Your website is your first introduction. Whether you are a new wedding designer, planner or coordinator or you have enough experience in the industry you should have a website that shows your skills, talent, creativity and knowledge. Your website should look professional (you don’t want clients to think you have a hobby), reflect your style, tell about your personality, and attract your ideal client.

Your website should include beautiful images, information about you and your company, and contact information where clients can reach you. Having social media links is also a great way to connect with brides and grooms in a more personal way.

It’s always best to have a professional web designer creating and updating your website. If you use WordPress as your website platform (like I do), you can always make adjustments and work on the updates every few months. This allows you to be more in control of your content and save a little money if you are just starting out, for instance.

Also, keep in mind that when you keep your website updated with new content on a regular basis search engines will love you more and you will boost SEO. Not only that, but your visitors will come back to your site often and they will be more willing to refer you to their friends and family.

Here are some tips to improve your visibility and get the attention you deserve.

Update Your Design

This is rule no.1. Website design changes quickly and you can spot an outdated website very easily. I recently did a complete website re-design and the old version was only 3 years old but it looked VERY OUTDATED.

I was using a web hosting company specialized in photography websites but it lacked some functionality and features so I decided to switch to WordPress and purchased a paid theme. You can use a free theme from WordPress however, the features will be limited. I would strongly suggest that you upgrade to a paid option, the investment is minimal (starting at approximately $39) and the results are excellent. I then added some plugins to enhance the look and the user experience. I noticed an increase in traffic in the last 3 weeks alone and I’m sure this is definitely thanks to a current design with a more appealing look and easier navigation.

Make It Mobile Responsive

More and more people are using their smartphones or tablets to do business and they may find your website on the go while searching for planners or wedding professionals. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to connect with your clients! If your website doesn’t perform well on a mobile device people will just move on and not even try to call you or email you. Make sure that your website performs well both on desktop and mobile and you will reach a wider audience.

Update Your Content Regularly

How often should you update your site? It really depends on what you have to offer. If you provide wedding planning services then once a year could be good. Upload images and replace old ones every three-six months. If you also design and plan social events (holiday parties, school proms, etc.) then you can list them as “Additional Services” and add special promotions or offers on a seasonal basis. For instance, you can give a 20% discount on your services (or throw in a little gift) for Thanksgiving parties, but make sure that this promotion runs only between June-September. If you have this promotion on your website in March it sounds like you haven’t updated your content for a while.

Include Your Call To Action

There are several options:

• Contact / Lead form – This is the most common request we have on our website. I would suggest that you place a link to your contact form on several pages to invite your visitors to connect with you
• Join your e-mail list – You can offer them a freebie, this works great and I’m working on mine right now (I will talk about some ideas in a future post)
• Buy your products – There are some of my colleagues who have an online store selling ring pillows, flower girl’s baskets, toasting glasses, and so on. You can do the same if you think your brides and grooms need that extra service

Add Your Contact Information On All Pages

Our brides and grooms are extremely busy (just like we are) and if they want to connect with you they don’t want to waste time looking for e-mail address or phone number on your website. If you bury your contact information on your Contact Us page, it might take them a while to load the page and fill out the form. Just make sure that your contact information is visible on all pages of your website for a better conversion rate. If you can, make the contact links responsive meaning, your potential client can just click on your phone number or e-mail address and be able to start the call or write you an e-mail on the go. Remember, more and more people are using their mobile devices to do business and responsive links give you an added advantage to connect with your customers.

Keep Your Images And Videos Current

Have you ever visited websites of other colleagues? I do this pretty often and sometimes I cringe when I see pictures of weddings that date back to the 90’s… That shows me that the planner might not be very active or she doesn’t take care of her business image… There are no excuses for this, you should always keep your visual content updated. Every three-six months do a quick run of your web pages and replace images or video clips that seem outdated. Wedding trends change constantly and you want to be up-to-date with them to show expertise.

Improve Your Speed

Have you ever checked how fast your website loads? If visitors have to wait for pages to open on your website they might leave (and never come back). As a consequence, you might be penalized on the search engines and you don’t want that to happen!

You can take the speed test on Google Developers’ site and you will also receive some suggestions to improve the speed and look of your website.

TAKE ACTION ~~~ When was the last time you updated your website? Find a couple of hours this week to go through each single page of your site to see if there is anything that needs to be updated.

LEAVE A COMMENT ~~~ Let me know what you found in your website that needed attention and how you solved the problem.

Sabrina Cadini

Holistic Precision Life Coach, Brain Wellness Coach, and Life-Work Balance Strategist helping busy professionals and high achievers live and work better by prioritizing themselves. I use different modalities (epigenetics, neuroscience, chronobiology, and positive psychology) to implement effective lifestyle changes.