How to Build an Esthetician Website That Gets You More Clients with Makena Delaney

Is your esthetician website actually helping you get clients—or is it just sitting there? In this episode of The Esthetician Podcast, Kari Jo talks with Makena, founder of Makena Creative, about how to build an esthetician website that establishes credibility, attracts the right clients, and helps your esthetician business make money.

You’ll learn what pages your website needs, common website mistakes that can turn potential clients away, which website platforms to consider, how your branding affects what clients are willing to pay, and the basics of making your website more SEO-friendly.

Want another set of eyes on your brand and website? Book a free Smart Start Session with Makena to uncover what makes your business unique and how you can use it in your marketing:
www.chatwithmakena.com 

If you’re booked but not making money, you need to start with your numbers.
Download my FREE  “Diagnose Your Business” tracker in the show notes and I’ll show you exactly what to track.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Website Problem

Kari Jo 0:07

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, the podcast for estheticians who are tired of working nonstop, feeling stuck in their business. Hey, I'm Kari Jo and I'm an esthetician of 20 years. I built and I sold my aesthetics company after learning the business side that nobody ever teaches us. And each week we are gonna figure out what is actually happening in your business and what to fix first and how to build a business that actually is gonna give you more freedom, more profit, and most importantly, more peace. So let's get into today's episode. All right, guys, I want to start this episode just a little different because I went into an esthetician group chat recently and I searched the word website. And let me tell you what I saw over and over again. What platform should I be using? Do I even need a website? And can someone build this for me cheap? And it made me realize that, like, guys, this is not a website problem, right? This is a clarity problem. So today we are going to talk about websites and what is actually supposed to do, what might be confusing. But today I brought on a guest, Makena. She started in this beauty industry, so she understands this world and she helps business owners with their brand and their website, which is why I love it and I wanted her to be on. So let's jump in. Makena,

Meet Makena And Brand Lessons

Kari Jo 1:41

thanks for coming on the podcast. Thank you so much. Hey everyone, I'm so excited to be here and thank you for having me. Yes.

Makena 1:48

So you've been in the beauty field. So tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I have a fun story in the beauty world. So I actually went to hair school for three whole days. I took my kit home on day three. I was a recent high school grad and I said to my dad, I will not be going back there tomorrow. He called the school and they were like, Well, she needs to come get her kit. He's like, It's in her trunk, folks. She's not coming back. Oh my gosh. I uh they had us wash somebody's hair, and I was like, you know, this isn't for me. I ended up from there in the makeup world, which was perfect for me. There's a brush between me and someone's face.

Kari Jo 2:31

Oh my gosh, I love that. That is so funny.

Makena 2:34

Yeah. But I ended up working for all the biggest beauty brands as a freelance makeup artist. You know, probably a lot of a lot of the girls listening to this will probably know the the role, but I worked, you know, as a freelance sales artist for NARS, Bare Minerals, Exuviance, It Cosmetics, you name it. I probably worked for them. I think I worked for over 25 brands by the time I left uh after seven years.

Kari Jo 2:56

Oh my gosh. So you learned a lot about branding in that time, obviously.

Makena 3:01

I sure did. Yes, I sure did.

Kari Jo 3:04

What was like one of the main biggest things that you saw with all of these different big brand companies? What are they doing?

Makena 3:12

Yeah. Oh, that's such a good question. And it leads me to like one of my favorite analogies. So we'll we'll hop into that in a second. But to answer your question, um, they all have their own specific ideal client profile and their own way that they want to show up in the marketplace, right? Which leads me to my analogy. So I always kind of paint this picture. I work with a lot of women, so even if they're not in the beauty industry, this works. But it's like if you walk into Sephora, every single brand in that store, in the makeup section, you know, I know there's hair care, skincare, but in the makeup section, they all sell the same thing, right? We've got blush, bronzer, highlighter, concealer. But each one, each gondola has its own persona and it attracts a different woman to each one. The woman who's wearing, you know, rare beauty is probably not wearing a whole lot of urban decay, right? Um, and so that was the big thing that I learned. Um, is is there's an ideal client profile. When I was a salesperson in store with uh these different brands, like the person I was targeting to sell to for each brand was different. It wasn't it one, it wasn't whoever just walked by. You know, if I saw somebody who had maybe some skin issues, was struggling with rosacea, and probably wanted to cover it when I was with It Cosmetics, that was an easy pull, right? Uh, but if somebody is that got that clean girl beauty, which wasn't a thing when I was in the industry, but she's her hair pulled back, we're gonna go for something a little bit lighter. So that was the biggest lesson that I learned uh branding-wise. But it was interesting how every brand had a certain way they wanted us to dress. Like NARS, we either had to have a bold lip or a bold eye. Um, Tom Ford, we had to have your hair pulled back. Um, Laura Mercier, your makeup had to be on the lighter side. I never worked for Mac or Urban, but your makeup had to be a lot more intense for those two brands. So, you know, it's just like you had to show up as a different person, and that has helped me as well.

