Are you ready to invest in your website? In today’s episode, I’m continuing my series all about branding, and introducing you to brand and web designer Alex Collier. Alex is sharing the importance of leveraging your website, plus the power of good copy and expressing your brand through visuals. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Today’s episode is brought to you by The Green House, my resource garden for photographers! Let me help you AMPLIFY your heart online and in real life to turn bridesmaids into future brides through templates, workshops, and freebies!

Review The Show Notes:

Leveraging The Power Of Good Copy And Good Photos (3:16)

Creating A Recognizable Brand (5:45)

The Photos That A Brand Designer Wants (7:24)

How Many Photos You Could Need For Your Website (9:08)

What Makes Portfolios Convert (10:45)

Driving Traffic To Your Website (16:10)

Using Keywords On Your Site (19:51)

A 5-Minute Website Makeover (27:22)

Unlisted And Secret Pages (28:46)

Key Tip From Alex (31:52)

Connect With Alex:

Instagram: instagram.com/alexcollierdesign/

Website: alexcollierdesign.com/

Shop: alexcollierdesign.com/shop

Use code “quianna10” for 10% off a shop template!

Review the Transcript:

Quianna: You can have the best services on the block or even have the best products in the world. But if your business and brand aren’t visible and searchable, I hate to break it to you, but it’s time for a website refresh. Collectively, this business era is all about content generation and social media. Yes, that’s a huge searchable content.

But like all of our mentors and online gurus remind us, we don’t own social media. This is why it’s important to invest in digital real estate, AKA your website. As we continue this branding series, I know it’s vital to include my friend, Alex Collier, to share the importance of elevating your online presence with your website.

Together, we’ll be sharing a ton about leveraging the power of good copy, creating a recognizable brand, and many strategies to express your brand through visuals on your website. Alex is going to cover which photos to highlight on your website, showcasing a variety of different visuals, and even some secret or unlisted website pages to create as resources for your clients.

Plus, we tap into a bit of SEO and designing for conversions. Alex is a pro at not only making your website look pretty, but making your clients say heck yes to hiring you. Alex Collier is a visionary brand and web designer specializing in serving wedding professionals. Alex is dedicated to creating custom show at websites and brands that beautifully capture the high end and heartfelt experiences wedding pros offer to their couples with a keen eye for design and deep understanding of the wedding industry.

Alex crafts stunning websites that seamlessly blend elegance and functionality. She’s motivated by her little family and loves exploring botanical gardens with her husband and sweet daughter. As a long time fan of Taylor Swift, you might even find some hidden Easter eggs on her website. I’m honored to welcome A Wedding Pro to the podcast as a gentle reminder that everything we discuss on Keanu Marie Weekly can be applied to your own industry and business niche.

This is another episode you’re going to want your notebook to take notes! Without further ado, please welcome web and brand designer, Alex Collier. Welcome to Quianna Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins, big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to Serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams.

You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode@kianamarie.com slash podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready? Let’s go. Hey,

hey, hey. Welcome to the party, Alex. I’m so grateful you can join us today. Thank you so much for having me. Yes. Well, we are in this part of the series where we finally received our gallery and we are so excited to post and share and update our profile pictures and update our headshots and just play with these photos.

How To Leverage Good Copy and Good Photos To Prove Your Value Online?

And I would love to know from you in your opinion, words and images are so powerful. How can we leverage the power of a good copy and good photos to prove our value online?

Alex: Yes, absolutely. So I think any designer will agree with me that the copy and the images definitely need to come first before you go into a web design.

So having those ready to go, whether you’re working with a designer or doing your website on your own, definitely prioritizing having those ready. As far as copy goes, I think the biggest thing to remember with your website is that people are not reading websites the way they’re reading books. We’re not reading every single word that would it.

Be kind of crazy. We’re scanning through the page. So I always say you want to make your website scannable, not skippable. You want to design with that in mind that people are just going to be kind of like jumping their eyes down the page and not necessarily taking in every word. So I think that means you need to pay special attention to what your headings say, because a lot of times that might be the only thing someone reads.

