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#105 Maximizing Your Personal Brand and Website Performance: Insights and Tools
Episode 10511th May 2024 • Jonny Ross Fractional CMO • Jonny Ross
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Welcome to Episode 27 of the Website Mastery Podcast!

Hosted by digital marketing gurus Jonny Ross and Pascal Fintoni, this episode is packed with actionable tips and valuable insights designed to elevate your website's performance and enhance your personal brand. Whether you're tuning in live or catching up later, we're thrilled to have you join us!

Personal Branding: To Change Your Domain or Not?

Jonny and Pascal kick off the episode by tackling a listener-submitted question about the pros and cons of using personal names as domain names. This discussion is crucial for anyone considering how to best use their personal brand for business advantage.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand when to use your personal name for better branding.
  • Learn the impact of personal domains on future business scalability.

Cutting the Clutter: What to Remove From Your Website Now

In response to "13 Things To Remove From Your Website Immediately" by Andy Crestodina, Jonny and Pascal share their perspectives on outdated website elements that could be hurting your user experience.

Key Takeaways:

  • Discover specific website features that should be eliminated to improve clarity and user engagement.
  • Hear expert opinions on common website mistakes and how to avoid them.

Essential Tools for Every Website Manager

Explore indispensable tools that can revolutionize the way you manage and create content for your website. This segment introduces Cloudflare for enhanced security and Emojis Wiki for effective communication through visuals.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn about tools that can protect and accelerate your site.
  • Get tips on using emojis correctly to enhance rather than confuse your message.

Action Steps to Immediately Improve Your Website

Jonny advises on implementing schema markup to boost SEO, while Pascal emphasizes the importance of refreshing your FAQs with visual storytelling to make your site more engaging and informative.

Key Takeaways:

  • Steps to implement schema markup for better search engine recognition.
  • Strategies to update your FAQs to address newer customer inquiries effectively.

Why Tune In?

  • Practical advice: From optimizing your personal brand to enhancing website security and performance.
  • Expert insights: Benefit from Jonny and Pascal's extensive experience in digital marketing.
  • Interactive discussion: Engage with the co-hosts live and get your questions answered.

Join us for this information-packed episode to transform your website into a more effective tool for your business. For more insights and to join our community, visit 90daymarketingmastery.com and follow us for the latest updates and expert advice.

Chapters:

00:00:16 - Introduction - Introduction to the Website Mastery Podcast series, live streaming platforms, and the 90-day website mastery program.

Discussion on the importance of personal branding and domain name choices for businesses, including the pros and cons of using a personal brand name in the domain.


00:09:38 - Website Stories - Review and analysis of a video by Orbit Media on 13 things to remove from a website immediately, including a selection of 3 key points from the video.


Recommendation of CloudFlare for website performance, security, and SEO optimization, highlighting its benefits and ease of use.


00:23:42 - Website Call to Action - Discussion on the importance of schema markup implementation for search engine optimization and the review and refresh of FAQ sections on websites with a focus on visual storytelling.


Recap of the key topics covered in the episode and a call to action for viewers to use the episode as an agenda for their next website meeting.

Transcripts

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Hello and welcome. It's episode 27 of the

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Website Mastery Podcast series. We are

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live on YouTube, we're live on LinkedIn

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and for the first time we're live on

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Instagram as well. So if you're there,

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Let us know. And if you're listening to

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the repeat on the podcast, thanks for

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being here. As always, we love our

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listeners and viewers. This is the

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companion to the 90-day website mastery

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program. We wanted to find a way to

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continue to share more advice and

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insights about making your website work

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harder and for you to feel proud about

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your website again. Pascal Fintoni is

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with me, my co-host, and each episode we

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go through 4 segments. We have the You

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Ask, We Answer where we take a question

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that's been submitted by the community or

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that we've seen online. We've got the

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website stories, which is segment number

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2. We have the website engine room where

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we share an app or a piece of kit that's

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gonna make your life easier as a website

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manager and content creator to start

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feeling proud of your website again. And

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of course, we always finish with the

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website call to action. What piece of

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content can't finish with a call to

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action? That's 1 change or adjustment

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that you should be making to your website

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right now. Pascal, episode 27, what have

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we got in store?

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Well, you know, what's interesting about

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listening to the presentation, you do say

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we're doing this with prepare, we

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research, we capture this in the show

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notes for our audience, but we're doing

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it for ourselves. I mean, you know, what

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luck to have a profession that is also

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your passion. I mean, your week, my week

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is spent talking at events, doing

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one-to-one coaching. My week has been

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about branding a lot, lead generation,

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AI, using AI to make good decisions, to

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get support with your website decisions.

