As a website designer, I’ve worked with dozens of small business owners who started out DIYing their websites. And while I love the DIY spirit (hey, I was once there too!), I also see the same mistakes over and over again. The good news? They’re all fixable.

Today I’m breaking down the 10 most common website mistakes I see DIYers make — and exactly how to fix them. By the end, you’ll feel more confident about your site and know how to avoid the pitfalls that can cost you clients.

Mistake 1: No Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

If someone lands on your site, what do you want them to do? Book a call? Buy a product? Join your email list?

Too many DIY sites skip over this and leave visitors guessing.

Fix it: Add one main CTA that appears multiple times throughout your site. For example, “Book Your Consultation” or “Shop the Collection.” Keep it consistent, clear, and easy to click.

Mistake 2: Using Too Many Fonts

I get it — fonts are fun! But mixing six different ones makes your site look messy and unprofessional.

Fix it: Stick to 2–3 fonts max: one for headings, one for body copy, and maybe an accent font for special touches. You can find beautiful, free options on Google Fonts, or check out FontPair for curated pairings that work well together.

Mistake 3: Poor Quality or Inconsistent Images

Photos are one of the first things people notice on your site. Dark, blurry, or mismatched stock images can make your brand feel less trustworthy.

Fix it: Use high-quality photos that reflect your brand’s style. If you can, invest in a brand photoshoot — it’s worth every penny. If not, browse free stock libraries like Unsplash or Pexels to find cohesive images that fit your brand.

Mistake 4: Weak Navigation

Ever land on a website and feel like you’re wandering in circles? That’s what happens when navigation isn’t clear.

Fix it: Limit your main menu to 4–6 links max. Prioritize the most important pages: Home, About, Services/Shop, Blog, and Contact. Everything else can live in dropdowns or your footer.

Mistake 5: Forgetting About Mobile Design

More than half of web traffic today comes from mobile devices. But many DIYers only design for desktop, leaving their site awkward or unreadable on a phone.

Fix it: Always preview your site on mobile while you’re building it. Tools like Responsinator let you see how your site looks across different devices.

Mistake 6: Walls of Text

You know what no one wants to do? Scroll through a never-ending block of text.

Fix it: Break up your copy with short paragraphs, headers, bullet points, and plenty of white space. Your visitors will thank you.

Mistake 7: No Social Proof

If you don’t have testimonials or client logos on your site, you’re missing a major trust-builder.

Fix it: Even if you’re just starting out, gather kind words from clients, collaborators, or colleagues. Tools like Google Forms make it easy to collect testimonials, and you can display them with simple sliders or grids right on your homepage.

Mistake 8: Ignoring SEO Basics

Search engine optimization (SEO) can feel overwhelming, but ignoring it means people may never find your site.

Fix it: Start simple:

• Use keywords in your headlines and page titles (try Ubersuggest for keyword ideas).
• Add alt text to your images.
• Write clear meta descriptions.
• Create a blog to share helpful content (like this post ).

Mistake 9: Slow Loading Speed

If your site takes forever to load, people will leave before they even see it.

Fix it: Compress images before uploading them with tools like TinyPNG or ShortPixel. You can also test your site’s load time with Google PageSpeed Insights.

Mistake 10: Trying to Do Everything

DIY sites often suffer from “more is more” — too many colors, too many graphics, too many words.

Fix it: Simplicity wins. Choose a consistent color palette, streamline your layouts, and focus on guiding visitors toward your main call-to-action. For color help, I love Coolors for quick, cohesive palette ideas.

Ready to Fix These Mistakes for Good?

If you saw yourself in a few of these, don’t worry — you’re not alone. That’s exactly why I created the Website Design Ultimate Checklist.

It’s a free, step-by-step guide to help you build a site that feels professional, polished, and ready to impress. Think of it as having a designer (me!) by your side, walking you through the essentials so you don’t miss a thing.

Download the Ultimate Website Checklist here and take the guesswork out of your website design.

Want a Head Start?

If you’re DIYing your site but don’t want to start from scratch, check out my Showit Template Shop.

Each template is professionally designed, easy to customize, and built with all the best practices baked in (so you don’t have to worry about navigation, structure, or page flow). Just add your photos, copy, and colors — and you’re ready to launch a site you’re proud of.