Like you could do an exercise where you go through your home page and just look at every single heading. If someone only read every single heading on your home page. What would their takeaway be from, from visiting that page? So things like, you know, a lot of times we default to kind of boring headings like our services, and then you have your section about your services.

Well, okay, now someone knows that you have services like, okay, well, you’re a business. So we already knew that. So what’s something you could say about your services in that actual heading to again, like plan for that scanning behavior. And then as far as images go, I think like doing a branding shoot is great because your images are already going to be cohesive as far as like, The editing style, the colors, the tones.

And so being able to have that in place already is going to go so far with, with planning your website.

Quianna: Yes, I love that so much. And I feel like that is a gentle reminder for all of us to go through our website right now, do some house cleaning and maybe some mini makeovers to adjust those headings. And, and you know, what’s funny now that you’re even mentioning that I’m looking back to my stuff and I feel like my.

Like, my sweet spot or like the juicy bite of what I’m trying to express is actually in the headline. Right? Or sorry, it’s in the tagline. Like, it’s in the, the smaller font below the paragraph.

Alex: Right. I feel like that’s so easy to do. Yes. I’m like, naturally how you write, but if you think about how someone’s reading it, They might not read that paragraph.

How To Create A Recognizable Brand

Quianna: Yes, I love this so much. So as someone is starting to kind of do some website makeovers, really be intentional with their copy. What advice would you share for someone trying to create a recognizable brand, something that brings in the copy and the images into just one explosive at a glance? Oh, that’s there she is.

Or there he is. How do we make these recognizable brands?

Alex: I think it’s about defining. your, maybe your signature style or like kind of your ethos of your brand. This is where sometimes like brand adjectives can come into play. Is your brand editorial and chic? Is it romantic and dainty? And then making sure that everything in your brand kind of aligns with that.

So the copy is in that same tone that the images are in. I think that’s something else with images and copy is like they have to go together too. Like if you’re having a section on your website that’s about how much you love your clients or something like that, well you want to pair an image with that that’s going to have that really warm feeling.

Like maybe you want to pick an image that where you’re making eye contact with the camera, you’re making that personal connection. It’s like really making them work together in that way.

Quianna: Yes, this is great advice because I feel like it can be confusing if you maybe have this warm fuzzy pastelly vibe in your copy and then the images you get back working with your brand photographer are edgy and sharp and professional.

I can see how that can

Alex: kind of be confusing. Yes, definitely. And doing that before you even have your brand shoot of having that like, here’s what my brand is to be able to tell your photographer or even working with your photographer to help define that as well.

Quianna: Yes, I love this so much. Well, you Alex are such an expert in brand design, web design, and all the fun things that go into really creating this beautiful and recognizable and memorable online presence.

The Kind of Photos Your Website Designer Wants

So as a brand designer and website specialist, what type of photos are you praying to work with once a client books a custom brand and web design experience with you?

Alex: Yes, I love that question so much because it is so true. When I go to open the galleries, my client sent me, it’s a little bit of a moment of truth because so much of the success of the website does depend on the photos.

So I think like the two biggest things I’m really hoping for are consistency and variety. So consistency meaning that The images are all kind of the same, like I kind of mentioned before, like editing style, color style, even if they weren’t necessarily shot by the same photographer, they maybe look like they could have been like they look cohesive.

If you are a photographer, I think having a really defined style is so helpful of like. There’s photographers I follow on Instagram where they post something and I don’t even have to look at the name. I already know what photographer posted that because their style is so distinct. Kind of like that consistency, but then also variety, which by variety, I mean, there’s a lot of different things I mean by that.

So first of all, like a change up of horizontal and vertical images, especially with websites like. A lot of photographers default to portrait so often, which I totally understand, but then people want those big, beautiful banner backgrounds. And a lot of times I don’t have a lot to work with for that. So mixing that up.

Also like detail shots versus images with a person, like full body shots of a person versus closeup, like images of hands and things like that. Just a lot of different variety of the closeness and the subject of the photo is what is super, super helpful because it allows one session or one. Something you shot to go a long way.

How Many Photos Do We Need For Our Website?

