Suzanne Proksa:
Welcome to the Suzanne show with me, Suzanne Proksa, HR and business strategist, former featured Etsy seller, plant addict, concert lover, gardener, landscaper in training, and human straight up obsessed with helping others and cheering on women. Here, we talk a little business, personal development, women's health, and a whole lot about things that matter, help people, and give them joy. Grab your coffee or your wine, Break out one of your hundreds of notebooks. Light that soy candle, and let's dive in. Hey beautiful human. Just a quick note that the episode that you are about to listen to is from my former show, Sue's Pro Live, but it is so good that I just wanted to make sure that it was still being shared. So enjoy. I am delighted to be here with Ashley today.
Suzanne Proksa:
She has some awesome awesome web strategy stuff to talk to you about today. She has been completely rocking it. I'm watching her online. She is all over
Suzanne Proksa:
the she's
Suzanne Proksa:
got her own group that's thriving and stuff. So I'm excited to hear what she has to say. And I am going to do my usual thing where I hand it over to her to introduce herself because as I always say, she can do a much better job than I can.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for having me. I am super pumped to be here. So in case you don't know me, hello, my name is Ashley Deluca. I am, I am a lot of things I feel like, but I really focus on helping entrepreneurs rise with the power of web strategy and like help them bloom into their full potential. So I am a WordPress gal. I love WordPress and I really just hope you'll be able to take that pretty website of yours and be like, focus on being able to funnel sales through it because we can have, you know, strategy for like everything else in life and everything else in our business. But if we do not have a strategy for what we're pulling our people to, which is our website, the majority of the time, they're gonna go nowhere. So I'm really super excited to be able to share some knowledge in regards to like how you can actually make a website that is actually driven towards being able to funnel those clients, funnel those sales and help you just become a thriving business owner.
Suzanne Proksa:
Awesome. So I love this topic because I'm sure you have seen all the posts all over the place that say website or no website. Website or no website. And everybody has an opinion. So Exactly. Fun. So start by telling us why having a web strategy is important.
Suzanne Proksa:
So having a web strategy is so incredibly important because as I had just mentioned, you know, a lot of times we focus on social media strategy and we focus on content strategy. And while those are all super duper important, even with like the latest Facebook change now, like now we need to start focusing on, you know, taking those people and getting them onto our email list. Well, in order to get them on your email list, it does have some connection with your website. So in order to be able to kind of combat those changes that we're constantly seeing in social media, we need to make sure that our websites have a good solid foundation and strategy. And the reason why that is important is mainly because when we're taking those people to our website and if they don't know where to go, they don't know what to do. They're gonna come and be like, okay, I don't know why I'm here. And they're gonna click off and that does not help anybody at all. So we need to make sure that, like, we're actually guiding them towards something, like giving them a goal to accomplish on our website.
Suzanne Proksa:
Awesome. Yeah. I've been to websites like that before where you're like, where do I go to find what I need? And it's just exactly go home and stuff. So this is a good conversation. So tell us, how does web strategy link to a person, a, a business's cash flow?
Suzanne Proksa:
Definitely. So when you're thinking about your website and as you had just mentioned, you know, like, how do I find what I need? How do I figure it out? So like, let's say for an example, you're a service based provider, right? You have a service that you provide for somebody and they get on your website. And I find this oftentimes on people's homepages where there's like 30 different options and 30 different things that they could do. You can visit my blog, you can sign up for my email list. Oh, you can learn about me. You can do this, you can do this. Make it so simple that like anybody can figure it out. So like, if you were to visit my homepage for the most part, you can opt into my email list, which is the first click that you can make.
Suzanne Proksa:
The rest of them goes to my work with me page because as a service provider, that's what I want you to do. And so when you eliminate those extra options for people, you're helping them make that path towards being able to do what you want them to do, which a lot of times, if you're a service based provider is to get to that work with me page, which from there is for them to contact you. So obviously if you're able to push more people to your services page, and then from there contact you, you're gonna see an increase in leads. As opposed to them being confused and just knocking out. Cause I've tested this for myself, like being able to see as my business website to see. Okay. So what happens if I do this? Okay. Well, that's not working.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. And I've done all the experimenting for you. And I have found that it just makes so much more sense when you just have a clear path for them and go through it because I found that it has helped me increase my revenue because people aren't sitting on my website confused or clicking off on pages that don't even have anything to do with what I want them to do.