Kari Jo 5:05

Yeah, I love that because I feel like our that was the best analogy because I feel like our uh industry, like everyone's like, there is so many aestheticians, right? But like if you look at it kind of like you're saying, you go into Ulta or Sephora, and there's hundreds of different brands, and they're all making it under the same roof, which is kind of like we're all in the same community, but we all can make it if we actually know who we're targeting. And I loved how like you were talking about each brand attracts, like you had to be a different way, dress a different way. Cause like I know when I was building my company, I had this uh for clothing. I had I had this rule for all of my employees, which is if you want to charge $600, you better look $600. So like your clothing, you should feel slightly uncomfortable every single day. So, like if your shoes, like I was like, so if you're gonna wear jeans, then you better be in high heels. You know what I mean? Yeah, yes, yes.

Makena 6:06

So yeah, I think showing up how you how you would expect them to show up. Um, you know, just like if if you know your ideal client is a Pilates mom, then you're probably okay in Pilates attire. Uh, I mean, probably elevate it and just a little bit, but I think there's like opportunity there. Whereas, like if you know that you're gonna be in the deep south it with the rich ladies and you know, in the communities we don't even know about, well, you probably need to show up like that, you know, there's just differences.

Kari Jo 6:35

Yes. And so I think, and that even brings like showing up online that same way, which is like that would make sense why you learn that. So tell us how you got into website in particular. Like, how'd you get into website design?

Makena 6:52

Great question. So I did the beauty world stuff really throughout my years in college. I spent a little extra time in college on some for some reasons I'm not gonna get into because I did some like extra courses, really what it what it comes down to. And I had a year of sickness, but um I knew that I didn't want to be in the beauty industry forever because the role that I was in, the next natural step was to be an account executive for one of these brands, and they travel five days a week. And your girl hates traveling. So I knew that was like not the next step for me. I did not want to live in New York, and I also was well aware because of the three days in beauty school that I did not like touching people, so I knew I wasn't gonna be like a salon guru, but I did know that I had a knack for business and um I was in business school, so my family actually opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Oklahoma, and my dad asked me to build the website for that, and it was a challenge. I had never done it before. One, but two, you have to have um some kind of certain certain special features because it's not federally legal. And so I built that website and the whole company loved it, and I was like, okay, that was pretty fun. Let's do it again. Uh, so about four months later, I charged for my first website, and uh the ball has been rolling ever since. Funny enough, um, I did that about six months prior to COVID. So I actually was, you know, we were all fired, all freelance was fired at in on March 14th. I would say, like, probably pretty much everybody at that stage because Ulta shut down and Sephora shut down. So um, I just went full force into my business after that, and it's been it's been incredible ever since. So that's really how I how it started.

What Your Website Must Communicate

Kari Jo 8:30

So tell us what have you learned about what should a website be doing for a solo esthetician?

Makena 8:38

Oh, that's a great question. So I think it depends. There's there's a couple of different answers, but I think the most overarching answer that I'll that I'll share is it needs to be showing your ideal client that you have the expertise to solve their problems, right? There's gotta be or that you work within the services that they want, or like it that's kind of to me, that's kind of all in one, but that's a better way to spell it out. Um, if I land on your website and I don't know pricing, I don't know where you're positioned in the market, I don't know. Are you like more of a medical leaning aesthetician, or are we kind of doing some flowery, holistic things over here? Both are lovely, both serve their purpose, right? But I need to know who you are and what you're bringing to the table for me first and foremost. And that's really, I think, a place where a website can help. Uh, one thing I do see aestheticians do a lot, so don't hate me for this, but is putting all their policies like on their service page. And I think that's just a huge deterrent. So I always tell clients not to do that. Like let's that let's leave that for later in the stage once once they're in the once they're client, once they've kind of come into our funnel, but let's not like push them away before we actually get their information to become clients.

