Felicia Pugh 00:00:00

Welcome to episode 105 of the Mom CEO Suite podcast.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:04

Why a good website matters.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:06

How to get found online by your dream clients does having a website really matter?

Felicia Pugh 00:00:11

That's what we're digging into today with our guest showit website designer, Heather Gagnon.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:16

After our conversation, you'll have a better understanding of what it means to have a good website.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:21

You'll have insight into some of the most popular website builders so you can choose the one best suited for you.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:28

Plus, you'll learn how to use your website to get found online by your dream clients through SEO strategy.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:34

Heather also candidly shares her motherhood journey, much of which I found very relatable and you might too, so stick around and enjoy the episode.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:44

Hey friend.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:45

Welcome to the Mom CEO Suite Podcast where faith, family and business come together.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:51

I'm your host, Felicia Pugh, Christian wife, mom of two and life and business system stretch strategist for mom entrepreneurs.

Felicia Pugh 00:00:59

With over 10 years of experience working behind the scenes of businesses and ministries and as a work from home mompreneur, I'm here to share my personal journey and practical strategies to help you design systems that bring peace to your work and home life.

Felicia Pugh 00:01:15

While many strive for balance, I believe it's harmony, an integrated flow that works for you, that truly sustains.

Felicia Pugh 00:01:22

Together we'll explore how to grow your service based business in a way that is sustainable and keeps your family at the heart of of it all.

Felicia Pugh 00:01:30

Plus hear real life stories and expertise from other mompreneurs who are walking the same path.

Felicia Pugh 00:01:36

Motherhood gets hard, entrepreneurship gets hard.

Felicia Pugh 00:01:39

But together we can do hard things.

Felicia Pugh 00:01:43

Welcome to the Suite.

Speaker B 00:01:47

All right.

Speaker B 00:01:48

Hey friends.

Speaker B 00:01:48

Welcome to another episode.

Speaker B 00:01:49

Thank you so much for being here.

Speaker B 00:01:51

We have a guest with us here.

Felicia Pugh 00:01:52

Today at the Suite.

Speaker B 00:01:53

Our guest is Heather Gagnon and she is a showit website designer for wedding professionals.

Speaker B 00:02:00

As a former wedding cake designer, she understands firsthand the challenges of standing out in a competitive market.

Speaker B 00:02:06

Heather specializes in helping wedding business owners attract and book more engaged couples through sophisticated SEO optimized websites that show up in Google Search.

Speaker B 00:02:18

This is going to be such a good episode.

Speaker B 00:02:20

I can't wait to dig in.

Speaker B 00:02:21

Heather, welcome to the Suite.

Speaker B 00:02:23

How are you?

Heather Gagnon 00:02:24

Thank you.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:25

I'm doing well.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:25

How are you?

Felicia Pugh 00:02:26

I'm well, I'm well.

Speaker B 00:02:28

Good.

Speaker B 00:02:28

Glad you could join us today.

Speaker B 00:02:30

So let's just hop right in.

Speaker B 00:02:31

Tell us a little bit more about you, what you do and your business.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:36

Yeah.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:37

So I'm Heather.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:38

I am a mom of a three year old.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:40

I have one more on the way in about a month.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:42

From this recording.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:44

And as far as my business, like you said, I'm a web designer for wedding pros.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:47

My first business that I started maybe a decade ago was actually in the wedding industry.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:52

I was a wedding cake designer and loved being a part of the wedding industry.

Heather Gagnon 00:02:56

You know, it's just, it's such a joyful place.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:00

Um, it's really woman dominated space, which is also really fun.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:05

But there was a big problem I discovered and I kept seeing really talented people struggle to make it in the wedding industry.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:12

And I kind of realized that being successful in your business is about more than just being good at what you do.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:19

And that's not just true for the wedding industry, that's really true for any business.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:23

But it's about getting found by your dream clients.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:26

And marketing.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:27

Doesn't matter how good you are at what you do if people don't know you exist or they don't recognize your talents when they see you, AKA if your website sucks.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:37

So that's kind of how I got into being a web designer.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:39

And specifically for wedding pros, I just love making them, you know, a beautiful online presence that's worthy of their work and like you said, help get them found through Google search and get booked by dream clients.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:51

So a lot of fun.

Heather Gagnon 00:03:53

I love doing all the idea.

Speaker B 00:03:54

No, it sounds exciting thinking about just being in the wedding industry.

