Small Business Savvy | Web Design, Systems, and Marketing

177. Your Website’s Probably Slacking Off - Let’s Fix That

• Kristen Doyle, web design and business strategy

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In this episode, I break down why your website’s probably slacking off, and how to fix it so that it supports smarter decisions and sustainable small business growth.

Too often, small business owners think simply having a website is enough to look professional, show up online, and attract clients. But the truth is, most websites aren’t pulling their weight. I walk through the three essential jobs your website should be handling on autopilot: pre-selling for you, moving clients seamlessly along your process, and making your positioning shine. If your homepage feels more like a digital brochure than a strategic business tool, you’re doing extra work that your website could be handling.

We get real about the cost of vague messaging, missing automation, and generic designs. I share the gut-check questions every owner should ask, plus a simple 3-second test to reveal where your site is missing critical opportunities. You’ll come away with practical steps to reclaim your time and strengthen your brand’s authority. Building business systems that work for you doesn’t have to be complicated, you just need the right tools to lead clients where you want them.

01:16 – Why simply “having a website” isn’t enough

02:25 – The first job your website must do before anyone ever reaches out

03:57 – How vague messaging quietly costs you the right clients

04:26 – Why clear next steps save time and make you look more confident

06:47 – The hidden problem with generic websites in crowded niches

09:36 – The three-second test that reveals what’s really holding your site back

Links & Resources:

Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode177

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Ready for a homepage refresh? Head to https://kristendoyle.co/express and let's make it happen!

Book a FREE Website Game Plan Call: https://kristendoyle.co/gameplan.

Learn more about my WordPress CarePlan: https://kristendoyle.co/wordpress-care-plan/

Kristen Doyle:

