If you want to stand out from other VAs and impress potential clients, you need a website. In this online world, a well-designed website is a powerful tool to showcase your services, prove your professionalism, and both attract and convert new clients.
The idea of having to create a virtual assistant website might make you feel completely out of your depth. That’s why I’ve put together some tips to help you conquer this critical part of building a successful VA business, from what to include to how to make it look visually appealing to how to get found on Google.
Do you need a Website as a Virtual Assistant?
You may be wondering if you can get away without a website. Relying on word of mouth and social media has worked so far. I wouldn’t recommend it. A virtual assistant website makes you look a lot more professional, it’s a central hub for key information your audience will want to know before working with you and it’s an end-to-end marketing tool.
A website can attract new leads as SEO helps you rank on Google and it can close the sale with inquiry forms and payment functions. It supports the rest of the customer journey by showcasing your services, sharing your skills and experience, and highlighting testimonials making working with you even more compelling.
Essential Features of a Virtual Assistant Website
The most essential feature of a virtual assistant website is to stand out. Sadly, they’re not bothered how many dogs or children you have, they want to know what you can do and whether you can do it for them. It’s still important to be totally yourself in your branding and the way you write. Just remember why people are visiting your website – what you can do and how much it costs. There are some other essential virtual assistant website features I recommend including.
Professional design and user-friendly navigation
The visual branding should reflect your brand, be appealing to the kind of person you want to work with and be professional. Here’s where you’ll likely start overthinking colours, design and images. Don’t! People do business with people they can relate to. It also helps if your website is simple to use. Make sure it’s super easy to make their way through the website and find what they’re looking for.
Detailed ‘About Me’ section
While it’s called an ‘about me’ section, remember it’s about the customer, your services and the cost – not you. What does your client want to know about you before they decide whether to work with you? Most likely information about your background, skills and experience, why you decided to start your business, and your brand values. You can add your personality to it, just keep in mind what’s helpful for your ideal client.
Clear description of services
There’s so many tasks a VA can do for their clients. In fact, I have a free guide with over 90 service options. So get specific about exactly what you do. If you’re unsure about your packages, I can help you to solidify your virtual assistant offer suite. There is some debate about including pricing on websites. I say go for it because it’s part of the buying decision and a big reason why potential clients will check your website. Don’t charge less than £30 an hour – that’s the going rate right now.
Client testimonials and case studies
Testimonials and case studies are evidence of the power of what you do. They back up your claims of the results you help clients achieve. You could even create a portfolio of examples of client work as further evidence. If you can, get video testimonials from clients as they have the biggest impact. If not, include a photo of them, their name and what they do alongside the testimonial.
Contact form or booking link
If someone wants to work with you after reading your website, what should they do? You could ask them to fill out a contact form that collects details about what they would like help with. You could add a link to book a call with you so you can have a conversation before working with them. Or if you have products, you can sell them directly on your website.
Blog section for content marketing
Blogs aren’t dead! They’re great for demonstrating your expertise, adding value and attracting traffic from search engines if they follow SEO principles. So getting into a good routine for writing new blog posts is well worth it.
How Do You Choose a Website Platform?
With so many options for website platforms, how do you choose the best website platform for you? Consider what you want to do with the website and make sure the platform has the functionality for it. They can vary quite a bit in price so know your budget. Also, decide whether you’re going to build your website or have someone do it for you. If you don’t want to do any extra training, it’s better to choose a drag-and-drop template-based platform for building your site. With that in mind, let’s discuss the most popular website platforms.
WordPress
This is my top pick! It’s so easy to learn and use and is incredibly reliable. It’s a very customisable platform as WordPress has plug-ins which are how you add different elements to the website. Without any previous experience, I learnt how to build websites on WordPress back in 2016 and got a great return on investment. As well as saving money by not having to pay someone to do it for me, I had the skills to build other people’s websites and offer that as a service within my business. You can do the same with my WordPress course.
Wix
If you want to get started for free, try Wix. You won’t get all the features in their free plan but it’s enough to get you set up with a simple website. It is quite easy to use even for beginners but you do sacrifice the level of customisation you get with more advanced platforms like WordPress.
Squarespace
A lot of people like Squarespace because you can build a website with their themes, templates and drag-and-drop editing. It has in-built marketing tools including email marketing and in-built SEO support. It is nice and simple but again you do lose out on some more advanced features and customisation.
Website Design Best Practices
To avoid overthinking the visual aspects of your site, focus on the 3 core elements of good website design.
Aesthetics
Of course you want your website to look good. When thinking about a colour scheme, images and layout, consider what will be appealing to your ideal client as well as what aligns with your branding. The easiest way to improve website design is to keep it clean and professional.
Functionality
There’s no point in your website looking good if it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. Make sure your website is easy to read and navigate. Visitors should be able to get their questions answered quickly and clearly understand what you do and how they can work with you.
User experience
Think about what it’s like to use your website as an outsider. Is the layout logical? Is key information easy to find? Don’t forget a lot of people look at websites on their phones so optimise your website for mobile users. You don’t want to frustrate visitors. They’ll click off your website and onto a competitor’s website instead.
Using SEO to Boost Your Virtual Assistant Website
SEO is a great way to maximise the impact of your website because it means your site will rank when your ideal client is searching for terms related to businesses like yours. Two weeks after taking an SEO course, I was on the first page of Google! That course is no longer available but I have found another one that’s just as good, if not better for learning website SEO strategies. For now, here are my top two website optimisation tips.
Use relevant keywords
If you include terms in your copy that your ideal client is likely to search for when looking for a business like yours or looking for information about your area of expertise, Google will be more willing to include your website high up in its search results. Don’t overdo it and keep it natural. Also, consider what someone will be looking for when searching that terms so you fulfil their search intent.
Update your website regularly
Fresh content gives you more opportunities to use relevant keywords and indicates to Google that your website is up to date. The easiest way to do this is by writing a blog. If you can’t post weekly, at least post monthly, focusing on writing valuable content that your ideal client will be searching for on Google.
Regular Website Maintenance and Updates
Updating your blog isn’t the only important maintenance task when it comes to your website. You’re going to want to check your analytics regularly. Your analytics lets you know how your website is performing with information about how many visitors you’re getting, how long they’re staying and what pages are most popular. You can also check your SEO analytics to see how you’re ranking. This lets you know what’s working and what you could improve. Sometimes there are security updates that you need to deal with too.
Getting Started
A website markets you and your business 24/7 so that potential clients can find out everything they need to know without having any awkward questions or DMs with you. It’s easier than you think to build yourself, especially with my WordPress course. Turn your website into a powerful marketing tool with a professional design, compelling descriptions of your services, convincing testimonials, an easy way to start working with you and regular helpful blogs.
Give it a go and see the impact a stand out website can have on your virtual assistant business. For further support, I do offer website audits within my VA mentorship.