Your Website Isn’t Working—Here’s How to Fix It Fast | Ari Krzyzek

Be honest, how many times have you gone to a website and instantly decided to leave? Now think about your own website. Is it building trust and credibility, or is it costing you opportunities?

If your website is not working for you, it's working against you. In today's episode, we have Ari Kay. She's a web designer strategist, and we're talking about the top mistakes people are making that they might not be even aware of, and what you need to know in order to boost trust and increase your revenue.

Welcome to The InvestHer Podcast.

I'm Liz Faircloth, and I am your co-host Andresa Guidelli. So Ari, we are in the era of social media platforms, and many times websites are put to the side. Many of you real estate investors don't look at their website as a revenue generator tool. So please share with us a clear example of how investing into their website can just bring more clients and more profit.

Yes, I hear that time and time again. I feel like often, you know, people would use their website as just yet another flyer online, right? Without really thinking there's something strategic that you could do with it, something that, you know, can give you that ROI, something that you can really leverage for your marketing channels as well as your sales channel. So here's the thing. When most people think about website, they just feel like it's yet another checklist. When you build your company, you got your logo, you got your legal stuff, right? And then you got your website done wrong because website is never truly done. Now, when people come to us and we say that you need to at least start getting going with your website, really think more strategically about it. But what they forgot to do is to figure out like what exactly is the goal for the website. So start with that. If you have a website right now and you really want to figure out to do something more with it, start with the why. Why do you even have the website? Do you need the website? And if yes, for what purpose? So once you figure out that you want the website to do something very specific, be it that you want to do more, you know, lead capture, you want to grow your email, you know, list, or you actually want to get more bookings from it, or maybe even sell some of your digital product or like your, you know, sessions and stuff like that, then that is a real purpose, right? It's a real strategic goal that you can also align with your business. So everything always starts with the why, with the goal. Even like, you know, our own business, you are in this business for a very specific reason. So every other channel that you have or anything that you have invested into the website or your business also need to have a purpose. So I would start with that.

Ari, a lot of the women listening, deal flow is always something as a real estate investor you're looking to increase, right? Opportunities to buy property. So a lot of women will use their website with that goal in mind, right? Or they, at least that's their intent. So if that is their intent and that is their goal, what are things now that they need to be thinking about? How can they be updating and adapting their website to meet that goal of generating leads for potential opportunities to buy property?

That's a really good question. So I think you can look at it in a few different ways, right? How do people need to get to you first? Is it mainly through a very specific, intro conversation, right? Or is it already like purchasing it immediately? I think for, you know, a couple of different, you know, B2B clients in particular, and also in the real estate, right, you want to at least screen people, don't we all, right? We need to make sure that this is going to be like a legit deal, they're going to talk to the right people. So having some sort of like, you know, form that can really at least screen, are you the right people before you get to me? or if you already want to include your calendar link like Calendly or anything else, you can even embed that on your website immediately. So having a little bit more uplifting presence and more professional looking on the website, right, with tying it in with your own system, you could do those screening too. Like at least asking relevant questions like, do you have a specific budget? Or like, where are you in your journey right now? If you're just like a shopping around person, is that the kind of people that you want to talk to? Or maybe not. So I think there are ways for you to really utilize some of the, some of the system that you already have right now, including the website to do the work for you.

Even what I'm thinking in terms of like people's behaviors and how it had shifted throughout the years based on social media platforms, right? So I think that many people come across somebody on TikTok, on Instagram, a video of that person. And then what I usually do, I don't know if that's how people do, I need to double check if that person is legit. So I go to that person's website. It's kind of like, oh, okay, they are legit. If I cannot find much, it kind of like raise a flag and then I pass, pass along. So it might start from a social media and then I go to to their website. And here's the kicker, Ari, that I want you to explain to people. Desktop versus mobile. I cannot tell you what a disaster that is in a lot of people that, and if you are listening to this and you're like, what are you talking about?

That's me, that's me. Like, I don't know what she's, now I know what the difference is, but I don't know the impact of this thing.