Speaker B 00:03:58

It is so joyful.

Speaker B 00:03:59

Like everybody's excited about this time, so that must be really fun for you.

Speaker B 00:04:04

But let's dig more into this website piece because you mentioned, you know, if your website sucks.

Speaker B 00:04:11

But let's talk about what does it mean to have a good website and why should we be focusing on having a website in the first place?

Heather Gagnon 00:04:19

Yeah.

Heather Gagnon 00:04:19

So I like to think about your website as the online representation of your business.

Heather Gagnon 00:04:24

It might be the first impression someone has of your business and it's really where people are going to decide, you know, are you good at what you do?

Heather Gagnon 00:04:33

Are you worth investing in all that kind of stuff?

Heather Gagnon 00:04:36

So like I said, you can be amazing at what you do and have a website that's just completely not showcasing that.

Heather Gagnon 00:04:43

And if that's the case, your website is not going to be an effective tool in actually getting you bugged.

Heather Gagnon 00:04:49

So I mean, there are some basic things that make a good website, but basically the first thing people are going to notice is the design.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:01

I've seen stats saying that like 70%, even as high as 90% of people are making their first impression on your website and they're judging the quality of your service based on you Know that split second judgment they're making in like less than a second, which is crazy.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:19

But I mean, I feel like it's true.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:21

I know I go to plenty of websites that look like they were designed in the 90s and they're very like clunky and just hard to use.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:29

And it's like, what is this?

Heather Gagnon 00:05:33

So design is actually really huge.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:36

So yeah, it needs to look like it was created this decade.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:39

It needs to load quickly.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:41

People don't like waiting these be user friendly, like having menus that help people get around, links that work.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:50

That's kind of like the very lowest bar.

Heather Gagnon 00:05:53

But beyond that, I mean a good website is going to introduce who you are, what you do, but in a really client focused way.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:01

Like how do you help them?

Heather Gagnon 00:06:02

What value do you provide?

Heather Gagnon 00:06:03

Why do they care?

Heather Gagnon 00:06:06

A good website is also going to guide your visitors through like through the physical website, but also through the experience you provide in the wedding world.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:17

Most of the clients, the engaged couples, have never worked with a wedding pro before.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:23

So they don't know where to start.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:25

They maybe don't even know what questions to ask.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:27

They don't know anything about the process.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:28

So you really need to guide them through that and you know, kind of be that person that's going to help them and not make them feel like they're floundering.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:40

And then also your website, you want to really use it to gain trust and show yourself as an authority in your field.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:46

So many ways to do this.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:49

One way you don't want to do it is fill up your about page with paragraphs and paragraphs of your credentials that no one is going to read.

Heather Gagnon 00:06:56

I went to this school and had this training and blah blah, blah, like no one cares.

Heather Gagnon 00:07:01

But some better ways to do that, you know, you can showcase reviews from past clients if you do something visual, having portfolios or galleries.

Heather Gagnon 00:07:10

If you don't have as visual of a business, you can do case studies and talk about, you know, this is how my client felt before working together.

Heather Gagnon 00:07:17

This is what we did now this is where you know, she's at now just take them to the journey on answering FAQs and getting really into like, you know, beyond where are you located?

Heather Gagnon 00:07:30

But questions to answer, what might stop someone from hiring you, those are really helpful.

Heather Gagnon 00:07:36

Any kind of features again in the wedding world, if your work has been featured in publications, people always like to highlight that.

Heather Gagnon 00:07:44

If you've been on, you know, podcasts, you've spoken at different events, all that kind of stuff, lots of different ways.

Heather Gagnon 00:07:51

So those are Just a few.

Speaker B 00:07:54

No, that was a really, really good information.

Speaker B 00:07:56

And so I'm kind of in the process of getting my website together.

Speaker B 00:08:00

You know, I think I'm going to do a whole episode about this because I feel like the stuff that I'm focusing on now are things that I probably should have focused on like way earlier on in my journey.

Speaker B 00:08:11

So from your perspective, because this is kind of like a hot topic or what comes first, the chicken or the egg, Right?

Speaker B 00:08:17

When is it the right time or the best time that somebody should focus on their website?

Speaker B 00:08:25

Some people say, you know, you need to get clients first.

Speaker B 00:08:28

It doesn't matter if you have a website, nobody's really going to your website.

