Is your website working for you?
Is your website really working for you?
This time of year is when it starts to matter more than usual. Books launch. Boards meet. Speaking calendars for next year get built in October and November. Someone hears you on a panel, looks you up that night, and lands on your site before you've had the chance to say a single word to them.
And it doesn't much matter what the thing is built on. Right now I have clients vibe-coding with AI, clients on a Squarespace template they've had since 2019, and clients paying a developer by the hour. All three can work. All three can quietly fail.
Because a website can only carry the language you've handed it. That's the part almost nobody spends enough time on.
Start one layer under the headline
When someone sends me their site for review, I usually don't start with the site.
I ask two questions.
What's your point of view about how you work?
Your actual point of view. The way you believe this work should be done, what you refuse to do, what you've watched go wrong for other people. Most accomplished people can talk for an hour about their expertise and go blank here and this is the thing that separates them from the other forty to hundred people with similar credentials.
What are your goals beyond the THING?
Beyond the book, the talk, the practice, the launch. The THING is rarely the point-it's the door. When I know what's on the other side of it, a speaking practice, a different kind of client, a board seat, a quieter year the messaging has somewhere to aim.
Answer those two and the headline mostly writes itself. Skip them and you'll spend a weekend rearranging buttons.
If someone asked you today how you believe this work should be done, could you answer in a sentence you'd actually say out loud?
You'll know it's working when it lights you up
Here's my test, and it's not a focus group.
When I bring positioning and messaging back to a client, I watch them. Do they get excited? Do they start using the language in the same conversation, without being prompted? Do they sit up a little?
That's the signal. When someone reads their own positioning and lights up, it's right. When they nod politely and say "yes, that's accurate," it's dead on arrival because if it doesn't move the person it's about, it is never going to move anyone else.
Getting it accurate is easy. Bringing it alive is the job.
The words are already there
The reason my clients rarely argue with the positioning we land on: it was theirs to begin with.
I build it out of two sets of words, theirs, and their clients'. That's the gold. These are phrases that were already circulating, or sitting just below the surface, and nobody had teased out and written down.
You can do this part yourself this week:
Pull your last five testimonials and highlight the phrases that repeat
Find the emails where someone referred you to a colleague, and read how they described you
Think about what a client said on your best call this year, the moment they got it
Somewhere in there is a phrase you've been paying someone to invent for you.
What do your clients say about you that you'd never have thought to say about yourself?
Then, and only then, some site tactics
Once the language exists, the site work goes faster and easier. Five things, in this order:
Above the fold. Who you help and what changes for them, before anyone scrolls. One headline, one supporting line. This is where the sentence goes.
One next step. A single clear ask near the top. Book a call, grab the guide, whatever yours is. Not five competing buttons distracting your potential client.
Proof in their words i.e. Testimonials. Full names, real roles, specific outcomes. The phrases you highlighted above belong here, verbatim.
Clear out what's expired. The 2024 webinar. The programs you don't run. The dead links. Old content tells people you've stopped paying attention.
Open it on your phone. Most people will find you there. Tap every button. Fill out your own form and confirm the email actually arrives.
That's the list. It fits in an afternoon, and it's worth doing on a regular basis - rather than waiting for a major website overhaul.
Before the quarter gets away
If you're heading into a launch, a speaking push, or a year-end where people are going to be looking you up, start with the two questions. Everything downstream is easier once those are answered, and much harder if they aren't.
If your website and messaging has been on the "I'll get to it" list a little too long, let's take a look together. Grab a time on my calendar and we'll get some clarity to get you kick-started.