Kari Jo 9:53

Uh yeah, yeah, I agree. Sometimes, like I I talk to estheticians about like when their clients are coming in and they're like, I gotta make them understand, I gotta tell them the no-show policy because I don't want them canceling. And I'm like, if they've never been into your business, you're just putting a big wall right in between them and you. Like, let's nurture them first, you know. So I love that. I know I'm glad that you brought that up because I'm sure that happens all the time. Do you see other things that you're like, okay, this is also a big pet peeve of mine?

Makena 10:27

Yeah. Uh everybody has the same brand in the beauty industry. Like, they're all like that boho, um, like script font logo, or they have like an eyelash in them a lot of times. We want to like draw out the unique personality that you have because you can find other cool people like you, you know, and I get I get the attraction to that aesthetic because it actually is so pretty and I also love it. But I think it's all about again, like trying to portray who you want to show up as. Like if you have this very boho design style on your socials, on your on your website or elsewhere, and then you show up and you know you're like a deep medical aesthetician doing you know pretty high-level services, those two things don't align. Like, we can make you look at the level that you're at, right? Or like if you are the person doing more holistic stuff, let's make you look holistic. The the crunchy people are gonna love you, they're gonna be so attracted to that because that's where that's where they find themselves, that's where they see themselves reflected. Um, you know, or again, like if somebody's dealing with Gen Z and acne, let's give you a Gen Z-oriented brand. That's gonna be a lot more colorful and a lot more fun. It's just all about your ideal client and and all that. But I would say, yeah, the the branding piece of it where kind of every esthetician website looks identical, is um my pet peeve. That is so good.

Kari Jo 11:53

Well, let's dive into some of their questions that like I was looking, and so you can kind of help answer it. So, what would you say?

Picking The Right Website Platform

Kari Jo 12:03

First and foremost, people are like, What website platform do I even use? Like, doesn't matter. Have you noticed differences between them?

Makena 12:12

Yeah, uh, absolutely great question. I think this can be different for everybody, and I don't think that there's necessarily a wrong answer. I think a lot of designers you would talk to are like, yes, you have to use exactly this. I'm not that way. I personally love using the show it platform. I sell show it website templates. I like it because a lot of people use Canva in their business. Like that's where a lot of people first start out. You know, you leave the salon for the first time, you open up Canva, you pop out a logo. That is a very natural journey for most. And show it's back end and editor operates very much like Canva does. Whereas like Squarespace, it's a little bit more locked in, you don't have as much freedom. It's a little bit tougher to use. Show it's a lot easier, especially if you buy a template. Most of the heavy lifting is done for you, which is great. Um, as long as you kind of just like fill in the like the blanks that like so many people want to take a template and like blow it up, right? No, fill in the blanks, and so easy, makes your life so easy. Um so there's there's those two. Then there's WordPress, which a lot of people will talk about. I don't see a need for an aesthetician to really ever use WordPress. Maybe if you were trying to be of like a really big e-commerce presence, I could see that being good. Um, but I could also see Shopify being really good for that. Um, so I would say those are the big main four. Um, but yeah, I I love Show It just because I think the transition of use between Canva and Show It for all solopreneurs is really great.

Kari Jo 13:46

Okay. So what would you say, like, what is the do you know, do you know off the top of your head the pricing for like what is someone going to have to pay to like get a website on and host a website?

Makena 13:59

Yeah, typically hosting with show it, I want to say is like right around 40 to 50 dollars a month. It's pretty standard.

Kari Jo 14:07

A lot of people are like, oh, fifty dollars a month. Do you know what I mean? For the newer, I mean, like for a newer esthetician, though every dollar counts, right? So we're gonna spend fifty dollars a month and we want to get our money out of this. What do we gotta do to get our money out of this so that it's worth that fifty dollars?