Speaker B 00:08:30

Some people say you need a website to get the clients.

Speaker B 00:08:33

What's your opinion?

Heather Gagnon 00:08:35

Yeah, it's so true.

Heather Gagnon 00:08:36

And I feel like I think of it in terms of like even your website versus social media kind of.

Heather Gagnon 00:08:42

Where do you, where do you put your time and your efforts?

Heather Gagnon 00:08:47

Again?

Heather Gagnon 00:08:47

Especially in like the wedding world, everything is like very visual.

Heather Gagnon 00:08:50

So wedding pros are jumping on, you know, Instagram and kind of spending all their time there or TikTok or whatever.

Heather Gagnon 00:08:58

So really I think your website is the best ROI for your business.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:03

You can get the best ROI for your business there in terms of money and time.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:07

If you think about social media, you post something, how long is it actually out there and discoverable?

Heather Gagnon 00:09:13

I mean, maybe a few days versus prioritizing your website.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:17

You know, if you're being intentional with SEO blogging, your content can continue to be found through Google search and lead to bookings even years later.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:29

And I guess that's not even to mention, you know, the goal of any kind of marketing social media efforts is generally going to be to push people back to your website.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:37

So your website is kind of the home base.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:40

It's the best place for people to learn more about you and schedule a call and, you know, do all the things and it's the place that you fully control again versus social media could go away at any point.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:51

Um, so I think of the website as your foundation to your marketing.

Heather Gagnon 00:09:55

So even if you don't have clients, I still think you should have a website.

Heather Gagnon 00:10:01

I mean, should you invest in like, you know, top of the line design and, you know, all that kind of stuff?

Heather Gagnon 00:10:07

Well, probably not.

Heather Gagnon 00:10:08

I would just DIY it if you're brand new, but you do need to have a website presence.

Heather Gagnon 00:10:14

I think there's even a lot of credibility there if you were to ask someone like, well, where's your website?

Heather Gagnon 00:10:19

Or if they Asked you and you're like, well, I don't have one.

Heather Gagnon 00:10:22

Kind of like, oh well, are you even like legit then?

Heather Gagnon 00:10:26

Are you brand new?

Heather Gagnon 00:10:28

So yeah, definitely have a website for that credibility piece.

Speaker B 00:10:32

Yeah.

Speaker B 00:10:32

And I love that you said you don't necessarily have to go all out if you are starting.

Speaker B 00:10:37

Yes, it could be DIY because you know, you have to work your way up.

Speaker B 00:10:41

But like you said, it is the foundation of all of the things in your business.

Speaker B 00:10:46

So now another hot topic that I see online all the time, not even just for like websites, but for anything.

Speaker B 00:10:52

It's like what tool is best for X, Y and Z.

Speaker B 00:10:55

Right.

Speaker B 00:10:56

So when it comes to website builders, website tools, some of the popular ones, ShowIt, Squarespace, WordPress.

Speaker B 00:11:05

Right.

Speaker B 00:11:06

Is there one that's quote unquote best in your opinion?

Heather Gagnon 00:11:10

Yeah, so those are definitely the three kind of main players in the website builder world.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:18

My hot take on this.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:19

I don't really like WordPress, but I do recommend either Showit or Squarespace.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:24

Showit is what I build on, but I will start talking about Squarespace if you are like brand new making your first website, especially if you don't feel like super tech savvy.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:38

Squarespace is a really good place to start.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:40

It does have a drag and drop builder, meaning you know, what you see on your screen is how your website is going to look.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:47

If you see an image and you want to move it, you click it and you move it and it stays there.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:53

So it is pretty intuitive that way.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:55

And it's.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:56

I would think I.

Heather Gagnon 00:11:57

In my opinion, it's the easiest one to kind of get up and running from scratch, especially if you're brand new.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:03

And that is how I started too.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:04

I started my original business website on Squarespace.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:09

After a few years though, I started seeing some limitations in Squarespace and I wanted more customization and then that's where I moved over to Showit.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:20

It still is drag and drop, it's still, you know, user friendly.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:26

Ish.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:26

But it is more technically involved so can make people more nervous, like to start out and show it.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:34

But it does really allow for a lot more customization and I do love it for that.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:39

Like for example, on Squarespace, when you're building, it kind of works on a grid pattern and so you can move things around but it has to lock into like a grid, if that makes sense, versus Showit, you can literally put it anywhere.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:54

Another difference between those two, Squarespace.

