The salient point of this podcast episode is the critical importance of a well-optimized website for businesses, as articulated by Matt Swanson of MS Digital Solutions. During our engaging dialogue at the Charlotte Business Owners Networking event, we explored the pervasive misconception that social media can adequately replace a business's website. Matt emphasized that a website should serve as the central hub of content and engagement, functioning optimally to convert visitors into customers. He articulated the detrimental effects of neglecting website maintenance and optimization, likening it to the flawed "set it and forget it" approach that is ill-suited for digital platforms. By elucidating these key concepts, we aim to guide businesses towards enhancing their online presence and ensuring their website fulfills its intended purpose effectively. The conversation with Matt Swanson, founder of Ms. Digital Solutions, presents a thought-provoking examination of the integral role that a well-constructed website plays in the success of a modern business. Matt's insights emerge from his extensive experience in the digital solutions arena, where he underscores that many businesses fail to recognize the true potential of their websites. Far from being a mere online placeholder, a website should be viewed as an essential employee, actively facilitating engagement and conversion. Matt's assertion that the website serves as the cornerstone of a company's digital marketing strategy challenges the prevailing notion that social media platforms can serve as adequate substitutes.
We are live at the Charlotte Business Owners Networking event here in Uptown Charlotte for another round of interviews.
Speaker A:
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Speaker A:
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Speaker A:
I'm joined by Matt.
Speaker A:
Matt Swanson.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Of Ms. Digital Solutions.
Speaker A:
Ms. Digital Solutions.
Speaker A:
Why are you here, man?
Speaker B:
Trying to connect and meet some new people and just keep out in front of people.
Speaker A:
All right.
Speaker A:
Connect with new people for what?
Speaker B:
Well, we build, build and support websites and I find a lot of businesses don't know what they want their website to do for their business.
Speaker B:
And so that's where we step in.
Speaker B:
We, we try to help a business have their website plan, active role in the business.
Speaker A:
Yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker A:
Because I think a lot of people look at social media like it's a substitute for their website and they don't put enough into.
Speaker A:
The website is your best employee.
Speaker A:
It should be the hub of all of your content.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
It's what's going to rank on Google when you treat it right, not your social media feed.
Speaker A:
How do you convince people of that?
Speaker A:
And they'll tell them that, educate them on that.
Speaker B:
So we firmly believe that if your website isn't firing on all cylinders, if you're not converting the people that come into the website, that none of the other things that you do online, whether it's SEO, whether it's social, email marketing, none of it is going to be as effective or as efficient as it could be.
Speaker B:
If your website isn't converting, then that referral that somebody gave you when they go and you know, back, back check you.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
If that's going.
Speaker B:
That's.
Speaker B:
That's not who I want to deal with, then you, then that referral's not doing you any good.
Speaker A:
I agree.
Speaker A:
So I agree.
Speaker A:
I think smart, informed customers will go check your website.
Speaker A:
Yeah, they're gonna look.
Speaker A:
And if it doesn't tell me what makes a good website, I know there's a lot of things and you don't have to, you know.
Speaker B:
Yeah, there's, there's no like template.
Speaker B:
Otherwise everybody would have already done it now.
Speaker B:
But a good website is engaging.
Speaker B:
It has, it's an extension of the business visually and how it communicates in terms of the words, the video, everything, all the content.
Speaker B:
It should feel like you're talking to the business when you're visiting the website.
Speaker B:
And those are going to be the most successful when you found a way to kind of get a little synergy between the message on the website and the way that the people in the business communicate with their, with their prospects, with their customers, with their vendors,.
Speaker A:
What is, what do you think is the biggest mistake most people are making?
Speaker B:
They, they subscribe to the Ron Popeil method of websites, set it and forget it.
Speaker B:
That works for the rotisserie chicken, but not so much for websites.
Speaker B:
I tell people all the time, you've just spent the last two or three years training Google to ignore your website.
Speaker B:
So don't expect the thing that I put up here today to instantaneously snap a finger and make it work.
Speaker B:
It takes time.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
So if somebody was, say they were going in with an SEO strategy, you know, new content, blogs and all this stuff regularly, monthly, how long on average would it take for that to start helping them rank higher?
Speaker B:
So it depends on where they were and where they're trying to move.
Speaker A:
Okay.
Speaker B:
If you were in a really bad spot, it's really easy to move from 100 to 80.
Speaker A:
Okay.
Speaker B:
Yeah, it's pretty easy to move from 80 to 20, but 20 and up starts to get really hard, especially in very competitive word spaces.
Speaker B:
So, you know, part of what we have to do is figure out, okay, what, how do you think people are searching for you?
Speaker B:
And let's reverse engineer those searches, build the content around that.
Speaker B:
But then, you know, is that a, A, is that a word or phrase that people are actually searching for?
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
And how many other people are competing in that space?
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Find a niche that is you, but is also something that you have a chance of showing up in and is something that somebody's actually going to search for.
Speaker A:
So I, I'm a fan of Google Search Console.
Speaker B:
Oh yeah.
Speaker A:
Analytics.
Speaker A:
Because it tells you the search queries.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
And then you start to build content around those exact terms.
Speaker B:
Well, that tells you.
Speaker B:
That's a, Does a good job of telling you what you're showing up for.
Speaker B:
Now it doesn't tell you what you're not showing up for.
Speaker B:
And so there's some things that you can do, especially with AI makes it a little easier now to go in and get a bit of the idea of kind of the long tail.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Searches that people are using and then say, hey, how do I show up for this?
Speaker B:
And you know who else is trying to show up here?
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Who are your target market?
Speaker A:
You have target demographic.
Speaker A:
You have.
Speaker A:
As far as customers, particular industry or anything.
Speaker B:
Not a specific industry.
Speaker B:
I'd say overall, more of my clients are service and commercial businesses as opposed to retail.
Speaker B:
But I have some E commerce.
Speaker B:
I have.
Speaker B:
I have a little bit of everything.
Speaker B:
And I've been doing this for about 11 years.
Speaker B:
Well, I've had Ms. Digital Solutions for 11 years.
Speaker B:
I built my first website in:
Speaker A:
Oh, wow.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
So it's been a bit.
Speaker A:
I was a freshman in high school.
Speaker A:
Wow.
Speaker B:
I was already at a college.
Speaker A:
We were trying to look up stuff that we shouldn't have been looking up, and it was much harder to find it back then.
Speaker B:
Oh, you can wander across it.
Speaker B:
Really,.
Speaker A:
Matt?
Speaker A:
How can people find you?
Speaker B:
Well, I can be found on Facebook, on LinkedIn, but msdigitalsolutions.com that's where it all starts.
