Nothing is scarier than a blank page, especially when you’re wondering, what should I put on my website? Whether you’re launching a new business, starting a Substack newsletter, sharing your work as a writer, or advertising your martial arts dojo, a website is an intimidating but necessary way to put your work in front of your audience.
I’ve built many websites for myself and others. Here’s what I’ve learned:
It doesn’t help to think of a website as a finished product. Although we have website launches and celebration parties when a large client’s new website finally goes live, often the pixel-perfect website will be updated, redesigned, and rewritten just months or a year later. If you’re just starting out as a writer, small business owner, etc, and you don’t have a website yet, you might be stuck in decision paralysis. How can you find the perfect theme, the ideal wording, and all the plugins you need, all at the same time?
If you want to launch a fully completed, almost perfect website, you either need money (to pay someone to build it), or a lot of time, experience, and talent (to do it yourself). But who’s got money or time?
It is better to launch a basic, incomplete website than to have nothing. Once you have something, you can continuously iterate and improve.
So what goes on your basic, incomplete website? Start with a headline and two paragraphs. The first paragraph is about what you do. The second paragraph is about who you are. You can add a photo or two for extra credit.
The headline—and this is so cool—is going to help people find your site when they search online. Try this: open a new tab and go to Google search. Type in a search to look for someone like you. If I was searching for this newsletter, I might type in “LGBT writer newsletter.” If I was looking for an aikido dojo in my town, I’d type in “aikido near me.” If I was looking for someone to build my website, I’d type in “affordable website for small business.”
If it helps to look at your future collaborators’ websites, go ahead—but all we really need is what you typed into the search bar. Put those words into your headline. You can add other words and punctuation as well, for example, “LGBT Writer: Newsletter for Building Community Respectfully,” “Aikido Near [Our Fair City], Friendly and Welcoming Martial Arts, Please Join Us,” “We Will Build Your Affordable Website for Small Business,” etc.
If you’ve been following along with this exercise, congrats! You now understand the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). Essentially, it helps to include the exact words people search for in your headers and content on your page. That will help the search engine know to direct people to your site. This also works for platforms like Substack and YouTube. Putting search keywords in your titles and descriptions really helps.
If you would like help with the technical side of setting up a website, support, motivation, and copywriting to show off your best work, I can work with you.
Whether you’re just getting started or you have a complete vision, we can make your website a reality together. Please contact us to get started and I’ll be in touch shortly!