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And right now I'm working on 3 website

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projects for clients from brand new

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startups to well established companies

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who just seem to have everything about

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their user experience.

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But you make a good point because we are

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in the creative industry. I'm currently

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reading a book by Rory Sutherland, who's

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really got me to stand back and think

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about, don't just use logic. And that's a

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very good point. We're in this creative

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industry where we've got to have the

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space to be able to think and brainstorm

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and come up with ideas and more

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importantly make mistakes. You know we

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need to test and try and make those

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mistakes because actually the faster you

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make mistakes the quicker you can find

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out what works and be ahead of the game.

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So this space as you say is just as much

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for us to be able to be that creative and

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move away from the logic and, well, I

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don't mean fully, but in terms of just

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having that thinking space and yeah. We

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should move

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on to our first segment, but before we do

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so, very, very quickly for our audience,

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the way in which we structure those

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episodes, it's almost the agenda of a

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meeting you should be having with your

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colleagues. So what you should do is by

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all means is listen to Johnny and I take

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away the information, but use what we are

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sharing for your next get together with a

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team or with your suppliers and so on,

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saying I've got a question or I've got

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those apps I want to experiment with in

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the same kind of R&D department. So yeah,

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there are a lot of value to be gained and

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we do this in a very compact way. Half an

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hour, It's more so unlike us because we

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are long form content creators. But the

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value you get from just the learning but

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also the structure for your next team

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meeting I think is very important.

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Let's start with you ask, we answer.

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Now this is a question from a coaching

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session that I had about a week ago and

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we were really wrestling with the client.

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So here it is. It is obvious to me that

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my customers are using my name when

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searching for my business online.

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Therefore, should I change the website

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address and domain name to my first name

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plus family name and add .co.uk.com or

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shall I leave it as it is? This is

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interesting, isn't it, Jonny?

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Yeah, I mean, well, I personally have a

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marketing agency, Fleek Marketing and the

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website, the domain for that is

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fleek.marketing. I also have my personal

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brand, which is JonnyRoss.com. I think

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some of it comes down to what people know

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you as, what people know the business as,

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and also where you see the future. So Do

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you see the saleability of the business?

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Do you see the wanting to perceive as a

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big business? Or is this about personal

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branding? I think there's huge benefits

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to changing a domain name or using a

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domain name that's got your name in it,

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but there are downsides as well. So

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you've got to sort of take everything

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into account. And I guess what I was

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insinuating is that I've cheated by

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creating both.

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But maybe that's what you need to do to

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give you time actually to really reflect

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and make the final decision. What I will

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say, and certainly that's what I did all

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those years ago, that will prevent you

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from setting the business if that's part

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of your strategy. If you have an exit

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strategy that says, I'm going to build

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the business, whether it's B2B, B2C or

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something in between, no one's going to

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be able to buy or there'd be a lesser

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value and appeal if it is committed to a

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personal brand. But if that's not part of

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your plan whatsoever, and you've looked

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at the data, you know that that's what's

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happening, you do a lot of work, I'm

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thinking, Johnny, about putting your

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personal brand out there as a speaker, as

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a guest blogger, maybe you're on

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podcasts, maybe you're writing columns,

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intra-publications, who won, then the

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argument will be that people will

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remember you and they'll make an

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association with your services, but they

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may not remember the product brand or the

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service brand.

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Yeah, and what a way to build authority

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and to build that personal connection as

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well. So if they do know your name and

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they associate your business with your

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name, you can still build that

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professionalism and even in fact, even

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more trust by having that personal

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connection and the memorability of it. So

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there's huge advantages, but yes, as

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you've said rightly, a big disadvantage

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is the exit strategy, but also perhaps

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your name is, what's the word I'm looking

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for? Common is, I guess is the word I was

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looking for, that John Smith, for

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example, perhaps you're not gonna stand

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out by using your name and you also need

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to do a bit of research to see what

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appears in Google already for your brand

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name, because you might have some stiff

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competition in terms of actually getting

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high in the ranks. So there's pros and

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cons.

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Sure, you reminded me, I'm gonna go back

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10, 15 years ago, but that was a similar

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exercise with a client. So we did just

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punch in first name, surname in Google.

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And what came back was a murderer in

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Australia. Now in other way you get

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based, but that story of the murder with

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that name was over dominating the search

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results. We could try it again today,

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maybe things have changed. So I think,

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yeah, do the research, do the prep. I'm

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kind of tempted to go back to my clients.