Final Thoughts

Your website doesn’t have to be perfect from the start — but avoiding these common mistakes will save you time, frustration, and lost clients down the road. With the right tools (like my checklist and templates), you can DIY a website that truly reflects your brand and helps you grow your business.

The post 10 Common Website Mistakes DIYers Make (And How to Fix Them) appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..

Here’s the thing: most DIY websites either overload the homepage with way too much, or they keep it so minimal that visitors have no idea what they’re supposed to do next. The sweet spot is creating a homepage that’s clear, inviting, and strategic.

I want to share with you the exact formula I use when designing homepages for my clients (and what’s baked right into my templates). Think of this as a plug-and-play guide to building a homepage that actually works.

1. The Hero Section: Make a Strong First Impression

Your hero section is that big, bold area right at the top of your site. It usually has an image, headline, and a button.

What goes here:

• A clear statement about who you serve and how you help.
• A strong image (preferably YOU if you’re the face of your business, or something on-brand if not).
• One main call-to-action button — “Work With Me,” “Shop Now,” “Book a Session.”

Pro tip: Skip the fluffy tagline like “Welcome to my website!” and instead say something like:

“Timeless photography for joyful, adventurous couples in Boise, ID.”

This tells people instantly if they’re in the right place. For great free stock images if you don’t have brand photos yet, I recommend Unsplash or Pexels.

2. A Quick About Section

Visitors want to know there’s a real person or business behind the brand. But they don’t need your entire life story up front.

What goes here:

• A warm photo of you (or your team).
• A short 2–3 sentence blurb about who you are and what you do.
• A “Learn More” button linking to your full About page.

This is just a teaser — not the whole meal. If you’re struggling with what to write, tools like Grammarly can help polish your copy so it’s clear and engaging.

3. Showcase Your Services or Offerings

This is where you show people what you actually do or sell. Too many homepages skip this step and leave visitors confused.

What goes here:

• 3–4 core services or products with a short description of each.
• A button that leads to your Services or Shop page.
• Eye-catching visuals or icons to keep it skimmable.

For icons, I love The Noun Project — it’s a treasure trove of clean, professional graphics that instantly elevate your design.

4. Social Proof: Build Trust Quickly

People want to know if you’re legit before they invest in you. That’s where testimonials or proof of past work come in.

What goes here:

• A rotating slider of client testimonials.
• Logos of brands or publications you’ve worked with (if applicable).
• A favorite before/after example or case study.

Need a simple way to gather testimonials? Use Google Forms to send a quick survey to past clients, or try Typeform for a more polished experience.

5. A Glimpse of Your Portfolio or Work

Show, don’t just tell. Even one or two examples of your work can give potential clients confidence.

What goes here:

• A grid of 3–6 images that link to your portfolio or blog.
• If you don’t have visual work, showcase client results, case studies, or data instead.

If you want to make these visuals shine, you can use a free design tool like Canva to create mockups or clean image layouts.

6. Lead Capture: Grow Your Email List

Don’t miss the chance to collect leads right on your homepage.

What goes here:

• A freebie (like my Website Design Ultimate Checklist ).
• A quick blurb explaining the benefit: “Grab this free checklist and make sure your site is ready to wow your clients.”
• A simple email opt-in form with minimal fields (just name + email).

If you’re not sure how to set up forms, platforms like Flodesk (my favorite for beautiful, simple email marketing) or ConvertKit make it easy to connect your opt-in to your email list.

7. A Final Call-to-Action

Your homepage should always end with a clear next step. By this point, someone knows who you are, what you do, and whether they like what they see. Now tell them where to go.

What goes here:

• A bold, full-width section with a single CTA:
  • “Book Your Design Intensive”
  • “Browse the Template Shop”
  • “Schedule Your Free Call”

Keep it simple and irresistible.

Putting It All Together

When you follow this homepage formula, your site flows naturally:

• First, people know what you do.
• Then, they connect with who you are.
• Next, they see your offers, proof, and examples.
• Finally, they get a clear invitation to take action.

No confusion, no overwhelm — just a strategic path that guides them toward working with you.

Want Help Nailing Your Homepage?