So, in a nutshell, depending on the platform that you are using, you need to create a version of your website to desktop and a different version for tablets/mobile, whatever that might be. Otherwise, it looks super funky. And then if you believe that, as in our case at the investor community, 80% of people a look at our website and everything that we do, 80% using their phones. So, on our mobile, I'm not saying people that we're doing a great job in a lot of areas. There is always progress, as Ari said, there's always in construction, right? But we're looking to improve as we go along. But if I'm vetting somebody, if I'm looking to work with somebody and their mobile version it's not friendly, I immediately leave. So I wanted you to share a little bit of, of, of that because I think many people don't pay attention to the mobile version and just think about the desktop.

Oh my goodness, Andresa, you are highlighting my pain, right? Every single time I see any website that exactly is like that, especially browsing on mobile, right? It's just like, come on, it's 2025. I was going to say 2024, but we're in 2025, like, for God's sake, right? Why have not you looked at your own website on mobile? So it's not just like because everything needs to be responsive, but it also just like making sure that your own brand, when, you know, somebody new, somebody that never heard of you before is checking you out, at least you really come off strong, right? With your brand, with your own presence, with your own perception. I tend to tell people, like, if you want to really make sure that your website is going to look great in every single, you know, platforms or actually, you know, screens, right? Because we now have like so many different screens, it's, it's really hard to like making sure everything would look good in multiple type of screen. But at least if you work with the proper, you know, vendors or developers or designer, they should at least already help you making sure things will be responsive. And here's another thing too. If you ended up thinking that, hey, actually I'm just doing everything on the website right now, how do I tackle this myself? You can. A lot of the most recent platforms, regardless if you're using WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Squarespace, there's just so many of them. It already has the function to create responsive version. Now all you have to do just to make sure that all the elements are still in the correct position. Because as much as it's already fully built in, right, and it try itself to give you that benefit, you still need to come in and look at, oh, something actually looks wonky, fix that, right? Having an additional pair of eyes also looking at it from their own mobile or their own screens could also help because again, there's just way too many screens. Your iPhone may be like different, you know, dimension than my iPhone. So it could also still look a little bit wonky sometimes.

What a nightmare. What a nightmare. Hopefully in, in a couple of years, AI is going to create all the versions. We're not gonna be— this, this episode will be outdated.

But right now it's not. That's right. And you know, to your point, Ari, and circling back on what Andresa was just talking about, is that the website is to kind of verify, right? It had that level of trust and say, okay, is this, Is this person really for real? And, and, and then what are they, what are they offering? What are they all about? So when people go to a website, and I know I do this for myself, you go to the website and there's, there's either a feeling of, okay, this person's credible, I trust them, or I'm beginning to trust what they're saying. Or you're like, did they just make this yesterday? And it's like stock photos and stock information. You cannot reach out to the company because there's nowhere, no, no ability to do that. So as, as, as women are thinking about their own website now, or potentially creating a new one, what are those, those like biggest mistakes that they need to avoid to build instant credibility?

There are 5 areas that I would definitely tackle. Um, right. So when you mentioned lists earlier, you go to somebody's website, right? You have never heard of them before. And you just like really investing your time to check out like, Who are you? Tell me exactly, are you relevant? Right? Can I trust you? Like, what do I do next, you know, to get going? So those are exactly the same thing that every one of us have in the back of our mind checking out any new website. So the first thing that you always need to do is think about like, what is your website all about in any single page that you have, right? Is it clear? To your target audience, to your user, to your customer, maybe even like future partners. Is it clear what is it that you want them to know about you, right? Whether it's your unique value proposition, maybe your positioning, whatever that might be. Is it clear as soon as they open that hero? I'm talking like a lingo here. A lingo. A hero is essentially like the top portion of a website. That's the hero. So is your hero really telling the user that, hey, I am X, Serving whatever, right? Whatever it is that you have for that value proposition, it needs to be clear. It should not be hard for people to understand it, right? Because then you're just going to make them think even more. That's one big mistake that people often have on their website. They're trying to be so creative. I'm just going to say it that way, right? Because they're trying to find like so many funky, you know, very industry jargon language that they can put in there. And it makes it so hard for the target audience to understand, like, how can you really help me? Is this actually for me? Or is it more relevant to my partner, to my family, to my sister? Right. Who is this website for and for what exactly? Now, once you have that nailed down, you can then tell a little bit more about some of your credibility. You want to show that you have some sort of credibility that people can start building trust with. right? Be it your testimonials, be it that you actually get shown in the press or certification or maybe other type of credibility or social proof that you can include in there. Whatever you have, make sure you have it really highlighted and also clear. How is that also relevant to what you do right now? You already tell them about who you are. You already start building this credibility and trust. With your user. Next up, you need to also let them know your process. Time and time again, whenever I go to like new website, I get exactly what they do. And then I kind of understand, you know, okay, they have some credibility, but how exactly does everything work? Like, who are the people behind this? Right? Sometimes when you don't see the actual person behind the brand, you're just like, sketchy, sketchiness happening.

