is basically like a free blogging site. It's like Blogger, kind of if you remember Blogger from like the early 2000s. It's like that. It's just for basically blogging. Now, I mean, some people do use it as a full website, like a full-fledged website, but it's very, very limiting. 

BIRD: Wow. 

JESS: So wordpress.org is what you want to use. And no, you do not have to have a .org domain to be able to use it. Some people are like, wait, but I don't. I'm whatever.com. And I'm like, Yeah, that's fine. You don't have to have a .org. So make sure if you're going to go the WordPress route, you want wordpress.org?

BIRD: Wow, I had no idea. That's very helpful. Thanks, Jess. Okay, so let's say someone is listening to this episode, and they're getting ready to launch their business. And they're really excited to understand more about websites, but they have limited bandwidth. Like, they don't have a lot of capacity. And they're trying to figure out should I focus on social media? Or should I focus on my website?

JESS: Well, I am really gonna surprise a lot of people. And I'm gonna say social media, because and I'll explain why. So if you are someone like, you are still working a day job, you're starting this thing on the side, you have very limited time, I would say social media. Like start connecting with people. Start promoting your services, products, whatever. Start getting your name out there. Because if you launch a website, but you have zero social media like I mean, you could go that route, but you are going to focus so heavily on SEO to try and get in front of people. And that takes probably the same amount or more time than social media posts. Because you have to write really long blog posts and learn how to optimize things and whatnot. So yes, you do need a website for your business. But and I would say quickly, but you do not need one to start your business. It would be much better if you were to build up this audience of a thousand followers on Instagram and then be like, I have a website. I'm not saying you have to wait until a thousand followers but I'm just saying like, you build up this audience of a couple hundred thousand, whatever, however many followers on Instagram, Tik Tok, whatever you choose, then have your website. Otherwise, you're just gonna have this website and be like, why is no one hiring me? 

BIRD: Right. 

JESS: It's because just because you put out a website doesn't mean that people just find you, because Google has to find your website. They have to be like, ooh, yes, this website is all about accounting and this is a great website. It's very reputable and credible, with lots of great information. We're going to rank this number one on Google for accountants in Houston, Texas. No, like it takes years for that to happen. So if you're really, really limited on time, start social media first.

BIRD: That's really interesting. I love that perspective. And you can tell it's very honest because obviously, you do websites.

JESS: I do websites, and I just tell people, you can start with social.

BIRD: Because you have to have that audience. It's so important. So, great perspective. And I guess if you start on social media, and people are buying from you, you could still direct them to whatever platform to actually purchase from you when you have your website.

JESS: Yeah, you could send them a PayPal invoice. I use stripe for most of my payment processing. You can set up an individual invoice in there. There's like QuickBooks. So there's lots of ways to like invoice people and that kind of thing. So you could piece together things. Like I know, people who have like, a Google form, to have inquiries, like they just link it in their Instagram.  Like, "Hey, if you want to work with me", and they have some text there. Like, these are my services, fill out the form below, I'll be in touch. So you can piece it together, but that is not a long-term strategy. I'm saying like the first year or so you can do that. Not like, okay, I'm three or four years in business and I don't have a website.

BIRD: I so love that advice. That's awesome. And you mentioned SEO. So talk a little bit about what SEO is, how it works and why it's important, and when an entrepreneur should start thinking about SEO.

JESS: Okay, so SEO is search engine optimization. So we are optimizing your content on your website so that when people Google what you offer, you show up in those Google searches. So like, if you sell gluten-free vanilla cupcakes, then we want to optimize your website to be like gluten-free cupcakes. If you are like a local-only business, then we would be like Houston, Texas, gluten-free cupcakes. If you're like nationwide, if you ship mostly, then it wouldn't matter as much as the location. But it's really optimizing that content. So this is both on the back end and the front end. So when you start building your website or looking around your platform, whatever platform you choose, you will see little places that say like SEO title, SEO meta description. So this is where you optimize the homepage title of your website. And that's where you would be like gluten-free cupcakes for birthday parties, or you know, like whatever for weddings, like, whatever your target market is. So SEO, you want to optimize based on obviously, like whatever your product is, but also if you're location-specific. And if not, then your target market or your target demographic. So are you for weddings? Are you for families? Are you a gym for women? Are you a web designer for online business owners? You know, there's web designers for gyms specifically. There's web designers specifically for dentists. Like you know, there's all these like really specific things. So the more specific you can be, the better chance you have of showing up in Google. And SEO, I love SEO. I mean, one, I'm a web designer. But two it helps you show up in front of your clients, your ideal clients, when you're sleeping when you're on vacation when you take a break from social media. And so it just can constantly bring new people to your website. And yes, they might not all hire you, but it helps them you know, they're like, oh, Jessica has great information. I'm gonna go follow her on Instagram, or you know, whatever. So it helps you get in front of those people. So I say, start focusing on SEO from the get-go, as soon as you can, because it is really, really helpful. Think of it kind of like the hashtags on Instagram, you know, hashtags kind of help us get in front of more people, doing that kind of thing, where you're just getting in front of more people, and I love it. Like I actually have a client who just yesterday was her last day on Instagram. She was like, "I'm quitting Instagram. It's not good for my mental health. I don't like it. It's a time suck." You know, like, whatever. She's like, "I'm going all-in on SEO." 