I created the Website Design Ultimate Checklist to help you make sure every page of your site has the right elements in place (not just your homepage). It’s a free, step-by-step guide that walks you through the must-haves for a professional, client-ready site.

Download the checklist here and set yourself up for a website you’re proud of.

Skip the Guesswork with a Template

If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to put all these pieces together from scratch, you don’t have to. My Showit Template Shop is full of professionally-designed templates that already follow this exact homepage formula.

That means you can open up a template, drop in your content, and know your site is designed to impress — no second-guessing required.

Final Thoughts

Your homepage doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be strategic. Think of it as a warm welcome and a roadmap rolled into one. When you combine clarity, social proof, and a strong call-to-action, your homepage becomes more than just pretty — it becomes a tool that works for your business.

The post Your Homepage Formula: What Every Great Homepage Needs appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..

As a business owner, you may be wondering how this applies to you. In today’s post, I’ll cover what exactly it means to be accessible, why it’s important to you as a business owner, and what steps you can take to make sure your website is accessible.

What is accessibility?

We’ve seen more and more accessibility options come out in the last few years as more people interact online because of the pandemic. Instagram for example, added the ability to add captions to your stories so if someone has hearing issues they can still read and understand what you’re talking about. But things like that go beyond just helping people with disabilities. It also gives people the option of HOW they want to consume their content. Some people like listening to content, others like reading, and others need to watch to learn from you. Keeping accessibility in mind allows people to interact with you in the ways that they learn best and the way they want to.

But when we talk about website accessibility, it means that you are building your website with accessibility in mind so others with hearing or vision impairments can still consume your content, hire you, and choose to be a part of your community. I’ll dig into how to make that happen a little later in this post. 

Why is accessibility important as a business owner?

Did you know that you can actually be sued if your website isn’t accessible? That’s right. In fact, this guy did it– and won. Robles is a blind man who just wanted to order a pizza from Dominos, but couldn’t because their website was not accessible. Back in 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that Robles was right in suing the company.  Since then, Dominos has made its site much more accessible.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “I’m not a big corporation like Dominos so I won’t be sued.” That’s probably true, honestly. Only public institutions like universities are subject to fines if they do not make their websites accessible. 

But does that mean that you shouldn’t make your website accessible? Sure, if you want to be a jerk and potentially lose business. There are an estimated 295 million people in the world with moderate to severe vision impairment alone. I don’t know about you, but I think those people should be able to read and interact with your website.

How you can make your website more accessible.

I’m sure by now you may be wondering how you can actually start integrating more accessibility concepts into your business, and into your website.

As a brand and website designer, I actually keep accessibility concepts in mind when I’m creating color palettes, choosing fonts, and creating brand guides for my clients, and they don’t even know it. If you’re considering working with a designer, you may want to consider asking them if they are familiar with the accessibility concepts.

Now keep in mind,  I’m not an expert on accessibility. I do know a decent amount from back in my corporate days when we had to redesign the entire website and make it more accessible (I’m talking thousands of pages, ya’ll.) There are entire guidelines of how to make your website more accessible here. If you adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) AA, you’ll be in great shape. To break it down for you, here are the basics of what you need to consider when designing an accessible website:

Color Contrast

Probably the biggest thing I see that people (even professional designers) do wrong is having enough contrast between the colors they use. WCAG 2.0 level AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. To check the contrast ratio, you can use a tool like this to see if you have enough contrast between the two colors that you’re using for your text and graphics.

Minimum font sizes

The general rule of thumb is body copy should be no smaller than 16px on a desktop, 12px on a mobile device. If you do go smaller, make sure it’s only for small bits of text and using a font that is easily readable. The rest of your headlines and subheads should follow a normal hierarchy when it comes to choosing their size. Be sure to check your font sizes on the actual device too! That will help make sure that you are choosing the correct size.

Using raw text and not images of text.

If you want to know what my #1 pet peeve is on websites, it would probably be this. Don’t “bake” your text into an image to try to get just the right layout. When you add text to an image and upload it to your site, screen readers aren’t able to read it as text, which is a problem for people with sight issues. In addition, this is bad for SEO because Google is also not able to tell that you have text in your image, and it’s likely missing some important information about your site.