Yeah.

Are they robotic? Like, who are these people? Like, you want to build that connection. So I would really suggest, like, if you can't do a lot of, like, you know, photo shoot with photographers, at least have your own picture. It could be like using an iPhone or whatnot.

I'm not kidding with what I'm about to say, but this truly happened. I was vetting a company and I went to the team's page. What am I expecting to see when I go to the team's page?

People.

People.

Well, of course, people.

I want to see how diverse you guys are and who is in your board. And all of that good stuff, right? That tells me a little bit more about your company. Swear, there was a table with empty chairs, stock.

You tell me this.

You tell me this.

This is great.

Like grayish, like black and white. That was sad. That was so sad. And it was a marketing company. And I'm like, so sad. I don't see like what happened here. Where is Mary? Like, and then you have this long paragraph about Mary that went to Loyola, Columbia, Columbia. I don't care. I don't care. None of that. I care. I don't even know your face. Right. So I was baffled by it because if I got to that point, it's because I really was. Okay, great. This looks great. All right, let's get, let's get to know more. And then I died over there. I literally was like, there's no way in hell. I don't even know who I'm dealing with. Because I think people want to do business with people that they can see that they are going to do business with. So if people are not having their faces in there, and the opposite also, Ari, I want you to see it. We just had a conversation with one of our sponsors. This week we do a marketing audit with our sponsors, not because we are marketing experts, we're not, but we understand our community and we wanna make sure that we—

You know what I've learned from years of speaking? The right stage doesn't just amplify your message, it builds your credibility. It positions you as a leader people remember. So what sets the top 1% of entrepreneurs apart? Authority. And nothing builds faster than stepping onto the TEDx stage with over 43 million YouTube subscribers. It is the biggest platform for ideas that spread like wildfire. Leader is making this possible. They're the number one company helping people land TEDx talks with over 650 talks booked for their clients. Want in? Head over to leader.co/events to book your free TEDx strategy session. That's leader.co/events. They'll help you refine your message, create a custom plan, and as a bonus, they'll even guarantee your first 50,000 views. Again, that's leader.co/events, leader.co/events.

Know what our community want and needs, and many times the companies have that, but they're not communicating it. So, it doesn't match. So, instead of you putting this jargon over there, exactly as you said, focus on solving a problem versus the opposite. What they did wrong, not wrong, but we recommended an adjustment, was the excessive use of stock photos, but not actually related to them. They were saying, "We support women, we're very diverse," but all the pictures on their website did not We're not coherent with that. I'm not saying don't use stock photos, but be careful with what are you showing through the photos because the photos also communicate a lot. And I think that people don't think, okay, this photo over here of me, I'm wearing red. I am doing this. I am more soft. I am barefoot, whatever. That also communicates a lot, right?

Yes, it does. And I think you hit it there, Andresa. People, I felt like, often underestimate how much effort you need to put in into something that can bring more value for you and your business, right? Your website included. And this is why there are very specific, you know, area on your website and section in your website that need to be crafted carefully and strategically so that it will guide your target audience. You don't want to just like, you know, bombard them with so much information and just they feel like they're reading a novel. That's not the main purpose of the website, right? The main purpose of the website is really to guide your user to understand who you are, what your value proposition is, and what they can do next. If you're not guiding somebody on your website to any pages, right, then your website is not serving its purpose. So earlier we talked about like making sure that it has, you know, the right content on the top of the page, also known as the hero. And then you also need to make sure that you have your credibility information, right? Social proof, whatever they might be, whatever you have, make sure to include that. Images is also one of the big things. Any relevant images or imagery or graphic that really is branded to you and also showcasing you as the real human, right? And maybe the people that you have work with, whatever you have that also help your target audience to start building this connection with you, right? We are working with people. We're not just like working with companies. At the end of the day, you're building up that connection so that they feel that I think you're a great person to work with. Right?

