E36: Signs Your Website Needs an Upgrade (And How To Upgrade It)
Does your website feel more like a brochure than a powerful sales tool? Sean Garner breaks down how to tell if your website is outdated, underperforming, or simply not converting visitors into leads. From design and user experience to lead generation and SEO, he explains what makes a website truly effective for small businesses.
Sean also dives into how your website can help you stand out from the competition, integrate advanced workflows, and act as your best salesperson. If your site isn’t generating leads, ranking well in search results, or showcasing your business like it should, this episode gives clear steps to help you decide if it’s time for an upgrade.
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P.S. When you are ready, here are a few ways I can help…
Get Your FREE Marketing Domination Checklist: https://www.seangarner.co/
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Schedule A Call to Build, Fill and Optimize Your Sales Funnel For More Leads: https://www.seangarner.co/
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Sean Garner is a marketing consultant and Certified StoryBrand guide dedicated to helping small business owners grow and dominate their industries. He created the Marketing Domination podcast to teach people how to combine storytelling with strategic marketing to help businesses connect with customers and stand out online.
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Website: https://www.seangarner.co/
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MARKETING DOMINATION PODCAST
Introduction
Sean Garner: [00:00]
I'm waking myself up. It's late in the day. I normally don't film this late. My eyes are even worse than normal here. Wake up, Sean. Here we go. This is to sync the audio in case we need to.
Okay, this episode is going to be about how to know if you need a new website. Here we go. All right, let's play a game. Look at your website. Time to be honest. Does it scream professional business powerhouse or more like it was built during a YouTube tutorial?
Is It Time for a New Website?
Sean Garner: [00:47]
All right, let's play a game. I want you to look at your website and be honest. Does it scream professional business powerhouse or more like it was built during a YouTube tutorial?
Sean Garner: [01:04]
Let's try this again. All right, let's play a game. I want you to look at your website and be honest. Does it scream professional business powerhouse or more like it was made in 2013 using a YouTube tutorial at 2 a.m.? If you're feeling attacked right now, good. This episode is for you. Welcome to Marketing Domination. We'll try that. Let's see what happens.
Because as a small business owner, you have to be wise with how you are spending your resources, your finances, and what you're investing your money on.
The Purpose of a Website
Sean Garner: [01:46]
So when it comes to your website, as a small business owner, you have to be wise with your resources and make sure that you're allocating funds to the right things at the right time.
What I want to do today is help you break down whether you should be investing in your website. Someone reached out to me saying, "I really don't know if I need a website. Is that what's wrong with my marketing?" I'm going to give you a few things that I shared with them to let you know if now is the right time to invest in your website. Step one is understanding what the purpose of a website is.
That will help you determine how things are working for you. The main purpose of a website is to do two things: collect leads and make you money. If your website is not doing those things at all, you can go ahead and finish the video now—yes, you need a new website. But if maybe it is working, but not optimized, stay tuned. We'll dig into other things that you need. You need to understand that your website should be your greatest salesperson. If it's not regularly collecting leads or making you money, your website is just a pretty billboard.
We don't need pretty billboards. We need to make money as a small business owner. Our website should be our greatest salesperson out there, screaming at the top of its lungs: "This is how good we are. This is the problem we solve, and we can help you." If it's not doing that, let's fix it.
The first big thing to look at is your design. Does your website look like it was cool in the MySpace days? MySpace top eight—what happened to that? I wasn't even cool in the MySpace days. But if it looks old and outdated, you are losing customers.
Have to remember, on your website, we don't want it to talk about us and how awesome we think we are. It should be talking about our customers and the problems they're dealing with and positioning ourselves as the guide. But we do want it to look good because when customers don't know anything about you and they are searching for someone to solve their problems and land on your website, they are judging you. They are looking to see how your business website looks.
Website Design and First Impressions
Sean Garner: [03:49]
How you are presenting yourself online is critical because people are going to assume how you show up on your website reflects the level of quality service you provide. I say this to clients all the time, and I hope you don't get offended, but you're not that special. What I mean is, I'm sure you're really nice. Your mom loves you. This is all the same. But how you interact and engage with businesses is just like your customers will.
