How to use this  

After going through this planner, you’ll understand when to hire vs DIY, how to choose the best platform for your needs, and the design factors to help you build a website (or work with a designer to build a website) that kicks a** for your business.

TO SAVE AN ONLINE/INTERACTIVE VERSION OF THIS DOCUMENT TO YOUR GOOGLE DRIVE: Make sure you are logged into Google. Then click this link. Google Drive will then prompt you to “make a copy.” You can then type directly into each “notes” section, and all of your work will be saved and editable.

PLEASE NOTE – This is a living, breathing planner that will be updated as needed. If you download, print, or make a copy – new updates will not transfer. So make sure to check back!

Overview & Porpoise Purpose

Your website should be your 24/7, perfectly-trained successful salesman for your business. 

If it’s not getting found, or getting found and repelling customers, then it’s not working for you!

This website planner will help you go through each design factor and get into your ideal client’s head, to make sure you’re answering their questions and not (accidentally) repelling them with your design.

So, what is a successful website?

Before we begin, let’s make sure we’re on the same page with what a “successful website” is. 

A successful website is essentially a digital online brochure of your business – but it’s one that should make you look good AND gets your business found – thereby convincing visitors to become leads/sales.

A beautiful website that never gets found? Not successful.

A website that gets found but looks awful and deters all of your website visitors? Not successful.

This guide will give you a basic understanding of how to achieve both.

3 essential steps

There are 3 simple steps to create a website that truly works for your business and helps you grow.

1. Plan – this is essential to know who is your audience, what they need to know, what content is going on your website, how it will look, what pages you need, and what your design will be
   
2. Create – once you know the above (or have worked with your designer to determine the above), you can choose your platform, begin designing, upload your content, and launch
   
3. Promote – don’t forget, a website that never gets found is not a successful website! Once you go live, you have a beautiful business-building asset that can increase your visibility, awareness, and gain you leads/sales. But you must promote your website to achieve this.

Psst.. want in depth training on ALL of the above?

This free planner just covers the basics. But you can get training for ALL of the above in my Website Kickstart Club for just $7 currently.

• Learn how to DIY your own branding that looks professional
• Get my Website Content Questionnaire and Page Planning worksheet
• Get my Web Designer Hiring Guide, SEO Checklist, & SEO Crash course
• Includes step by step training AND an exclusive members-only community 
• Learn how to promote your website once it’s live

When to hire vs DIY 

Not sure if you should hire someone to create your website, or DIY it? 

I’ve worked with many small business owners who struggle to wear every hat possible.

The bottom line is you got into business to be an expert in your business subject – not to become an expert designer and digital marketer. 

While there are many valid ways to market your business internally, learning the ins and outs of an entire new skillset is not an ideal way to spend time, unless you currently have more time than money. 

If you have more money than time, hire someone. 

If you have more time than money, DIY it.

Planning Questions

Many website owners, whether working with a designer or DIYing their website, tend to place the focus of the website on themselves instead of how they can help their ideal client who may be visiting their website.

Remember to keep the focus on your visitors/potential clients. 

Instead of talking about yourself right away, talk about the benefits of working with you. What transformation will your customers achieve? What will they get from working with you? What will they experience and how will they feel? 

This is the sales psychology you can use to get more leads from the traffic you get. The following questions will help you narrow down what information needs to be on your website and how to speak to your ideal client. 

The answers to the questions in the worksheet will help you determine what information to put on your website and how to stand out from your competition. DO NOT SKIP THEM!

Get the complete planning questionnaire workbook in the Website Kickstart Club.

Choosing a platform 

There are so many website platforms these days! However, not all of them are good for online visibility in search engines. 

If you’re hiring someone to build you a website, WordPress is the most common platform used. It’s highly customizable and very flexible for future website changes and I highly approve of it.

The downside is there is a large learning curve, so unless you plan to learn WordPress, you will have to pay for maintenance. And if you’re setting your site up yourself, you will have to invest a significant amount of time.

If you’re working with me, we will discuss WordPress vs ProPages (my custom site builder specifically for local businesses.) 

Best platforms for diy

If you’re DIYing your website, Wix and Squarespace are both great site builders without a huge learning curve but WITH great SEO settings. (This used to not be the case, but they have greatly improved!) If you’re considering these, do a trial of each and see which you like best.

WordPress is a good option if you’re really committed to learning a new platform, but like I mentioned above, there is a learning curve. 

Page builders to avoid

Don’t build your full website on pagebuilders like Kartra and Clickfunnels. These are great for landing pages – not sufficient for a full website despite what their marketing may say.

They have loading speed issues, SEO issues, and lack CMS (content management system) features. 

Design issues that repel visitors

Many times, business owners will accidentally create design and usability issues that actually repel your customers instead of attracting them. Here are the most common ones I see. 

Go through each of these checklist items individually, and check them manually on both mobile and desktop, to make sure your website design is working for you instead of against you. 

• Inconsistent/wild colors and fonts that match your desires, not  your ideal audiences’ 
• Not easy to tell what services/products you provide right away
• Not easy to tell exactly where you’re located or who you serve right away
• Pages have just photos, no written content
• Content only focuses on the website/business owner, not on benefits for the user
• Comprehensive ervices/products aren’t listed on the website
• The website loads poorly on some devices (mobile or desktop)
• Broken buttons
• Broken links
• Forms that are too long, difficult to read or use, or are broken/don’t submit
• Not clear how to contact/sign up on ALL pages
• Not easy to find contact info on both mobile and desktop

Promotion options

Once your website is live, you need to get it found. After all, it doesn’t matter how great it is if nobody is seeing it! There are 3 main promotion avenues that any website owner can focus on:

1. SEO
   
2. Social Media
   
3. Paid Advertising

I go into all of these in more detail in the Website Kickstart Club. 

Want my help with any of this?

$$$ – I can do it for you – I eat SEO and websites for breakfast and can audit your current website to get more visibility, or can build you a spiffy, beautiful new optimized website >> contact me at info [at] theharvestfirm.com

$$ – Get my help in my PRO paid community with advanced step-by-step training & coaching [coming soon]

$ – Get started in my beginner community with foundational step-by-step training [link here]

FREE – Do it yourself with feedback and support from my free community – Join the Successful Website Lab

What now?

I hope you are now thinking about your website in new ways, thinking about what your audience really wants, making sure that your design follows all of the current best-practices to become both beautiful and functional, and planning ways to promote your business or blog online.

So what now? 

1. Use this guide throughout your design (or redesign) process.
   
2. Join me one of my communities above, where you can connect with other website owners and ask any questions you might have.
   
3. Don’t want to do it all yourself? Hire me or join me in one of my communities above.
   
   To your online success!!! xH.