I would add that we are working with impatient people, and if they don't find very quickly what they're looking for, they're out. So if the website takes too long to load, or if they cannot find wherever is the PDF that they need to download or the form that they need to go, is there a formula that like how long people get out of the website if they don't find it? Like how many seconds? Is there like a behavior study? Me going back to research.

4 seconds or less. Huh? Wow.

4 seconds. Wow.

4 seconds?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

I mean, honestly, I would not wait more than that. It's crazy. Like, okay, that's it. I'm down. Exactly. And I mean, there are so many other ways to optimize your website, but For me, I'm a big believer that making sure that the user experience is not just about these technical things, right? It's not just about the loading issues and stuff like that, but also how are you really guiding your user to understand the information that you are putting out and guiding them to the next step closer to you. And, you know, most people would say that people already know what an e-commerce website is or what a subscription website or whatever else, you know, type of businesses that you have, like, that's true. But remember, users, including myself, when we access anything online, we are a dumb person, right? Just guide us. That is all we ask you to do. So your job with your website is really to make sure that you can guide your users towards the next step. Now explain to them in any sections on your website, especially those that have how it works, right? I think oftentimes you will see good websites explain how things work with them. If you're going to work with somebody in general, like, what are some of the steps that we can expect? Do you book a call and then you have a call and you have a quote? Or do you just like, you know, purchase something and then something will be shipped within the 5 days? Whatever that might be, tell them the expectations so that it will build even more credibility for you knowing that there is a specific proven process that you already have, you know, planned and executed within your team. Now, the other part is to make sure that you know where to guide people. People often think that, yes, I put all of my call to action in there. But if you look closely into your website, how many call to action do you actually have on page? You should not have way too many call to action that basically telling your target audience to do so many different things. There should be a very clear one primary call to action, right? If your goal is to get people to book with you, then book a call is your primary call to action. And then let's say that, hey, on top of that, I also want to start getting more email subscribers, then sign up for your subs, you know, subscriptions or email newsletter. That would be your secondary call to action. Now, why do you have a secondary, and then a primary call to action. It's simple. The main one is your target, right? It is the purpose of the website. Whatever you want to create on your website, everything needs to lead towards book a call. Or let's say for the secondary, you know, call to action, that will then be less highlighted compared to your primary target— sorry, primary call to action. Then that way none of the call to action are competing with each other. It's not going to confuse your target audience. Like, what do you want me to do here? Which one is the primary call to action that I need or you want me to do? And then what other option do I have beyond the primary call to action? So yeah, that's all about call to action.

And it makes sense. All right. There's a lot there. And I think some of the women might be thinking to themselves, There's a lot there. And now I have to manage all of that in addition to managing my day-to-day. So I'd love to understand what is happening because obviously there are AI bots, there are people you can get support from. There's so many different tech tools that you can employ. So you're not having to quite honestly do all the things you just said that are really important, but these women are busy and they don't need another thing on their to-do list. What should they consider— tools, strategies, AI bots— to answer some of these questions and make these— some of these things that you're suggesting happen?

Yes. You know, everything always starts with that strategy session, right? If you work with different vendors or, you know, providers, you may often work with them through a discovery and strategy session first. We do that as well. And I think it's so critical for you to do that in the beginning rather than jumping straight into like designing or like seeing everything come to life, that is secondary because I found that, you know, throughout our experiences, when you only decide to just see the visual, you lack the actual strategic, you know, content, strategic, like not just purpose, but also like how do we make sure that our business goal align with what we really want to do with our marketing, including the website, right? So The big thing really is having a clear idea of what you want your website to do. And then when you hire the right person, then you'll be able to communicate that. Let them handle all the technical things, the creative things. They will see your vision if you have a clear idea or some clarity what it is that the website is going to do in your marketing channel world or like in your, you know, business ecosystem essentially.

I want to highlight that some people are like, I don't think I need it. I don't think I need a website because people can see my information on my Instagram and then they can contact me there. Do you believe that one day the websites are going to just slowly die as the physical newspaper? Or do you think that we're a long, long way from that?