Suzanne Proksa:
Hey, y'all. Did you know that I offer tip jar specials every month where you can get something cool for tipping the podcast? If you are loving the episode or the podcast in general, head over to tip [email protected] and check out this month's options. VIPs also get special access to events with my guests. Thank you for letting me cut in and now let's get back to the episode. So that's interesting that you say that. You know, one argument that I hear all the time is about the about me page. You know, what's your thought on that? Is that important or not? Or can't you just throw that stuff on the work with me page?
Suzanne Proksa:
So I guess so there's 2 different ways you can look at it. So I think it is very important that you have some information about yourself on your work with me page, because they may not ever visit your about page. And especially with somebody who has high credentials, who has a lot of business and personal successes. I think it's very important that they know about that. You know, especially as they're going through the process of deciding whether or not they wanna work with you. So I'd highly recommend having that stuff on there. But I also think it's important also too, to have some kind of about page. It doesn't need to be miles long.
Suzanne Proksa:
You know, I think mine is maybe only a couple paragraphs. Most of my clients are again, only a couple of paragraphs because if you needed just to get some, a glimpse of information about Ashley, you can go there and find out about Ashley. You know what I mean? If you really wanted to look at that and about pages can be used in a lot of different ways, especially if you're looking at sponsorships or collaborations, things like that, where people are intentionally going to your website to find out specifically about you. So I would highly recommend having one, but it does not need to be like a whole biography by any means to get the short point across of someone being able to pick up on your style, pick up on who you are, to be able to know if they want to collaborate or work with you or whatever that may be.
Suzanne Proksa:
Alright. So let's talk about one of the things I've been talking about with people online today and that's calls to action. Oh, yes. Go about getting those on our websites where people actually take the action.
Suzanne Proksa:
So when we're talking about call to actions, this is one of my favorite things to talk about too, because it's like so incredibly important because a lot of times we forget about them. We like put together these amazing landing pages and then we're like, like, oh, here's the setup, but we don't actually like give them a reason or the actual call to action. So I think a lot of it in order for someone to actually be able to take action, it's a lot about the, before the call to action button. Buttons are super, super good with call to actions, but also it's also the copy and the imagery and things like that before they get to that point for them to actually take action towards something, especially with an email address. You know, we talked about how valid and how valuable things like that are. You know, we have to give them all the good reasons. And so I highly recommend keeping it short, keeping it concise and appealing to your audience with very powerful copy by making sure that they understand exactly what they're getting. Because it would be a no brainer at that point, anything like that, it needs to be a no brainer for them to go for it.
Suzanne Proksa:
Yes. I've definitely found that. Oh, yeah. And I actually there are there are people too out there that actually don't know what a call to action is, which I think is interesting. Like, I found myself explaining that today. So
Suzanne Proksa:
Oh, really? Yeah.
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. So I'm glad that you that you discussed that. I mean, what are some things that you might ask people to do on your website that would be calls to action?
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. So the main calls to actions that I would highly recommend that most people have. So we'll start first with a product based business. So for a product based business, you should technically have 2 call to actions. Technically the first call to action should definitely be your email list. You want them to go on email list no matter what. Right? And then the second thing is, is obviously you want them to buy your product. Yes.
Suzanne Proksa:
You can have a blog. You can have other things that you can offer them and do. But at the end of the day, your 2 call to actions should all be focused on that. You know, those little areas in your sidebar where you have things where they can click on that should go to a product or that should go to your email list. And like, I think also too, even like when we flip to the service based size, I mean, again, it should be your email list and your services, you know, something or another, you know, because when you get to your work with me page from there, they're going to be going to your contact page, you know, which like kind of all links together into a flow. And again, I mean, there's lots of us who, you know, we do serve our audience in lots of different ways, but I mean, you also read podcasts and you do all this like super amazing stuff. And so you have lots of things that you can offer people at every stage that they're coming with you. So the cool thing is, is that even though your main call to action would be your work with me page, you could still have the opportunity if they're not ready.