Heather Gagnon 00:12:58

You basically design your website on desktop and then they sort of automatically do the mobile version, which sounds really great.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:07

And it can be, but it's sometimes a little bit glitchy where it's like, well, I don't want it to do that on the mobile side, but if you try and change it, then it also changes the desktop side and you have to like, really tweak it.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:20

It's kind of tricky.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:23

Versus Showit, you can, you could have completely different websites on mobile and desktop.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:27

They're completely different.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:30

So again, great for customization, but a little more complicated if you, you know, don't feel ready for that level of tech.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:38

Now WordPress is the other option.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:41

I personally am not into WordPress.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:43

It's not as drag or drop.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:46

I feel like everything you do in WordPress requires a plugin.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:50

So you need to like go searching for these certain plugins to be able to do anything.

Heather Gagnon 00:13:57

And even like basic things are feel, like, difficult, you know, on the blog side, if you want to like duplicate a blog, well, you can't do that unless you have like a certain subscription.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:06

It's like, why can't I make a duplicate page?

Heather Gagnon 00:14:08

This is crazy.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:09

And I also just kind of have this sense of like, sometimes I'll land on a website and be like, I feel like this is WordPress.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:16

It seems clunky, it seems slow.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:18

This might not be a fair, a fair interpretation of mine, but it's the impression I have.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:26

As of right now.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:27

I know there's lots of people that love WordPress that would argue with me.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:30

One of the things people love about it is they say it's really good for SEO.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:34

You might actually hear like, the best for SEO and the other ones are terrible.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:40

That's not true.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:41

But WordPress is really good for SEO.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:43

But the other ones are basically equally as good too.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:47

And all that being said, one thing I will note about Showit is if you do want to blog, it does require WordPress.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:55

So they kind of work together.

Heather Gagnon 00:14:57

So I design on ShowIt exclusively and then I work in WordPress, like as it relates to blogging stuff.

Heather Gagnon 00:15:07

But even that side, in my opinion, is very clunky.

Heather Gagnon 00:15:10

I don't like blogging in WordPress, but it does have some really great SEO plugins that are very effective.

Heather Gagnon 00:15:16

So yeah, that's my take on ShowIt versus Squarespace versus WordPress.

Speaker B 00:15:23

That was a good breakdown, so thank you for sharing that.

Speaker B 00:15:25

And you started talking about SEO.

Speaker B 00:15:27

So we're going to get into that in just a second.

Speaker B 00:15:30

But it was funny you were talking about Showit.

Speaker B 00:15:32

So I've used Showit and Squarespace for websites and the thing that you mentioned as like the mobile version for Squarespace maybe not being a great feature.

Speaker B 00:15:46

That's actually something that I like about Squarespace because Showit, it's like I have to redo this whole thing over again.

Speaker B 00:15:52

And like the mobile piece of it, the stuff is always jumbled and it just feels like extra work.

Speaker B 00:15:58

So for one person, you know, a feature might be a good thing, for another person, it might be an inconvenience.

Speaker B 00:16:04

So you guys listening?

Speaker B 00:16:05

You have to take the information that's being given to you and decide, you know, what works best for me, really know what your goals are, how you work, how you operate, and then decide from there.

Speaker B 00:16:15

That's why I like, you know, I know you didn't give a blanket, this is the best, but this is my preference.

Speaker B 00:16:22

And then based on this information, you decide what's best for you.

Speaker B 00:16:25

So I just wanted to point that out really quick.

Speaker B 00:16:28

So now let's dive into the SEO piece because you started talking about that.

Speaker B 00:16:32

So can you just give us like a high level breakdown of SEO, what it is, how it works, and why does it matter for your website?

Heather Gagnon 00:16:41

Yeah, so SEO stands for search Engine optimization, Basically the means by which we tell Google what our website is about so that Google can serve it up to the right people who are looking for that kind of content.

Heather Gagnon 00:16:55

And all that is based on keyword strategy.

