Getting started with The Ultimate Website
A complete walk-through of the Ultimate Website starting with the content outline, which serves as the blueprint, and then a functioning demo and then next steps.
This is a 45 minute presentation broken down into 20 segments averaging 1 minute, 55 seconds.
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Intro · 1:12
Coach Prion from the Batavia High School INCubator program, introducing Gary Ricke who will be presenting on the ultimate website.
Gary has spent decades defining what he thinks the ultimate website is, with short videos being at the center.
The website provides a great opportunity for Batavia High School incubator students and local businesses to work together and learn.
Gary stresses the importance of short videos on The Ultimate Website and will keep emphasizing the need to create them.
The rest of the website content is built around these short videos.
AI Marketing News · 2:33
This past week’s AI news may be the biggest since AI’s beginnings last July and is significant because The Ultimate Website has design elements addressing these major events.
There has been a new AI Executive Order from the US government which the speaker is still researching.
This is the first executive order on AI and will have significant positive and negative impacts, especially for businesses.
AI is exploding and transforming marketing more than anything in the past 25 years.
The government is aggressively hiring AI specialists due to the executive order.
AI skills are valuable for careers right now.
World leaders are sounding the alarm on AI and deepfakes, cautioning that we need to take sci-fi seriously.
AI continues to have major implications for marketing and branding.
The speaker recommends staying on top of AI news and developments as it is hugely important.
Ultimate Website Overview & Navigation · 5:18
The main purpose of a website is to have a home base for your brand's videos, not just rely on social media.
Websites tend to get messy and disorganized over time, so The Ultimate Website aims to maintain a clean, structured design even with large amounts of content.
The navigation strategy has shifted away from traditional hierarchical menus. Now the focus is on long scroll landing pages to reveal a story and keep users engaged.
Hashtags allowed social media content to be organized without complex navigation menus. The Ultimate Website also relies on categorization and tagging of content.
The goal is to get users to explore related content once they land on a page, similar to YouTube's "see also" recommendations.
Traditional navigation can require lots of menu updates as content grows. Categories and tags allow related content to be dynamically linked.
The ultimate website moves away from rigid homepage, about, products pages etc. The aim is to get users exploring content clusters around videos, brands, products etc.
Squarespace · 2:38
WordPress is the most popular website platform but also the most hacked, with 90% of hacks. Many companies using WordPress have experienced hacks.
Squarespace is one of the least hacked platforms since websites can't be taken off their servers, reducing vulnerabilities.
With traditional web hosting you must update code and security yourself to prevent hacks. Squarespace handles this for you.
Although Squarespace occasionally goes down, it comes back up quickly due to scale, unlike traditional hosting where you must fix issues yourself.
Squarespace is easy to use and manage compared to traditional web hosting. It competes with Wix and Shopify for hosted websites.
Squarespace is tailored for marketing sites and creators versus Shopify's e-commerce focus.
Recent Squarespace updates optimize it for monetizing video audiences and creator economies. Tools help sell video courses.
The security, scalability, ease of use and video monetization features make Squarespace a strong platform choice right now.
Content Outline (CO) Overview · 5:19
The content outline is a document to plan website content and structure without thinking about design.
It focuses on identifying target audiences and determining the information they need in a logical order.
The speaker first devised the content outline when working with Chicago Public Schools to plan their website.
Removing design elements enabled diverse stakeholders to contribute ideas without technical expertise.
The content outline brought clarity after months of unclear website planning meetings.
It works well for both organizational and personal branding websites.
The Ultimate Website provides a structured template to populate with your content outline.
Students getting the website template should create a content outline first to plan what to include.
Students should keep a content journal to get credit for the marketing class.
The speaker shares his journal and a template to duplicate for your own content outline.
The goal is to focus on planning relevant content for your audience before design.
CO: Best Practices · 1:09
The speaker discusses best practices for the content outline, not web design yet.
He used AI to research the best practices for website and landing page design.