Suzanne Proksa:
They know that they can just hit the back button and they can go and, visit your membership and they can do this. They can do that. And like, you you're great because you have so many different options. You know, able you know, able to opt into your services essentially.
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. I do have a few things.
Suzanne Proksa:
Oh, man. You're like the rock star and I love it. I absolutely love it because like that and that's why I say that. It's because it's a perfect example of someone who would be able to kind of model a similar idea. It's like if you wanted to be able to still serve people, you can still do that, but don't make that your particular call to action on your website, particularly. Because they're gonna be drawn to it anyways.
Suzanne Proksa:
Alright. So what are some ways that I can help more website visitors to my ultimate goal?
Suzanne Proksa:
So I think it really comes down to that concise path and making sure you do not have a lot of distractions. So when you're thinking about your pathway, if you have Google analytics set up on your website, which if you don't, I highly recommend, You can actually see your use user behavior flow. And once you can see your visitors as they come to your website. So you can see like, okay, so if they start at my homepage, what page are they more likely to go to next? Okay. Well, that looks like it's my about my about page. Okay. From there, you know, you can see the percentage of people who drop off or continue on. And you can look to see what pages may not serving you well.
Suzanne Proksa:
What pages, you know, cause there was a while where my work with me page had such a high drop off rate. This is like a year or so ago, huge drop off rate. And I was like, why? Like, I don't understand. And then like, obviously I knew based off of that, that's the page I needed to tweak and figure out what was going on and things like that. So as you're looking at that behavior flow, you can see where your leaks are essentially where your visitors are just popping off. Cause they're like, you know, towards the page. And so when you're thinking about how you can get people to keep going, it's by making sure you're evaluating those pages frequently, making sure that nothing's broken, making sure that it's relevant, making sure that, you know, all those different aspects are still being able to serve them as they go through that. And you could even have, I like to also with my clients, do a model in my mind of, okay, so for an ideal client, where would I like them to go? And then make sure that those pages link to that next step.
Suzanne Proksa:
Very nice. I like that. Alright. So how does positioning play a role with this?
Suzanne Proksa:
So when you're working with your web strategy, you're also working on positioning yourself as well, too. And so you wanna make sure that obviously when you're thinking about your, you know, your strategy for your website, you wanna think about how you wanna position yourself. So if it's super duper important to you for them to know, like go to your about page, you want to position your web strategy to do that for you. So that way, you know, as they're going through, you know, if that's important to you, they need to make sure they hit that little check mark before they move on with your work with me page, whatever that may be. And so it's really important because if you're have a website that, you know, someone comes to and they're lost and confused and things like that, That's not gonna help you, like, position yourself as an expert. I mean, that's gonna be like, what? And, like, I don't know. Like, you may have the best content in the world, but if they don't know how to get to it, or they don't know how to access your services or know what you do and things like that, it's not gonna help you. Unfortunately, It's just gonna hurt your positioning as opposed to actually helping you.
Suzanne Proksa:
So, I mean, you talk about that flow and positioning and everything, and there's a lot of people who use, like, lead pages or something like that, which ends up taking off of their site. I actually do some of my landing pages in Kajabi. Just it it's just easier technology. Yeah. What what do you think about that? And if you think it's a horrible idea, it's totally okay to say that.
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. No. I mean, I, it really comes down to the purpose. So a lot of times when you're using, excuse me, when you're using lead pages, you're just looking for them to opt in. You're not really looking for them to go on a particular journey necessary, necessarily like on your website. So those are perfectly fine because I mean, for, you know, if it's like way easier to make your landing pages and things like that on there, go for it. Like, it's totally cool. It's not like a bad idea or anything.
Suzanne Proksa:
Mainly because it just needs to make sure it aligns with the focus of what you're creating it for. So, you know, if it's just for an offer or just for an email address or, you know, to do a particular one item, that's totally fine. As long as it accomplishes that call to action, that's the most important thing.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay.