Quianna: Yes! I have a million questions for you. So the first thing that comes to mind is how many photos typically land on a website? So how many when you are planning to work with a photographer locally or you get to fly out to come see me in Scottsdale whatever that looks like, how many photos are you actually playing with on average for websites?

Alex: Oh, that is, that, that’s a really good question. It really, it really, really depends on the business. I would say for photographers, that’s gonna be a lot more images because they’re gonna have galleries that are like, you know, from this certain wedding or this maternity session or whatever, and we’ll have maybe 30 pictures in that.

So that’s gonna increase the overall amount of images. Um, I would say hundreds. I mean. I guess normally I’d probably hoping to get around 500 images from my client to work with. Not that every image is going to end up on the site, but that within that 500, we have some variety to work with. And what helps a lot too is having images from a lot of different sessions.

So like if I get 200 images, but it’s from one, one outfit, one location, like, okay, there’s 200 photos, but they’re not going to look very different from each other. Whereas if I have 200 photos and there’s three locations and four different outfits, like that can stretch a lot farther too.

Quianna: Yes. I love that so much. I feel like, like any professional or like just give it to me a baby and I can play with it. Right. So you have options you want to be able to articulate and even just as photographers. Specifically speaking to them, I mean, we need to be able to share what our style and what our edit looks like through many different lighting situations, through different, through different seasons and through different locations.

Websites + Images That Convert

So definitely having that variety is so key. I’m so happy that you mentioned that. I’d love to know what makes portfolios convert the best. After we have these handful of images and these just years of experience, what type of images actually convert and get people to feel the love, feel the professionalism and say, I want to work with you.

Where can we start with that?

Alex: Yes. Well, first of all, I would say I think less is more. I think, especially for like wedding photographers, I know it can be really overwhelming because from a wedding you have thousands of pictures sometimes and narrowing that down can be so hard. But I love to see a gallery that’s, you know, even this view is like 15 to 30 photos.

I think it’s a good, can give you a good snapshot of a certain session. You don’t need to show everything. And I also think, again, coming back to like the variety, I think. For example, if you have, let’s say, let’s just use a wedding as an example. And you have a picture of the bride putting her earrings on.

That’s really pretty. And then you also have a picture of her hugging her mom. That’s really pretty. But those are shot from like in the same location and from the same distance. We put those pictures next to each other. And now you’re decreasing the impact of both of them. Like now I’m not as interested in either photo because my brain doesn’t really know.

what to focus on. So it’s your job to be the guide. It’s your job to direct the focus and show people what they should be looking at. So I almost think of it like a piece of music, like you wouldn’t want to listen to a piece of music that was the same note 50 times in a row. You want it to have a melody to it.

Selecting and Pairing Images For Success Online

So I think with your gallery, like that beautiful picture of the bride putting on her earrings, okay, now put that next to like a really beautiful styled flat lay of the getting ready space, like something that is different enough that it’s like, Now my, now I know my attention needs to change to something new and thinking of it almost like a collage of the day or the session, whatever the type of session it might be.

Quianna: I love that. And I feel, you know, it’s so funny. I feel like some people either get it or they don’t, but it’s absolutely coachable, right? Especially as photographers or creatives in this space, we can see that and we can know, Oh, These look good together, right? Whether you’re curating a blog post and you’re pairing images side by side, or you’re creating a portfolio piece, whatever that looks like, I feel like sometimes we just get it and we can understand, right?

Whether you are kind of playing with the depth, right? Like, is this a closeup shot? Is this a far away photo? What does that look like? And so if you’re listening and you’re thinking, I don’t know how to pair my images, trust me, babe, it’s okay. It’s okay. It’s coachable. Uh, but definitely just play with that depth of field, play with the up close and the far away.

And like Alex, like you mentioned, stay away from or try to avoid images that although we’re very impactful and emotional for your couple or for that beautiful bride, for someone else looking, you’re almost kind of like, like you said, like you’re hitting that same tune. You’re kind of like just kind of repeating yourself.

And I love that you mentioned that it’s almost taking away from that power and that beauty.

