383 – BOOST – 3 Website Tweaks to Consider for Added Visibility with Gloria King

Gift biz unwrapped episode 383.

I needed more cells.

And I believe doing the website will help me get there

At Tinton gifters bakers,

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Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

It's Sue and I am really excited that you're joining me

here today because you caught the episode where I'm debuting a

new show format called the gift biz boost.

What's a boost.

It's your chance to listen in while I address a current

issue faced by one of your fellow handmade makers too often,

we stall in one area of our business where if we

can just get past the block,

it will open the path to new business growth.

That's what this is all about.

To give a boost and clear the way for the next

big move at the end of the show,

I'll tell you how you can sign up for your own

gift biz boost.

Today, we're talking with Gloria King of Kings gift baskets.

She's been in business for a while,

but as can happen in life,

things have changed and her business needs to change along with

it. She'll tell you more about this.

And then we get into an audio website review.

I give her three specific tweaks that she can make right

away that will further attract online activity,

ready to experience the first boost.

Welcome to our first gift biz boost.

I am so excited to be doing these because so many

of you have told me,

there's just this one thing that you're stuck on.

That if you can overcome this one thing,

it can make a difference in your business.

So towards that end,

I've created these gift biz boosts,

and you're going to hear from Gloria King,

we're going to get into everything about Gloria in a minute,

we will be talking with her about how to specifically grow

her business through her website.

But before we get into all of that though,

Gloria first,

welcome to the first gift biz boost and share with us

a little bit about who you are and your business.

Well, hello,

Sue. Thanks for having me.

I'm Gloria King with Kings gift baskets and we're located in

the Myrtle beach,

South Carolina area where we help our customers through gifting.

And how have you been in business?

Okay. So sometime now,

which you know is a perfect example because just because you've

had a lot of years in,

we all face new challenges,

new things that affect our life and our business.

And we can all use a boost from time to time,

right? So it's a good example that it's not just people

who are new people who have been in business for quite

a while.

Same thing.

We're all working on our businesses and progressing them to make

them better fit our goals,

et cetera.

Share with me a little bit about where you're at with

the business and why you wanted to talk today.

Where I am is needing more cells.

And I believe doing the website will help me get there.

I've come across some health issues that are transitioning through everything

as well.

Things get pastors is planning to be here for a long

time, but nevertheless,

it has caused me to have some employees now,

and I need to just really concentrate on the website where

I'm not doing as much in person marketing and those things

as I've done in the past.

Okay. First of all,

love hearing that everything is going to be fine.

I mean,

I've known you for a while and I've seen you in

business for a while.

So just even as a friend,

I'm so thrilled to hear that.

So I can't let that comment pass without me saying something

about that.

So you're seeing right now,

you've had to do a couple of things first off,

you've had to hire some people and we won't go into

that today because I want to focus on your website,

but that's always such an obstacle.

Like, I feel like it's a mental barrier for people that

bringing in somebody to do or make,

or run your business in any way,

shape or form.

You never feel like people can take your baby and do

with it as you can.

Right. Right.

What would you say to people of,

how did you get over that?

I mean,

you were kind of forced into it,

but what would you say You're right.

I was forced into it,

but I would say fear not,

I mean,

it's just gift baskets and it'll be okay.

You just take the leap and you just have to trust

and know that you can show them whatever it is that

you're wanting them to accomplish.

And it can be baby small steps,

but just taking note of everything that has to be done

throughout the business.

And definitely you will see a growth in your business.

So would you say now you wish you would have done

it earlier?

Yes. Without a doubt.

I kind of know y'all were going to say that.

Okay. So just having some issues where you're needing now to

be more at home for the time being,

versus being out,

maybe doing face-to-face shows,

going to networking,

et cetera.

You're relying now more online to get business.

Is that a fair statement?

Yep. Okay.

And tell us a little bit about history of your website.

When did you put it up?

What platform is it on?

Let's start with that.

It's been up for awhile.

I've tried different types of platforms in the past,

but right now I'm currently with Weebly And you're feeling comfortable

with it.

You know how to navigate it and work with it and

all. Yes.

Perfect. Okay.

What's your approach to the website?

Meaning how often do you go in and adjust anything,

add things?

Any of that?

It's not as often as it should be.

I would say that a person needs to go into their

website if at all possible a couple of times a week.

Not unless they have just one particular product and they're not

really adding a whole lot,

but right now I'm not on the website as often as

I should be.