Navigating your site using the tab key

Some people aren’t able to use a traditional mouse or trackpad so they have to use their tab button to navigate through a website. A simple test of this is to open up your website and just start hitting your own tab key. What do you notice? Can you tell what is highlighted? Does it jump around in a way that doesn’t make sense? If not, then you’ll need to go into the backend of your site to try to organize it in a way that will make more sense. Making sure a user can tab through your site is important for navigation!

Add alt text to images

Adding Alt text to images allows screen readers to be able to communicate what the photos are on a website. This allows for a better experience for anyone that may have vision issues. Not only that, but adding in alt text also helps search engines and can help with SEO (but that shouldn’t be the focus!)

Hopefully this post was helpful in helping you know more about accessibility and how you can apply it to your own website. And if you want more tips on what info about what type of things your website should have, be sure to grab a copy of my Website Essentials Checklist. Of course, it’s free!

The post How to Make Your Website More Accessible + Why It’s Important! appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..

Get a Domain

The very first thing you need to do is get yourself a domain. This is where your website will live and where you’ll point people to if they want to get more info about your business. Usually, your domain is your business name or at least close to it. Don’t have a business name yet? Check out this post that is super helpful! 

Domains are cheap (~$12) so if you have a couple of ideas, just grab them if they are available. I like to purchase my domain with Google Domains because I also have G-suite and it keeps that all in one place.

Set up Your Business Email

Speaking of G-suite, after you know what domain you’ll be using for your website, you’re ready to set up your very own business email with your new domain. I highly recommend getting set up with G-suite because it’s easy to manage and it includes Google Drive, Google Meet, and everything else you’ll likely use in your business. And it’s only $6 a month!

Get all the details on G-suite here

You can choose an email like “hello@yourdomain.com” or “name@yourdomain.com”. You can be creative with this! Just don’t make it super long because that will make it harder to remember.

Choose a Website Builder

After you have your domain and your email set up, it’s time to start looking at website builders. There are SO many different options and it’s hard to know what will work best for your business. In my experience, three of the best options are Showit, Shopify and Squarespace. Each has its own pros and cons, so you’ll just have to decide which one will work best for you. Here’s my take on each of them.

Showit

Being a certified Showit Design Partner, it’s no secret that this is my favorite builder for many reasons. It’s incredibly easy to use and customize to make your site look one of a kind. It also integrates with WordPress so you have all the power of blogging integrated into your site. But here’s the awesome thing, the team at Showit manages your WordPress account for you so you don’t have to worry about keeping everything up to date or breaking in the process.

While you can integrate e-commerce with options like Shopify Lite or Woo Commerce, it’s best for smaller shops with less than 20 products. You can still integrate with a CRM, email marketing tool, and other things you use in your business. 

Bottom line: I’ve seen Showit be the best option for service-providers that create blog content, and want a unique, one-of-a-kind website. 

Want an easier jumpstart? If the idea of building site pages from scratch feels a little overwhelming, check out my Showit template shop. These designs are already built, optimized, and ready to be customized — so you can skip the blank-page panic and get your site live faster. →

Shopify

If you have a product-based business, the best choice for you will be Shopify, hands-down. They have all the tools and plugin you’ll need to create an online store that is easy to manage. You can create subscriptions, sell digital products, and manage inventory all within Shopify. They also have great templates to get you up and going in no time.

Squarespace 

If you’re looking for a no-frills, easy-to-use, straightforward website builder that will get the job done, Squarespace is for you. It has beautiful templates to get you started and has all the basic things you’ll need for a website.  

It does have a lot of tools like blogging and e-commerce, but the tools aren’t as powerful as WordPress or Shopify. Squarespace has a predefined set of apps that it will integrate with so you are more limited that way. 

Bottom line: If you’re looking to just get started with something, Squarespace will be the easiest stepping stone for you with all the basics.

Content for Your Website

Once you have all of that figured out, you need to start working on the written content for your website. You’ll need content for all of your main pages (Home, About, Services, Contact). You can choose to write this yourself or hire a copywriter, but either way, you want to communicate to anyone who visits your site what you do and who you serve. Here are some questions each page should answer:

Home

What does your business do?