Heather Gagnon 00:16:58

It does require some research to find good keywords that are not only relevant to your business, but that people are actually searching for.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:06

And when I say keyword, it doesn't have to be like one word.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:10

Actually, that's probably not going to be helpful at all.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:11

It's like a phrase like Minneapolis wedding photographer would be a key phrase.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:17

There are tools that you can use to help you find good keywords.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:21

I recommend using a tool like ubersuggest to help with that research.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:26

You can access it for free there.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:28

You know, there are of course paid options too, but this is a cool tool because you can kind of put in guesses on what you think might be a good word.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:37

Then you'll get some data back that you can use to evaluate and then they also give you additional keyword suggestions that might be helpful.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:43

Sometimes they're not helpful at all.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:44

Sometimes they are, but.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:48

Yeah.

Heather Gagnon 00:17:48

So SEO is so important for your website because, you know, kind of going back to what we talked about at the beginning, your website doesn't do any good if the people you're trying to reach can't find it.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:00

So, you know, you have a great website, fabulous.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:03

But you know, it really needs to get in front of the right people.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:06

And the keywords will help you do that.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:09

Yeah.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:09

And as far as, like, kind of what it looks like to do SEO keyword research.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:16

So there's sort of two parts of it.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:18

First, you want to find keywords that people are actually searching for.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:23

So when you use a tool like ubersuggest and you're putting in keywords, it will tell you how many searches per month is this keyword phrase coming up in.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:34

So, you know, obviously, the bigger the better.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:37

You want to look for a minimum of a hundred searches per month.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:41

Generally, if you're doing something really niche, you know, you'll probably see a lot of really low numbers kind of across the board as you're searching for different things.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:51

And that's maybe not necessarily a bad thing.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:53

You know, there's just fewer people searching for it.

Heather Gagnon 00:18:56

But generally, I would say look for, you know, a hundred searches a month or more.

Heather Gagnon 00:19:02

Then the other part of that is, you know, how much content is there out there that's already targeting that keyword.

Heather Gagnon 00:19:10

Because if there's a lot of things out there, it's going to be harder for your website to rank for it.

Heather Gagnon 00:19:15

So there's another column that tells you, I think it's called the SEO difficulty or something like that.

Heather Gagnon 00:19:23

Um, and so that's gonna be a number between 1 and 100 telling you how hard it is for you to rank for it.

Heather Gagnon 00:19:31

And so you want a lower number is better there.

Heather Gagnon 00:19:34

But generally between 15 and 35 is kind of the difficulty that you wanna shoot for because that is going to increase your chances of, you know, actually showing up on Google when someone searches for that keyword.

Speaker B 00:19:46

That's a really great breakdown because I've been kind of doing my own research on this keyword research stuff, and it can feel like a lot, but just knowing that this is an option, it just was mind blowing when I discovered it, because it's like, at first, you know, when you first started out, it's like, oh, let me just have a website.

Speaker B 00:20:08

But like you said, nobody knows your website is there.

Speaker B 00:20:11

Nobody is coming to your website.

Speaker B 00:20:13

And so it's like, oh, there's this whole other component that you have to dig in so that people can actually come to your website and discover your website so you can, you know, get more leads, get these bookings.

Speaker B 00:20:25

So I'm glad you broke that down.

Speaker B 00:20:26

That was a really great breakdown.

Speaker B 00:20:27

And I'll link you said it was ubersuggest.

Speaker B 00:20:31

I'll also link that in the show notes.

Speaker B 00:20:33

So you guys can check it out if you are kind of in the process of optimizing your website for SEO.

Speaker B 00:20:39

So thank you for that breakdown.

Speaker B 00:20:41

Now let's talk a little bit more about how SEO has been beneficial to you as a mom business owner.

Speaker B 00:20:48

Like, how has it helped you just to have an SEO optimized website?

Heather Gagnon 00:20:53

Yeah, so honestly, this is an area of improvement for me that I am really wanting to focus on in 2025.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:03

I, you know, I feel like my area of expertise with SEO is related specifically to the wedding industry.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:10

I don't know if it's because I just worked in the wedding industry and I kind of get like how vendors are thinking and how brides are thinking.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:18

It's just easier for me to like figure out what those keywords are and have it be effective on your website.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:25

It's like one of those things where, you know, the cobblers, kids have no shoes sort of thing.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:30

Like I try and do my own website SEO and it's like, oh, I am coming up blank.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:35

I have no idea.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:36

And also, you know, I don't want to blog and all this kind of stuff.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:41

I didn't really talk about that.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:42

But actually blogging is really, really beneficial for SEO as well.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:47

So maybe I'll back up a little bit and just chat about that.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:50

So when you're SEO optimizing your website, there's kind of like three plans of attack you can have for it.