AI can scrape the entire internet to find authoritative information on a topic.
The speaker believes the AI provided the definitive best practices for modern web design.
This is based on AI aggregation of information and the speaker's own research.
He will briefly review the best practices.
The Ultimate Website template implements these best practices in its design.
The content outline and website design are separate steps in the website creation process.
CO: Hero · 1:51
The hero is the first visual users see, often an image or video loop.
Explainer videos in the hero can be an impactful best practice per the speaker's research.
The speaker shares an example explainer video he made for River West gym, showing their facilities.
Hero videos quickly convey what an organization does without scrolling.
The hero should tell a visual story about your brand, not just show something cool.
Next you need a clear, concise headline so users immediately know what you offer.
Websites often fail to communicate their purpose upfront, causing high bounce rates.
An effective hero visually and concisely introduces users to your brand.
CO About · 1:10
The About section expands on the headline to provide more detail if needed.
It keeps visitors engaged instead of bolting from the site.
Research showed having a benefits section is a best practice.
Benefits explain how you solve problems vs. features which just list what you do.
For personal branding, focus on the problems your skills can solve vs just listing skills.
The About section should relate to the visitor's needs, not just your story.
The goal is to make the visitor the protagonist and explain how you can help them.
CO Short Video Strategies · 0:33
After the About section, have a horizontal scroll of video thumbnails.
Clicking on a video lets visitors start learning about the people and brand.
The speaker recommends having short videos, even just 30-60 seconds.
New videos should be produced weekly to have a steady stream of content.
Short videos help visitors get to know the brand in a more engaging way than text and static images.
Regular new videos show brands are active and give visitors fresh content.
The goal is to have a large library of short videos visitors can scroll through.
CO: Categories & Tags · 1:34
With a growing library of short videos, categories and tags become very important.
Many struggle to understand how categories and tags work to organize content.
Categories can't have hierarchical relationships like sub-categories.
Tags allow more flexibility than preset content hierarchies.
The speaker recommends identifying categories relevant to your content like writing, design, etc.
New videos can be easily categorized to appear in topic-based collections.
The website template has a video page modeled after Netflix with dynamic categories.
Videos are tagged to automatically appear in certain categories.
Categories and tags organize videos without complex menus or hierarchies.
CO Testimonials · 1:10
Testimonials are very powerful for building trust and credibility.
Having others endorse you is more impactful than self-promotion.
The speaker has interns get video testimonials to showcase their capabilities.
Video testimonials bring praise to life better than text.
For SEO, positive online reviews like 5-star Google reviews boost search rankings.
Ongoing positive testimonials build trust and search authority over time.
The website template includes a section to showcase authentic praise from others.
Testimonials help convince visitors to trust and choose your brand.
CO: Partners · 0:20
A Partners section shows brands or companies you have relationships with.
It builds trust and credibility by association with recognized names.
The speaker has used this for many client websites.
Visitors see you are trusted by and work with reputable partners.
The Ultimate Website template includes a Partners section.
Displaying major company relationships and clients improves perceptions.
Partnerships indicate you are established and trusted.
CO: Events · 1:00
An Events section displays any events like webinars or in-person gatherings.
With declining social media, brands need "owned media" like online events.
Social media traffic and trust is permanently decreasing.
Online events are now easy to create versus pre-pandemic.
Webinars, seminars, and small conversations engage visitors.
Events don't rely on social media and build direct relationships.
The template has an Events section to list and promote occurrences.
Consider creating owned media events as social media declines.
CO: Products & Services · 0:38
This section simply lists offerings and pricing without marketing.
The focus is on bare facts - what you sell and cost.
Videos on the site should handle the selling and explanations.
Visitors can quickly skim the basics of what you provide.
Products & Services gives the foundation to then explore videos.
Keeping details minimal avoids overwhelming visitors upfront.
Videos storytell and convince visitors more effectively than text.
The goal is a simple products reference before diving into videos.