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You know, I'd rather think about it. I've

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spoken to a guy called Johnny Ross, and

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let's cheat and do both. Because what I

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like about doing both, that means that

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your personal brand website can then

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become a signposting website to different

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programs and campaigns and different

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facets of what you do. And then you can

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retain the product-based or the

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service-based website at the same time

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and give you just more months and years

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to reflect before making that final

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decision.

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And I think 1 of the big points you've

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just made there, which is do the research

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because forget about personal brand,

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forget about name. I've got 2 clients

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that I can think of within the last 3

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months where they've gone through a

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branding exercise prior to engaging me

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and at no point has anyone thought let's

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Google this new brand name and it just

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it's like it beggars belief it's like

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you're you are senior leaders you've got

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you I can see that you've got lots of

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strategy and all sorts of stuff, But no 1

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has thought of Googling it. And these 2

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significant companies. And I was just,

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and in both cases, we've found big

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problems. But anyway, there we go.

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Let's move on then because we can make

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this but into that almost a mini rant

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about the lack of research. But I get it,

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it's so much more fun to get into action

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mode than it is into reflection and

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research mode, but you've got to do it.

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That's part of your duties as leaders and

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marketers, whether that's your full-time

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or part-time occupation. Let's move on,

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if you don't mind, with our next segment,

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website stories. So for episode 27, we've

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chosen a video that came from a great

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company that I'm very fond of called

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Orbit Media. Orbit Media, if you don't

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know them, they do some incredible

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research and data crunching on website

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user experience. They also sometimes

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partner up with other specialists. And I

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have to tell you, Johnny, I've been a

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student of their research papers because

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it kind of helps you reflect and keeps

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you right on the way in which a website

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experience should be crafted. And they

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have years, if not decades of... This

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video was recorded or hosted, should I

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say, by Andy Creston-Dinna, who is the

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co-founder and chief marketing officer of

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Orbit Media. And the title is that

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follows, 13 things to remove from your

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website immediately. So sounds very, very

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dramatic. I'm very aware of that. And

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what I was able to do then is watch the

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video, I know you've done it as well.

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I've got a list of 13 to go through and I

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picked 3, because time is against us, and

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1 where I'm not totally in agreement with

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Andy, and 2 where I'm like, exactly, and

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you're not actually share this advice. So

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very, very quickly for viewers and

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listeners, I'm gonna go through all 13.

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So remove immediately vague homepage

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headlines. And actually similarly,

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generic navigation labels. Meaningless

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subheadings is number 3. Number 4, long

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homepage sliders. I mean, everybody's

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trying to shove in their information. I

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get it, the poor marketing team is being

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bullied into having 8 to 10 sliders for

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all the different departments, but a

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visitor would not go beyond the first 2

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or 3. Annul D, but still happens, avoid

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stock photos of people, or should I say

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nowadays AI photos of people. Number 456

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now, social media icons, remove them from

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the homepage. Remove the dates on blog

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posts, interesting 1. Remove long

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paragraphs, think about mobile phone

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viewers. Press releases, stop copying and

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pasting press releases as is, You've got

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to rework them and add more media

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content. Question mark on PDF files. Do

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they help really the traffic, the

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experience that you want? We move on to

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testimonial pages. Long list of people

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saying wonderful things about you but

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unsupported by evidence. Email links,

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contact forms are better, or are they?

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And finally, the dead end thank you page

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or the dead end call to action page where

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you do something and then suddenly it

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goes blank or there's like a tiny message

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on the top left corner saying done or

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submitted and you have no idea what's

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happened. So please everyone watch the

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video, it's great. Here Andy's

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essentially a case that he makes for all

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those 13 things to remove immediately.

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But I wanna go back for the 3. I've got

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social media icons, press releases, and

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testing on all pages. I can't be sure

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that I agree with what is being claimed

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that social media icons on the homepage

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are a distraction and you can lose

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visitors. My position, they are there to

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be glanced at, a form of reassurance, but

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nobody that I can think of is gonna click

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on the social media icons if the intent

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is to visit the website and know about

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the business. Press releases, I agree,

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they are ugly as hell on website. People

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are lazy. They copy and paste the press

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release as it is written. It's written

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for the press. The title is enigmatic.