Heather Gagnon 00:21:58

The first one is what I call just like website SEO.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:01

But that's like optimizing the individual pages of your website so that they can shop in Google search.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:07

So you know your homepage, your about page, you know, your services page, that kind of stuff.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:13

And so that's generally going to involve, you're going to assign like a, an SEO page title and a little meta description and you know, give Google information that way.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:24

Then there's also blogging.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:26

And if you think about blogging, you're essentially adding additional pages to your website.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:32

So every blog post you do is like a new page.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:36

It's new keywords that you can target.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:39

So instead of having like say you have a five page website, that's five ways that you can show up on Google.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:45

If you're blogging consistently, you know, you can have hundreds of opportunities to show up on Google.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:51

So that's huge.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:53

And then there's image SEO as well.

Heather Gagnon 00:22:56

So those are kind of the three ways you can attack SEO.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:02

So yeah, in 2025, I would really love to focus on doing my own website SEO too because, you know, I Feel like a lot of my leads right now come from social media and work, word of mouth and that kind of stuff.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:18

Social media is fine, it works.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:20

But it feels like such a rat race, you know, you're like constantly creating the content.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:27

So much work versus, you know, you have an SEO optimized website, you're blogging.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:33

Blogging is still work, but you know, you do it once and it's kind of out there in the Internet for years and years.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:41

And so, yeah, I mean, it's really fun to see my clients after I've done SEO work for them.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:47

And sometimes they get results like really surprisingly fast.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:51

It'll be like two months later and they're like, people are finding me on Google Search.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:55

This has never happened before.

Heather Gagnon 00:23:57

And it's like, oh my gosh, why am I not doing this for my own business?

Speaker B 00:24:00

Yeah, I totally understand that.

Speaker B 00:24:02

Because even for me, with like the system stuff, I can get everybody else's stuff organized and my stuff is organized and systemized to a point.

Speaker B 00:24:11

But there's still some things that I need to really get together.

Speaker B 00:24:15

And I'm like, okay, Q4, I'm really going to do it.

Speaker B 00:24:17

I'm going to get my stuff to be just like the client stuff.

Speaker B 00:24:21

But it's like you said, it's like the cobbler whose kids doesn't have shoes or the hairdresser whose hair is never done.

Speaker B 00:24:27

It's like everybody else's stuff is good.

Speaker B 00:24:29

So yes, if you're listening and you Resonate with that Q4, Q1 of 2025, like, let's focus on our stuff.

Speaker B 00:24:38

So thanks for being transparent and sharing that as well.

Speaker B 00:24:41

Let's shift gears a little bit and talk more about your journey as a mom and an entrepreneur and just navigating that intersection.

Speaker B 00:24:51

So for you, like, what's been your greatest challenge and how have you been navigate?

Speaker B 00:24:56

Yeah.

Heather Gagnon 00:24:57

So I think my biggest challenge with kind of running a business, being a mom is time management.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:04

Like hands down, I mean, before kids, I was working, you know, 30, 40, however many hours I needed in my business.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:13

Right.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:13

I had all the time in the world.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:14

I had all the flexibility.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:15

I could, you know, do whatever I wanted when I needed to.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:20

Now after kids, after kid, life is so much different.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:25

I have maybe half that time and even my so called dedicated work time is not guaranteed.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:33

Right.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:33

Like kid can get sick and then they're home from daycare or maybe they don't want a nap today and then, you know, there goes that work time.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:41

So it's very, very different reality now.

Heather Gagnon 00:25:48

The good thing about that is it is really forced me to look at, you know, what am I doing in my business, what is actually important, because, you know, I'm suddenly realizing how valuable my time is and even asking questions like, okay, is this work I'm doing worth being away from my kid for?

Heather Gagnon 00:26:07

Because my kid's at daycare now and I'm paying for this time, so I need to be using it.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:13

And it.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:14

It puts pressure on me for sure.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:17

One thing I've been thinking a lot about lately is like, what are really my strengths?

Heather Gagnon 00:26:25

What's the phrase?

Heather Gagnon 00:26:26

Okay, your zone of genius.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:28

I hear that phrase thrown around all the time.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:31

And it's only like a decade into my entrepreneurial journey.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:36

It's really starting to click with me of, like, when I am working on, like, when I'm building websites and I'm getting to play with the design and doing all this fun stuff, I'm in this, like, flow state, just loving it, really excited about it, can't wait to share it.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:53

I come away from a workday like that feeling so productive and so lit up, and I love it.

