The Jasmine Star Show

Is Your Website Costing You Clients? Here’s How to Fix It

• Jasmine Star

Share episode

Is your website working for you… or against you?

In this episode, Jasmine shares a behind-the-scenes conversation with a friend who sold his company for $40M—and why his next big move depended on one thing: a website that actually converts.

You’ll learn:

  • Why your website—not social media—is your most powerful digital asset
  • 3 must-haves for building trust and driving leads
  • How AI search (like ChatGPT) is changing how clients find you
  • And the real talk Jasmine had with herself about updating her own site

If you’ve ever questioned whether your site is helping or hurting your business, this is your wake-up call.

Click play to hear all of this and:

[00:56] I sat down with a friend (who casually sold his biz for $40M 🤯) and helped him choose a content agency. What we discovered completely shifted how I think about websites.

[02:45] Same offers. Same ballpark pricing. But one website? It leaped off the screen. I’ll tell you why.

[04:36] We’re talking clear messaging, strong copy, and design that feels like a whole vibe. This is what separates a ‘meh’ site from one that makes people want to buy.

[06:31] This one agency’s website had us pre-sold before a single sales call. Imagine what that could do for your business.

[08:35] I had to take a hard look at my digital storefront—and ask: is this helping or hurting?

[10:40] Let’s break it down: copy, message, design. Plus how to stay visible as AI search takes over the way people find your biz.

Articles to Help Create Website Copy:

AI for Creatives: Boost Efficiency Without Losing Your Voice

Is AI Killing Your Website’s SEO? (A Deep Dive for Showit Users)

Listen to Related Episodes:

You know that feeling when you find a platform that just works—and you never have to worry about switching? That’s been me and Showit for the past 10+ years.

I built my website with Showit because it gives me total design freedom.

If you’re ready to build a website that works FOR you—and not against you—head to JasmineStar.com/showit for a 14-day free trial + first month free when you subscribe!

For full show notes, visit jasminestar.com/podcast/episode593

You know that feeling when you find a platform that just works—and you never have to worry about switching? That’s been me and Showit for the past 10+ years.

I built my website with Showit because it gives me total design freedom.

If you’re ready to build a website that works FOR you—and not against you—head to JasmineStar.com/showit for a 14-day free trial + first month free when you subscribe!

Jasmine Star 00:00:00  If you want a customer who's like, I'm looking for a content creator, I'm looking for a chef, I'm looking for a bigger. I'm looking for a photographer. What content have you put out that is making Google say, this is the person? That's going to be the main question. Do you want your website to be showing up in AI searches on places like ChatGPT, Claude, perplexity and all the other AI search engines? What about making your website optimized with AI? What if you can have your website bring in new, qualified, amazing leads? Welcome to the Jasmine Star show where I empower seventh year entrepreneurs to scale to eight. And I'm going to bring you along the journey of how I've been optimizing and updating my website to ensure it's in alignment with not just where the industry is now, but definitely where it is heading. Okay, so I wanted to update my website for better discovery. Now, before I talk about what I'm doing, I want to bring you in on a real life recent story.

Jasmine Star 00:00:56  So I had a friend. He sold his business for $40 million or something like that. It's rumored to be 40 million. I think it's probably a little bit more. He sold the business and for the last two years have been on a deep dive discovery of the next business he's building. He launched it a bit ago, two years ago, and he's already doing over $10 million. And he said, you know what, Jasmine? I want to do it differently this time. I want to build my personal brand alongside of it. He's like, I've seen you build your personal brand and I want you to speak into my journey. And I said, I'm honored. This is great. And he said, I hate content. And I was like, okay, great. And he said, I am looking to hire a video content agency to help me scale my personal brand. And I said, this is fantastic. And so he came to me asking clear strategic questions. And then he said, hey, here are two agencies I'm looking at.