A lot of times we're so close to our own business that we think our business is so much more special or unique. But if we're not showcasing that, our customers aren't going to have the opportunity to even look at what we're doing unless our website looks better than the competition.
So from the design standpoint, does it look like you made it yourself, or is it professionally designed? If customers were to line up and only look at the visual representation of the website from you and your competitors, do you stand out or do you follow the bottom? If you're not standing out, it's definitely time to reinvest in your website and make sure you stand out as the industry leader you are.
Second thing, as we've already mentioned, is if it's not generating leads. If your website is just sitting there looking pretty, let's say you have a beautiful design, but it's not generating leads—you have a problem. The primary function of this website is to collect leads, book calls, schedule appointments, and make you money, whatever products or services you sell.
If your website is not the best salesperson on your team, you need a new website. A lot of that may not require a brand-new everything on the website. Maybe everything else is doing well, but you haven't invested in a lead generator. You need something of value that positions you as an expert, has a clear catchy title, and gives your customers a quick win or the first step in the process.
Maybe something like a website wireframe. If you don't know how to wireframe your homepage and want to maximize conversions, you could get this free lead generator on our website, SeanGarner.co. Download the website wireframe, click the client, and we'll show you exactly what you need to do to wireframe your website. Quick shameless plug there.
If it's not generating leads, it is time for a website refresh. Next, it's time to consider a new website.
Lead Generation and Conversion
Sean Garner: [06:09]
If you need more advanced workflows and automations. Maybe the website was built back in the dial-up internet days or looks like it was, and it's not able to do some of the complex workflows and automations you want to run with your business. Maybe you have new tools that aren't integrating well, and the user experience isn't seamless. It might be time to reinvest and upgrade your website.
As new tools come in—maybe adding a lead generator or different types of features—we want to make sure the website can keep up. If you have automations or CRM tools that aren't working well with your current website, it's time to upgrade.
Next, and this is a big one for me, probably the most common one I see besides really poor design, is search engine optimization. If you are not standing out at the top of Google search rankings, most likely it is because your website is not set up and structured the way Google likes.
There are five pillars to SEO. One of them is user experience. We want to make sure we have a great user experience on our website to maximize conversions and get Google to show our website to more people. One big factor is technical SEO. How your page content is structured matters. The designer that originally made it may have been using headings for design flow. But heading structure is very important to make sure potential customers find you and you rank at the top of Google.
If you haven't done this, you are losing out on leads. Most customers for service-based businesses are looking at the top three results. If you're not in the top three of the map pack or SERPs—or now in AI overviews—they're going to leave. To rise in rankings, you need a structurally sound website in the eyes of search engines and LLMs.
Finally, your website has to stand out from the competition. You could have the world's best product or service, but customers are going to judge you whenever they land on your website.
Standing Out From the Competition
Sean Garner: [08:36]
So whenever they are comparing and looking for a plumber, attorney, med spa, gym personal trainer, or whatever services you provide, and they land on your website, if it doesn't dramatically stand out from the competition, they're going to just start lumping you together with everyone else.
If you have the opportunity to have an epic website that dramatically stands out versus one that's mediocre and looks just like your competition, why leave that to chance? Why not be the industry dominator? I say this to clients all the time: it's like the highlighter—there can be only one. There can be only one number one of your service in your area. So why not you? Don't let an ugly website hold you back from working with and serving the clients you are called to serve.
If any of this resonates with you, it may be time to upgrade your website. If it's not making you money, collecting leads, looks outdated, isn't ranking well on SEO, or can't handle advanced workflows and automations—and it looks like you built it yourself—it's time for a website revamp.
We would love to do that for you. We do this all the time for local service-based businesses at Sean Garner Consulting. Book a consultation call with me, and you'll talk directly with me. We'll do a quick website audit for you and show you exactly what we can do to help your business grow and dominate so you stand out online as the industry leader you are. Go to SeanGarner.co and book your call today.
Have an awesome day. Make sure you stand out online, and we'll see you on the next one. That was rough. We'll see how that goes.