Alex: Yeah. I think too, don’t feel pressure to feel like you have to include, I mean, using a wedding again, that you have to include every single part of the day. Maybe there aren’t any pictures from the ceremony that have that really great impact.

I mean, that, that feels, I’m sure that feels kind of, you know, Not so great to not include a picture of the ceremony, but if it’s not going to have that impact that you want, um, people aren’t going to necessarily notice that. I think like your blog is somewhere where you can go a little bit more in detail on the wedding day, include maybe some more pictures.

Um, or also, you know, when people inquire, a lot of times couples will want to see or clients will want to see a full gallery. And I think that’s a time when you can share, you know, here’s actually what gets delivered to the client.

Quianna: I love that so much. Okay, so I’m literally playing this kind of almost like client journey in my head right now.

And so I’m imagining someone seeing either a real or a flash photo on social media, they’re getting one image that’s kind of drawing them in and, and maybe they search the hashtag, maybe they got a friend referral, but they’re seeing that one image, then they go to their website, right? And like, that’s almost like a very organic next step, like, legit factor check, like, okay, is this person in business and what does their website look like?

And they’re getting another handful, a couple more teasers, couple more like really curated photos. If they’re very interested, like most couples are, is there like really digging to go in deeper into the actual work of the photographer, then they’re hitting their blog and they’re seeing a handful of more photos that totally curates that.

So I love how you’re almost painting this roadmap of like a little bit more at each step.

Alex: Totally. I think that’s a great way to think about it. I think something else for photographers is if you do sneak peeks for your clients, that’s a great barometer of what that image is going to do for your ideal clients too.

Because if that was an image you were super excited to edit and get to the client right away, it’s probably also going to be an image that someone looking at your website is going to be excited to see too. So a lot of times my clients are, you know, kind of overwhelmed by going through their galleries, but it’s like, if you do sneak peeks, you already did.

this work once. Like, you don’t mean to make yourself do it again. Like you kind of already went through and curated it.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. That’s genius. And I love how you’re being streamlined about that and making, I don’t want to say less work, but a little bit more intentional work for the business owner.

And I love that. Oh my gosh. So I would love to continue the conversation Alex into now that I feel like we have the confidence that we are locked down on our copy. We have the images, we have our brand photos. We feel really connected to our website. How are we driving traffic to this website? I mean, I feel like there’s this, this wrong feeling where, well, if we build it, they come and that’s not always true.

So how can we drive traffic to our website?

Alex: Yes, absolutely. So this is where SEO comes into play. So making sure that you’re finding a keyword for your homepage, especially that is a keyword that’s getting good volume that people are actually searching for. And then making sure that keyword is in your page title in your H1 heading and that your page is very content rich.

Google loves when your page has a lot of content. So, Sarah at Sarah does SEO, Sarah Dunn at Sarah does SEO and I actually recently launched a template together that is designed to be a really beautiful template for wedding pros, but that also has, is designed with SEO in mind. So that’s one thing, for example, we kept in mind when we were creating the homepage of that template was making sure that it had a lot of that content because that is something that Google wants to see, um, is a lot of words on the page.

Another thing that’s huge for SEO is beyond your homepage is blog posts. And I think a lot of people are sleeping on blog posts and that’s really your best opportunity to rank is writing things that are helpful content for your ideal client that might not necessarily be. It might not even necessarily be exactly what you do.

Like an example I give sometimes is if you’re a maternity photographer, well, you could write a blog post that’s like the 10 best birth centers in your city. That’s something that people who are potentially your ideal client are searching for. And you can be a source of helpful information to them. They can find your site that way.

And that’s like, that’s their doorway into knowing you. Um, so those are some ways to get visibility. Also, um, Google business profile. If you haven’t set that up for your business, that’s definitely great to do, especially if you have your address in there so you can show up in map search. And also I think just like networking, social media, just like not being afraid to shout it from the rooftops and share about yourself and make friends in the industry so they share about you too.

Quianna: Yes, no, absolutely. And I feel like that is something that a lot of people are sleeping on all the things like you mentioned, the blog posts. Um, I love the cross promotion, like the cross traffic that you’re creating, right? Like, especially, I love that example of the maternity birthing locations. And, and that’s what’s so fun, I think, because I think As any person is searching for any type of service or any type of product or something that they may need or that they may think they want to need, right?