Who do you serve?

What are some of your offerings?

About

Who are you? 

Who do you serve?

Why are you the one that can help?

Why did you start your business?

Services

What are your offerings?

What does your service cost?

What’s the process like?

Contact

How do you want to be contacted?

If someone reaches out, when can they expect a response?

If you have a location, what is it?

Want more help on knowing exactly what your website should have? Grab my free Website Ultimate Checklist.

Pro tip: If you’re wondering how to structure those pages without feeling like you’re inventing everything from scratch, my Showit templates come with all the page layouts you need (Home, About, Service, Contact) already built. Just plug in your copy and images. Seriously—less busy work, more impact. →

Photos

There are a couple of different ways you can go about finding photos for your website. You can work with a photographer to have a full photoshoot unique to your business, or you can look for stock photos. I highly recommend working with a photographer because you’ll have a set of photos that are unique to you and you can repurpose them for social media and any collateral you may need in the future.

If you need help defining the style of photos you’ll need for your site, check out this post.

Legal

I know this stuff isn’t super sexy, but if you are going to have a website, you need to make sure you have it set up legally. Part of that is having a Privacy Policy that explains how you use user’s data when they visit your site. You don’t want to be caught without one because it can lead to some serious headaches. There are lots of Privacy Policy generators out there, but I always recommend The Contract Shop’s template because it’s very thorough and I’m confident knowing that a team of lawyers wrote and reviewed it.

Want more info on why you need to make sure your site is legal, check out this post

Bonuses

Want to go above and beyond to give your site a little extra oomph? I like your style. Here are three things that I would also include on your new site.

Email List

One thing I wish I would’ve started sooner in my business is collecting email addresses. When you have a head start on growing your email list, it makes a lot of things easier down the road. So give people some sort of freebie or coupon in exchange for their email and start building that list!

I love Flodesk for its ease of use and beautiful templates! You can get 50% off when you subscribe with the code “amandascott”

Google Analytics

There is so much data that you can see about your website visitors when you connect Google Analytics. And with this data, you can make better business decisions like what time people are active on your site and if you’re getting a lot of traffic locally. 

Hotjar

If you want to see exactly what your website visitors are doing, sign up for a free account with Hotjar and you will be able to see heatmaps of activity along with recordings of users on your site. With this info, you can see where there might be holes in your website and ways you can improve!

Want more help on knowing exactly what your website should have? Grab my free Website Ultimate Checklist.

Want one more bonus? If you’re feeling motivated, browse my Showit template collection. Think of it as an instant foundation for your site—pre-built, easy to tweak, and built with strategy (so you aren’t left wondering how to design pages). →

The post So You Need a Website: Where to Start | DIY Website Design appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..

If you’ve got the traffic flowing to your website but you aren’t getting any leads from that traffic, this post is for you.

It’s hard to know exactly what the problem could be, but I’m going to teach you the technique to get your users to take action on your site.

Think about what you want your users to do

The first thing you need to do is make a list of all the different pages on your website. Then after you’ve got the list, think about each page individually and what you want the user to do on that page. For example, If a user is on your services page, you will probably want them to reach out and book a call with you. 

Another example would be your about page. If a user is on that page, you might want to give them a path to check out some of your work or to find out more about what services you offer. 

Either way, go through each of the pages and define the main goal you want your user to take.

You have to tell people what it is that you want them to do, otherwise you might miss out

Have a clear call to action

Once you know the goal that you want your user to take, it’s time to call them to take that action. Create a section on your page that has a simple heading and a clear button that describes what you want them to do. Here’s an example from my own site: 

The heading reminds them of what they can accomplish by working with me and the button is in a bright orange color with the text “Book my free call!”  It’s simple, clear, and stands out from the rest of the page (in a good way).

Repeat the call to action

Now that you know the goal for each of your pages and you have a clear call to action created, it’s time to bring in the hardest part: repeating the CTA. If you have a longer page it’s likely that you’ll need to put that clear CTA in multiple places on your page. The last thing you want is a user searching for what you clearly want them to do, so make it easy for them! I like to put CTA’s in a few places on a page:

• At the top of the page to prime them for what you want them to do.
• After stating your offer. (Like listing your process + packages)
• After testimonials (Offering social proof is HUGE)
• At the end of the page as a last-ditch effort if they’ve scrolled through all of your content.