Jasmine Star 00:01:43  And I had said before, I see those two other agencies, let me send you a link of this one agency. That's pretty incredible. So what I want to talk about are the three options that he and I were looking through. One was completely all high end. It was about $35,000 a month for one weekly YouTube video. The other agency had all like big personal brands. They were very featured prominently there on the homepage and in the portfolio. They were also high ticket and another agency where he knew some of his friends were getting represented and helped with the content from that agency. So we were looking at three distinct options, each within their own value propositions. Now, all three things being equal, he had to make a decision, and he's the kind of person that he's like. My time is the most valuable thing I have. Before I set up a sales call, I'm going to use the website as a point of differentiation to see how deep and how fast I want to move with the company.

Jasmine Star 00:02:45  So I want to pause here because he was at the point of making a decision based on a website and at this very moment where you are ever watching or listening. There is somebody on your website right now who's trying to make the same decision. Is this company meant for me? Is your product? Is your service meant for them? So just at this notion, somebody is there on your website right now. How are you feeling? Are you feeling excited? Are you feeling confident or are you feeling like in the past, there have been times where I feel like if somebody is on my website, I'm like, ooh, like, don't worry, my website is gonna get better. Like, I don't know if you're feeling that, but this is the episode where you're going to have like a come to it moment where you realize, okay, I have to make changes in order for me to get changes. So all things being equal. Your website is the place to put your best foot forward. Yes, there's social media, I love it.

Jasmine Star 00:03:41  I'm a big subscriber of it. Like I post content every day, I get it. But to get the most distilled, highest version, deep down on a platform I own that's going to be on my website, I believe that your website is your digital storefront. You know, if I had a store on Main Street USA and you came in in the in the floors were dirty or somebody didn't say hello, there was like a light bulb that was missing. I would feel a certain way about that. And yet many of us keep our websites in the same way. It's kind of sort of there and it's there to do the job, but it's not really the best representation. I believe it's a calling card. I believe that your website is the best representation of your business, so you might not feel that way. However, your website can get discovered and your website is more likely to get discovered than things that you're posting just on social media. So as we were looking through the three websites, I have to tell you that one of those websites jumped so far ahead of the competition.

Jasmine Star 00:04:36  It was so much better. And so you might be wondering, yeah, but what made it better? I will tell you, the copy on the site was so clear. It was so compelling. The message copy is the words that you use. But what's the overall message. What are they about? Who are they for? And there was such a clear buyer's journey. Like the message is like, here's what we do and what you want. Okay, very clear on what you want them to do. Set up a sales call. Lastly the design. Now, I understand that design is a personal taste, but I looked at this and it just exuded high end. It just exuded luxury. It just exuded. We're not here to be messed with. It was such a vibe. Just looking at the site, I felt different. And here's the crazy thing. He felt different. Now I've been in the personal brand world much longer. I have been building a personal brand much longer. But for he and I to have the same visceral reaction to the site, it meant that something was really spot on.

Jasmine Star 00:05:34  They know their customer. It felt like luxury. They knew exactly who they were. They knew exactly who they were for, and we were immediately drawn to it. To me, in my mind, that is like a check, check, check On a score sheet. It was just winning. We were looking for an agency for him. And I'm telling you, this website made me want to book a call. It was just that good. So the website became a portal. It became a way to draw in clients, and your website will become a way to draw on clients. But more than anything, it's making a warm lead. Like he and I were on the site, we were already kind of warm, but the minute we were like, this place is extra special, we became a much warmer lead. The website was pre-qualifying us to get on the call, which was crazy. So this is what I believe a website should exactly do. So after that conversation, I was like, ooh, Jasmine, you need to take a good cold, hard look at what your website is doing.

Jasmine Star 00:06:31  And with all the changes with AI, what are you doing with your website to really stay ahead of the curve? Now, before I make strategic decisions, I want to make sure those decisions aren't informed. I'm just not coming up with like a random idea. This is what I need to do. So I use a company called Show It for my website. I am very biased. The company was founded by my friend Todd Watson and I was the second customer. I mean, we were talking about back in the day. This is like probably 2009 that I was on his platform, and I've been on the platform ever since. It is innovated, I love it. Now, when I first started using it, I was a photographer, and at the time you needed to know a lot of code like you had. If you wanted to make a change, you had to pay your graphic designer. You had to pay your web host to make those decisions. And so when show it came along, it was one of the very first platforms that you can make all the changes.