Like they’re looking for. I love catching people pleasantly surprised, right? So maybe they are in this urgency looking for something very specific. And then a little glimmer pops up to answer those questions, to be kind of the superhero 10 things. Here’s what’s great about them. Or even just listing them as a.

like a glossary or like a research paper for them to find. And then, can you imagine this mom who’s maybe stressing or a little bit worried, maybe she moved to a new area, and then all of a sudden she’s on your website scrolling through maternity pictures and newborn photos.

Alex: Yes, yes. You just made her day.

And if you shot sessions at those birthing centers, well now you can include those and now they’re seeing your work in the context of that helpful information.

Quianna: Yes, and this is so beautiful. So if you’re listening to this, you’re like, well, this is fantastic, but I’m not a maternity photographer. This isn’t even in my wheelhouse.

I really challenge you to think outside the box and think, what are your ideal clients searching for? What keeps them up at night? What are they interested in? And what are they typing into Google or searching on Pinterest? And then, and it may, and this is It’s a beauty of it, Alex. I love this that you’re bringing this up because it has nothing to do with our pictures.

Searching and Utilizing Key Words On Your Website

It has nothing to do with our specific business, but we’re creating that resource. And I love that. And that’s a great way to drive traffic to your website. So, okay, I want to dig a little bit deeper into the SEO thing and no, I know a lot of us are not super techie and this is why we’re so grateful to have friends like you and Sara to help us with the website building and SEO.

But when you mentioned key words, okay, I really want to get into this. Yes. How are we finding these keywords? We’ll start there. And then my second part, so I don’t forget, is where are we actually plugging them into our website? Like, where are we actually typing in those letters? I’m so confused.

Alex: Yes, totally.

So a couple of my favorite free tools to do some keyword research are Semrush, S E M rush. com and Ubersuggest. And both of those tools will give you a few free searches a day so you can start looking up some keywords. And when you’re looking at keywords, the things you want to look at are volume and competitiveness.

So volume means how many people are searching this every month. You don’t want to put all this effort into ranking for a keyword that people aren’t actually searching because that doesn’t do you any good. And you want it to be competitive enough to where you stand a chance of ranking for it. So there might be some keywords you look up.

Just by Googling it, you can kind of see like, is the first page all national wedding blog articles, for example. Well, you’re going to have a really hard time competing with those national wedding blogs because they have so much domain authority. They’ve been around so long. People see them as trusted authorities.

Where To Place or Hide Your Keywords In Your Website

That’s not your best bet for a keyword to try to rank for, but if you see a keyword and it is like a lot of other local businesses, okay, that might be something that you could have a shot at getting on the first page for. Um, so that’s how I would recommend finding those keywords. So a few places you put your keyword are, I mean, let’s just take the example of your home page because that’s where you’re going to be putting your most important keywords.

So usually like whatever your location is, if you’re a photographer, like location, wedding photographer, location, newborn photographer, whatever the keyword you find that has that good volume is. So you’ll put it in your page title, your meta description, you’ll put it in your H one heading, and then you’ll kind of just incorporate it like naturally through the page.

Like you don’t want your website to sound like. A robot wrote it or like, Hi, I’m a Columbus wedding photographer and blah, blah. You want it to sound natural. So, I mean, maybe that does make, maybe that does sound natural to incorporate it that way or like I’ve been shooting weddings in Columbus for this number of years.

I’m just using Columbus as an example because that’s where I live, um, but just like incorporating it naturally. And then also having like supporting evidence as far as For example, saying like, here’s my favorite venues locally and like having some venue names. Well, that’s evidence to Google to support the idea of you being that location and photographer.

So that would be what I recommend for your homepage for your blog post, because that’s really going to be like your other ranking opportunity. Um, similarly, you’ll be writing your, like your blog post title. That’ll be your H1 on that page. You’ll write like a description. Then just incorporating it as naturally as you can throughout the post, making sure your post is really content rich.

If you can include it in like your H2 headings, again, like as it is natural to use that way, then that makes sense too. Oh, that’s amazing.