Okay. And with the website in particular,

where are you getting sales?

Are you getting orders through the website?

I do get some orders through the website,

but I do get a lot of calls.

I get more people calling and wanting to place an order

than just placing the order off of the website.

But then I have quite a few people that know that

I do gift baskets and they'll just call and say,

I want a basket for a closing,

or I want,

I'm coming to town.

I found you on Google.

I need 12 baskets delivered to this hotel.

Okay. They found you on Google because of your web.

So your website does initiate the call?

Yes. Probably because they're custom orders,

right. They're not seeing what necessarily they need on the website.

And so they're calling you?

Yes. Okay.

And so what types of customers are you looking to attract?

I would love to have,

if it's two customers that I could pick,

I would pick realtors,

more realtors,

but also more event planners,

people that are coming to the area.

Maybe it's a wedding or some type of conference.

Okay. And what about just direct to consumer?

That's fine as well.

I do have quite a few of those,

but I didn't want to pick,

I just try to narrow it down,

but yes.

But if you could,

you would be focusing more on realtors and event planners.

Yes. Okay.

And are you seeing that those are the people who are

currently calling you now?

Yes. Is that from your prior networking,

do you think?

So the event planners,

I want to say that's more through Google.

The realtors are more through networking.

Okay. And by Google,

we probably mean they're searching for somebody in your area and

then your coming up as the website and then they're placing

a call to you.

Yes. Okay.

Wonderful. And when you think of your website,

I'm just curious from your perspective,

what do you think could be improved?

I would think some of the pitchers can be improved or

some, the products that I offer can also be improved because

I do so many custom.

I know that I can have a broader base for the

client to choose from.

You are in a really good position,

Gloria, because you have a lot of established business strengths already.

I don't know if you've seen this,

but I have now broken down the evolution of a business

into five different business growth stages and your right where the

majority of people are,

it's called making it real and then upping the game,

making it real is really establishing and having in your business

and upping the game is adding in all of these layers,

like social media site website,

et cetera,

people will jump back and forth between the two of these

also adds things,

change new social media platforms,

come up.

That type of thing.

There's always the time to continue making it real because you're

putting these things in place.

So you're right between making it real,

upping the game and kind of going back and forth between

the two,

which is where I say 60 to 70% of all people

who are in business fall.

Okay. So you're right in with the majority,

if that gives you any solace and comfort.

So I did take the Liberty of looking at your website

and I mean,

honestly you have a lot of the elements there that you

need. I think you can just,

like I was saying up the game a little bit on

your website,

and I'll tell you specifically where I see this to happen

now, because we're doing this as a podcast.

And not everybody,

even though we're recording this also through video,

not everyone would have the opportunity to be able to see

if I pulled up the website.

I'm just going to talk us through this.

Okay. The very first thing that we have to worry about

with a website is what's the first impression when someone lands

there, have you heard of the term bounce rate where people

will come onto your website,

take a look for a second and then automatically leave.

You want to make sure that when people get to your

website and land there for the first time,

first off,

they know they've gotten to the right place.

Okay. They,

they know that it's you and they know that what you

offer is what they need.

And I'd say you're probably 50 to 60% there because when

you land on your website,

it's very clear that you're doing gift baskets and your navigation

is pretty good navigation,

meaning what's up at the top of the website.

So if people were looking for something specific,

your navigation bars,

are there,

the one thing that I think that you could improve right

away is that first image that you have there,

which is a scroller.

I want to describe it to everybody.

It scrolls through some of the different areas and customer types

that you service.

And it has to do more with the sizing of the

image than anything else.

When I pull it up on my computer here,

the image is so big.

I can't even see it all on one screen.

I have to scroll down to see the whole image.

Okay. So I think if you re sized that you'll attract

more interest,

when people go,

when people get there,

the other thing I would do is probably right above that

image. Like,

you know,

an image doesn't always have to be as big as you

can make it.

You want it as big as going to be visually appealing

for the people that are coming to the website.

Right. But then above there,

I would say something like,

oh, welcome to King's gift baskets,

maybe serving what area or some type of an introduction,

welcome message.

Like if someone comes to your house and you open the

front door,

you don't just stand there,

quiet. Right.

You see something.

So your pictures already say something.

So you could either put the wording inside some of those

pictures, or just put a little bit of text,

not a lot,

just a little bit on the top and then let the

pictures scroll by another thing to check.