Jasmine Star 00:07:19  You could design it yourself. You weren't waiting on anybody. And I was like, oh heck yes, sign me up. So I was able to infuse my own perspective, my design. I was able to move quickly, which is a huge value for me. And guess what? They've continued to innovate and I freaking love them. And I'm obsessed. They also use WordPress. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is I started my career in business, my first foray in business, and I didn't have a website. I used a blog and it was a WordPress blog, and that's where I was getting most of my traffic. So I would write a blog post every day around what I was doing in my business. And lo and behold, people started finding my blog and saying, well, this blog is good enough for me to book you as a client. But what I started realizing is when I started raising my prices and wanting to attract a different subset of people, the blog was just the starting point because the website became like the entire linchpin.

Jasmine Star 00:08:05  So I wanted to have a website platform that would still integrate and work Kis right along with my WordPress site, because I had so much like, I know this is not the right word, but I collect Google juice. I had so much Google Juice in that blog that I wasn't trying to move an entire platform. So show it in WordPress. They worked together and it still what I use today. And yes, in case you're wondering, I still blog. I blog 2 to 3 times a week. In fact, we have show notes for this podcast listed on platforms like Spotify and Apple, but we have a dedicated by like two time weekly post that goes on to WordPress Press because we want it to be searched. We put our show notes, we put the show description. So we are making sure that my website is being constantly updated. Why? Because we want to make sure that people are searching for business related content will be able to find it. So here again, my website, my blog, they're all working together and I wanted a platform that was going to be doing that.

Jasmine Star 00:09:01  So you're going to hear me talk about SEO. And while I'm not changing my website every week, I am constantly updating the overarching website that is comprised of my blog multiple times a week. So after all of these years, I am still a customer. I actually texted Todd before this episode and I was like, can I verify? Was I a number? Was I customer number one or customer number two? And he's like, you were number two. Don't try it. Don't try to fake the funk, okay? Anyway, I called their marketing director. His name is James, and he said, James, I'm really looking to update my website. Can I ask you a few questions around what's been updated with AI? And he said, yes, of course. And the thing I realized was that I had that conversation, and he was just breaking things down so brilliantly that I was not expecting to share the conversation like it was on zoom, and I was like, hey, do you have some time? Let's, let's let's hop on zoom.

Jasmine Star 00:09:49  I was not expecting to share the conversation, but it was so good that I was like, James, can I share this? And so with that, I am very, very happy to share this. Now, one of the reasons why I found it so valuable is because I am a self-proclaimed data nerd. I don't want to make decisions just based on feelings. I like facts, I like data, and I like analytics. So James, he's like, Jasmine, I'm just in the game of studying websites. Like, yes, he's their head of marketing. But this guy, he knows website creation, he knows website traffic, he knows website effectiveness. Like he loves getting into the market and the business of what it is they do. So I was like, good, let's have a conversation. Now I'm sharing this because I just don't want it to be for myself. Now when I originally called him, I just want to be very clear because the video about to show you, it's like the two of us are just like talking shop.

Jasmine Star 00:10:33  So it's not high budget in any way, shape or form. Like I was there in like a trucker cap and I was like, I'm coming in off my afternoon meetings, so please understand the intention was not to post it on the podcast, but all of a sudden I said, I really want to share what I'm learning so that we all collectively rising tide raises all ships, right? So collectively we move forward. Now, I'm not showing the entirety of our conversation because James was telling me about a new, like a few new features that are going to be dropping soon. And he's like, Jasmine, you could share parts of the conversation, but you can't share all of it because that's too soon. We haven't announced it yet, so what you're going to see is a bunch of clips of this conversation, but you will understand the entirety of it and how powerful this is. So I'm going to share his insights right now. And then I'm going to come back and I'm going to outline the changes I'm making for my website now.