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The first paragraph is usually weird. And

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it's just flat on the webpage. This is

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not how we write on the web. So stop

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doing it. And yes, I mean, my biggest

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kind of pay-peave when testing with all

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pages, it's like a long, long list of

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quotes from people, but without any

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reasons, or they're not grouped around

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the product, or they're not grouped

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around the product or they're not grouped

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around the service and so on and and

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often it just leaves you thinking where

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are they real are they not real and so on

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but yeah great great video great 13

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things that you can use your next team

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meeting or website meeting and these were

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my top 3. But did you have any that maybe

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you were not sure about or that you are

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clearly in agreement with as well?

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A great video with lots of really good

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advice and some obvious things that over

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the years these things do need removing

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from your website. I like your point

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about the testimonial pages. We love

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testimonials. They're keyword rich,

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user-generated content, build trust, give

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you that professionalism, but let's

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integrate them into the content instead

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of having just a testimonials page. Yeah,

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press releases, you read them and they're

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like, yeah, what's this? Write the story

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yourself. So whatever story you're hoping

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that was going to be produced from the

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press release, write it yourself, put it

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on the website instead of just copying

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and pasting the, the, the, press release

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social media icons. I do agree with you,

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Pascal. I guess the halfway house is

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removing them from the header of the

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website and just having them in the

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footer of the website is a halfway house

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because the danger is that you've got

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them there, they click through, and of

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course, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,

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LinkedIn, they're all designed to keep

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you there. They're all designed to get

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you looking at those adverts. So the

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danger, I guess, is that you do click

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through and you start looking at the

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stories of cats and dogs and you totally

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forget the business that you were looking

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at a minute ago. So I guess having them

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in the footer of the website is a halfway

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house to build that trust. It certainly

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do not remove them completely. But in

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short, great video, worth watching, and

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more importantly, a brilliant step in

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starting to feel proud of your website by

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removing stuff that just does not work.

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That does not work. It doesn't actually

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help people understand what you do

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sufficiently and particularly when we

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talk about the vague homepage headlines

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or the meaningless subheadings. Quick

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question before we move on to our next

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segment, this business or the homepage

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sliders. So in a way I kind of align them

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as a feature on the website, but Andy's

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point about, well, don't put too many,

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because someone's gonna spend the time

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watching it, and don't put the most

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important message at the end of your

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slider. Start with that. But I've seen

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good execution on the sliders. I've liked

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the 1 where actually it's just a text

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that is changing as opposed to the image,

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but where do you stand with the home page

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sliders?

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I think the data and the analytics show

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that the drop off is very quick. And so

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the chance of people getting to slide 3

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or 4 is, you know, you've lost I think

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80% by slide 3. So whilst as a website

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owner and staff within the business want

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to spend time and have a look at the

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website and they spend time looking, a

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user spends less than a second and then

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scrolls down. So I think slides is full

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stop. There's got to be a real reason and

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an obvious indication to the user that

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you can slide through to look at certain

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things. But if it's just there because

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you want to get across your 10 messages

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on the homepage, then it's the wrong

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reason, I think.

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And therefore, you are almost telling us

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that they may have a role maybe on a

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product specific page, maybe on the

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contact. Think it through. And I think

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sometime in web design, and that's what

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happens, isn't it? People just settle on

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the first execution. So, many, many years

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ago, came up with a home page slider, and

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they really copied as opposed to actually

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put the slider where people will take

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time. And maybe it's the FAQ section of

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your website. Maybe it's the resource

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section of the website, but somewhere

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where they tend to give you a bit more

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time than the home page, which is 0.

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Something seconds, you know?

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Yeah, Yeah. Let's move on to our third

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segment, which is the website engine

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room.

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Now in each episode, Jonny and I select

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an app, a software piece of kit that can

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make life easier as a website manager.

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And I just remind you that we have also

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recently released the ebook, the 50

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essential kits that you will need for

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your website. And Johnny, remind us

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before we wrap up this episode where

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people can get their copy of this amazing

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ebook. Now what is your selection for

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this episode in particular?