CO: Who · 0:59
Human faces attract people's attention and build connections.
Magazines leverage this - faces on covers vastly outsell non-face covers.
People resist putting their own pictures on sites but it's highly effective.
Modern phones can easily take great profile photos.
Who We Are humanizes the brand and makes it relatable.
Faces help visitors get to know and feel close to you.
Highlighting real people is very impactful marketing-wise.
CO: Call To Action — CTA · 0:37
This section prompts visitors to take a desired action, starting with newsletter signup.
It's critical to decide beforehand what you want visitors to do.
Common calls to action are booking a call, purchasing a product, etc.
The top priority is capturing email addresses for 1:1 communication.
Social media limits how you distribute content to followers.
Email lists let you reliably reach followers with new content.
Newsletter signups start building an audience to engage.
The template has a newsletter CTA - additional CTAs can be added as needed.
Clearly defining desired actions and enabling them is crucial.
CO: Featured & FAQ · 0:47
Featured highlights specific products, services, people, etc.
FAQ provides common questions and answers on a topic.
FAQs help with SEO since Google displays answers directly.
Google wants users to stay instead of clicking away, so optimizing for their snippets is effective.
A strong FAQ section can rank you higher in search results.
FAQs work for personal branding too - common questions about you.
Featured and FAQ let you expand on key offerings or topics.
The goal is to be strategic with what you spotlight and address top questions.
CO: Footer · 1:08
The footer contains important elements like social links, awards, contact form.
Contact forms should be both in the footer and higher in the page.
The speaker learned the hard way that the upper form gets 10x less use.
The footer contact form gets the most use
Live chat performs even better than contact forms, outpacing submissions significantly.
Other key footer elements are email, phone, address, logo, policies.
Privacy policy and terms are important for SEO. Templates can be used.
The footer enables easy direct contact and shows certifications.
Don't underestimate the value of optimized footer content.
The Ultimate Website From the CO · 5:26
The speaker walks through the website he will install based on the content outline.
It has a hero image, expandable About section, testimonials, blog, videos, newsletter CTA.
Testimonials link to full Google reviews to showcase praise.
The video page has scrollable thumbnails linking to individual video pages.
A video-focused blog provides an alternative to text posts.
The events page automatically expires past events.
Who We Are profiles people through images and short bios.
Partners uses logo images converted to white to co-brand.
Products enables e-commerce offerings to be listed.
FAQ answers common questions and explains AI use.
The footer contains contact info, policies, and branding.
Content can be easily tailored while maintaining the structured template.
The site brings the outlined content sections to life in a clean, organized way.
Questions / Reactions · 3:12
Gary asks Coach Piron for feedback on the website framework after 6-7 years of Incubator groups.
The framework hits all the key factors lean startups and small businesses need - value proposition, visuals, clear messaging.
Going through the exercise helps define your business and shape customer perceptions.
The content is transferable to other mediums like social media and print.
The main weakness is the need for education on using tools like Squarespace and Asana.
These take some skill building but become intuitive over time. Similar tools are common in business.
The "how-to" of the back-end organization is the biggest gap that needs addressing.
But once up and running, the system is very effective for content creation and coordination.
The feedback validates the speaker's plan to focus education on the technical implementation.
Next Steps · 3:45
You create a content journal in this shared drive
View my content journal and match the structure in your own
You can copy mine, delete all the content and then follow the format
If you’re requesting the ultimate website?
Make a copy of The Ultimate Website Content Outline
Start customizing that outline to your specific business or brand
I will install and deliver a copy of your Ultimate Website Monday, November 5, 2023
You will create a Squarespace and accept invite
You will optionally invite others as admins (instructions to come)
You and your team will explore the backend
Duplicate the page
Mess with it. Change things. Explore.
I will teach you how to edit your site at our next bootcamp session
Notes
Google Docs: Content Journals Folder
Order The Ultimate Website
If you have not yet requested your own copy, here’s the order form:
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