Heather Gagnon 00:26:59

I love my job, I love my life, I love everything.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:01

Then the next day, maybe it's a day where I have to work on content or social media and I'm just struggling with, like, every aspect.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:11

Like, what am I supposed to talk about?

Heather Gagnon 00:27:13

How am I supposed to write this?

Heather Gagnon 00:27:15

And.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:16

And it's just like, I feel unproductive, like nothing is getting done.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:21

It's taking way too long.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:22

It's so frustrating.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:23

And those are the times I want to quit my business.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:26

And it's like, why am I even doing this?

Heather Gagnon 00:27:29

Like, I hate this.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:29

I hate that I'm spending time on this.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:33

And that's not my zone of genius.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:35

Right?

Heather Gagnon 00:27:35

Like, those are the things that I should not be doing.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:38

It's not worth it to me.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:39

It's not worth my time spent away from my kid.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:41

I would rather be hanging out with her than writing social media posts.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:46

So, yeah, in 2025, goals is just, you know, as I continue to notice these things, I need to work towards outsourcing them because it's not.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:57

It's not worth my precious time.

Heather Gagnon 00:27:59

You know, I want my time to be valuable and impactful.

Heather Gagnon 00:28:03

Um, and so, yeah, those are the things I.

Heather Gagnon 00:28:07

I don't want to be spending.

Speaker B 00:28:10

Yeah, I think that's what, at least for me, is very relatable.

Speaker B 00:28:14

And I think for those listening, it is as well, because I think that just comes with our nature as a mother to want to be Present with our kids and understanding like that time is valuable.

Speaker B 00:28:24

And I had very similar, I guess, revelations as you after I had my daughter.

Speaker B 00:28:29

I'm like, wow, I used to be able to work whenever I wanted to and now it's like not even half that time.

Speaker B 00:28:36

It's like less than half that time for the business.

Speaker B 00:28:39

And it's like, do I really want to be doing social media captions right now?

Speaker B 00:28:43

And it's like, no.

Speaker B 00:28:44

So I'm, you know, in the same space thinking about, okay, I've always thought about systems and how can automation be my assistant?

Speaker B 00:28:52

All those things.

Speaker B 00:28:53

But now even deeper, what are the things that I can really hand off to other people?

Speaker B 00:28:57

Like we're big, we talk about delegation and outsourcing because again, it frees you up to focus on your priorities, whatever that might be for you.

Speaker B 00:29:04

So I think what you share was relatable.

Speaker B 00:29:08

And yeah, just again, encourage all the moms listening.

Speaker B 00:29:11

Like if you need to, if automation is going to be your assistant, focus on that and get that squared away.

Speaker B 00:29:17

If you need to hire a person and it doesn't have to be like a full time situation, somebody could just come in and handle as a contractor, you know, handle certain tasks for you on a part time basis, whatever makes sense for you and your business.

Speaker B 00:29:30

But find ways where you can experience that joy in your business every day.

Heather Gagnon 00:29:34

Right.

Speaker B 00:29:35

And we're not dreading, just wishing we were with our kids instead of with our business because you know, we do want our businesses, we enjoy them, but not at the expense of precious time with our children.

Speaker B 00:29:49

So totally relatable.

Speaker B 00:29:51

So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker B 00:29:52

And so we're going to wrap up here a little bit before you tell us, you know, how to contact you and connect with you, what is one thing that has been either like surprising or shocking for you on your motherhood journey?

Heather Gagnon 00:30:11

Yeah, I think I didn't realize how challenging it would be to do motherhood and business.

Heather Gagnon 00:30:23

It seems like dumb to even say out loud now.

Heather Gagnon 00:30:26

I think it's obviously it's so hard, but I feel like, you know, three years ago, three and a half years ago, before my daughter was born, it was like, oh, I'll just work when she's napping and it's going to be so great and easy and it just, it didn't work out that way and it's taken a long time to sort of get into a good rhythm and we also had, I mean, everyone's situation is different.

Heather Gagnon 00:30:53

Right.

