BLOG 261: HOW TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE A TRUE REFLECTION OF YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS

You might have noticed that things have been looking a little different around here lately. I recently launched my new website, which hopefully helps you discover useful content and find your way around my offerings much more easily.

This website is a complete rebuild and my team have done an amazing job on it. But the whole journey really began when I had a consultation with Liz Ellery, a branding and website designer who specialises in creating authentic visual brands for wellness professionals like me.

Liz transformed my site with her intuitive understanding of my brand and how that should translate into the look and feel of my website. So, I was thrilled to welcome her onto the Face Yoga Expert Podcast to share some thoughtful, actionable tips that you can use on your own website.

You can catch up with that episode here – and don’t miss the earlier episode with Liz either. Both are essential listening for all of you who are wellness entrepreneurs or business owners.

In this post, I’m summarising some of Liz’s top tips for making your website a true reflection of you and your business.

1. Start with Your Soulmate Client in Mind

A piece of advice I always give in my business coaching is that you shouldn’t try to be all things to all people. What you offer won’t be right for everyone, and that’s OK. 

It’s important to have a clear idea of who your soulmate client is. These are the people who are intuitively drawn to what you offer and who really benefit from having it in their lives.

When she starts working with a new person, the first question Liz asks them is “how do you want your clients to feel when they land on your website?” 

Answer this question with your soulmate client in mind.

For example, when you arrive on my website, I want you to feel a sense of calm, luxury, and elegance. Liz took that idea and translated it into the font and colours you see on my new website.

You also want your website to feel like your digital home. So, you might want to bring in elements that reflect your physical environment too. For example, the goldy, sandy colours on my site are inspired by the beautiful Bath stone that is so iconic of Bath, the city where I’m from.

If you want your website to feel friendly and warm, you might go for warm tonal colours. If you are very nature focused, you might go for earthy shades. Or if you are known for dressing in bold colours, you could bring those into your site too.

The aim is to build a website that is an authentic reflection of yourself and the experience you offer your soulmate clients.

2. Keep It Clean and Simple

Another core principle that Liz helps her clients with is making sure your website is visually clean and uncluttered.

When you are so passionate about what you do, it can be easy to end up writing huge amounts about it because you want to share that passion with your audience. Believe me, I understand the impulse! I love to bring the benefits of face yoga to new people and can easily talk about it for hours at a time.

However, if someone is new to your website and is faced with a huge amount of information as soon as they land on your homepage, it can feel really overwhelming. So, you want to try to keep everything a bit shorter and simpler, especially on the homepage.

Liz suggests starting with a short sentence or question at the top of your website, above the fold (which means before you scroll down to see more). This should give a clear indicator of what you do and who you do it for.

On my website, for example, you’ll find the sentence “Lifting the faces of millions across the world naturally”. So, even if you’ve never heard of face yoga before, you already have an idea of what to expect before you start to explore my site.

Then you can have sections that introduce more about what you do, who you are, your expertise, the problems you can help people to solve. And have a call to action with the different ways to work with you.

Each of these should be very short and concise. You can go into more detail in your About page and your Services pages. But on your homepage, keep rewriting your copy until you have it as short and clear as possible.

3. Think About Your Imagery

Liz says that great imagery is one of the most important things to make your website look and feel professional. Avoid pixelated or blurry pictures, and don’t use selfies – all of these can quickly make your website seem low quality.

If you can afford to get professional photos taken, this can make a world of difference to your website. I get photo shoots done regularly so that I have a good store of images to use and can switch them around to keep things fresh and interesting.

Even if you can’t invest in professional photos of yourself right now, Liz says to avoid using selfies. Ask a friend to take a few pictures of you instead – even an iPhone camera should be good enough to capture a couple of good shots.

But if you are needing to take photos yourself, it is best to only use a few of these and get good quality stock images to use on the rest of your website. You can buy stock images from sites like iStock, and there are also free sites like Pexels and Unsplash you can use.

If you are using stock images, especially from free websites, Liz recommends keeping an eye on the colour palate and trying to stick to a theme. For example, if you are using nature orientated images, it might feel too jarring to have both a beach scene and a forest scene. 

Instead, look for images with similar colours to give your website a cohesive feel. You could save all the ones you are thinking of using in one document so you can look at them all in one place and make sure they work together.

If you are having a photoshoot done, you should also think about your website’s colour palate in the clothes you choose or opt for something neutral that will go with any branding.

4. Foster Connection

Final point before I close – and I do encourage you to go back to listen to the full podcast episode because Liz had so much more wisdom to share.

I said at the start that you always want to keep your soulmate client in mind when you are thinking about your website. But that doesn’t mean you need to only talk about them and can’t share anything about yourself.

The opposite in fact – the people I work with tend to come to me because they connect with me as a person, and they see my personality through my content. Both Liz and I agree that it is important to share some of those personal details and little facts about you so that your audience can get to know you and feel connected to you.

I always tell the story of how I began teaching face yoga in the first place and I know a lot of you resonate with that. 

I also share random little facts about me – like I love raspberries and dark chocolate and being by the sea, and the Real Housewives is my favourite reality TV indulgence!

Giving those glimpses of yourself help your audience see you as a real person and that means they can connect with you on a deeper level. And it is one of the best ways to make your website a true reflection of who you are and what your business is all about.