“Your website is the center of your digital eco-system, like a brick and mortar location, the experience matters once a customer enters, just as much as the perception they have of you before they walk through the door.”

Leland Dieno

As of the time that I am writing this blog post, it is currently 2024. And let’s be freaking real here: having a website is an absolute must these days if you want to be seen as a credible, reliable and valuable business. And many business owners forget just how important their website is to the growth of their business.

I see it constantly.

Business owners either: A) not having a website at all and focusing heavily on social media to grow their business, or B) having a website but not touching it once it’s launched, basically just letting it take up space on the interwebs.

But the thing is, your website can be powerful AF when it comes to scaling your business – even more so than social media. Now don’t get me wrong – social media is also a super helpful and powerful tool for growth in your business. But in my humble opinion, social media shouldn’t be the center of your marketing ecosystem – your website should.

Having social media as the primary driver of your business growth can be a little sketchy, friend. And though social media has it’s place, your website should be the central hub for your business. That’s what we are going to get into in this blog post!

We are going to touch on:

• The limitations of social media and why socials alone won’t sustain long term growth in your business
• The power of a strategic website that works 24/7 to help you scale your business
• The long term benefits of investing into your website and how it yields higher returns than social media

If you’ve been relying on social media primarily for growing your business thus far, this blog post is gonna hit hard. But I hope this shows you why your website needs to be the star of the show with your social media coming in as your supporting cast. So let’s get into it…

Why Social Media Alone Won’t Sustain Long-Term Growth

As a business owner, I know all too well the importance of stability and creating steady growth in your business. My first adventure into business was back in 2014. It was with a popular health and fitness MLM and I was immediately bitten by the entrepreneur bug the minute I started to immerse myself into the world of building a business.

Back in those days, Instagram was my jam.

I was able to post my transformation with the health and fitness products and my email was always flooded with messages from people wanting to know what I was doing. Social media was how I built my business and for 5 years, I thrived in that MLM – I earned trips, I hit ranks, I was able to quit my job, I did the damn thing.

But man, was it a lot of fucking work to rely on Instagram solely for growing my business back then.

In those days, I didn’t have kids so posting 3 times a day didn’t seem as much work as it does these days. I was strapped to my Instagram – obsessed with making sure I was keeping up with a posting schedule, writing the perfect caption every time, keeping tabs on how many likes my posts were getting so that I could be sure I was reaching new people and bringing new leads into my inbox. It was exhausting.

And eventually, it all crumbled to the ground.

My business started to take a nosedive around 2016-2017. Algorithms were changing like they always do and my posts weren’t getting seen as much as they were back in 2014-2015. I wasn’t getting as many emails even though I was hustling my ass off, posting constantly and ultimately, when Instagram slowed down with pushing out my content, my income slowed down with it.

I didn’t have any sort of backup when it came to how I was marketing my business. So when social media switched things up, I was fucked.

I so wish that I had built my own website back in those days. I could have still relied on my Instagram at the time – because it DID work for me for awhile. But building my own website strategy alongside social media would have been a much smarter way to create a more sustainable business long term.

Here is why social media alone won’t sustain long-term growth for your business:

1. The algorithm will always be changing:
   The only constant when it comes to social media is that it’s always changing. You may be killin’ it one day but then the powers that be may decide to start prioritizing a different type of content which completely affects how your posts are being seen on that platform. These are changes that you are not in control of and can NEVER predict, so if you’re wanting to make steady, consistent growth in your business, know that building your marketing solely around social media is like standing on a house cards that could come tumbling down at any time.
2. You don’t own your social media audience:
   Let’s just picture this scenario: you wake up one day, log in to Instagram and realize that your profile has been deleted. *GASP* IG says you violated some rules and therefore your account has been suspended. You can feel your heart drop into your butt because now you have no way of communicating with your audience. Girl, I have seen this happen to COUNTLESS people on social media. Most times, they didn’t even violate the rules but Instagram is dumb and WILL shut your shit down for good reasons and bad ones. If that happens, you are completely shit out of luck. Your social media audience can be taken from you at any moment and that is a scary reality that comes with building your marketing primarily around social media.
3. Social media has a short shelf-life:
   This is probably one of the reasons that has hit me hardest as a business owner – how fleeting your social media posts really are once they hit your feed. After a few days, your post is shown to less and less people before it basically is lost into the ether. With short form content (Tiktoks, reels, even carousel posts), your content will get some engagement right after its posted but then it typically dies off forever. You don’t see a post from a year ago gaining life again and showing up in people’s feeds. And your content sure as shit doesn’t gain momentum over time (like, say a blog post or podcast or youtube video). With social media, you are needing to constantly pump out content if you want it to continue to land and be seen with your people, and that is just something that is not sustainable long term for a lot of people.