Heather Gagnon 00:30:53

And so for us at the beginning, you know, she was exclusively breastfed for a long time time, which added, you know, additional challenges, like childcare wasn't an option, and we also didn't really want to do a ton of childcare.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:10

You know, we love the idea of being the primary influence in our children's lives.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:16

And so, like, yes, I have this job I love, but also, it's not like, my main purpose, you know, to be a business owner.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:25

Like, my main thing is I'm a mom, and I'm raising this kid and just keeping that at the forefront.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:32

So, yeah, I feel like three years in now, we're finally kind of hitting, like, a good flow.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:39

She's doing daycare consistently, like, 12 hours a week, and she's loving it, which is, you know, another huge part of it.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:49

Like, she's excited to go.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:50

So it helps with that mom guilt a little bit.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:53

Whereas more in the beginning when she was younger, it's like, constantly being racked with guilt.

Heather Gagnon 00:31:58

Like, okay, I want to be doing this.

Heather Gagnon 00:32:00

I love my business, but also, I'm just so torn because my kid is up there crying because they want to be with me too, and that's really hard.

Heather Gagnon 00:32:09

It'll be interesting to see how it goes with the second kid.

Heather Gagnon 00:32:11

Now.

Heather Gagnon 00:32:13

I'm optimistic that number two will be a lot more chill.

Heather Gagnon 00:32:16

But you never know.

Heather Gagnon 00:32:19

It might just start the whole process all over again.

Speaker B 00:32:22

But funny, I thought my second would be chill, too.

Speaker B 00:32:26

So my daughter, she is very.

Speaker B 00:32:28

She has lots of energy, and we thought, you know, she took after my husband, so I'm like, oh, maybe the baby will be more chill and take after me.

Speaker B 00:32:36

Nope, Absolutely not.

Speaker B 00:32:37

He's on.

Speaker B 00:32:39

He's on 100, too.

Speaker B 00:32:40

That's the best girl.

Speaker B 00:32:43

But I think that, again, that's really relatable.

Speaker B 00:32:45

I thought the same thing before this.

Speaker B 00:32:47

Like, when I was pregnant with my daughter, when I first.

Speaker B 00:32:50

First child, I thought, oh, I'll have her, and then I'll just kind of bring her along with me and she can sit there while I'm doing my work.

Speaker B 00:32:56

Absolutely did not work.

Heather Gagnon 00:32:59

It was terrible.

Speaker B 00:33:00

It was.

Speaker B 00:33:00

It was very terrible.

Speaker B 00:33:02

So, yes, I think we all are shocked at how hard it actually is.

Speaker B 00:33:07

Like, you really don't get it until you're in it.

Speaker B 00:33:10

So, yeah, I think.

Speaker B 00:33:11

I think a lot of people are probably shaking their heads like, yeah, me too, girl.

Speaker B 00:33:14

Me too.

Speaker B 00:33:17

But thank you for sharing your journey, your expertise, your experience with us.

Speaker B 00:33:22

It's been such a good combo.

Speaker B 00:33:23

Like, we could keep it going.

Speaker B 00:33:24

There's so many things we can talk about as it relates to websites and SEO and blogging.

Speaker B 00:33:29

You even mentioned something that I don't think I've heard of before.

Speaker B 00:33:33

I think you said it was image se.

Speaker B 00:33:35

Image SEO.

Speaker B 00:33:38

It's so much to talk about.

Speaker B 00:33:39

So let people know how they can connect with you, where to find you so they can come and ask you the follow up questions.

Heather Gagnon 00:33:48

Yeah, so the two places you can find me online.

Heather Gagnon 00:33:50

One, my website, it's Heather Yagnan Co as in.com was taken.

Heather Gagnon 00:33:57

So just drop the M.

Heather Gagnon 00:33:58

Heathergegnan Co and then my Instagram is kind of the only place I hang out on social.

Heather Gagnon 00:34:05

I have other ones but my Instagram is eathergeagnan.

Speaker B 00:34:09

Okay, perfect.

Speaker B 00:34:10

We'll be sure to put all of that in the show notes so you guys can just go ahead and click the link and connect with Heather.

Speaker B 00:34:17

Heather, again, thank you so much for joining us, being here with us in the suite.

Speaker B 00:34:20

Thank you guys for listening and we'll see you in the next episode.

Felicia Pugh 00:34:23

Thank you for listening to the Mom CEO Suite podcast.

Felicia Pugh 00:34:27

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Felicia Pugh 00:34:30

Leave a review on itunes and share with other moms in business like you.

Felicia Pugh 00:34:35

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