Quianna: Thank you. Cause I feel like sometimes. Thanks. We know enough to get started, but then we hit these roadblocks, like, okay, but where do we actually put these words? Like, where do we actually plug and play into our website and to all of our things?

So thank you for clarifying that. And like I mentioned, This is why we need to get those templates that you and Sarah have created. So you, it sounds like you guys do a lot of the heavy work already in a lot of the like secret Spiderman back work, but behind the CEO of the SEO with all that. So thank you for sharing that.

Renaming Your Image Files For SEO

Alex: Yeah, I think also, sorry. One more, one more place I thought of is, um, in your image file names could be another place to put keywords. That’s like a smaller signal. That’s not going to be like a game changer necessarily, but just kind of good practice as it makes sense to incorporate in your. Um, image titles, like if you’re writing a blog post about a venue, I would probably rename the image files that I’m putting in that blog post to include the venue name.

Quianna: So smart. I love this so much. If you’re listening, you’re thinking, well, I’m not a photographer. I’m not actually exporting these photos. I’m not creating those names. So clarify if I’m wrong, Alex, but before you upload literally just like on your desktop, can you right click, hit rename, and then that changes the name of the image before you upload.

Alex: Yes. I don’t know about on a PC, but on a Mac, you can like bulk select however many images and right click to rename. And then you can format them however you want, or you can add texts and you can just do like That’s it. a whole bunch at one time. Um, and even if you’re not a photographer. So like, for example, for myself and my own website, I have a lot of images on my website that are, you know, their brand photos of me.

And I put in the image title, show it website designer, for example, because like, that’s what I want people to Google and find.

Quianna: Oh my gosh. Well, you just blew me away with the fact that you can select a whole bunch, like alt or control a select all because I literally, so like what I, this is so old school and this is so embarrassing, but like when I upload images to Pinterest, I am renaming them, but I’ll literally like.

I’ll copy and paste and then add a little extra word or something to each image. What is happening? Oh my gosh, you’re saving me so much

Alex: longer. Right. I’m sure there’s a way. For photographers, like when you’re exporting from Lightroom, I’m sure there’s your file naming there too. But if you’re, you know, listening to this after you’ve already exported your files from Lightroom, then you can always go back and change them.

Or you could even have the same image in different places, named different things, like depending on. What that’s for. And again, like that’s a small signal. And I think that’s a kind of a misconception about SEO sometimes is that people think, oh, I just have to like check these boxes or like do these secret codes and then I’ll rank for whatever my keyword is.

And I think it’s important to remember that it’s a long game and it’s a content game. And so, and like, we, that’s a good thing, but it is, I mean, I could go out and buy a camera tomorrow and take some pictures of my sister and. SEO the heck out of a website and say, okay, I want to rank for portrait photographer in Columbus.

Well, I probably shouldn’t rank for portrait photographer in Columbus. Like that wouldn’t be good for anyone if I’m showing up as the first result, all of a sudden when like, actually, I I’m not good at this. I’ve never done this before. Like I should not be ranking on page one for that. So, um, in some ways it’s like you do have to kind of pay your dues.

It can take time, especially for those more competitive keywords, but that’s where those blog posts where sometimes it’s like less competitive keywords can really serve your business really

Quianna: well. I love that so much and thank you for sharing that grace. Thank you for sharing. I feel like a lot of us kind of can get this like bad taste or this, um, I don’t know.

I feel like we’re climbing Mount Everest trying to get ranked on Google and it’s right, like you’re right, it is a long game and I feel like those, I don’t know, like those rules or whatever are put in place so that you really are getting the best of the best with those search results and you would want that no matter what you’re searching for.

So I love that you mentioned

Alex: that. Yes. I think Sarah always says, I’ve heard her speak many times. She says, blog less, but better. So put your focus on writing really quality content rather than trying to put pressure on yourself to like write a blog post every week or something crazy like that. Like that’s just not sustainable for any of the business owners.