BIRD: Wow. 

JESS: Like because she's like because I can show up in front of people that way. And yes, it's still time. It's not like just magic. But I don't have to be scrolling endlessly on my phone and like competing with all this and worrying about hashtags. I can just blog and focus on SEO. And that's it. And that's the thing if you are wanting to focus on SEO, creating content like blogging, or YouTube, or podcasting is a big, big part of that. Like a huge part. You can still optimize just your pages on your website. But once you have posts as well, that gives Google more data to be able to like, read through your website, and be like, good, okay, this website is all about gluten-free cupcakes. It's all relevant, it's helpful. We're going to show this in our search results. Because if you think about it like Google wants to give people a good experience. So think about when you've last Googled something, and you probably clicked on the first one, and you might be like, perfect, it's what I was looking for, read it, buy it, whatever you're doing. Or you may have clicked on it, and you're like, this is not at all what I was searching for. Like this, no. And then you scroll and you're like, why can I not find what I'm looking for? Like, and then you go back and you search a little bit differently. Like, that's SEO at work.

BIRD: So you want to connect the content on your page to what people are searching for?

JESS: Yes.

BIRD: And then the more honed in you are on who you're serving, your ideal client, the more likely it is for them to find you, meaning if you just put, "I'm a bakery", but if again, if you're a bakery for weddings, or a bakery for family gatherings, or whatever it looks like, or bridal showers or whatever. Then it's like people are going to be searching for a bakery for you know, bridal shower and you're gonna be able to Google that. 

JESS: Yep.

BIRD: Okay. That's very helpful. And I know, I've heard, you know, SEO can seem like this big, hairy, thing.

JESS: It's overwhelming. Yeah, cause there's a lot of things. There's a lot of different things that can go into it. If you're overwhelmed as you start looking into it, the one thing I just remind people, which I already kind of said, but just to reiterate, is to be super specific. So like a lot of bloggers in their early days will just title things like smoothies. Or, you know, like, my favorite breakfast smoothie, you know. And it's like you're sharing a recipe, and it's like, that's not really optimized. Like, what you would want to do is a protein breakfast smoothie with only four ingredients or something like that. You want to be super specific. Because the more specific you are, the better again, the chance of showing up in those search results. So remember that. If you do nothing else in the world of SEO yet, just be really specific in defining what each page or post is about.

BIRD: Jess, that is so helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Now, when it comes to the pages on your website, you know, I know that whenever I got ready to do my website, I kind of thought about the different pages and which ones are the most important to have? I know it really will depend on the business, but what are your thoughts there?

JESS: So the minimum viable products, the first three that I would say is a homepage, an about page, and your sales or services page, like whether that's your selling products, a course, your services, whatever. The homepage is just an overview. It's like a welcome mat into your business. So we don't need to go all in-depth about sharing your whole story. It needs to be like I help XYZ with XYZ like this is what I do. And then kind of give a brief overview and then send them to your services page. A lot of people make the mistake of one either making their homepage just this like catch-all. Like, this is what I'm about, grab my ebook, follow me on Pinterest. Are you following me on Instagram? Do you want to take my quiz? Like, here's a client testimonial. Here's like, well, you know, whatever else and some of those things can go on your homepage. But your homepage is not just a catch-all. It's like a welcome mat to your house. 

BIRD: Got it.

JESS: Your about page, obviously, is kind of about you, but it's moreso about your business. So not that you need to sound like corporate-y and like "founded in 2020…" But really talk about like, who you help and why and kind of a little bit of your backstory as to like how you got here and that kind of thing. And then obviously your sales or services page is just going to outline, this is what I'm offering, this is what's included, this is the price, etc, etc. And then you know down the road, you can break services into multiple pages, if you want. You can have obviously a blog page. You could have a dedicated client testimonials page or client reviews or you know, whatever. I do encourage you to put testimonials around your site. But once you get further in business, you're gonna have lots of testimonials, hopefully. And so you don't want to just like keep those hidden and be like, great, I got these nice testimonials, I'm gonna post it on my Instagram story, it's gonna expire in 24 hours. No one's ever going to see it again. You want to have that page on your website. I have one on my website, and I've been in business for like 10 years. And so it's pretty long. So make sure you have that page. You could have an FAQ page. You could, depending on your type of business, you might have like a case studies page, kind of or like client results, case studies, kind of like that. A bakery wouldn't have a case studies page. But if you're a service provider, if you're anything like that, it's similar to the testimonials, but it's moreso, like showing data like, "Hey, I did this for my clients. They got like fifty-four percent increase or decrease or whatever thereafter. And kind of outlining what happened or, you know, that kind of thing.