Suzanne Proksa:
Whew. Yep. No, you're good. Yeah, no, you're good. Cause I mean, I get that all the time. I mean, I personally make all my landing pages and WordPress, you know, based off of, I just design them that way. But the cool thing is, is that no matter like what you're doing, as long as it takes care of your call to action, like your purpose of that, then you're totally fine. Just remember that.
Suzanne Proksa:
Alright. I am now now. They're they're prettier in Kajabi, you know?
Suzanne Proksa:
They are. Yeah. They are pretty. They are. Yes. And it flows better.
Suzanne Proksa:
But alright. Those are my excuses. So what's a good text to image ratio for a page on a website?
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. So when you're thinking about your text and your images, a lot of times we find ourselves being very we're the scrolling people, as I like to say. You know, we're always scrolling through, we're always scrolling through our newsfeeds, our Instagram, and those same habits go when we're visiting websites as well too. So when you're thinking about on, when you have someone on your website, you wanna make sure that you're able to captivate them with your imagery. It's important because your imagery should definitely capture what your text is saying. So for us to be talking about cats and have a picture about dogs, that doesn't make much sense. So even as you're going through and putting in those super cute soft photography, you'll wanna make sure it still links with what you're talking about and not just because it's cute, if that makes sense. So what I like to do is break it up into smaller chunks with images.
Suzanne Proksa:
So even if you're swapping, so if you have an image on the right side, text on the left side, and then you swap at your next paragraph, whatever you can do to break it up with images is going to only help you. I mean, a lot of people are like, well, what about load time? What about this? I was like, right now, I mean, everything is so crunched down. Everything is so super lightning fast. Like it's totally okay. You know, just put those in there to be able to kind of break it up. And it also helps convey your message too so much better when you have the right images that help you, you know, support your text.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. That's good to know because I don't know if I'm the only one, but those super long pages, they just lose me. I mean
Suzanne Proksa:
They do. Yeah. Exactly. And, like, it's too
Suzanne Proksa:
much. Yeah. I mean, people are still doing it like crazy too. It's I understand the power of story and everything, but it just seems like if I need 20 minutes, there's something wrong there.
Suzanne Proksa:
Why? Exactly. And I mean, even though, like, as we're, as we're talking about this for like our listeners and stuff, I mean, it's not even just all text and image. I mean, it's not like a bunch of images we're talking about. I mean, like, this is like all text that you have to read. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just too much. So, I mean, make it short, make it concise, make it so they know exactly what they need and why they need it.
Suzanne Proksa:
I like it.
Suzanne Proksa:
Yes. Okay. So earlier you talked about analytics Yeah. A little bit already. I mean, what other kinds of things do you think that people should be looking at in particular?
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. So another thing that you should definitely be looking at, your bounce rate is super duper. You wanna see how many people you're actually able to capture on your website and how many people are just kinda coming on and bouncing off right away. Another thing that's really important too, is like how long people are staying on your website. This can also play a part in that strategy format of, okay. So, you know, are they, if they're only on my website for, you know, a minute and 30 seconds, you can't read, you can't get to my homepage and then read my services page at 1 minute and 30 seconds. Like, unless you're a speed reader, like that is not happening. So, you know, trying to figure out to your life.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. So how are some ways that I can try to capture my audience to keep them on longer? You know, is it maybe I need to, or is there, you know, particularly in your blog section? Okay. I need to get some more blogs on there. You know, they're, they're really capturing towards this particular blog. So I need to write more about that. And that's another thing. You know, you can look at your pages, like your top pages on your website to see what your most popular blog post is. And you'll know like, you know, not even just from like Pinterest traffic.
Suzanne Proksa:
This is just from your website alone. You can see what your most popular content is too. And then you know what you can start writing about and focusing on because that's what people are looking to read.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. So let's say your website is just completely banking or a certain page or whatever. How do you improve that?