And it looks pretty good on your website is sometimes when

you do these,

scrollers it affects the loading time of the site.

In other words,

it takes a while for it to load.

And I would check just to make sure that you're okay,

looks fine on my end,

but check it out on your phone,

check it out on someone else.

I call a couple of friends,

ask them to look at it and just see how long

it takes to load up.

Just make sure that that's good.

Then I think there are some things that you can do

for the experience of your viewer on that home page.

I'm not going to go into all of that now,

because I don't want to give you too many things to

work on.

And there's a couple other things I'd like you to affect

on the homepage.

But I do think way at the bottom,

you have your contact me form,

but you also have on the top navigation contact me.

So I would pull that off the front page.

You don't need it in both places.

Okay? There's some other things that you could possibly do on

your home page to bring more richness to it.

And maybe what to do for the time being is look

and see what other sites are doing.

Kind of like a little bit of telling maybe the story

of the business you are showing your gift baskets right upfront.

So I don't think you need to have a ton of

gift basket images,

but maybe you can fancy up the homepage,

add a little bit more personality into it,

but the most important thing.

And the one point I want you to think of is

the resizing of that first image.

So it all fits when someone jumps on there,

there's a nice little welcome message.

And then you,

I think just shrink that image.

So someone doesn't have to scroll down to have the whole

experience and that I think for the time being would be

enough for the homepage and the reason why you're making effects

like that is you want as many people who come to

your homepage.

And it sounds like you are driving traffic there because you're

getting phone calls off of it.

But you want people to be able to go and look

around and see more of what you're about and not leave,

not bounce off.

I don't know if you've looked at any analytics to see

how people are bouncing.

Have you looked at your analytics at all?

No, I haven't.

Okay. This is a point for next stage.

Google analytics are changing.

So if you've never done a Google analytics before don't go

back and try to figure out the old analytics,

you can start a Google analytics account it's totally free and

get that connected with your page so it can start tracking

things for you.

I do have it and have it connected.

I just never really studied it or anything.

Okay. So now what you want to do is go and

get the new one.

It's called GA for it's very easy.

If you've connected at once,

you can connect it again.

They can run simultaneously,

but come next July.

So July 20,

23, the old Google analytics is a hundred percent going away.

So if you get the new one connected,

now, then you'll start tracking information from starting now and you'll

be all set moving forward.

So I am going to make mention that,

yes, you're at home because you have to be now because

you're still healing,

but this is a great time to be doing all this

stuff. Because when you get back out,

you'll be back out networking and doing shows and all of

that. And you won't do any of this other stuff at

home. Take that positive side of the situation.

That was 0.1

for the homepage.

Second thing,

I'd say another very easy addition that you can make to

your website is I want you to enhance your about page.

It has the Q and a,

and then if I click on the Q and a,

it says about shipping about this,

about that,

about that's all fine,

but what I would also do,

I think if I just click on the first part,

it does show a really great picture of you.

But I want to hear some personality.

Like I want to know more from like the standpoint that

you're talking to a person coming to your about page,

who wants to know more about you.

you know,

like it's not that formal resume type thing.

It's like,

hi. So glad you're here with me on my page.

I'm so excited to tell you more about gift baskets and

what they can do to show appreciation.

You know,

whatever you want to say,

you don't do a whole big long thing.

It's just a friendly,

welcoming. If you met a friend of yours from high school

that you haven't seen forever.

And they said,

oh my gosh,

King's gift baskets.

How cool,

what made you start that?

Gloria, answer that question on your homepage.

Okay. It adds more personality.

And what it starts to do is it separates your website

from other gift websites out there.

So that's the second thing I want you to do.

Just make it more personal.

And you can also go and look through some of the

wording on your site.

Talk like you're with one person you're looking at one person

you're talking to one person and you're not a big corporation

talking. You're Gloria talking.

Okay. Which gets me to the third.

And my favorite thing about your website,

Gloria. You're doing a blog.

Oh yeah.

It's so good.

It is so good that you're doing a blog and you've

been consistent.

It looks like an article a month.

Ish. Yeah.

This I think is why you're being seen on Google and

you're getting the phone calls.

And I've been talking a lot about this in gift biz

overall on the podcast,

in the group,

all over the value of a blog to your business.

So for you in terms of upping the game,

what I love to see you do is think about key

words that your customers would search for to find you.

