Posts in Web Design/Development
How to add and customize a form on a Squarespace website - video tutorial

Answer me this : are you making it super easy for visitors to you website to get in touch with you?

No seriously, how many steps does it take in order to contact you, get connected to the right person at your business, or inquire directly about a product or service?

I hope you're saying, "yes, duh, of course it's easy for people to get in touch through my website" but maybe you're in the "ahhhh I put my email address on my contact page, does that count?" group - if that sounds like you, listen up!

I'm about to show you how easy it is to add forms to your Squarespace website.

As a web designer, I'm a huge fan of including forms on your website because they are a great and simple way for your customers to get in touch with you. In tech talk, they are a good choice from a user experience point of view.

Better yet, forms increase leads and conversions which means that they are also a smart business decision! Forms that are placed in prominent or thoughtful spots on your site lead to more inquiries from your visitors, which can help you sell more of your products, services and/or offerings.

If you’ve ever wondered how to add and customize a form on your Squarespace website, I hope this video shows you how easy it is to get one up and running!

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How to perform a content audit on your website

Regular readers of this blog might have noticed that my website recently got a mini facelift :)

It had been well over a year since I last touched my website design and the time had to come to make some changes. 

The look and feel of my site, particularly the homepage, needed to be revamped and I was ready to revamp the visuals, change up the layout and make my information easier to understand. I was ready to switch to a website that balanced pretty and performance it it's design

Over the past year or so, my offerings have changed - a lot. There are different services packages, I launched a brand new product line, and have new articles, video tutorials and resources I want to highlight that will help my audience. From the very first moment a visitor arrives on my website, they should know who I am, what I do and how I serve my audience. 

This meant that I had to re-design my website and the layout of how that information was presented. 

It also meant that I was forced to review and update the copy of my website in order to communicate all that goodness in the easiest way possible.

Here’s where the content audit comes in! 

If you're totally new to website content audits or are interested in doing one on your site but aren't sure where to start, you've come to the right place. I'm going to take you through my process below and show you what steps to take so that you can perform a content audit on your own website too!

Let's take a look, shall we?

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Pretty vs Performance : What to prioritize in your website’s design

You’ve finally decided to launch a new website (after taking my free course, perhaps?) or that it's time to give you existing site a facelift. Exciting news, let's break out the bubbly!

But before your site can go live, you’ve got to take care of all the heavy lifting and actually build and design the website. It’s important to slow down and think critically about the website design process if you want to do it right the first time. Not everyone has time for a starter website!

If you aren’t clear on your website’s goals, it’s nearly impossible to build a website that fits your brand, generates leads AND helps grow your business. When the focus of a website is purely on aesthetics and the design ignores the goals, the best case scenario is that you end up with an appealing website that doesn't perform how you want it to. The truth is, however, that often you’ve just wasted everyone’s time and a whole lot of money. Whomp whomppppp.

In my opinion, we can do better than that. 

Today we are going to take a look at what I prioritize in my custom website projects and look at the relationship between pretty and performance websites.

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The best places to get social media graphic templates

First of all, you have to build the dang thing and that is a serious undertaking. There's so much that goes into the the design, layout, formatting and technical integrations before people can actually visit your site! And once it’s live, the fun doesn’t stop. Running a website is pretty much a full-time job, especially if you are trying to grow and monetize it down the road. Whether your website supports another business or it IS your business, there are so many moving parts to keep track of if you want it to succeed!

Some of us find the technical side of running a website super easy, but have a harder time with the design elements. We can do it, of course, but sometimes the creative design process is a struggle! 

One thing that I often hear from my clients is that once their website goes live, they want to use social media to send traffic back to their sites. This is music to my ears because it follows best practices, but it’s also where people get stumped. This is especially true if you aren't a graphic designer who is used to creating design elements every day! I hear my clients lament that they aren’t designers themselves or that they don't have a dedicated designer on staff to whip up all of the social media graphics that are needed to support their sites and blog posts.

Little do they know, they don’t have to be! And they don't have to hire out that design work either.

Let me introduce you to the wonderful world of social media graphic templates available online. There are tons of gorgeous options available and  many of them are free to use… you just have to know where to look!

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