Jasmine Star 00:11:17  I began the conversation with James by asking what will make websites even more important for businesses in light of AI? And here is his answer and the start of our conversation.

James 00:11:30  Oh golly, honey, I'm probably going to go back to the same, I think, credibility, Legitimacy. You know, it's a funny thing. Well, let me just say it. I think credibility at a certain point, somebody's going to want to know if you are real. I think we live in a world where everything is generative. I think people have to validate it. So I think there's going to be a credibility trust, brand equity identity. There's going to I think people still value that at the end of the day. And humans aren't giving up on humans. I think there's a lot of fear because AI is accelerating at the rate that it is. And everybody and everybody keeps because they're marketers and they want clicks and everybody wants followers. They're saying, this is dead and that is dead. Designers and websites are dead.

James 00:12:11  But it's like, yes, if the website in and of itself as a tool is changing the human, that is, that the other human is trying to connect to the means by which they connect to that human might change, but it's not going away. And if the website is giving you a much clearer picture of who I am as a human who can serve you and help you achieve the results that you want. That's not going away. And I think the reason why most people sort of fear that is just because of the language that keeps. You know, being sort of like spread out. So again, I don't think I think it's the it's still one of the best ways to create a reliable brand, because what people want to actually find out who you are, they want to click, see a picture and then meet you and press them and go, is this who I'm actually talking to? Because I don't think people are going to want to be talked as much as people are creating businesses for, so that Mark Cuban has this AI version that you can talk to and get advice from.

James 00:13:04  That's fine. But I don't think when someone actually has a real problem, they want to build a business. They need help designing it and thinking through and somebody to have emotional intelligence and taste when it comes to doing that. I don't think they want to be talking to a machine when that like in that way. I think they want to build with people still. And so I think that brand equity is still going to be there. I think legitimacy is going to be there. I think trust is going to be a big piece of it.

Jasmine Star 00:13:26  So are you saying as.

Jasmine Star 00:13:28  A church, I probably, with your permission, can I use that clip? Can I use that clip? I was just using this as a conversation because I was like, I want to get the goods and I want to put together like an investigative story for like the people who are in it. But I'm like, oh, like, that's the whole thesis of the podcast. Can I use that video clip with your permission? Yes.

Jasmine Star 00:13:44  Okay. Just that one right there. That was good. Like it was too good. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna be selfish and just keep it for me. Okay? Okay. Okay. Loved that. That was so juicy. What opportunities are business owners missing when leveraging their websites?

James 00:13:56  Give me more context with this one.

Jasmine Star 00:13:58  I don't know, like, you guys see a lot of websites and you see like really highly trafficked and you see effective websites. Are there some key points that you're like, oh, it's just if they just added this or if they just made sure, like, what are the common mistakes that you're like, oh, the website's the best for this. And we don't have either an anchor image, a promise, a header, a sandwich menu, like whatever, what are these kind of like or are there? It doesn't have to be. So how is it making websites AI search engine friendly? So let me back up a little bit. Let me back up a little bit.

Jasmine Star 00:14:27  What I'm hearing from people is like they're like, if we look at Gemini, right? People are searching, and what's coming up above everything else is the app search versus Google ranking. And so people could see the writing on the wall. And now we see an upswing in ChatGPT using it for like search or intent based marketing. So when we think about this, how are we optimizing or are we and I say we because I just put myself in everybody's business. How is it optimizing for like AI search?

James 00:14:56  I do think what a lot of people have misunderstood about SEO or about AI search optimization versus traditional search optimization is that it hasn't actually changed. What drives a lot of that has still been sort of like the brand that you've built. Brand mentions, links, authority. And so in the sense that if I create a piece of content that actually answers a real problem and people reference that article or people reference that resource, what what's happened and this has happened in Google's algorithm too, is that when Google makes the algorithm smarter, all the tricks go away.