So when you're thinking about realtors and you're thinking about event

planners, what key words,

like event planners conference in Myrtle beach,

like those types of words,

and start creating blog content around what they are looking for

you and your blog content is great.

Like a lot of the articles,

all of that,

but I think you can enhance what you're already doing by

adding in those keywords,

in the title in the first couple of paragraphs of copy.

Now, not keyword stuffing.

So keyword stuffing is when you take all these keywords,

you try and merge them together and they don't even sound

like a human is even writing it.

That will get you dinged in Google.

They don't like that.

But if you put more words,

if you think about it,

when Google's searching to pull up an answer to somebody's question,

if you have those words in your copy,

then your articles are going to show up higher.

So a takeaway and a more concrete way of saying this

you're already blogging.

So you're good to go with that.

It's in your plan.

Just think like realtors,

what types of questions might they be asking?

Where what I do can help serve that referral business,

right? Walking into the house for the first time,

naked, the experience special.

So they'll refer you or come back to you for their

next house.

What are the things from a realtor's point of view is

important to them.

That is a service you can provide.

Okay. And write articles about that.

And if you're not sure,

put in those Google words and see what articles are coming

up, put in realtor,

referral, like all that.

And then you'll start to see different types of topics that

are coming up.

And you just because an article has been written about it

already doesn't mean you can't write it with your own spin.

Okay. So then event planners,

same thing Events.

Also a lot of events now are online.

They're not,

face-to-face still.

And I think that's going to continue.

Probably we've seen how it can work.

So that'll continue going.

If you provide the service of being able to mail things

to people,

for events that could be a whole article unto itself,

there to offsite.

I don't know what the keywords would be for that.

So I'm not going to try and guess I don't want

to lead you astray in the wrong way without looking,

but I would continue your blogging.

I think that's amazing.

And just tweak it a little bit.

So the topics are then applicable to the people,

to who will find you.

Okay. Okay.

How does all that sound?

So I've given you three things here,

let me summarize them first,

your cover image,

you know,

that very first image that comes up.

Just tweak that up a little bit,

add in an about page,

by the way.

Do you know that the,

about pages,

the most read page on any website,

apart from the homepage?

Yeah, I did hear that somewhere.

I'm not sure where,

and I have,

I don't know if the video is on the,

about page or not,

but I have a video,

but I can't recall if it's on the about page.

Yeah. I didn't run into it when I looked and so

on. I spent a little bit of time,

obviously in preparation for our talk today.

So if I couldn't find it,

others couldn't find it.

But a video of you talking would be amazing,

but some people aren't in a position where they can turn

on the audio.

So I would also write something.

Okay. So those two that's 0.2

and number three is what we just covered with your blog.

Yes. So that's three things,

concrete things that you could do that I think will improve

your website,

attract more people over there.

Number one,

because of the keywords and then keep them there to look

and see what you're doing.

And then your calls are going to increase.

Awesome. Okay.

How does that sound?

This sounds fantastic.

Which of those three are you going to do first?

Gloria? Easiest one first.

And besides the picture,

but then I am definitely going to work on that about

page, making it more personal.

Good. None of these are hard because those two are just

things to do.

And then the third one you're already doing,

it's just a tweak in how you're doing it.

So there you go.

All right.

So for everybody who's listening,

who's now going to go hold you accountable because they're going

to come to the page at some point.

Where would people go to see your website At King's gift

baskets.com? Wonderful.

Well, Gloria,

thank you so much for coming in today and being my

first boost partner here.

I love you for that.

You go down and give biz history for that.

How about that?

And those of you who are listening,

if you are also interested in a boost,

you can sign up for a time,

just go to gift biz on rapt.com

forward slash boost.

I do ask you a couple of questions because as you

saw here,

I do a little bit of work beforehand so that I

can come as prepared as possible.

And we want to target into one very specific thing so

that we can boost you forward.

Okay. That's it for now.

Thanks for joining me.

And I'll see you next time on the gift biz unwrapped

podcast. Do you have questions about getting your business started?

Do you need ideas on how to increase sales?

What about e-commerce or online marketing?

All of these are topics that we can chat about.

If you want to sign up for a gift biz boost,

go to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash boost,

and put your name on the list.

I'm taking these calls on a first come first serve basis.

And yes,

this is a chance to get coaching for free.

Make sure to grab your spot in line gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash boost.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.