We are lucky to have worked with the amazing Cara, the founder of Pukka Pilates. Here’s how we worked with her and the top tips to making the most of our website design in her own words..
When I embarked on my Pilates affiliate business, my first priority was a website. But, like many business owners, I was concerned about the cost and time implications of hiring a web agency, plus my lack of technical knowledge when it came to updating the site.
I spent many fruitless hours trying to teach myself web design, but kept getting stuck. Not only was this frustrating, it was taking me away from focusing on building my business.
Disheartened, I reached out for help on a local Facebook business networking group, and Theo came to my rescue.
After an initial chat, I was confident Theo could help me create the professional, user friendly website I wanted, in a short amount of time, without breaking the bank.
We’ve worked together for a coupe of months now and I’m really pleased with the direction my site is heading in.
Theo has taught me a lot about building and designing a website in a short space of time. I thought I’d share some nuggets I’ve gleaned from him, along with some tips I have picked up along the way, to help fellow business owners on their web building journey.
Firstly, I learnt a couple of key things from Theo that made the process a lot less daunting:
Like any other business in the healthcare/fitness industry, information is key for my audience. They want to be able to get answers to their questions and find lots of helpful resources at the click of a button. With this in mind, I had a lot of grand ideas for my website. But I was overwhelmed by how much there was to do.
Theo pointed out that my website didn’t have to be 100% complete on launch day. He helped me work out what I actually needed for the site to go live and effectively cut my workload in half! It took a whole lot of pressure off! I will continue to add to it over time, which is better as there will be fresh content for Pilates enthusiasts to come back to.
One of the benefits of using Theo over a web agency is the 1:1 interaction and personalised training. Theo showed me how to do things in WordPress and Elementor as he made changes to the site. I would try and implement them and bring up issues I encountered at the next training session.
Theo offers bespoke WordPress and Elementor training as part of his services. If you’re a technophobe, I highly recommend taking him up on it. Check out his offerings here.
Now for the nuggets. There are some key decisions to make at the start of the process that will inform the design of your website. Here’s the lowdown:
Remember the old Westerns where cowboys branded cattle? They did it to mark ownership. Your logo should do the same thing (minus the red hot branding iron). Your logo is your corporate identity – it tells the world who you are, what products/services you sell, and the benefits you offer customers/clients.
I dabble with Photoshop but am no designer, so, on Theo’s recommendation, I outsourced the job to a freelancer on Upwork. This turned out to be easy, cheap and resulted in a logo I love. If you’re on a budget, this is a much more cost-effective route than hiring a branding agency.
If your website was a house, your domain name would be its address. It’s what people will type into a browser to find your website.
Picking a domain name can be tricky. There are more than 350 million out there, and thousands more get registered each day. This can make it difficult to get the one you want. However, web domain registration services tend to have domain name checkers that let you see whether a domain name is already in use.
Whatever name you choose, make sure it’s easy to pronounce, remember and spell!
In terms of who to buy it through, namecheap.com offers better value than a lot of the other providers. Just be sure to avoid buying add-ons, except for the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) fee.
There are loads of web design programmes out there. But, as Theo has shown me, WordPress is the best. And Elementor (a simple drag-and-drop WordPress plugin) makes it even easier to use.
If this is freaking you out, don’t worry. Among his many services, Theo offers bespoke WordPress and Elementor training, which I took him up on, and even I can now add blog posts to my site (an important feature for a health and wellness business) and make small amends as and when necessary.
For the uninitiated, SEO stands for search engine optimisation, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
Did that go way over your head? It’s not something you need to worry about, as Theo can manage it for you. In fact, he can manage everything, from design and SEO to google integration and carrying out website performance reviews. If that wasn’t enough, he includes training, a list of traffic generation tips and a comprehensive marketing guide with his website packages.
If you’re setting up a business and are stressing out about your website, Theo is your man. Give him a call on 07709 852 364 and see what he can do for you today!
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