Makena 14:28

Well, this this I'm saying with tough love, but there's a lot more recurring expenses in business that are more than 50 bucks. So I would look at that as a win for sure, especially because it's the hub for everything in your marketing, right? This is not a place we want to super cheap out or anything. It is the foundation of your business. Like people are going to determine if you are good enough for them based on your website. That is that is the thing. Like more than anything else a website can do for you, it helps you establish credibility and authority within the desired market, right? So that's a super important piece of it. $50 a month, we can do one more service to be able to pay for that, right? Uh, but what do we have to do to make that money worth it is a great

Making A Website Worth The Cost

Makena 15:12

question. For that, I would say you need to start posting it, right? So many people will try to drag you back to their Instagram. You don't own Instagram, you don't own anything but your newsletter and your website. Um, and really, your website's kind of debatable. The hosts pretty much own it. If you stop paying for them, you don't have a website anymore. And that's true for all websites. But yeah, you just got to start promoting it. I can't tell you how many websites I've launched to people that thought the website is gonna do the heavy lifting. It can do a little lifting, it's gonna help you close sales again. It's gonna help you to establish credibility. It can be a place for people to book, it can answer frequently asked questions, but it is not going to do the work of marketing for you. You've got to market towards the website, you've got to drive traffic towards the website. So things like posting on social media, posting in Facebook groups, posting deals, or uh, you know, just new client like welcome package or anything like that. That's gonna be such a win to get people to your website. But ultimately, it's kind of like like pouring the concrete before you build a new structure, right? Like, are you gonna see the concrete? Yes, we wanna keep the concrete looking nice and good. We don't want broken down concrete, but it's all the other stuff that's gonna make it, you know, really function well for you.

Kari Jo 16:32

That makes a lot of sense. And what I heard you say, which is so great, is you challenge the mindset of, well, that's a lot of money, where it's like, do you want to be an authority or not? And then also what I loved about what you just said is I think sometimes we build a website and we think, okay, that's good, and that's good enough. And then we leave it. But what I heard you actually saying and challenging other aestheticians to do is no, you built it, but now you have to make people go towards it. That's your goal.

Makena 17:12

Is that what you're saying? Absolutely, you got to keep it clean. It's like it's like a house, you gotta invite the guests in and make sure it's clean when they get there, right? You gotta have you gotta be a good hospitable host when people are visiting your website. Um, but yeah, I definitely challenge the mindset of $50 being a lot. I mean, I'm I was there, guys. Like, I I totally hear you on that, but I mean, I have thousands of dollars of recurring charges in my business that have to exist. So $50 a month I've become jaded to. But I think like you want to get to that point, right? Like that that can sometimes be the sign of where you want to be at your next level. Like, we need to not be thinking about that too much because yeah, it is the difference between a DIY, like you could you could have a DIY situation that tells your ideal client, like, oh, I can't. I'm gonna say this, and it's gonna sound a little harsh, but sometimes when we DIY our website, somebody who is a really high-ticket client who might be extremely loyal and has very deep pockets might be the perfect person for you to be able to help, right? But if they see your website and it doesn't meet their expectations, and it's not even like did they look at it and go, oh, it's a good website. They they decided your worth and your value based on the way that you portray yourself, right? And so you've just lost a client you never knew you lost because your website wasn't up to par, right? And that is that is universally true for every service industry. Um, but I think it it's just something like we just kind of tend to think, oh, I'm a solopreneur, like let me just DIY this real quick. I threw it together on you know, Squarespace or whatever. There's no real strategy behind it. Yeah, I've put up a bunch of my policies for cancellation. You've just deterred a whole host of people who could actually be perfect fits for you that could fill out your business. So it's just something to consider.

What Website Maintenance Looks Like

Kari Jo 19:03

Yes. Now, if we go into you built the website, and then our goal is to try to get people coming to the website. I mean, are we like build the front page, leave it and done? Or are we supposed to be updating it? Like, what do you recommend? How do we maintain what does maintaining, I guess, the website look like?