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Yeah in terms of the ebook I have just

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put that onto the screen if people are

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watching. For people that are listening,

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it's 90daymarketingmastery.com forward

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slash e hyphen book. Certainly it will be

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in the show notes as well, but that's our

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ultimate toolkit, 50 tools that we've

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mentioned in the first 25 episodes. But

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today's tool from me in episode 27, I'm

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going to highlight CloudFlare. So

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CloudFlare is designed to make everything

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you connect to the internet secure,

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private, fast and reliable. It's a great

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way to be able to manage the performance

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and security of your website to improve

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the performance, to improve the security,

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but also to what I'm seeing in the SEO

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industry is some clever techniques on how

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you can inject certain elements onto web

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pages very quickly and easily, so

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deploying SEO strategies and techniques

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without having to edit the code, without

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having to edit the website, and without

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even having to speak to web developers

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because as an SEO agency, we can control

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some of those elements within a tool like

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CloudFlare. So whilst it's producing

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websites that are faster, more reliable,

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more secure, it's also opened a door in

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terms of actually there's quite a few

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benefits in terms of being able to

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optimize and change things very easily

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without having to go through development

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teams, et cetera. So Cloudflare is my

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suggested app for this episode.

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Listen, everyone, you may be thinking,

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well, I'm not technical, that's not

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really my area of expertise, therefore

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I'll pass. But I think back to my

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statement earlier, This is what you need

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to take to the next meeting with your

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developers or with your colleagues who

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understand this element. You should at

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least do the research that's part of

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being that decision maker and being

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control the website want to be proud of.

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So My selection actually came out with

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something that I needed. Now emojis are

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not part of the written form of content.

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They will appear on occasion on video as

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well. And I will confess, Jonny, I've

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always been a little reluctant. I'm a

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late user of emojis because actually I

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was thinking, could there be

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misunderstood? Could you try and express

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something by adding a visual icon but

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actually it doesn't match the intent,

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doesn't match the tone, or you're worried

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that maybe it could be misunderstood by

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different individuals, different cultures

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and so on. So very recently, I needed to

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write an article, I needed some very

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specific emojis. And I have mentioned in

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the past this platform called Yatex,

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Y-A-Y-Tex, Yatex. That allows you to do a

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number of things including emojis, but

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the library is limited. And that's the

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point I want to make as well, Johnny.

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People are using AI, that's all fine.

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Please make sure you edit. But within

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that AI, there's also a very limited

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library of emojis because it's always the

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rocket ship and it's always the explosion

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or it's always the flames so please be

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careful. But this platform is called

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Emojis Wiki, emojis.wiki And not only can

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you find a much richer selection of

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emojis, the 1 was looking for was based

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actually on a film, but also they give

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you the meanings behind those emojis. So

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it gives you a moment of reflection to

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go, I don't want to use that, but

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actually could it be misunderstood or

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could you simply distract and people say

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well there's this disconnect between the

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words and the emojis. So emojis.wiki

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gives you a richer library to stand out

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from the crowd and avoid repeating the

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same kind of icons and emojis as

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everybody else, but also you get a moment

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of reflection because it will tell you

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about the likely meanings and

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understanding from your audience.

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I, emojis, whilst you were talking then,

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it reminded me that I do use emojis a

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lot. I like using emojis. They stand out.

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But that certainly can be an overuse. And

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1 of the things that I realized was I was

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doing a LinkedIn ad the other day and it

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got, I can't think the right word,

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refused is the wrong word but you

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understand what I'm saying, but the text

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that came back from LinkedIn wasn't clear

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at all and it was just saying that there

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was an issue with the content, it wasn't

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very clear. And I ended up on a LinkedIn

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chat with 1 of their support. And it

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turns out that their algorithm only lets

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a maximum of 4 emojis in a LinkedIn

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advert. So irrelevant of anything else,

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if there's more than 4, it will

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automatically get disallowed or whatever

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the word might be. So yeah, you can end

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up overusing them, but I do love an

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emoji. And I think the biggest point

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there is make sure you know what an emoji

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means when you're using 1 to make sure

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that it does fit the context. So that's

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this week's or this episode's website

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engine room. Pascal was talking about

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emojis.wiki and I was mentioning

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cloudflare.com. Let's move on to our next

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segment, which is the website call to

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action.

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Now, as our regular viewers and listeners

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will know, this is the 1 change, the 1

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adjustment that can really make a

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difference to your website for you, your

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audience, and make you feel proud of that

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online experience. Johnny, what is your

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call to action?