James 00:15:35  And so that's the thing that I think people are starting to see and go like, oh, it's it's tanking a lot of things now across the industry that were because people aren't clicking as much anymore. Everyone has seen drops in site traffic. I think that's just an industry thing. Like I watch agency owners who do this for huge enterprise companies, billion dollar valuations, nine figure valuations and they're all saying the same thing. It's just like okay, yes, everybody is seeing a decline in site traffic because of AI overviews. And the fact that many of these conversations, people no longer have to click to a bunch of websites because the agent is running through hundreds of them at a time and then just giving the answer they want. And so what that means is that when people do click on these links, they're that much more ready to purchase. And so the optimization is still there. It's like you might get less traffic, but the traffic that you do get is going to be the right traffic. And so I think the fact that like Like writing a good blog and answering a question in a detailed way.

James 00:16:32  Optimizing isn't necessarily a technical thing that the platform does. I think what we're trying to do is just educate people on how to write your articles such that you know, all these llms and, you know, AI search tools crawl your site in a way it's already it's just packaged to make it easier for them to find the answer that people are looking for. A confused mind says no. Like you've heard that before. And I think sometimes, you know, like business owners create websites, but it's not always clear what they're offering, so the offer isn't clear. Donald Miller talks about this about clarifying your messaging. And so I think it goes back to the same idea of like, you know, make it exist first and then make it good. I think it's it's the gap between it existing and actually being good. Right now that you've got a website like is it effective? Is it working. And so we've we're starting to work on things like a website health assessment to try to help people sort of figure out like, hey, even from an SEO perspective.

James 00:17:32  Like if the tags aren't right, like it won't Google, like I call it properly, so then you don't get ranked in the same way. So it's like some of these more like think atomic habit type things. The 1% type things is a book called The Slight Edge. Or it's like there are small things that people can do. It's not usually an overhaul. It's just like, oh, that. That headline isn't the clearest and oftentimes does come to the writing of it. It's like, is there a clear path from the promise to the delivery? Right from promise to fulfillment? And I think those are usually the things that I think people those are the opportunities people miss. It's just can I say that a bit more clearly so that people just see the clear path, take the clear action, and then I can deliver on that promise. So here's a great I feel like I've got quotes all the time now. Yeah, I read a book called The One Thing, and I feel like it's the same thing with the website, you know, what's the one thing that by doing it, it would make everything easier or unnecessary.

James 00:18:26  So when someone comes to your website, what's the one thing they need to know that by doing it would make everything easier or unnecessary? What's the one thing about you? What's the clear path to get to the promise? Like if you're saying I can get you this dream outcome, what's the one thing they need to do with you in order to get that? You know, and I'll say, the clearer we can make that on the website, everything else is just reinforcement, right? Right. Like, I wrote an article a while back about branding and when it got to the messaging part, it's like it's really your gospel. You know about this, your pastor. The gospel is one message, but then you're like, well, people meet every single week to essentially learn the same thing. I go, well, that's that's the strength of the message. I go, the core message is the same, but the way you say it or the way you would reinforce it or its application is what changes.

James 00:19:19  But the one thing you want people to know is the same thing, right? And so when it comes to like your website, which is, you know, so much introduction to who you are, it's like, this is the thing that can provide if you're in that situation. Here's how to get it right. I'm not big on like the sales. Like just trying to sell somebody something. But you know, if it's if it's a situation of I've got a solution to a very common problem and you are here probably because you have that problem, go here and it'll get you closer to getting that solution. I think if you're doing that and it's that clear, I think you'll be fine.

Jasmine Star 00:19:53  I'll keep that too. With your permission.

James 00:19:55  I'm sure.

Jasmine Star 00:19:56  You said. I'm not sure I have anything else to share. And I'm like, okay, okay. This was everything. It just thank you for your time. Like. It feels like very. It feels inordinately generous for you to spend his time to speak into this particular topic.

Jasmine Star 00:20:12  I'm obviously passionate about it. Big fan. Always. So to get your perspective, it makes me a lot more confident as I speak about it. So Jane. Thank you. You're the best.