Ultimately, if you are building your business with social media as the foundation for growth, the only place you’re mainly promoting your business and only giving attention to your social media platforms, just know that you’re building your house on shaky ground, friend.

Instead, I believe that social media should be secondary in your marketing ecosystem to your website and longer form content. This is SUCH a better way if you are wanting longevity and to create a strategy for growth that will help you scale in a way that feels good and continues to work for you over time.

How Your Website Works 24/7 to Scale Your Business

Now that I’m a mom of 3, creating fun experiences and the best home environment for my kids is like, THE most important thing in my life. The reason why I started my business was to be able to have something that I can build to the point where we are financially stable, putting money into savings, investing, traveling, doing fun things as a family and be able to live a comfortable life.

And I want to do this without having to be strapped to my phone, posting content constantly to keep up with the algorithm, since short form social media content lives and dies pretty quickly.

Your website can become a workhorse for your business. Over time, if you are being mindful and consistent with your website strategy, your website can grow over time, rank higher on Google and pick up steam as a way of bringing new eyes to your business – without the stress of needing to show up daily in order to nurture your audience and build that trust and credibility with your hot prospects.

Here is how your website will work for you around the clock if your goal is to grow your income in your business:

1. Ownership & control:
   Your website can literally be a blank canvas for you to share your personality, your mission, your services and your ability to solve your ideal client’s problems. You aren’t contained to a 1080px by 1350px rectangle or 150 characters to sum up who you can help and why. You can create your website how you want, because it is your space that you can use as a reflection of everything you embody as a business owner. You have ownership and control over your website in a way that you do not on social media.
2. SEO & discoverability:
   When your website is well-optimized – you’re adding meta descriptions, using clear headings with good keywords, clear navigation, alt text on your photos, etc. – you can continuously bring new traffic to your website through search engines like Google. More traffic to your website means more visibility, more leads and more aligned, amazing clients working with you.
3. Conversion-driven design:
   You can literally design your website in a strategic way to guide your website visitors through a customer journey (psst – I go over creating a customer journey for your website in this blog post) and take them from being an absolute stranger into a raving fan that’s saying to themselves “holy shit, I need to work with this girl” *hits buy button*
4. Your content hub:
   Your website becomes your little space on the internet that is home to ALL of your stuff. People can step into your little website world, learn about you and see all of the things you have to offer – blogs, resources, podcast notes, digital products, sales pages for your offers, email opt ins. Your website is your place to be able to upsell and downsell people, help them where they are at and be able to bring new clients into your business no matter what stage of their journey they are in.

There are just SO many benefits to having a strategic website for your business, and there are things your website can do for you that social media just can’t do. And the best part of it all, is that if you stick with it and continue to hone in on your SEO and strategy, update your design to really reflect your brand and add relevant, valuable content to your website, it can grow, pick up steam and become such a huge part of your marketing ecosystem.

Social media can be hard to keep up with because your content has such a short shelf life, and because of that you have to keep posting frequently so that your message continues to stay out there.

That can be a fucking lot.

And that’s why I prefer to put the leg work in with long form content that can work and grow over time vs. putting so much into short form content that lives and dies really quickly.

Why Investing in Your Website Yields Higher Returns Than Social Media

Listen, as a solopreneur, I know how expensive it can be to keep your business going. There are so many things you need to invest in – or think you need to invest in – to help your business be successful. To be fair, some of those things really ARE important investments to make if your plan to scale your business to the next level.

But the truth is, there is no better investment that you NEED to make than investing into your website if scaling your business is your number one goal right now.

Let me go into why investing in your website is so key for growth in your business:

1. Scalability:
   One of my favorite things about your website is it’s ability to grow with you as your business grows. Sure, maybe you are working on honing in on one signature offer in your business, so your website really just centers around that offer and growing your email list. But 2-3 years from now, maybe you have a digital product you have added, a new high ticket offer and then a low ticket masterclass as well. Oh yeah, and you plan to launch a podcast too. Your website can grow and be a place to promote all of the things you’re doing now as well as the ones coming down the line. And having them all linked in your website gives you a chance to show people all different sides of you, the value you can provide and help them out no matter where they are at. Investing into your website is investing in your ability to market and grow your business as it evolves over time
2. Lead generation & nurturing:
   Your website can be a great way for you to bring new leads into your business, and that is truly priceless because that is how you stay booked out month after month and create that stability/predictability in your business. When your business is always bringing in new leads, that helps you continue to financially hit your business goals. Investing into a tool to make those goals happen is the best money you will spend in your business, because it feels good to know you always have new leads coming in and new sales as a result of it.
3. Passive income growth:
   So one of the things I really believe will help you build and maintain growth long term as a business owner is to create opportunities for passive income however you can. And your website can be a place to market and sell those opportunities – whether it’s selling templates that support whatever service you offer, courses, memberships and more. The opportunities are endless and having a strategic website that sells these passive offers for you means more sales while you sleep in a hands-off way that gives you more income without giving up all of your time.