Makena 19:28

That's a great question. Uh, you have so many good questions. I love this. I love thinking about everything through the beauty lens too. Like it's making this conversation way more fun. I would say, like, you want to have your four core pages home about contact and services. You're gonna want to update that services page anytime you have a, you know, change in services, of course, or any add-ons or of services or anything like that. Um, but you just want to make sure that like the content always still looks good. You know, as weird as it may be, sometimes formatting can change or a font will go funky. Like these are things you want to be looking at on a pretty regular basis, even if it's just a quick scan of the site once a month. Um, or like, you know, I sometimes I think, and I'm guilty of this too, but I sometimes think we'll go get a brand photo shoot and then not do it again for a hundred years because it's a lot of work, which it is a lot of work. Um, so we we don't touch changing out the photos or anything like that. But the reality of businesses, just point blank, is we evolve, right? So the person you're helping when you start out as a solopreneur is not the person that you're probably working with on year three, four, five, six. So you want to make sure that even if you had your website designed when you started out by a professional, you are making sure that it's still aligned with that ideal client. So again, if you were starting out with that anti-aging, um, you know, restorative type part of the industry, or and then you lean into acne in by year three because you have a bunch of teens, again, your branding needs to reflect that. And one caveat I want to throw in there because I keep bringing up that analogy, is a lot of times decision maker is still mom if you have like a teen with acne, right? But you want to make the teen feel good about coming in. So there's like a really fine line of design that we can use to build that authority up.

Kari Jo 21:18

But but yeah, what really landed for me in what you just said was how we evolve.

Makena 21:26

Yeah.

Kari Jo 21:27

And that is I can't even say, like, from the time that I started my company to build it and sold it, I was a totally different company and totally different person. Like, I started off and I used name, and by the end, I had a different name and logo. Do you know what I mean? Like I did completely evolve. So that I think was so accurate of what really happens. And so I do think what happens is people do get on their website and then they just leave it and they don't evolve with it. So I love that you bring brought. Up like our blind spots, yeah.

Makena 22:04

No, you're 100% right. I'm on my fourth business name in seven years. Like, I'm guilty of it too. I've hated all of them until this last one. I mean, I hated them when I use the name, but like you might be in that position too. Like, whoever's listening, you might find yourself in that same spot of like I hate everything, it's time for it to go because it no longer serves what you want to offer, you know, whatever that may mean within within the aesthetics world. Like, and the aesthetics world is so big and so vast, and there's so many little parts and pieces that you could do just lashes or just brows or just makeup or just bridal. Like, you've got to make sure that your marketing, and again, your website and your brand are the foundation of that evolves with what you're offering. So, yeah, a million percent my favorite horse.

Kari Jo 22:56

So it would almost be wise then at that point to almost have a brand check every year by like a brand specialist to just be like, Am I still in alignment or am I changing? Like, just look over and tell me if I'm hitting it or not hitting it.

Makena 23:14

Yeah, I usually recommend every two years. I think sometimes when we when we do a big lift for a brand and website, like it can take you a year to kind of like move into the brand, feel comfortable, and then all of a sudden, you know, two years, and you're like, okay, now I've made some because you kind of make the changes, then the changes become public, then you sit and stew in those changes, then you're like, wait, now I'm starting to feel those same pain points again. Then we can kind of revisit and regroup on that. But yeah, so I say usually about every two years.

Kari Jo 23:42

Yeah, that makes sense. That's actually I I once heard in a business conference that we technically evolve every three.

Makena 23:50

Yeah.

Kari Jo 23:50

So say you make um $300,000, you then change at $600,000. So that would make sense about two, is right when you're like starting to totally change. I love that. Well, what are some of the biggest secrets that we need to know about website designs for estheticians?

Makena 24:14

Oh, I love this question. Okay, so one having a website at all is a good thing because of AI finding people. Like just because you have a website doesn't mean that you're gonna be found on Google or found in AI, but it's a step above most. So many people have Gloss Genius or Square or whatever. Yeah, that's a site, it has a link, but it's not a website that's positioning you as an authority. I know like a lot of people love, I think Savannah Boda, I know she's super popular, and like she's built a brand. She her her online presence, but even her in-person presence is a certain feeling that she's trying to create. And so I think that you know, having like a start with you know, just a little something something is good enough to be continue to build on. So it may mean you need to start over, but like if if Savannah is kind of the end goal, like at least the website is step one, right? So that would be secret number one, because because having just the booking sites is just it's never gonna get you found, number one. But number two, again, it builds, it doesn't build that authority. And like we don't wake up on day one, hire a brand designer or and a website designer, and all of a sudden become an authority. Sometimes we have to grow into that, right? Um, but but that's the goal is like we climb this ladder of authority and expertise. And I feel like Savannah's like pretty high up there and pretty recognizable, which is why I brought her up.