Jasmine Star 00:20:22  Welcome back. So here are my three biggest takeaways. These are going to be the things that I am changing and or adding to my website. Number one I'm going to be updating my messaging for a clear pathway to my business right now. I do a lot of things. Mostly the holding company needs to be highlighted, and then there needs to be pathways for people to find out. The other companies I serve as an advisor, an equity shareholder or an outright owner of. I need to get a lot clearer on that. Number two, I am going to continue blogging 3 to 4 times a week to help with my SEO and my CEO. They're calling that generative engine optimization, search engine optimization, and generative engine optimization because I understand that people were going to Google and if you were not on page one, you were probably not going to get found.

Jasmine Star 00:21:14  So everyone's like, we got to get on page one. But now when you have things like Gemini, you're going to Google and you're typing in your query. And what's coming up at top is an AI answer. Why would you now go and click through 4 or 5 websites to find an answer, when you can get it served to you? So what am I doing to make sure that that content is served well? I need to constantly be updating. So one thing is, I'm going to make sure that my website is clean and it's easy to crawl. I want AI search engines to crawl it, and I'm also going to make sure that it loads fast and it's actually useful content. I'm going to be creating helpful content that serves up AI, so that when somebody is searching for business related content or topics around advisory or topics around holding company, they have the opportunity to find me. The third thing I'm going to do is my podcast website. So if you go to Jasmine Star show com, it all sits under Jasmine Star.

Jasmine Star 00:22:06  But you can go to Jasmine Star Show com. It's actually sitting there on Jasmine Starcom. So when I update my podcast episodes on my website, I'm going to be sure to add a readable text. And I'm going to make sure that my podcast and websites are searchable. So if somebody is looking for a specific search, like a search term for your business, like the best website builder, or maybe they're looking for something in relation to like, my business. Like how do I find a strategic business partner? We need to ask ourselves, does my website deserve to be shown in the AI search engine? Does my website deserve to be on page one? Like is the content I'm putting out so helpful, so pertinent, so unique, so insightful that it's making people say, wow, this is exactly what I was looking for. If you are saying, why is my business not showing up in AI generative searches, or why am I not on page one of a Google search? Well, you have to ask yourself what is the searchable content? What's the helpful content? If you want a customer who's like, I'm looking for a content creator, I'm looking for a chef, I'm looking for a bigger I'm looking for a photographer.

Jasmine Star 00:23:13  What content have you put out that is making Google say this is the person? That's going to be the main question. So I want to start really focusing on creating content that deserves to be ranked higher. So if you're hearing this and you're like, Jasmine, that sounds like a lot of work. Listen, I don't have to be the best. I don't have to be the smartest. I will be the most consistent. So in order for me to create consistently at the level that I think would deserve what put me on page one, or put me in a CEO seo, AI generative search. I need to be creating that content, and in order for me to be creating that content, I need to put time in my schedule. So at the time that this episode drops, I hope my website is updated. But instead of waiting entirely to be like, I'm going to make an update all at once, I'm just going to take small pieces. I'm going to start off with the about section.

Jasmine Star 00:24:02  I'm going to talk about the messaging section. I'm going to go into the offer section, and I'm going to break it down section by section. And then I'm going to make a commitment to add one more blog post every single week around things that I believe my dream customer is going to be searching for. Is it more? Yes. Is it worth it? Heck yes! I hope you find the same thing to be true for your business. We here are all about taking action. I spoke to James and I was like, okay, James, writing comes to me probably easier than most people. People are like, oh, the thought of having to write something or adding a blog post is a lot. And he's like, let me share these articles that we teach people how to write optimally for SEO NGO. So I'm going to be linking them in the show notes. So go and check them out. Like there's there's no opt in. There's no pitch. This is me. Like hey I know it's difficult.

Jasmine Star 00:24:49  Use these prompts to help you create content for your business easier so you are discovered. You get warm leads and somebody lands on your website to do something really incredible. Thank you. James. Todd, show it for allowing me to pick our brains. Thank you guys for letting me share it when that was not the original pitch. And thank you for watching and listening to The Jasmine Star Show.