Now that doesn’t mean that you need to put your CTA on every single section. But repeating what action you want them to take allows for the user to take action when they’re ready and reminds them of how they can get the process started of working with you. 

The post How to Make Visitors Take Action on Your Website. appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..

With all of the different algorithms that Google has going on behind the scenes, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and frustrated that your website traffic isn’t growing. But here’s what Google is trying to do for its customers: deliver the best and most relevant content. So if you make great content that your audience is looking for, that is the foundation of SEO. 

Keep reading for 6 ways that you can up your SEO-game on your website.

Keywords

Knowing the keywords that you want your site to show up for is the first thing you want to make sure that is nailed down. For example, if you are a wedding photographer in Idaho, your keywords will probably be “Idaho wedding photographer” or “Boise wedding photographer”.

When these keywords show up in your headlines, content and image titles, it will help Google to know that your website has the content that your users are looking for. 

Image Titles

Tell me if this is the case for you too, bud. You want to make a quick update to your site. You grab the image you want from your desktop and upload it to your site. But the title of the image is IMG-478.jpg. Instead of uploading an image that is vaguely named, take a quick second and swap it out for a more descriptive name that contains some of your keywords. 

Then once you do this, you can also update the title of the image in the backend of your website with some of the same keywords! Then when google is scanning your site, it knows what your image is for. 

Page Titles

You may not know this, but Google actually puts quite a bit of weight on the titles of your pages. So instead of naming them unique names like “Journal” instead of “Blog” and “Experience” instead of “Services”, opt to keep it clear what exactly are on those pages. That will not only help Google to know, but it will also be that much clearer to your users as well! 

Page Descriptions

Page descriptions are really easy to forget about because we typically don’t see them unless we are doing a Google search for our own pages. BUT they are super important for search optimization. They are the little descriptions that show up in Google search after the title of your page:

If you drop more of your keywords into your page descriptions, that will help those page show up in search results!  Keep these short and to the point since Google only shows 158 characters. 

Correct Headings 

If your using a platform like Showit or Squarespace, you likely have noticed that there are different levels of headings that you can use throughout you site, and they probably look something like this:

There’s some pretty simple rules to follow when it comes to your headings. You only want to have one H1 (Title) per page. This tells Google what the page is actually about. If you are putting more than one H1 per page, you are probably confusing Google and that’s no good, friend. 

Blogging

You may or may not know that blogging can be great for SEO! It’s a great way to demonstrate to your audience your expertise and show off your work. 

For example, when a bride is looking for venues in her area , your blog will has show up because you have a bog post from a wedding there. You’ve instantly created rapport because you’re an awesome photographer AND you already know the ins-and-outs of the venue that she has her eye on.

The key here: keep in mind those core keywords and add in extras like the venue name and location.

Wrapping It All In A Bow

SEO doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a little bit of everything to help your site show up when users are looking for someone like you. But if you deploy these practices today and keep up with them, you’ll be on your way to that coveted top spot.

The post 6 Ways To Optimize Your Website For SEO appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..

Your about page… It’s the one page on your website that you’ve been dreading putting together. You don’t know what to put on the page, or where to even start talking about your business. Not to mention you don’t know how much is TOO much.

I’ve been there too, bud. I don’t want to admit how long I stared at the blank page with the cursor blinking at me, just mocking me.

In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through how to write each section of your about page. And we are going to do it backwards! Sounds a little weird, right? But hang tight and I’ll show you what I mean.

“What the heck do I put on my about page?”

Before I dive into the strategy that will make your about page conversion-focused, I’ve got a newsflash for you. 

Your about page isn’t about you. It’s about your customer.

Here’s the thing. Your users don’t want to know your whole life story. They want to know how your business is going to help them solve their problem.

Define a Goal

Think about the main goal of your site. Is it to get people to get in contact with you? Or maybe you have an awesome set of products that can solve their problem. Maybe you even have a killer opt-in that you know can serve them well.

Whatever your goal is, we are going to work backwards from there. So write down that goal right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Hit them with your sweet, sweet, creds.