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. So as I mentioned earlier, so I had issues with my work with me page. Right? And people weren't just like bouncing off like hot cricket. They were just like, no, we're just not in like, not anything. And I was looking at it and I, I just gotta put myself in my visitor shoes for a hot moment. I was like, okay. So if I was coming to a web designer, what would I want to see? What would I expect? What would I want to know? And I also asked myself, I also looked at what most of my clients asked me, you know, before they signed and after they signed. Because a lot of times I feel like as a service based provider, we get a lot of the same questions We're like, okay.
Suzanne Proksa:
So how does this work? What about this? You know, well, can I expect this from you? So I took all of those things and wrote them all out and just created this whole entire page to answer all those questions with just, like, I just kind of did it a little bit differently. You know, it wasn't a kind of thing where, you know, a lot of people are like, show me inspiration. It wasn't one of those. I didn't go around looking at other people's, you know, I just really started to focus on what would my ideal client want to see and want to know. And that's what I created for them. And so when you're going through that process, when you have a page, it's just like not working, you know, you're like, okay, so what is this page? You can look at the purpose of it. How does it serve my visitor to see if you even need it? And, you know, obviously if it's something like important, like your work with me, Paige, like it was for me, is just looking at it in regards to, okay, what do they actually need to know? What is going to, you know, get them to at least capture the meaning behind who I am and what I do.
Suzanne Proksa:
K. Alright. I'm gonna be, going and looking at my website. Oh, boy. Okay. How does web strategy and web analytics connect? Who do you connect those 2?
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. So when you're connecting your web strategy with, your analytics, you're gonna see some massive changes, right? When you nail down your strategy for your website, you're gonna see massive changes in your analytics. And here's why. So when your website becomes way more defined, way more robust, makes more sense. What's going to happen is your analytics are gonna be a lot more favorable. You're gonna see people staying on your website longer. You're going to see those pages improve. You're gonna see more traffic because it's kind of like also like the whole attraction portion too.
Suzanne Proksa:
Like, if you're more into the woo woo, you know what I mean? It's just like when you have your website set up for success, people are going to gravitate towards it. People are gonna become more excited about it, you know, and it's gonna become one of those things where, you know, they're gonna see all the possibilities and they're gonna see all the possibilities of you and your products and working with you and all that good stuff. So, I mean, you're just gonna see all the different changes and all the different things. And I mean, for me personally, I found that people were staying on them longer. I was seeing them visit more of my pages more frequently, exploring more through like my blog and things like that. And I mean, it was just all good plus signs for me.
Suzanne Proksa:
Alright. So, I mean, back to the thing that I mentioned in the beginning, you know, there's a lot of people, you know, either new to the scene or they're somewhat new to the scene, and there's this big controversy over whether or not you need a web page. So they're out there. They're working their tails off. They're trying desperately just to get seen, you know, online. How important is that web page? And if if they need to focus on the bare minimum, what what do they focus on?
Suzanne Proksa:
Definitely. Yeah. So I would say that having a website is definitely a crucial part of running a business. And so many people say it isn't, but here's why I believe it is. So the first thing is, is that having a website helps you establish your credibility. Completely. I mean, you've invested into a place on the web that you're sharing about yourself that anybody can find. It's so much I mean, it's definitely a time investment and a money investment at times, because, you know, you're purchasing the domain, you're purchasing hosting.
Suzanne Proksa:
It's not just setting up a Facebook profile and, you know, going that route. Right. So you establish your credibility, but you also establish authority as well too, you know, because you're able to have your own place for your content, which is super important because especially when you're on WordPress or, you know, on a platform where you actually have access to all your files and you can have everything, you own what you have. It is you, it's all yours. And it's really cool because you have the ability to do do whatever you want with it as well too. And so when you're first starting off and making that decision, I would highly recommend just thinking about the possibilities of growth. Because what happens one day if Facebook shuts down? What happens if Instagram is no more? What are you going to be left with? How can people find you? Like, that is so incredibly important. So you wanna make sure that you have some place where people can find you no matter what people are able to find your content and also to be able to really, you know, check you out and see where you're at.