I know unless you’re, you know, outsourcing that. So I think even if you can just write one, like just start Yep. Yep. And those things take that pressure off of yourself. Yes. And they live forever. I love that. Yes. Yes. I have blog posts from years ago that still bring great traffic to my site or people tell me even like, Oh, I found you because you had this tutorial about show it blogs or something like, like, Oh my gosh, I don’t even remember writing that.

Quianna: Yes. But they’re coming. People are searching for you. I love that. So let’s say. We only have five minutes. Let’s say we have five minutes to give our website a makeover and to make some quick adjustments, make some updates. What would you suggest we tackle first to really increase that

Alex: online presence?

Okay. If I only had five minutes, the first thing I would do is look at my home page and make sure that my page title and my H1 are optimized for my main keyword I want to rank for. And also something important to know is that you should only have one h1 per page. That’s a very common mistake I see is that people have like 10 h1s on a page, which is just confusing Google.

So making sure that it’s just that one h1, it is your target keyword. Yeah, I think that would, I think that could take you about five minutes or maybe also going through, I mean, there’s also things where it’s like, it’s not even necessarily doing anything to your website, but like, go look at all your social media profiles.

Is your website linked? Is it easy to visit your website from there? Like, A lot of times I’ll be in Facebook groups, you know, looking for someone to hire for my business and I, they comment like, Oh, I do this service. And then I go to their Facebook profile and I can’t find their website anywhere. Like just put that in your, make it easy for people to get to your website from, from these other places that aren’t even necessarily search engine results.

Quianna: Yes, we need those, those easy steps and those fast actions, especially when you’re already searching for this. Like, don’t make it hard. Make it easy for us to find you. I love it. So, oh my gosh, I’m loving these like time questions. So I have another one for you. Let’s say we have 15 minutes.

Unlisted and Private Website Pages

And you know, it can just be any time limit really. I would love to know, Alex, what are some unlisted or secret pages that businesses should add to our websites?

Alex: Yes. So I, I don’t know if I would say there’s any necessarily that I would say you should add. I think it’s going to really depend on the business.

I think that’s a great thing about having like a really strong brand is that adding on these pages as your business grows can, can be really easy because you can just kind of copy and paste sections from other pages and like adjust them as you need to. So for my clients, something that people have really been loving doing this past year is adding on an investment guide page.

So usually this is a page that we mark for Google not to crawl. It’s a page that people send to clients. After they inquire with like their pricing guide information, and really just think of it as like kind of what people used to do is send a PDF. Well, I can’t update a PDF and have someone get the new pricing without emailing them being like, here’s the updated PDF.

But if you have a website page, you can update that whenever anyone who has the link is going to click it and get the most up to date information. So a lot of times it’s just easier from the business owners and, and just great for the client experience. Not necessarily something that’s going to help your SEO, your visibility, but it’s Just help you provide a better client experience.

So other ideas would be like, if you want to push album sales, having a page for albums, if you want to make some affiliate income, having a page that’s like tools and resources with links to your favorite. Business tools or things that you use. Okay. I think, and then some other things for the client experience would be like, just helpful information for your clients.

Like if you’re a wedding photographer, having a vendor’s guide or venue guide for them, educational stuff, like what to wear for engagement sessions. I mean, that could also be a blog post. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a different page on your site. But yeah, I think just kind of as your business grows, you’ll kind of know, Oh, I need a page for this. And just adding that as you need to.

Quianna: Yes. I love that so much. I remember actually it’s still on my website is still definitely like a hidden page or like a plus page on show it. And I actually called mine. It was called the wedding party. And it was just a hub for my couples to come in where they got information on like what exactly that, like what to wear for their engagement session.

It was almost like a roadmap for them with tons of fun facts and education and tips and tricks and, um, just great that if there were any adjustments or anything they need to be added, I love that because I can just update it and then whoosh, they have a live and up to date, um, contact. And I just, oh my gosh, that saved me so much time.

Alex: Yes. And I, and I think it really does make for a great client experience, which I think, you know, then people are going to be more apt to. Share your name to spread the word. And that’s great for your business too.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. Oh, and the other thing too, in fact, I need to do this and I need to search your template guides for this, but I need to get like a media kit for the podcast.