Kari Jo 25:42

But um, yeah, that's kind of the

Designing For Feeling And Pricing

Kari Jo 25:45

direction that I would yes, I think I one of the words that I heard you say that really resonated with me was she built a filling, and it's funny because I'm remodeling a house right now, and I am using chat GPT to help remodel it. But I was like, okay, you're an interior designer, like I want to know, and I I'm like, you are gonna teach me. I'm going through interior design school, teach me step one, step two. If this was a system process, what steps do I need to know in order? And it was so funny because the whole entire thing when you're interior designing is about feeling. What do you want that feeling to feel? Right. And so I love that you brought that up with Savannah. And even going back to what I said earlier about when I walked into my like my comp my girls' headdress a certain way, right? But I was creating luxury. So you kind of have why do you when you go into Gucci, you feel a little uncomfortable, right? And so I love that you brought in what is the feeling that you're trying to create.

Makena 26:49

Well, you know, that feeling, and this is all subconscious and probably something most people have never thought of, but that feeling is a determinant for how much again, like I hate to say this because like you're worth like we we paint that to be such a big thing in business, but like at the end of the day, you do have a dollar value on the service that you can charge. Like at some point, the market's gonna either tell you yes or no. Um, you can keep pushing, keep pushing, and then all of a sudden you don't have any clients. But there's an expectation when we are building our spaces out the way we show up, um, you know, and all that has to do with the person that you're targeting. You may say, Well, I can show up in whatever clothes I want to wear, maybe even what I slept in last night, and just roll out of bed and go to work, right? If your clients are okay with that, they're okay with that, but that's certainly not gonna make you the next Chris Appleton, right? Chris Appleton doesn't show up like that. He doesn't care if he gets color on his very nice shirt because he's Chris Appleton, he could buy another one. You know, so it's like it's all about, like you said, that feeling that you create. Um, that's part of your brand. That's part of the foundation that we lay as part of the brand design process. You know, I try to not overwhelm that piece of it, but ultimately that is something that we try to strive for. Like, for example, a lot of my clients are speakers. Well, I want to give them colors that they can wear. As an ex-makeup artist, I want people to wear the colors that they're in their brand because it's flattering to their skin tone. That's one thing that's important, but they're showing up as the person, like back to the NARS analogy, like a very city girl versus like it cosmetics, where people, you know, are a little bit more natural. So, anyway, you're you're you are just trying to create an experience and a feeling that's memorable. But again, people are gonna place a price on that. So if you don't care as much about the experience, you might go to a uh a salon that you preserve uh perceive, do you Louise couldn't say that word, but you're gonna go somewhere you perceive to be cheaper, and a lot of that is based on your marketing. That's the price that you can charge, is based on that.

Kari Jo 28:50

So much of that designing your website really comes down to really nailing your branding. So you obviously you are a brand expert, and then you help create the website. I'm just wondering when somebody is looking at their brand and they're like, I think I am, I'm not sure if I'm branded correct. I don't know what would your advice be for them? What would you tell them?

Makena 29:23

Reach out to somebody, do a discovery call. I'd be happy to do a discovery call with you. Um, but it's it's all about having third-party eyes, whoever those are. Um, I mean, you know, it's gotta be somebody that like either it's gotta be somebody with a little expertise. It could be your ideal client herself. Like if you have a really good client, you could totally reach out to her and say, like, what do you think of this? Like honest feedback, I need to know for my marketing. Um, or you know, a brand expert or somebody in the marketing world. Um, they probably need to be fairly brand oriented, but the reality is you're too close to your business to tell for yourself. Like, I know that's true for me. Yeah, like it just is, it's just true. I like, and when you're creating your brand, there's a thousand tiny decisions that go into that, and trying to make all of those for yourself is impossible. If you guys knew how long I vacillated on the shade of pink that is the basis for my brand, I gave up and I hired somebody. I uh because I couldn't choose. Would I have ever picked the color she picked? No, I hated it, but I was like, you know what, we're gonna trust the process because I knew that, like, just because it's a collection of colors, sometimes it doesn't mean that I love all of it, it's how it comes together. Like, I love this wallpaper. Do I like all those colors? Absolutely not, but be but together they're beautiful, right? And so trying to make those decisions on an individual basis is really, really challenging. So the same goes for all of your marketing.