Now that you’ve got your goal defined, this is where we talk about what your business. 

What problem do you solve for your customers? Toss some credentials in there too. How long have you been in business? What achievements have your customers gotten because they’ve worked with you? Tell your customers why you are the person for the job.

Since we are working backwards here, let’s introduce who you are next. 

Introduce Who You Are + What You Do

Come up with some awesome statement that lets your customers know that you know their problems and you’re here to help. This part doesn’t have to be long at all.

Alright, now we’ve got the information about who YOU are out of the way, let’s work on identifying the customer and their pain points.

Tell Them You Know Their Struggles

In this section we are going to let the customer know that we see them. You know their struggles. You know what’s keeping them up at night. You know what they are wasting too much of their time trying to figure out (this same thing that you offer).

Talk about their problems a little more. This is where you’ll twist the knife-just a little bit. What are their internal feelings about their problem? Do they want to finally feel confident? Do they want to make a good impression? Do they want to be taken seriously in their industry?

Now that you’ve spoken directly into their heart, this is where you’ll introduce your business as the one who can swoop in and save the day. You are going to help them achieve all the things they are having issues with. 

Write a Stop-Them-in-Their-Tracks Headline

And finally, we need an attention-grabbing headline that summarizes their problem (and what you solve.)

And now that you’ve got all the pieces, but them together and read through everything to make sure it flows. Then just drop in a couple pictures and you’re good to go!

The post How to Design an About Page That Converts appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..

You’ve been working for MONTHS on your website (maybe a few more than you’d care to admit) and you’re almost ready to hit publish and show off all that you’ve been working on.

You’ve got this awesome website that you’re sure is going to help your business grow. It’s got great pictures, and it’s filled with all sorts of goodies. You’re ready to plant your flag in the corner of the internet that is ALL yours.

But let me hit the pause button on your launch, just for a minute.

Because there’s one page you probably didn’t think about. And this is one you definitely don’t want to forget, because otherwise, you might find yourself in some serious legal trouble. 

It’s your Privacy Policy.

“What the heck is a Privacy Policy?”

To give you a quick rundown, it tells your users how you are collecting their information, and what exactly you use that information for.

For example, when you look at the analytics for your site, you can see what pages your users are visiting most often. That is information that you can use to create more content that your tribe is looking for. 

You can also see what time of day your website is getting its visitors so you can schedule your social media to drive even more traffic to your site.

Not only is it required by law (more on that later), but it’s also a courtesy to be completely transparent with your users what you are using with the data that they are leaving on your site. 

“Why do I need a Privacy Policy? Is it really that big a deal if I don’t have one?”

In a word. Yes.

You are actually breaking federal law if you don’t have a Privacy Policy on your site. You are required by law to provide the general public what you are using their information for. 

If you fail to comply, you’re putting your business at risk of getting a fine slapped on your awesome new site.

Not to mention that if you don’t have GDPR provisions built into your Privacy Policy, you are actually breaking international law. 

And that friend, is not a good place to be. The last thing I want for you and your business is to get in trouble with the law on an international level.

“Okay, Amanda. You’ve convinced me I need a Privacy Policy. But where the heck do I get one?”

Good news, bud! I’ve scoured the internet to find the best resource to make it uber-easy to implement a Privacy Policy that has your booty covered.

I’ve found that The Contract Shop’s Privacy Policy template is by far the best for three reasons:

1. It’s GDPR compliant (no international law trouble here!)
2. It’s easy to just plug in your information so you can get it up on your website in a jiffy. (I’m talking t-minus 10 min.)
3. It’s written by a real-life lawyer, so you know it’s going to be comprehensive AND legit.

I know there’s LOTS of free resources out there that will generate a Privacy Policy (most don’t have GDPR provisions built in), but when it comes to international and federal law, do you really want to take your chances with a free resource that might cover your booty?

If it was me, I’d rather sleep soundly at night knowing that I was protected by a Privacy Policy created specifically for businesses, by a real-life lawyer rather than a computer.

Yes, the above link is an affiliate link, but you know I wouldn’t recommend anything I don’t use in my own business!

The post The One Page You Need on Your Website That You Probably Didn’t Think About appeared first on Amanda Scott Design Co..