I'm gonna say something that might sting a little. Your website, no matter how much you love the way it looks, maybe you think it's gorgeous and you're so excited about it, or maybe you hate the way it looks, but either way, your website probably isn't doing its job as well as it should be. And you might not even realize it. Here's why this matters. When you don't realize that your website's not doing the job it should be, you are probably investing time and energy into things your website could be handling for you. So today I am breaking down exactly what your website should be doing, how to know if it's falling short, and what you can do about it. Let's jump in. You've built a strong business with happy customers, but somewhere along the way, you picked up advice that says you need to be doing more, post more, sell more, hustle harder. But that's not what you need. Welcome to Small Business Savvy. I'm Kristin Doyle, and I am so glad you're here. On this show, we're covering what actually works: business systems, website strategy, simplified marketing, the stuff that grows your business without burning you out. Let's get into it. Let's start with what doing its job as a website actually even means. When most business owners think about their website and what it's supposed to be doing, what they're thinking is their website needs to serve as a place where people can find them. They think it's about being online, looking professional, just having a website, but that is really treating your website like some sort of digital brochure. Think about the brochures that you find at rest stops when you're traveling. I don't know if they still do those, but I remember when I was a kid, we would go on a road trip, and we would always stop at the rest stop right before wherever we were gonna stay. And we would look at the little brochures when we were traveling, just to kind of like, see what was around, what was available. And yeah, sure, it was so fun as a kid to look through those and imagine all the fun things that maybe we could do, find something we never expected on a road trip. But there is a much bigger job that your website can and should be doing for you, and if it's not doing that job, then you are manually doing work that your website should be handling, and you're missing out on opportunities. So let's talk about what your website should actually be doing for you. It has three main jobs. The first one is to pre-sell the sale. So before someone ever reaches out to you or makes a purchase from you, your website should be pre-answering the biggest questions in the back of their mind. And honestly, they may not even realize that they're asking these questions yet, but your website should answer them for them. It should say what you do, who it's for, why you're different, and how they can move forward, whether that means coming into your brick and mortar business, buying something online, signing up as a client, whatever it is, purchasing a course. Most websites are either doing this poorly or they're not doing it at all. Think about a website, for example, that says, I help small businesses grow. Okay, great, so does everyone. Versus, I help established coaches who don't want to DIY their website work, get a website that converts in less than a month. That is specific, it's clear, it is for a specific person, and that is much better. The problem is, vague websites that really don't make anyone feel like this is for them, if that's what you have, you either get a million 'is this for me' kinds of questions that you have to answer, or no one reaches out because they don't really understand who you're there to help. And honestly, the second one is probably more often. The solution here is a website specific enough that the right people immediately know that this is for them, but the wrong people self select out because they also immediately realize this isn't for me. So the question to ask yourself for this job is, could someone landing on my website immediately know if I'm the right fit for them and what I offer, or are they confused and looking around for more information? All right, the second job your website needs to do is move people forward in your process, whatever that is, without you having to manually do anything. A good website has those clear next steps built right into the design. Now that does not mean you have a link to your contact page or you have a shop now button. It's here's what to do if you're ready to learn more. Here's how to get in touch. Here's what happens next. Making those next steps really obvious for the people visiting your site reduces a ton of manual work on your end, because it makes it clear what people should be doing. You're telling them exactly what to do next, and it also makes you look a lot more confident and a lot more put together as the small business owner. So for example, here's what it looks like when it's working well, the client lands on your site, or the visitor lands on your site. The homepage kind of pre-answers the questions in the back of their mind. They know they want to work with you. They click a very obvious 'book a call to get started' button. Your calendar booking system handles all the scheduling and the reminders and all of those things, and you don't do anything except show up for the call. Versus when it's not working, that same visitor lands on your site. They're not quite sure what you do, so they go to your contact page, they send you an email. You have to reply back and forth, you have to go grab a booking link somewhere, and you finally get a call scheduled after a bunch of manual work. The problem is that websites that don't have that clear path for people to follow mean you end up spending time on things that automation should be handling for you, or more likely, you just lose out on clients or customers because they don't know what they're supposed to do. And honestly, it's a lot more likely that you lose out on people versus you doing the extra work, because most people just don't want to jump through the hoops. So the solution here is a website that is designed around leading people right down the path that they naturally want to follow, from landing on your website the first time to actually working with you, coming into your store, purchasing something from you, whatever that looks like for you. So the question to ask yourself for this job is, when someone lands on my website, is it obvious what they should do next, or are they having to guess or look around for it? And then the third job that your site should be doing is demonstrating your positioning and your authority to set you up as an expert in your field. Your website needs to do that both visually and strategically, to show that you're different and also how you're different. It needs to communicate the level of thinking of strategy, of expertise, whatever it is that you bring to your space. The problem here is most business owners, their websites look very generic. They could be any coach, any service provider, any consultant. If we could take your name and maybe your photo off your website, and your site could be applied to anyone in your niche, if your site looks like every other restaurant out there, every other nail salon, every other speech therapist, whatever it is, if your website could work for anyone in your niche, then it's way too generic. Your website needs to make it very clear that you're the right person who gets what they need. You're the right fit for them, and that starts with design and messaging that says that you, that this person, thinks strategically and they're specific about who they serve, versus generic, we help everyone kinds of websites. The problem is, when you have that generic, broad positioning, you're stuck competing based only on price and visibility, not on the value of what you offer. When your website reflects your actual positioning and your value, then you attract clients who aren't worried about the price. The visibility part doesn't matter as much, because you're attracting the right people who recognize that you're different and you're exactly who they need. So the question to ask yourself here is, does someone landing on my website immediately understand what makes me different and what makes me better than the competition? Or could my website be anyone's website in my niche? Do I look like everyone else? All right, so let's talk about why this matters so much. If your website is not doing all three of these jobs well, then you're stuck doing these kinds of things manually. You're answering questions, you're manually scheduling things, you're explaining your positioning and your offers over and over, and that is exhausting. Remember, I talked about the exhaustion that leads us straight to burnout in last week's episode or the week before. Your website really should be handling this kind of work so that you don't have to. But the other problem, the other reason that this matters, is that for a lot of us, we are just missing out on opportunities. So yes, when the opportunity does come up, you're having to do the extra work, but more often, you're just missing out on the opportunity to connect with potential clients and customers, and those people are going to someone else whose website makes it easier. One really great way to test if your website is doing these jobs is what I call the three second test. You look at your homepage for just three seconds and ask yourself, does the visual design, the headline and the call to action, the content before you scroll down, does that communicate what you do and who it's for, and does it give people clear next steps? If your visitor can't understand your business at its root in three seconds and know what to do, everything else on the page is having to work twice as hard, and you're probably going to lose that visitor before you even get started. All right, so let's talk about action steps. Here's what you need to actually do. The first one is do the three second test on your homepage. You can get a full guide for how to do this, along with all the questions you should be asking yourself and a short training video on my website at Kristendoyle.co/3seconds. That's the number three and the word seconds. And I'll put the link in the show notes for you. That three second test is also going to encourage you to have someone outside your business take a look. It'll give them some questions to answer as well. Get their first impressions. And if they're struggling to answer any of those questions that are inside the three second test guide that you're going to get on my website, then your website is not doing one of those three jobs, and that is your biggest insight for right now. So to recap, your website's not doing its job if you're still manually handling things it could be automating, if people are confused about what you do and how to get started, or if your positioning isn't clear. And if you're listening along and you're thinking, Yeah, my website probably isn't doing these things. That's actually really common, and it is totally fixable. Start by grabbing the three second guide. And then if you want to talk about what it could look like to fix that with me, I offer website game plan calls where we can take a look at what you have and how we could fix it together. The links for those are in the show notes, and I'll talk to you soon.