Suzanne Proksa:
I mean, I know for me, like, if I'm looking when to collaborate with somebody, I'm gonna go probably visit their website and check them out. Like, it's just a habit. I mean, you can, you know, post all the great quotes on Facebook, but I mean, I wanna know the nitty gritty. I wanna know what's going on. Like what's, what are you doing? You know? And so your website just gives you the opportunity to really share who you are. So, yeah, it just makes a huge difference. So when you're first starting out, like do not get overwhelmed. It does not have to be anything crazy.
Suzanne Proksa:
I mean, you can start off with just a simple homepage landing page that has just some very basic information. I mean, you can start off as basic as you need to. Like it's totally okay. Cause everyone starts somewhere. So as long as you are able to describe, even if it's just all on one page, if you can describe who you are, what you do and how you can serve others, And they have a way to contact you. You're solid. You made the check marks. I mean, that's what you really need all at first.
Suzanne Proksa:
And from there you can add your blog for your content. You can expand those different paradox into pages and, you know, focus on being able to serve them in much bigger ways.
Suzanne Proksa:
I'm with you. I I think that you should at least have a page.
Suzanne Proksa:
Some Definitely.
Suzanne Proksa:
Because I don't know. My age group, we won't say what age group that is. We wanna find someone. We're going to the Internet.
Suzanne Proksa:
We're going to Google. Right. Exactly.
Suzanne Proksa:
Like, when I wanna find out TheSkinny on somebody, I'm going I'm looking for their website, and I'm looking at their Facebook pages and groups and stuff.
Suzanne Proksa:
Exactly. And I mean, the other thing is too, I mean, what I like to do is I always, I have somebody who I look up to who's a couple steps ahead of me. And I also look up to someone who's like way ahead of me. And I, no matter who that is, they, they both have websites, you know, because they understand the value of being able to have a place for their content and establish authority. Like all the big shots have it. Why don't you? You know what I mean?
Suzanne Proksa:
Well, that's funny too, because it's the big shots telling people not to get a webs.
Suzanne Proksa:
Why? And I'm like, but you have one. So how does that not, that doesn't make any sense to me.
Suzanne Proksa:
And theirs are all souped up and the fanciness. I mean Right. Yeah. So while I am sure that there are people listening who want to know how to get in touch with you, what you can help them with, etcetera. Do you have anything special for them or a way for them to contact you?
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah, definitely. So, you guys can definitely come hit me up on my website. So my website is ashleykdeluca.com and you are more than welcome to also hit me up here on Facebook. And I would definitely be more than happy to sit down and do a free 30 minute strategy session with you to look over your website and provide you your 3 key points in regards to how you can upgrade your web strategy. So that way you're not looking for you when you're like, wait, she has all this great advice, but how does that I'll just look at it for you and we can take out 3 actionable ways that we can definitely work to make something better for
Suzanne Proksa:
you. Awesome. That is very generous.
Suzanne Proksa:
I love doing them. They're so much fun. They're so much fun. I love them. So, yeah, definitely just hit me up here on Facebook or you can also send me an email too, if that's easier. Which is hello at ashleykdeluca.com.
Suzanne Proksa:
Well, that's easy enough. Oh, definitely. And we have a Facebook group too, don't you?
Suzanne Proksa:
Yes, I do. So my Facebook group is the Female Entrepreneurs empowerment and connection. So if you just do facebookforward/groups, it is feecgroup.
Suzanne Proksa:
Awesome. So look that up, you guys. Track her down. Hey. Hey. Track her down. She's easy to find.
Suzanne Proksa:
Oh, yeah. It'll stay hidden.
Suzanne Proksa:
Who does not? She knows what visibility is all about. So well, thank you so much. That is awesome advice, awesome tips for people, and everybody's probably gonna be running to their website now going, oh my god. I need some So thank you so much, and thank you everybody for watching. So thank you so much everybody for tuning in to another Sue's Proksa Live, and I will talk to you soon. Thank you, Ashley.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you. Bye.
Suzanne Proksa:
Bye. I hope that you loved this episode. If you did, give me those shout outs, show me some love on iTunes, give me a rating and hey, if you wanna know where to find me, you can find me on pretty much all social media at suzanneproksa and you can also head over to my website, suzanneproxa.com. Until then, I'll see you in the next episode and here is parte music for you.