I’m all about stability. Long term growth. Creating a business you can sustain and grow over time. And putting the time and money into your website can be one of the best ways to help create those kinds of results in your business.

The Perfect Next Step for Long-Term Growth in Your Business

By now, I hope you see how truly valuable your website is to helping your business grow. There are so many ways that it will help you build momentum over time vs. social media where you’re often shouting into the void and needing to churn out content in order to stay relevant and top-of-mind with your audience. Your website can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, including:

• Finding your next client
• Warming up cold leads
• Nurturing your audience through your branding and the value you add in your website content

Your website can literally be a huge aspect of your marketing to help you create sustainable growth over time. It’s all about prioritizing your website strategy and intentionally creating a website that is built to connect and convert with your ideal clients.

It can be overwhelming AF to get your new website launched. I get it.

And that is why I created Website in a Week.

Here is why this package is absolutely perfect if you are ready to not just scale your business, but continue to get that steady stream of leads, constantly connect with new people that love your vibe and bring more clients into your space:

1. Branding and design all in one:
   With Website in a Week, we won’t just get your website launched – we will also spend time creating your branding so that you can have a website that feels like you, shows what you stand for and exudes your energy. THIS is how you attract and sign on clients that fit perfectly with your vibes, because when your branding is on point and aligns with who you are as a business owner, then clients that also dig that vibe will want to come to YOU over everyone else that offers the same services as you. With your branding, you’ll receive a color palette, font suite and wordmark logos so that you can start to incorporate this into not just your website but your social media content, emails and any other resources/materials that you create.
2. Speed without compromise:
   One of the best things about Website in a Week is that you’re not just getting a top quality, branded and strategic website…but you’re getting it in just a week. To be able to get your website up sooner rather than later, this means that you’ll be able to start using it to your advantage to grow your business NOW and not 2, 3, 6 months from now. Finally getting your website off of your to do list will not only help your business grow but it will give you that confidence knowing that you have a place to send people that are interested in your business. Confidence goes a long way, and to have your website in your back pocket, you can use it to really connect with potential clients in a way that you haven’t before (and just can’t with social media).
3. Immediate ROI:
   Listen, I know that investing in your website is a bigger expense. But it’s also one that can have such a quick ROI if your website is built right – with strategy, with clear branding, with basic design principles in mind (all things I am very focused on during Website in a Week). When you have an optimized and branded website, you can start to bring in new leads and sales right away, which means your website could pay for itself almost right away. It’s one of those tools in your business that has an impact right from the start, because the moment you launch your business is the moment that people can start to find you online. It’s the moment you can start linking it in your socials and drive traffic to it instantly. It’s the moment you can share it in the DMs. It’s the moment you can have it on your business cards that you hand out at networking events. Your website can start doing work from day 1 – as long as you get out there and start using it.
4. Customized to your needs as a unique business owner:
   When we work together to launch your website, I always make strategy my number one goal. Because a website is a website – but a strategic website is one that brings in new eyes, connects with your ideal clients, nurtures your audience and signs new clients into your world for you. We will create a website that is uniquely tailored to YOU and what your goal is for your specific business. We will look at your customer journey and create a flow for your website based what you want to make happen in your business – whether that’s growing your email list, selling your offer or building brand awareness.

Website in a Week is your opportunity to make that investment into your business that will benefit you now and down the road. Your website is such a key piece to the puzzle and when you can create a website that is branded to you, that is backed with strategy and that looks clean and professional, then you will start to see how powerful it can be to help you reach your business goals.

Let’s wrap it up…

I hope this blog post put some things into perspective for you. I am NOT trying to completely shit on social media. I do think that it is helpful to growing your business…but I don’t think it should be the center of your marketing for your business, especially if you’re wanting to scale and continue to grow over time. Creating stability as a business owner is so important, and your website can become that steady source of incoming leads and clients for you, which social media can fluctuate on as they change the algorithms and such. Social media is so unpredictable, and though it can work for awhile, it’s only a matter of time before things change, there are new features and you have to completely pivot your strategy to get the type of growth you once did. Your website can be that reliable hub for you and that is why I make my website the center of my marketing universe

Share below – what are your thoughts on social media when it comes to growing your business? Is social media your main focus of your marketing? Or is it more of a supplement to other platforms that you focus on?