BIRD: I love that. Case study page. That’s awesome. And I remember hearing once that the about page is like the second highest viewed page on a website, and so there's like it, I think you said to, you know, direct people toward your services page from that page because that's where we are like, let me hear more about this person. What are they really about? And so I like to point that out too.

JESS: Yeah, it is. About page, because people want to know, like, who am I buying from? Who am I hiring? One, people are focused on, like, I need help. I need help, or I need to order cupcakes. I have a party coming up. And then they're really like, but is this someone I can trust? Who are they? What are they about? And so, again, it really needs to be a little more about your business. And not just you. I've been to a lot of about pages, obviously. And sometimes it's like, my name is Jennifer. And I met my husband in high school. And we fell in love. And we got married when we were twenty. And then we moved to California. And I'm like, what does this have to do with anything? I mean, I do encourage you to have little fun facts. Because, again, I'm like, Who are you? Do I think we'll get along? You know, that kind of thing. 

BIRD: But it's not an autobiography. 

JESS: Yeah. And it's not the first thing we want to see right at the top of the page. It's kind of like, okay, who are you, what services are you offering? Not that it's a list of services, but it's just again, like, this is why I believe websites are important, or this is why we created this type of gym, that like we believe in XYZ, you know, that kind of thing. And then at the bottom, it can be like, a fun picture of you and your husband, your family, your dog, like whatever. Like, hey, like, I love "The Office" and I've gone to all fifty states, you know, like, whatever.

BIRD: Yeah, and I think that's great to point out too, for folks who like I know, a lot of clients I've worked with are kind of nervous about sharing about themselves. And it was for me too, like with our gym business, I was behind the scenes with this, I have to be like my faces all over everything, which is annoying, sometimes. You want people to work with you, then they're gonna have to know you and see who you are. I've been to about pages where it's just very corporate, and it's like, who am I going to be talking to? Who am I going to be working with? If I feel very disconnected, because it just seems very corporate and like, you know, I'm not connecting with a person. So yeah, I love that you pointed that out.

JESS: Yeah, yeah. And it's always up to you how much you want to share. Like, I know, some people, they're like, I don't want my kids on my website, that's fine. Like, you don't have to put a picture of your family. It can just be another headshot of you, that's fine. You can just say you have three kids, you don't have to like put their names out there. Or you can like not mention family at all. And just like, name your favorite books and favorite TV shows, favorite music, you know. It's up to you.

BIRD: Cool, cool. My last big question is what should I have in place before I start building my website? So what should I had already thought about or work through? 

JESS: The two biggest things that I would recommend which are kind of the hardest are your messaging and your services or your offers. So your messaging is not just the literal copy, but it's like what is the reason that people are going to hire you? Like people don't just hire me like oh, I want a pretty website. They're like, I want a website that's going to get me more traffic, can help me actually land more clients because I'm, you know, building trust and authority on my website. So that's a big part of my messaging. Is that like, I build strategic websites that help drive traffic and get you more clients, not just I make pretty website? 

BIRD: Yeah, yeah. 

JESS: So, figure out your messaging and like the reason that people are going to help you and sometimes that's a tagline. Sometimes it's just like, these are like the key points that I'm really going to like, reiterate throughout my website. And then obviously your offers because we don't want just like a "Hey". I've seen some sales pages before where it's like, "I'm a virtual assistant, and I can help you with your business. Hire me." It's like, well, what do you do though? Like, can you at least tell me like some skills that you have? Or like, even if you don't have like, official packages, but listing, like, these are the things I can help you with. And I offer custom packages, you know, something like that. So those are like the two things that I would really start with, because those are like, the biggest pieces. 

BIRD: I love that. 

JESS: Obviously, all the copy for your website, I really recommend writing copy first. So when I work with clients, I require that they have copy totally done before I start because the copy dictates the design. Like sometimes clients are like, but can I see the site? And then I'll write to like, fill it in? And I'm like, no, because I mean, in theory, maybe I could do that. But it's just like, a lot harder. It's harder, because it's like, well, I mean, do you want to write this much? So I really think it's easier to write first, and then you can tweak it as you're building the website.

BIRD: Yeah. That's great. I was gonna ask that for someone who's like," Okay, I'm going to try to go into Squarespace and build my website myself." Would you recommend they do the copy, think about the photos they want, and then try to plug everything in?