Yes and no, right? Especially with AI and how fast the website landscape is changing now. You probably have seen so many different website platforms incorporating, you know, AI components to it. So it makes it so much easier for you to update your content, even if you don't have a team that can, you know, support you on content creation. So anything that you can see for like changing and editing website is very easy to do now. You can do it yourself. However, what tends to lack is that the strategic clarity in terms of like, do you need your website or do you not need your website? Now, to be honest, not everybody will need a website, right? Some people, they just feel like, you know, my TikTok or my TikTok shop is going to be perfect for me. That's great. If that worked for your business, I would not you know, like tell you and push you to create a website. It just doesn't work for your business. And that is okay. Now what I see businesses who have a website, you know, have done with their marketing is that they gather more data to it. They own a very specific, you know, information through their website. Now we already know TikTok is, you know, banned. Is it banned? Is it getting banned? I'm like, who knows?

Who knows?

By the time you listen to this, here you go. Question mark.

Exactly.

But that's This is to also prove that you don't have control over all these public, you know, application, right? They are not yours. And none of the content that you have technically are yours. It's in your account. But once a platform is gone, it's gone. But you have full control over your own website. So whatever it is that you put out, right, whatever information that you gather, it is yours. So think of it like in slightly different ways of like how powerful a website can be in gathering data that you want to track or even like, you know, receiving all the information that you want to gather from your target audience.

Makes sense. And the women that are listening love quick wins. So I would love to hear if they were going to fix one thing on their website. Obviously, you're not going to look at all these websites, but in general, what is your—

Their page was from 1989 that they did.

Oh my gosh, the stock photo. Um, I used to look at pictures of me and Matt and we looked so corny. But anyway, glad we updated those. Um, what one thing can they fix on their website that would make such a big difference for them?

Well, that is hard, Liz. One thing. If anything, I would fix the content, right? Make sure that it does not include any jargon at all. Make sure that it is clear and direct what you want them to do and tell them exactly how you can provide value or what you're actually wanting to gain out of any conversation with them. I felt like most of the time when I see websites that doesn't truly tell me, like, who are you or what is it that you want from me, right? I just get lost and I'm really trying to understand it. But if you don't make it easy for me to understand you and take that next step, with you, then I'm out, right? So I would say that would be at least the one core thing. If you feel that your website right now, when you look at it, just feel like, if I'm coming to this website as an outsider, will I understand it? Will I take that next step? Will I click that call to action, right?

If not, do I have a call to action, right?

Oh my goodness, yes.

Do you have a call to action, right?

Or so many, right? You can do this, you can do that, you can do this, you can do that. And then I'm like, I'm lost.

Yeah.

And I think that, can I make a quick point? That the jargon piece is an interesting one. I think so often, especially in our business of real estate investing, people wanna show their credibility, right? They're showing their jargon of different investment terms. They want people to feel like, oh, I'm really good. Like, I know what I'm doing. On the other hand, to your point, if you don't make it simple enough for people to understand, you're losing people. So the, the, the impact, right? It's intent and impact. Somewhere on your website you could have some of that, maybe more detailed information, but not right when people, right, are, are engaging with you, learning from you. That be a better approach, especially if that jargon is important on some level, but it's not just the first thing, okay, that they see?

I would do a few things, right? One, you could expand a little bit more on that. So let's say that you mentioned a specific jargon that only you know, or, you know, your peers know. Tell them a little bit more about it. Why is it important? Why is it important for your target audience? You can maybe have a little section, say this one means blah, blah, blah. And you know, if you work with us, you know, because we have this, this is what's going to happen. They just need to know if you're going to use jargon, tell them exactly what that is and what that means for them. Your engagement.

I love that. I love that. So you're actually meeting both goals. Ari, this has been great. We could probably pick, you know, keep talking about websites all, all day, but this has been great. Where can everyone listening learn more about you and follow you on your journey?

Yes, I am pretty active on LinkedIn and Instagram. You can find me there and you can also just like, you know, check out my stuff on my website.

Awesome. All this information you guys can find on our show notes. Ari, was a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

Yes, thank you so much.

If you enjoyed this podcast and want to receive updates on our next interviews, go to our website, therealestateinvestor.com. There you can subscribe to our show, become part of our investor community, and get updates on upcoming episodes.

If you like our show, please share with other women who would benefit. And don't forget to leave us a rating on iTunes. We'd really appreciate it. And as always, we encourage you to take one action as a result of today's show and put it into motion so you can live both a financially free and balanced life. Thanks for spending time with us.

Ciao.