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I'm talking about structured data, schema

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markup implementation. So this is about

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understanding that Google, Bing, all the

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search engines out there are robots,

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they're computers and they, you are

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relying on a computer or a robot to

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understand the data about your business,

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about your organization, about the

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content on your website. If you imagine

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that Google is just actually just a

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massive Excel sheet with rows and

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columns, you've got the ability to be

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able to put your data into the correct

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row and the correct column to ensure that

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Google uses it at the most opportune time

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and the most optimized position. So if

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you want Google to feature you more on

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search results pages, it's about making

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sure your data goes into the correct

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column, the correct row within the

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massive Excel sheets. That's the best way

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to view it. And you can do this by

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implementing something called schema,

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which allows you to mark the data up to

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say, by the way, Google, this is the

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official service name, the official

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product name, the official company

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address, the official name of 1 of our

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members of staff, this particular piece

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of content is about this particular

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subject, this is the sale price, so many

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different things. There's thousands of

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different schemas. Just as an example, if

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you're a dentist, if you're an estate

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agent, there's particular schemas just

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for you to be able to expand on your

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services and to say to Google, by the

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way, this is a particular service in our

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dentistry. This is the opening times.

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There's a schema for every business and

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it's about using that schema to put your

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data into the correct row or column so

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that Google and Bing start highlighting

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you way more than you're possibly being

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highlighted right now. So this week's

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call to action for me is schema markup

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implementation. What's yours, Pascal?

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So mine is actually linked to yours in

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some ways, and AI is the bridge and the

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glue because your recommendation is very

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important. We've spoken about it over the

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years, but people can't delay because the

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way in which search results are changing

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and where you have different windows and

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different ways of things and all that,

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but also using AI, you have someone like

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Google and Bing would suggest the next

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question or the next set of results that

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you should be investigating. They will

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need the schema marker. But 1 thing that

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is obvious to me is that the search

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engine want to display your FAQs a lot

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more than they have done in the past. So

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my call to action is actually to review

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and refresh your FAQ section. I would go

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as far as saying plan to have different

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sections, a different part of the

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website. So instead of having 1 almighty

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FAQ section, almost like in all the

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testimonials, kind of grumble that we had

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a moment to go, think about dividing all

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those FAQs into different parts of the

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website. And then the question is, have

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you and your colleagues answered new

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questions recently? Because this is

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really important and it has to kind of be

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carried over to your FAQ session. And

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then is it time maybe to introduce more

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visual storytelling? You know, typically

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when you start with an FAQ to begin with

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is very short, so you need to expand on

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that or put a link to a longer

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explanation of what that might be. But

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also, the stats are very clear that

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people who can stop for a moment and

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watch a very simple kind of almost

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cartoon type things with different

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scenes, different stages and different

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steps, as well as the words. It's going

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to be very, very important. So for me,

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that's my culture actually. Review and

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refresh your FAQs. Make sure that the

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newer questions have been added. Expand

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on your kind of answers if need to link

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into others, but think about visual

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storytelling and all this will help with

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your search results as well.

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And of course, mark your FAQs up using

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schema. Make it very clear to Google that

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this is a particular question, this is

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the answer and it's related to this

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particular piece of content.

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Smashing.

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So what have we talked about in episode

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27? Well, it's been about maximizing your

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personal brand and website performance. I

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think We've absolutely touched on user

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experience as well. Thinking about,

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should you have your name in your domain

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name in your URL of your website? Could

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it be the way to really maximize the

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personal brand to create that trust, to

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create the personal connection? But also

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let's get rid of stuff that we've learned

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doesn't work on websites that distract,

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that doesn't give the right messaging,

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that doesn't help users instantly

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understand and be able to engage. So

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we've definitely covered usability. And

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then of course we've covered lots about

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performance, whether that be optimizing

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content, whether it be optimizing speed,

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security, using tools like Cloudflare, or

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even just how to use emojis and making

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sure you refresh and review your FAQs and

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marking them up with schema. So it's been

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an episode all about personal branding,

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website performance, and for me,

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usability as well.

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I like it. And everyone just do what we

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mentioned when we started, use to this

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episode as the agenda for your next

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meeting. And literally, there's 13 things

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to remove, you know, according to Andy

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from Obit Media. That's the checklist for

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your next meeting. And then ask the

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question, do we need to talk to our, you

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know, contacts about the Cloudflare? Do

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we need to talk about schema market? The

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answer is yes, and get that meeting in

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the diary.

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This has been episode 27 of our new

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podcast series, and I'm afraid that is

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all we've got for today. It's the audio

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companion to the new 90-day website

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mastery program. For more information,

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please visit 90daymarketingmastery.com.

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You'll be able to book your discovery

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call with either myself or Pascal. We'll

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be back with another episode, but for now

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I'll leave you with a fun video and audio

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montage whilst you go through your notes

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and actions. And as Pascal says, this is

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the agenda for your next meeting. Let's

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start feeling proud of your website. We

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look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks

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so much for watching or listening. Take

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care. Thanks for watching!

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