JESS: Yes. Yeah. Do that. And then yeah, it's just easier to tweak once it's done. And with Squarespace and even some WordPress themes, they'll have like dummy copy to let you install the theme or whatever. And then it'll just have like, it's called dummy copy, and it's just jibberish. And so then you can like, kind of fill that in. So in theory, you could see like, "Oh, this is what it looks like. Okay, I need to write like X amount." But again, I really recommend writing the copy first, getting the photos, whether that's of you or stock photos, whatever. And then plugging that all in.

BIRD: Got it. I actually thought of one more question. Website metrics. What are the website metrics that are most important to track? I don't know if he will say that it depends on the industry or the type of business. But are there some big ones that you would want to track?

JESS: Yeah, so it might vary depending on like your type of business, and really, like, what are you wanting people to do on your website. But one of the first things is looking at where traffic is coming from. In your Analytics, you can always see like, oh, people are coming from Google, people are coming from Instagram, like, whatever. That's going to tell you which marketing channels are working. And so if you're like, I'm spending like ten hours on Instagram every week, and no one is coming to my website, when you can be like, okay, so something needs to change. Like, I quit Instagram, I changed my Instagram strategy, you know, like, whatever. So that's like, the main thing is looking at where people are coming from. And then the other thing I would really focus on is, what are the top posts and pages? So you can always see like, your most popular pages and posts on your website. That's, again, going to show you like, where are people going? Usually like homepage is pretty popular, again, about pages pretty popular. If you have a blog post that goes viral, or gets a ton of hits, like obviously, that might jump up. But if you're like, no one is going to my services page. That would be why no one's hiring you from your website, at least because they're not even getting to the services page. 

BIRD: Got it. 

JESS: You know what I mean? Or if you see, okay, so homepage and services page, both have right around five hundred visits a month, let's say. Great, they're going from home to services. I'm not losing them, but I'm still not getting clients. Then that might tell you, first maybe you need to adjust the copy to help like sell your services and offers better. Or it might be okay, so am I priced too high? Am I not offering things that people want? You know, that kind of thing. So looking at how much traffic different pages are getting and kind of seeing like so what could this mean? Like, am I losing people? Are they just not even going there and I'm losing them on the homepage. And they're just like, I do not want to hire this person. 

BIRD: That's so helpful. Thank you.

So my last question is just to really understand what are the website services you offer, and to share how listeners can connect with you because you have been so incredibly helpful with all this information. I mean, I'm even taking notes over here. So I know that those who are listening are going to want to connect with you as well. So share a little bit about that.

JESS: Yeah, so I have a few different offers. One, obviously, I can build your website from scratch or redo your website if you're like I've tried and it looks awful. I also have a little bigger package where we can also do your copy as well. I have copywriters that helped me and help my clients. If you have an existing website that you like it, but you just want to improve it a little bit, especially in terms of SEO, I have just an optimization audit package where I come in and look at your speed, your SEO, your security, and kind of optimize all of that to help you really ramp up your website. And then the last offer that I have is my membership community. So if you are like, I do not have the budget to hire someone, but I really want to learn more about websites, my membership community, I have like over thirty trainings in there, lots of SEO information. We have monthly Q&A's where you literally get to hop on Zoom with me and be like, "How do I fix this on my website?" Or like, "Okay, I want to do this, how do I do it?" It's very like technical. It can be as specific as you need, whatever help you're looking for. So you can find all of that information, the membership services on my website, jesscreatives.com. Or I'm on social media, basically every platform @jesscreatives. And there's an 's' on the end. Sometimes people forget that.

BIRD: Awesome, very cool. This has been so helpful. I love all of your offers. I could totally see how I could use all of them. I love how you laid those out. I'll be sure to drop your links in the show notes as well. So if anyone's listening to this episode, you can scroll right down and connect with Jess right away. 

JESS: Awesome!

BIRD: Yay. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. You are such a sweet friend. And I'm glad to have had you on.

JESS: Yes, this was fun. Thank you so much for having me.

BIRD: So good, right? Look, a website is a powerful tool. And you can really view it as like your marketing hub where you send folks to connect with you, learn from you, and work with you. I personally feel like having a website really helps legitimize your business. And again can be like that marketing hub where you can send everyone to for all the information about you. I really loved how open and honest Jess was as she answered these website questions. And I know you're definitely going to want to connect with her and follow her online. So like I mentioned, I'm going to have all of her information linked below in the show notes. 

As always, thank you all so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast. Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts and follow us on Spotify. Also make sure that you tell every entrepreneur you know about this episode so that they can begin to build a stellar website too. 

Alright, I'll talk to y'all next week.