Kari Jo 30:54

Yeah, I agree. When we're so close, like we don't, everything's so complicated and we're overthinking it. And it's sometimes just so much easier to have an outside. I be like, listen, I mean, this is this is it. Even when I'm coaching, a lot of times I can see what my girl's biggest blind is in their business. I'm like, oh yeah, that's definitely your hurdle that you're gonna have to overcome. But you can't see it when you're actually in it. But on the outside, other people always see it. Really quick, I know we're coming to an end, but one of the questions that I recently just had in a coaching call is about website, and they are wondering about SEOs and websites. How do you even make your websites SEO friendly and things like that?

Makena 31:49

Yes, that is a very, very long topic. Um, part of that's gonna have to do with your website platform. So the ones we talked about earlier would all be acceptable. There are several out there that are garbage and we don't want to use those, but I'm not gonna name names. So just know that like you're safe with the ones I listed. Um so I would say that would be like step number one. Step number two again comes back to knowing your ideal client and being able to target for them. So SEO itself comes down to keywords, right? And searching in Google how people are asking for our services, right? So one thing that I find across industries, not just specific to the beauty world, is people want to phrase things in a way that they think they want it phrased. Well, we're experts in whatever we do if we've started a business doing it. So the way we're gonna talk about it is very different. This isn't specifically SEO related, what I'm about to share, but if you go look at my logo on my website, you'll see that it says Makena Creative logos, brands, websites. Now, especially at the time, I had an ego. I wanted to be a brand designer, you know, boutique branding agency, something cute. You know what my clients are looking for? Logos, not brands, right? So, like to me, I'm not a logo designer. You're never gonna catch me designing a logo by itself. Like, that's just not, I don't even know where to start.

SEO Basics That Bring Traffic

Makena 33:15

I need the brand strategy piece of it. But my but my my business card, all that says logos, brands, websites, because that's the language that they use. And that's really the foundation for SEO. That's a that's a super deep topic and super deep conversation, but um that's gonna be kind of the foundation of it. And once you have that, then you can kind of get into some of the deeper stuff and managing your Google My Business account and your all of your reviews and making sure your copy is SEO keyword rich, but all of that is quite technical um and probably not something you can DIY without taking a course.

Kari Jo 33:50

Very good, very good. Well, tell my audience how they can connect with you, how they can find you.

Makena 33:57

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I would love to connect. Um, I offer what's called a smart start session if anybody wants to hop on Zoom and just get to know each other. We kind of go over your North Star and you can find me at chatwithmakenna.com or catch me on Instagram at Makena underscore Delaney.

Kari Jo 34:14

Yeah, well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I like learned so much and resonated so much with what you were saying. And I what I really took away is how important it is to understand you like as the brand, because it really comes down to you in order to build that website even better to make it really trans transactional, wouldn't you say that?

Makena 34:41

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Kari Jo 34:44

Yeah, awesome. Well, I hope you listeners all uh I'm going to put her link in the show notes below so you guys can just easily click on it. And thank you again for coming on. And guys, go check your website, go look at all the things she said not to do at the very beginning. Go check, make sure you're not doing that. If today's episode hit home for you, the next thing I want you to do is go and download my free esthetician weekly number tracker. Most estheticians are trying to fix everything all at once. When really it's usually one number that is quietly

Where To Find McKenna

Kari Jo 35:23

breaking the business. This tracker, it helps you figure out what number is actually hurting your business first. So when you know what to focus on, instead of feeling like you're all over the place, you can start changing your company. You can download it at Kari Jo patterson.com forward slash start. And remember, you don't need to fix everything at once.