So that is something to consider too, whether you have your own podcast or you’re planning on pitching yourself to be a guest on podcast. Right. I mean, those can all be hidden pages as well. And yeah, I love that you’re mentioning all those things too. I love this so much. Well, thank you so much, Alex. One question that I love to ask every guest that comes on.

KEY TIP: Alex Shares What She Wish She Knew Sooner

I would love to know your key tip. What is something that you wish you knew sooner or some advice that you would like to share with entrepreneurs today?

Alex: Yes. Okay. So I think this is something that. I don’t know if someone had told me this advice, if it really would have necessarily helped or if it was kind of something I just had to learn through experience.

But a big lesson I learned in my business within the last couple of years is just that you have to show up and you have to show up with confidence. Because last year I actually underwent a rebrand myself. I did my own like brand and website. And I just took forever to launch it. Like I just kept waiting for it to be perfect.

And in that time leading up to it, when I was like mostly done, but still kind of finessing the details, trying to finish it, I was just hiding. I always said like I was in my cocoon era. I was just like not posting on Instagram because I just felt like. Oh, I need to have this perfect brand to show up. Um, which I mean, after I launched the brand, then it was great because I felt so confident and felt like I had so much clarity and felt like I really could show up in that way, but I think that I didn’t realize what a disservice I was doing to my business by just like not showing up at all.

And I think that. you know, the best opportunities in my business have come from just putting myself out there. And so I think that, you know, that can be hard to do, especially at certain points in your business when you’re going through kind of a growth phase, but it’s so important.

Quianna: Yes. And I love that specifically for you being a web designer and brand designer, because I feel like that encompasses all of that.

Like you had to go through that cocoon stage and that rebirth and that new, just new makeover for your brand. And I love that you’re also guiding new entrepreneurs or even businesses that have been in business for a while that need to shake things up and to, um, just feel a little bit more polished and try something new.

I love that that is your key tip. That’s so perfect. Yay. So how can we connect with you, Alex? How can we find you, be your BFF and shop in your shop?

Quianna: I want to know all the things.

Alex: Totally. Well, you can find me on Instagram at Alex Collier Design. Love sharing design inspiration and tips there. So, um, definitely come follow along over there.

Templates + Guides + Resources

And then for my services, I do brand logo, copywriting, and custom and semi custom web design. So if you’d like to inquire, to work with me, you can reach out at alexcollierdesign. com slash contact. Fill out my inquiry form. We can set up a time to chat. And then the template shop is at alexcollierdesign.com/shop You can find templates there. My templates are specifically for wedding pros. So definitely go check those out too. And as a special gift for Quianna’s audience, you can use the code “Quianna10” to get 10 percent off your template as well.

Quianna: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. That is such a gracious gift.

And you all, if you’re listening right now and your website needs a makeover, you have to contact Alex. Thank you so much for your time today, babe. I love that you are. Yes. I love that you are such a perfect blend of the pretty and the make it happen.

Alex: Yes. Well, thank you. That’s a great compliment. I really appreciate that.

Quianna: Well have a beautiful day, babe. And I cannot wait to connect with you soon. You too. Thank you. Oh, wow. That was a good one. And I’m already so pumped to literally redesign my entire website. As you know, I still have a ton of wedding photography stuff on there and. It’s just time for an update. It’s time to have some fresh energy up there to really hone in on exactly what I’m offering these days.

I think this is a beautiful reminder for all of us that our websites aren’t just these dusty closets that we visit every once in a while, right? It is important to get that SEO right, to Deliver the photos and the exact services that you’re offering. We are pivoting so much, right? We are growing.

We are expanding. We’re reaching new levels. It’s important for all of us to, to showcase that, right? Please, please, please make sure to GIVE ALEX A FOLLOW!

Continue dusting off those old websites and presenting yourself in the best light. You are incredible, my friend. You are incredible. Literally making an impact in this world, in your hometown, in your neighborhood and in your home.

So we just need more people to know about you. Keep on shining. Cannot wait to continue this branding series. Keep on dancing, baby. Okay. Love you. Bye. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie Weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at QuiannaMarie.com/podcast

I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app until next time, keep on dancing.

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